Demon's Tomb - Virgin/Melbourne House RRP œ24.99
   (Can be played as a strict text game with optional graphics
   using the keyboard or by using point/click text entry)

Way back in the dim and distant past, there were twin brothers,
Thai and Tzen. Both became priests but Tzen was the more adept of
the two and undertook travels through the sheer power of his mind,
voyaging across the universe while he sought to disprove his
brother's theory that the universe was endless.

During one of these trips, and while his mind was linked to that
of his twin, he encountered the evil god Darsuggotha, who was
known as the Forbidden God. Though Thai tried to stop him,
Darsuggotha forged a link with Tzen and when their minds returned
from the trip, Tzen was undoubtedly Darsuggotha's pawn.

After their father died, the link became more obvious, with Tzen
worshipping Darsuggotha and vowing to summon him to Earth.
Eventually the confrontation between the evil Tzen and the good

Thai could continue no longer and Thai, now High Priest, banished
his twin.

But Tzen could not be stopped so easily and he continued to plot
to summon the Forbidden God. Thai learned of his plans and
managed to stop him but could not convince his brother to give up
his evil worship. Since the ritual of summoning Darsuggotha could
only be carried out at very specific times, when a certain
alignment of the stars occurred, Thai realised that Tzen could
not hope to attempt another summoning in his lifetime - the
moment had passed. So he relented and didn't insist that Tzen
renounce his faith.

When Tzen committed suicide, Thai decided that, even now, he
should take precautions for even though his brother was seemingly
dead, Thai had not felt him die and as confirmation of his fears,
Tzen's followers believed their master only slept, awaiting the
time when the stars would permit another attempt at summoning
Darsuggotha. So Thai had his own tomb built near his brother's,

entered it, sealed it from within and waited until he would be
needed for the next confrontation.

Time passed and the two tombs became mere grassy mounds of
unknown origin until - enter an archaeologist, Professor Edward
Lytton. You start the adventure as Edward Lytton during the
excavation of a tomb somewhere in Devon. Suddenly, the door is
slammed shut by an outside agency and your oil lamp falls to the
floor, shattering and lighting the dry leaves and twigs on the
floor.

Your first task, and you don't have long to complete it, is to
save Edward's possessions from the ensuing conflagration, finding
a safe place to store them and also leaving some sort of
indication as to where they are so that whoever finds your
remains will know something important is hidden there. Yes ...
your remains. For, don't be fooled; no matter how hard you try
and whatever devious inputs you attempt, Edward is doomed to die.


A sad start to a game but, never mind. Once Edward has served his
purpose, the game-proper can begin. In this, you play his son,
Richard, who is a bit worried about Dad who has been acting
rather strange of late.

Following your father's trail, and accompanied by your faithful
hound, Sam, you'll find the tomb and Dad's remains pretty easily.
Working out what to do with the items he saved from the fire and
how they can be used to foil Tzen's plans will take quite a bit
more working out.

This game should appeal to both hardened text-only fans and those
who prefer point-and-click games as Demon's Tomb can be played in
either way. These two forms are called Typed Text Mode and Menu
Mode by Melbourne House and switching from one to the other takes
just a few key-presses.

Both styles have their own advantages. Text Mode has a line
editor and also lets you set up macros eg defining X to mean
EXAMINE. The parser is designed to be user-friendly so that if
you typed >GET, the program would give a list of suggested nouns
for that situation. Each noun has its own number (eg 1 biro, 2
torch) and you can then just key in the number to take
the object. S-i-m-p-l-e.

If you're in Text Mode and can't find just the word you need,
just switch to Menu Mode and you can see a list of available
verbs. Select the one you want and you'll be given a sub-menu of
possible nouns. Expressions like >GIVE TO will result in two
sub-menus, one for the direct object and one for the indirect
object. The whole system works very well and gives a bit of
variety while you're playing.

Other useful commands include AGAIN, UNDO and RAMSAVE/RAMLOAD.
One non-standard one is THINK ABOUT <whatever> which enables
Edward or Richard to gain extra information about something
they've found.  Text can be dumped to the printer as well and you
can change the colours on the screen. Altogether, a very
versatile program.  But how does it play?

The location descriptions and atmosphere are pretty good but
unfortunately, the game itself isn't really worthy of all the
goodies that have been supplied and you can forget the graphics,
they really aren't worth bothering with. The problems are few and
far between and there are too many red herrings for my liking. If
you should get stuck in the game, which seems unlikely, there are
coded hints provided (coded = written backwards, not exactly up
to Magnetic Scrolls standard).

The first section as Edward is very closely timed which makes it
frustrating to play. The rest of the game is also timed, though
not so tightly. Having said all that, it was quite a pleasant
way to while away a bit of time and it IS a refreshing change to
see a text game being produced by one of the large software
house, even if a point-and-click option was also provided.

                                           Sue