Amstrad Computer User


Rogue
By Mastertronic Added Dimension
Amstrad/Spectrum

 
Published in Amstrad Computer User #49

Rogue

Three cheers for Mastertronic for releasing a modernised version of that old classic Dungeons and Dragons. Before you read any further, a warning: You must have a joystick for this one.

Your mission is to search through the Dungeons of Doom to find the sacred Amulet of Yendor and come out alive.

You start off wearing a suit of armour and carrying a mace and a bow with a quiverful of arrows.

Rogue

On your travels you will find treasure, more weapons, food and magical items such as potions and scrolls which help you in your quest.

You have to avoid traps such as rooms which close in on themselves and incarcerate you, and monsters which can be killed either with the bow and arrow or with a wave of a magic wand.

The game is Wimp controlled. You cannot see the dungeon walls to start with, but they are gradually built up as you move around.

Icons representing the objects you are carrying are displayed at the side of the screen. If you move the arrow over one and press Fire, a menu will appear giving you various things that you can do with it.

Objects, providing you are not carrying too many already, can be picked up by walking over them.

There are also four command icons - Up, Down, Search and Rest. The dungeons have various levels - you just have to move yourself to a flight of stairs, choose Up or Down and the computer does the rest.

The Search icon tells you if there are any traps nearly and the Rest icon allows you to gain energy, as does eating or drinking. You have three attributes which you have to watch - hits, strength and armour. Too many hits and you die: too little strength and you cannot fight the monsters; too little armour and you lose a lot of strength of whenever you fight.

As the game takes a long time to play, pressing G saves a record of your progress to tape.

Nigel

One of the oldest game concepts - Adventure circa 1969 - brought bang up to date. Not for the faint hearted, it is a huge game and good old fashioned trial and error is often needed to solve problems.

The save and load games options make it easy to correct your mistakes. Rogue should keep you going for months.