Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back extra dungeons, œ2.50/disk
         (Add-ons to ST versions of each game)

               Reviewed by Bill Commons

I am an avid fan of DM and Chaos and have played each game several
times. I remember the excitement when I purchased my ST and the
original game at Silica,and the salesman demonstrated how to kill
the first mummy. I must admit I couldn't do quite so well at home,
but now in Chaos with my super heroes I can be surrounded by
dozens of them and just swat them with low power fire bombs like
flies.

I have also played all the clones and spin offs, most of these
enjoyable but never reaching the same level of atmosphere and
tension.

When I saw the PD discs for extra levels in SynTax I sent off for
them and received them by return of post.

When I loaded the first CSB disc I was surprised to be told to
!!!! off if I had a pirate copy, but then I realised that they
meant the original games. It then went on to tell me to rename the
files and I never had a clue how to do this. I hunted out my
manual which I am ashamed to say that I glanced at the first week
and have not looked at since. It was not very difficult to rename
the files and on the second CSB disc there is the full method on
how to do it.

I decided to transfer each game on to a blank disc and this meant
ten Chaos saved games also the DM one, although this one does not
require a new name.

On starting to play I felt something wrong and I realised that my
pals were missing so the next thing I did was to load in the
portraits and names of my original team onto all eleven discs with
my Chaos utility disc.

Now for the games. You start Dungeon Master with one champion
reincarnated as a saved game and you choose the other three.  It
seemed to me that the first two levels had not been altered at all
but it could be my memory. On the usual end of level three however
I was confronted by a blank wall! I thought "Oh no, it's only a
three level game. When I retraced my steps back through the level
I found a corridor that led onwards.

The next five levels didn't seem too different from the original
but when I got down to the rat level (9) I found that I was
hopelessly lost. Onward down to level 12 was almost as usual but
again on the latter it was changed about enough to cause me some
headaches. The final two levels had no alterations.

In CSB the usual large starting chamber has been filled in to
leave a single passage around the edge of the original.

The pit along the passage that says 'run and jump' now drops into
the wizard way by the poisonous flies, so it is an advantage to
have an empty flask, there are two hidden near the start. In all
the first five games two of the ways are blocked off so a route
must be found to carry on. Game one is different in that most of
the secret walls have been replaced by open passages, this can be
hair-raising in the two dragon chambers when up to five dragons
can charge up to you at once!

I trapped myself a couple of times by climbing down pits and
finding myself in rooms with the doors locked from the other side
so I had to start again from a saved game.

All the four ways connect to each other on this game without
having to go back to the shrines of rebirth.

Game two was altered in that the Golem Chambers and the Master
Chamber was changed to a single passage, and if you fell or jumped
down a pit on the top level and got caught between several Golems
it was hard to get out again.

In one game I managed to fight my way into the Master Chamber in a
very weak state only to be hunted down and killed by Chaos! In
previous games I have seen him lurking but he was easily avoided.

One surprise I had was after finding two ways blocked, that a
stairway leading to the other two were bricked up. I found the
solution quite soon though.

The third game seemed much more difficult than previous dungeons.
For one thing I found two dragons in one chamber when I only
expected one and I got caught in the crossfire of fire bombs. I
had some luck on the reload though, as I climbed down the pit I
landed on top of one of the dragons and reduced it to steaks
straight away. Another tough problem that I had in this game was
that one of the pits to the corbum would not close so I could not
get past. The final blow was when I reached the Demon Chamber most
of the walls had been removed and I could not hide from the
creatures. Both these problems can be solved though.

Dungeon four had several pits and teleporters going to dead end
passages and required reloading from a saved game. I was a bit
annoyed after going down one of these after I had been playing for
about three hours, and I had not saved the game during this time.
It also hides the way to some of the corbum chambers rather well.

In the READ ME DOC on the PD disc it gives a hint that you must
not start the Ros way on game five without the lock picks. I had
to find out why and so I played the game through. I thought that I
could find a way to bypass this, but the dungeon is laid out so
that all the usual pits do not appear until the lock is opened.

The third disc contains five more dungeons for Chaos. Each one has
been well designed and contains some tricky puzzles. My favourite
was game ten which has many nasty surprises and mazes.

In conclusion I felt disappointment that I knew the answers to the
original puzzles and these remain. But I still enjoyed each game
and will probably go back to play the old game to see how many of
the twists that I found were in the original one.

@~DM New Dungeon is on SynTax Disk PD 180
@~Five Chaos Dungeons are on SynTax Disk PD 251
@~Five More Chaos Dungeons are on SynTax Disk PD 252