Personal Computer News


Crusader

Author: Geof Wheelwright
Publisher: J. Morrison Micros
Machine: Dragon 32

 
Published in Personal Computer News #059

CRUSADER

Monty Python didn't quite make it, leaving you to take up the Quest for the Holy Grail in this arcade style game.

Instead of instructions you get a demonstration game showing the first few screens to give you the idea. The first screen demands nothing more strenuous than climbing up the steps to the city walls. As this wouldn't be too thrilling on its own, you also have to jump over a marching column of scorpions which may have inter-bred with Scottie dogs somewhere along the way. Whatever their ancestry, they have a tendency to leap up and get you by the throat if you don't manage to leap over them cleanly, using the fire button.

The second screen is similar, requiring you to walk along the city walls leaping over the same scorpions, but this time the last in the line is even more vicious. Get past that and you must cross a moat by carefully timing your leap onto a handy overhead pulley, which takes you to screen four, a lake containing a series of moving columns, and our intrepid hero must leap from one to the other before each descends beneath the surface.

The graphics are disappointing considering the Dragon's capabilities, but they're still entertaining enough and while there's not a lot of sound the main pleasure is in trying to get your timing right and not lose any of your four lives. When you die, a black ghost rises from your body and shimmers to the top of the screen, while the bottom of the display shows your score, high score, level reached and lives remaining.

The game proves a challenge because it's almost impossible to get past that last scorpion on the second screen without losing at least one life, which makes experimenting with later screens difficult.

Geof Wheelwright

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