Cailynvorn - on PD 467
                      (RPG for ST)

             Reviewed by Frederick Darlington

The adventure takes place on a planet called Cailynvorn.
Cailynvorn is a place where magic and monsters are part of
everyday events. Its inhabitants consist of evil monsters and
goblins, and good knights and wizards. Until recently the knights,
with the help of the wizards, have been able to keep the evil
monsters and goblins at bay.

Unfortunately all this has now changed. An Arch-Demon by the name
of Necrodan has invaded the planet from another dimension. He has
brought with him vast numbers of demons and monsters. With the
help of Necrodan these evil hordes have hunted down and killed all
but a handful of knights and one wizard. And these will soon be
hunted down and killed.  The only chance left is to kill Necrodan
and send his evil hordes back to where they came from. The only
way to kill Necrodan is to gain control of the Necrostaff and
confront Necrodan in his lair.  Your task is to assemble a party
of adventurers, find Necrodan and, using the Necrostaff, kill him.

That is the story, but the game is let down by its very basic
graphics and lack of sound. The display is screens of text for the
party with the only other screen being a map screen. The map
screen consists of a small square with the towns and dungeons
being represented by letters and your party by a dot. The combat
system is very basic with no skill involved. You are told you have
encountered a party of goblins. Then you simply press return until
one of the combatants is dead. Movement in the game is via the
keyboard with N, S, E, W representing the directions. The game
reminds me of the kind of thing I played on my computer in the mid
80s before Dungeon Master came along.

I do not wish to discourage any budding programmers but I think
that, while the idea is good, the game is let down by its basic
graphics and lack of sound. I think that only a very dedicated
adventurer will have the patience to complete the game. Most
people will soon lose interest in the game and go on to play
something else. These days, most people have come to expect a
certain amount of sound and graphics in their games. After all,
things have moved on a bit since 'Hack' was the latest thing in
computer games.















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