Previous Next

Sodov the Sorceror has employed three young apprentices by taking advantage of a medieval YOPs scheme. Whilst he is busy defending his castle, they are down in the courtyard stirring some potent brew in a giant cauldron. Originally written by Tymax for the C64 under the name Gandalf, Bug-Byte have converted the game to the Spectrum, dropped the price down to budget evel and changed the name, presumably because of copyright problems from the Tolkien estate.

The castle is herds of passing green dragons. By firing magic spells at them, Sodov can transmute them into gold pieces, each one stunningly depicted on the screen as a white pixel. Casting spells costs powwer as does collision with a red spider or standing under an angry cloud. Power can be replenished by going to the top of one of the two towers and waiting.

As the dragons get past your defences, so the door to the castle opens. When it finally succumbs, a dragon rushes in and steals your apprentice. You can now chase the dragon outside the castle where you can lay mines as you decide whether to rescue your helper or collect gold pieces instead.

That's all there is to this game. I found the gameplay to have no addictive qualities whatsoever and, even at budget level, there are many better games about.