Energy crisis

Previous Next

Labyrinth is one of a recent batch of releases from Acornsoft and is their first game in the current style in which you have to guide a man around a series of rooms collecting objects as you go. However, it goes about this in its own original way.

You see your man, Mork, from above as you guide him around the series of seven interconnecting mazes that make up the labyrinth. A crystal is hidden in each maze and this will remove the force-field that bars your way to the next one.

While searching for each crystal you encounter a large range of aliens who do their best to stop you getting to it; and their best gets better the further into the labyrinth you go!

The object is to find what the instructions call 'the extraordinary seventh crystal', though as I haven't found it I can't tell you what makes it so special!

To help you reach your goal you can shoot the aliens with bullets that do less damage the lower your energy level, or, for double points, you can squash them with a rock. This is found in the first room of the labyrinth and you must push it around for the rest of the game. There is only the one rock and it's not a good idea to leave it behind!

To replenish your flagging energy (you die if it runs out) you can eat the fruits that lie around the maze. These are depicted in spectacular mode 1 graphics, as are the monsters and the different walls of each of the seven mazes. In fact, the game uses a specially defined small-screen version of mode 1 to leave more memory for the program, and because of the clever use of shading you would never believe there are only four colours on screen at once. The sound effects are also good.

In summary, Labyrinth has only a few small niggles - for example, the very small numbers that are used for the score. However, the game has lots of nice touches (such as scrolling between rooms) and it is generally between rooms) and it is generally well-programmed, colourful and worth checking out.

Michael Beaton