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Scarabaeus is the fabulous emerald jewel of the Pharaoh. Being something of a materialist and not wanting to go without in the afterworld, he's had it buried with him. You, being more concerned with riches in this world, are out to rob him of it. This task, however, is not without its dangers.

The first mortal threat hits you pretty early on when you are bitten by a venomous spider. Fortunately, death is not instant as this would make the game pretty short-lived.

Scarabaeus is basically a 3D maze on three levels, but there is much more to it than simply finding your way around. On level one you must accumulate nine hieroglyphics which form a 3 x 3 grid or key which is used on level two. The hieroglyphics are obtained by capturing the ghost which wanders the maze - not a difficult task since pulling the joystick back provides a map showing exactly where he is. This shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes, and then you can take the lift to level two.

Now things get complicated. This maze is dotted with niches in which you will find potions and zombie traps. You must select the eight good potions (spider bite antidote) which are indicated by a panel matching your hieroglyphic key. Warning: Selecting the wrong potion can seriously damage your heath, as can being caught by the spiders which guard the riches.

Nearly there! Now all you have to do is open one of the eight doors to the Pharaoh's tomb on level three. This is done by moving hieroglyphs on the centre columns so they match the outside ones rather like one of those little plastic word puzzles. Before you can do this, though, there is some more medicine to find and, of course, you have to watch out for the zombies.

As a game in its own right Scarabaeus rates pretty well. The graphics are good - I was particularly impressed with the 'scrollerama' maze. However, comparisons are bound to be made with Ultimate's Entombed, which for my money is by far the better game, at least in terms of graphics. Perhaps Scarabaeus will appeal to the more cerebral games enthusiast.