TIMES OF LORE - Origin RRP œ24.99
          (Arcade adventure for ST, Amiga and PC)

           Amiga version reviewed by Dave Barker

The storyline of Times of Lore, ToL hence forth, is not exactly
novel. The Kingdom of Albareth is in chaos. The High King, Valwyn,
and his infant heir have vanished along with the medallion of
power, a magic artifact, the sign of the High King. The rule of the
steward, Dariel, is weak and ineffectual. Without strong leadership
the kingdom has fallen into the hands of bandits and ruffians. To
make matters worse orcs have began to cross over the mountains
to the north of Albareth. The kingdom is in desperate need of a
saviour.......

ToL is a hybrid arcade adventure which is very difficult to
categorize. It is basically a one-character quest, and although
it lets you choose from three character classes, barbarian, knight
or valkyrie, it is not a role playing game. There are no personal
statistics to consider, no gaining experience and progressing
through levels, and what little magic there is within the game is
restricted to a few magic objects, potions and scrolls. Your
chosen character is clothed and armed as per his or her class and
these items cannot be changed as they do not appear in the
inventory. Objects are limited to food, gold, potions and scrolls
that are found as the result of killing foes, and a few special
objects which are either bought or are given to you. Very few
objects are to be found lying around on the ground.

ToL is entirely joystick controlled with the spacebar acting as a
toggle to access the game control icons. The view of the land of
Albareth is looking straight down with minimal perspective,
therefore movement is in three dimensions rather than just two
that is usual with arcade games. Albareth is a big place where
getting lost and dying are easy, whilst finding relevant
information is not! ToL's strongest aspect is in the enforced
character interaction which you must carry out in order to get
some objects, be given information, or told of a quest.
Conversation consists of 'START CHITCHAT' or 'ASK QUESTION'.
You should try chit-chat first as you can only ask questions on
specific topics. Often chit-chat will be no more than discussing
the weather but sometimes, if you pick the right person, you
will be asked or told about something more specific. Once this
has happened that particular topic will be in the list of
questions that you can ask about.

The screen consists of two halves, the bottom half contains the
game control icons with the text window above it. The top half
has a picture on the left which depicts the time of day as the
sun and then the moon pass across it. On the right is a candle
which burns down as you lose strength from fighting or lack of
food. Eating is automatic providing you have food to eat.
Standing still and resting will enable the candle to grow back
but there is no guarantee that you will be left alone. In the
middle of the top half of the screen is the graphic window onto
the land of Albareth. Your character stays in the middle of the
window, the illusion of movement is created by the landscape
scrolling. This rectangular window, in my opinion, is far too
small as you see very little of the landscape as you pass by

and it is easy to be surprised by enemies, or miss important
landmarks.

Unlike an arcade game you can save your position, once, to the
game disk. However you can only save your game in inns, which are
usually found only in villages. To save the game you must ask
the innkeeper for lodging, and this costs ten gold pieces. The
process of resting overnight when also fully restores your
strength and your candle grows back.

ToL is best described as an arcade game with an adventure feel
to it. If it were not for the strong emphasis on conversation in
order to gain the few special objects that there are in the land,
and more importantly, information, this game would definitely be
placed in the domain of the joystick wagglers only. In conclusion
ToL is a hybrid which tries to find the middle ground between
arcade and adventure games. Technically this smooth scrolling
game achieves its goal, but in practice members of both camps
will be disappointed and will wander around the Kingdom of
Albareth wondering what to do next!