Chaos - Martin Browlow, originally By Julian Gollop
    512 version - LAPD G237 œ1. 1040 version - SynTax œ2.50
              (Strategic spellcasting game)

             1040 version reviewed by James Judge

Back in the days when a 128K computer was a thing of power, Your
Sinclair gave away, on its cover tape, Chaos by Julian Gollop, a
Lords Of Chaos rip off. I played it for many hours straining my
eyes at the terrible graphics and turning the volume down during
the 'dum, dum, dums' of the game.  Now the 'unofficial' conversion
has made its way onto the ST, yay!. There are two versions, one
that works on 512 machine (I think it has less samples) and the
other exploiting the capabilities of a 1040.

When I read the DOC supplied on the disk (which contains over 800K
of data that is arced!) I was surprised to learn the game had been
written in just two weeks graphic ripping and touching up,
sampling, coding and overall retouching going on in that time.

This game is a strategical battle between a number of wizards (two
to eight players can play at any one time with the computer making
up any number of them) in an arena.

Each wizard has his own set of spells, randomly selected at the
start of the game, which he must use to destroy the other wizards.

The game is split into turns. The first turn you get, you can
choose a spell to cast, where you want to cast it and then cast
it.  The second turn you get is to move your wizard and his
minions around the screen. You then have another spell casting
turn and so on.

The bulk of the game is taken up by spell casting. The spells you
cast range from summoning creatures (snakes, orcs, undead,
dragons, centaurs and many, many more) to creating castles you can
hide in, magical fires, magical weapons, forests that will, if you
climb in a tree, give you new spells, you can mutate creatures,
subvert them, cast magic bolts on your enemies, create a forest
that will assault your foes, create magical walls and cast a gooey
blob that will multiply at an alarming rate, holding your enemies
captive.

As you can see there is a great variety of spells that all have
their own uses at certain times but whether you are able to cast
them is another matter entirely.  Each spell has its own
alignment, either Chaotic, Neutral or Lawful.  The more spells of
a particular alignment that are cast, the easier it is to cast
other spells of that alignment and the harder to cast the other
alignment. Neutral spells just get easier and easier to cast but
they are not as powerful.

If you summoned a monster you could, if you wanted to, make it an
illusion. They still can be killed and can kill but they always
work. Great, but they can be disbelieved by other wizards. If you
were in a Chaotic environment and a Golden Dragon was cast
successfully (it is the hardest Lawful spell to cast) you would
have a pretty good idea it is an illusion.


The weak spot of every wizard's army is the wizard himself.
Unlike Lords Of Chaos, all your minions disappear when your wizard
cops it so you can't get your revenge on the offending wizard.

Each game has its own time limit so once all the spells run out
(you can only cast each spell once) it doesn't come down to just
the wizards slogging it out once all the creatures are dead.

A nice touch with the game is that there are sixty four names in
the computer's memory that you can use for your own wizard. The
computer picks the name randomly but the trouble with it is you
could end up with four Rimmers.  Other names include Baldrick,
Lister, Rincewind and the more dubious Ace Hole, Whanger, Bogey
Bum and Ben Dover!

The major down point in this game is the graphics, which are
ripped straight from the Speccy and only given a few minor
changes.  Being very small (about three times the size of a
Lemming) and with three frame animation it does detract from the
game's overall presentation but only VERY slightly.

What takes up most of the memory is the sound samples and what
samples they are, all fifty four of them. While loading the game I
was reading a letter from Sue and nearly fell off my chair when
the unmistakable voice of Hugh Lawrie cried out 'Well cover me in
eggs and flour and bake me for forty minutes'!!!

Just to test everything out I told the computer to play all eight
wizards and I was amazed at the variety of the samples. You get a
range of 'Success!' and 'Maaarvelous' and other such compliments
when your spells work and 'He slimed me' from Ghostbusters when
you cast a Gooey Blob. When a wizard dies you hear Rowan Atkinson
say 'I do believe the phrase rhymes with 'Clucking Bells', now
what could that be I wonder? Other samples are from Monty Python,
Blackadder, Red Dwarf (no 'Smeeeeg Heeeead' though), Highlander, a
few other films, a couple of Queen songs and some samples from
other games!

I'm not sure whether this conversion is licensed by Julian Gollop
and the samples okayed by the various companies involved so I'd
snatch this game up as soon as poss just in case it's taken off
the PD front due to copyright infringements (I've just written to
the author to ask him about this and commend him on a brilliant
game so I'll let you know what he says, if he says anything).

This is one of the best and most enjoyable games I've had from PD
ever. The samples will make you laugh and the game will enthral
and irritate you at the same time.  Each game is a different
challenge and with the added bonus of stringing seven friends in
for a bit of excitement, what can be better?

All I can say is 'Maaarvelous'!

@~I asked James if he'd heard back from Martin and this is what he
@~wrote ...

Martin Brownlow said "No, I did not get permission to use the
samples in the game. I wrote it so me and my friends could play it
without hooking up the Speccy and the samples were added as an
afterthought (starting with 'Disappointed'). To get permission to
use the samples would have been ridiculously laborious, and I
didn't see the need since (1) I have credited the sample source
(right down to the episode level) and (2) no-one is making any
money from it.

"It's the same with the game idea. I didn't get permission to
convert it but, as I saw it, nobody would ever convert it unless I
did and, anyway, as I said, I wrote it for myself, my friends
persuaded me to release it. As with the samples, I made no effort
to hide the game's origins. I think that Julian Gollop's name is
above mine on the title (but I could be wrong...)"