Zenobi Demo 11 CD
                      œ2.99 inclusive

                      Reviewed by Sue

Zenobi have been busy putting together various CDs over the last
year or so, including several containing demos of some of the
latest games. John Wilson sent me a copy of the latest one, CD
Demo 11, recently so I thought I'd tell you a bit about it. It
costs just œ2.99.

This CD contains demos for four new games. These are Age of
Wonders, Settlers III: Quest of the Amazons, Pharaoh and 
Darkstone. The demos are supplied 'as is' so there is no extra
documentation regarding installing or running the demos. Luckily
most of it is self explanatory, either a self-extracting file to
run, or an identifiable setup or install program.

As I've recently been enjoying Caesar III, I thought I'd check out
Sierra's Pharaoh demo first as this is the follow-up. Installation
was painless and the demo is very entertaining. My first
impression of the game is that it is very similar to Caesar III,
both in style and content. Still, as the saying goes, "if it ain't
broke, don't fix it" - and there's no denying that Caesar III was
a very easy game to play so why change the system for Pharaoh?
Little pop up boxes identify the buttons if you hold your cursor
over them for long enough and I found that the control system came
very naturally, apart from the fact that you can't always escape
out of the construction menus if you go into them by mistake. But
that very minor quibble apart, the design of Caesar III is very
straightforward and its controls are intuitive, and Pharaoh is
cast from the same mould. The full game has 30 scenarios.

Next I had a look at Settlers III: Quest of the Amazons. I've
played I and II (and finished neither!) so it was interesting to
see how III builds on the earlier games. The graphics are much
larger and more cartoon like, with garish colours. There's a
tutorial which explains the different buildings etc, and demos for
both single and multiplayer games. I must admit that it didn't
grab me as much as the earlier games which were much cuter. I much
preferred Age of Wonders which is a magic-based strategy game. The
graphics are detailed and colourful. It reminded me of Master of
Magic and Magic the Gathering. Finally I couldn't try Darkstone
because it needs a 3D card, but I gather it is a very good RPG.

To buy this or one of the other demos contact Zenobi Software, 26
Spotland Tops , Cutgate, Rochdale, Lancs OL12 7NX












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