Sabre Wulf

Producer: Ultimate
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £9.95
Language: Machine code

In most respects this is probably the most redundant review in this issue! By the time you read it, it would be surprising if you aren't already an expert at playing Sabre Wulf, the latest game from Ultimate. Due to the inevitability of the natural law which states: Ultimate will always release a new game at the last possible moment before CRASH goes to press - we have had to do this one backwards in order to get any colour pictures fitted in! So below you will find the criticisms, and on the opposite page the general bits and pieces with the pictures.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Ultimate's famous QWERT combination
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair 2, Protek, AGF
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: excellent
Graphics: excellent
Sound: excellent
Features: one or two-player games
Originality: top marks

Ratings: At short notice it has been difficult to give an actual rating for Sabre Wulf that would make sense, and it's probably redundant anyway. Let's just say 'unrateable!' and leave it to you to decide.

After waiting a week in a state of extreme anxiety for the phone call to say, "IT'S HERE!" I almost fainted when it came. Then came the blow. They told me I only had two hours to get it reviewed! But it takes almost that long to load! In two hours, all you can do is run around like mad, try and stay alive and explore the countryside. Or rather the jungleside. I did get to see natives, spiders, scorpions, lively and sleepy hippos, dancing flames and I picked up all sorts of things. I also saw lakes and mountains and got chased by the Wulf or a wulf anyway. As to how the game plays, it is going to take longer, but the graphics are fabulous - detailed, colourful, varied, extremely well animated and very fast. The sound is great too. After a short time I am convinced it's better than Atic Atac. Time will tell. Pity about the steep price increase, but I think the game is worth the money.

In my opinion this is "state of the art" Spectrum software. It's basically a jungle version of Atic Atac but much more involved (and better too). The graphics are superb and extremely colourful. Many animals are to be found and there are lots of game features. I felt that I had travelled for miles yet only attained 25% - Indiana Jones eat your heart out! On the subject of aims Ultimate have included an inscription or warning. After some thought I took it to mean: get the four parts of the amulet and escape through the cave (without the amulet you cannot leave). I have two main criticisms, neither of them very serious. (1) Occasionally on two-player games with a Kempston, I was unable to move upwards until several lives had been lost. (2) The price of £9.95 is a steep increase from £5.50. Even so, I would still recommend it to anyone. It's worth almost any two £5.50 games on the market. But I wonder whether this increase will mean an increase in its piracy. (In a plea to pirates I would like to say that their actions could mean that high-quality software such as this may tend to decrease!) As a final opinion all I am going to say is that this is a Software Masterpiece (anything less would be a gross understatement). Thanks, Ultimate.

Sabre Wulf takes Atic Atac further. There is the search, the far from friendly creatures, the central mystery of what does what - but there is just a lot more of it. I managed in the short time allowed to get down to the bottom where you can see the mountains, passed the Wulf (who is much faster than you, don't try to outrun him) and to the side mountains where I found I could leave the jungle and run along the mountain tops. Much further, though, is going to need more time! Fab graphics and sound, brill colours - words fail. It's the game that counts - play the game.

The review of Sabre Wulf only just managed to get into issue 6 because we got it so late in the schedule but it was timed just right so we were one of the first magazines to review it. Also due to popular demand a set of ratings will be published in this review as if the game had just come out today. Most people know how to play it, just find the four parts of the amulet and get out only to find you've got to travel on to the Underwurlde. The game is played in a 16 by 16 grid with various monsters materialising from the ground. These can be killed by using your trusty sabre while other creatures such as the hippos and warthogs are persuaded to change direction away from you by poking them with your sabre. Only the Wulf which patrols the bottom half of the maze and the guardian that blocks your way out (unless you have the four parts of the amulet of course) aren't affected by your sword, they kill on contact!

Sabre Wulf it still one of the best games around. It has very good graphics and is still as playable and addictive as anything else on the market at the moment, I don't think it looks at all dated. When Sabre Wulf came out everyone said how much like Atic Atac it was but just with different graphics, personally I don't really see the resemblance.
BS

Sabre Wulf, at the time it was released, caused a bit of controversy because of the new price and some people said it was just Atic Atac over again. I agree about the price but comparing it to Atic Atac was unfair; if you say Sabre Wulf and Atic Atac are the same except for graphics, you could argue that all platform games are the same and therefore it doesn't matter which one you buy, but as everybody knows they aren't all alike and equally text adventures aren't the same just because they all have text. As to the game I think it's still pretty good and certainly addictive and playable. Still worth buying, though a little pricey.
RC

Well here's the moment you've all been waiting for - the ratings.

JUNGLE ATAC

Memory: 48K
Price: £9.95
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Sinclair

Haing thrilled gamers with the dusty attics and caverns of Atic-Atac, Ultimate has transported you to steaming jungles in its latest Arcade-Adventure, Sabre Wulf. The concept is similar to the earlier Atic-Atac. You must seek four parts of a hidden amulet to escape from the jungle maze; on the way you must battle a dzIing variety of foes, some weak and others seemingly invincible. There are numerous treasures to inflate your score, some of which may prove of use in the game.

The game is played over an enormous maze of jungle paths and clearings. Of the monsters, against which your only weapon is a sabre, we particularly liked the hippos, which charge down the corridors and must usually be dodged rather than skewered.

A major feature of Sabre Wulf are the various coloured orchids which, when eaten, have strange temporary effects on your abilities.

The disorientation orchid, which reverses all joystick controls, is particularly infuriating.

While the graphics are not entirely flicker-free, with the usual problems when figures pass over each other, they are up to the high Ultimate standards and the action is fast.

The main criticism of the game is price. Ultimate claims that is because of an increase in development time but the price still seems high. If the game is anything like as successful as previous releases, and it should be, we fail to see how Ultimate could avoid making a big profit even at the old figure of £5.50.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Ultimate
PRICE: £9.95

Ultimate seems to have gained a unique reputation among Spectrum owners. Ever since the arrival of Jet Pac, Sinclair fans everywhere have rushed out to their computer shops to buy Ultimate games, turning them into top sellers.

After Jet Pac, including conversion for the Vic, came Atic Atac and it's still selling well.

However nothing had been heard from Ultimate's Ashby HQ since Atic Atac was launched a few months ago. Everyone knew that they were working on a new program, and all agreed that it would probably be better than anything they'd done before.

Sabre Wulf is the result of all that waiting and was launched this month.

It's a graphic arcade Adventure game, which is another way of saying that it's similar in style to Atic Atac. Sabre Wulf is one of those maze games where you move through an area, much bigger than the screen is capable of showing.

So the display scrolls in four directions, a whole screen at a time. It you disappear off one side of the display, it will be redrawn instantly to show your new position. If you go off the right hand side, you will be on the left of the new display.

Previous reviewers of Ultimate's software have usually ended their articles by saying that Ultimate have achieved as much detail in their graphics as the Spectrum is capable of, Sabre Wulf goes to prove just how mistaken those reviewers, including myself, really were. I have never seen graphics of such high quality on a Spectrum as presented by Sabre Wulf.

When you load the game and have selected the initial options, you start on the first screen. This is remarkably similar to Atic Atac and I wondered at first whether this was just another version of an old game.

I happened to mention this to the manager of my local computer shop and he agreed with me. If people see this game for the first time while they happen to be standing at the computer counter in W. H. Smith, he said, then they may see it load, think that it's nothing new and walk away without looking further.

The game appears to be set in a jungle. I assume that it is, although the word jungle is never actually mentioned in the cryptic instructions which come with the cassette.

Your task, it appears, is to free yourself from this strange place in which you have become lost. To do this, you must explore all the area around you. You can get some clues as to your ultimate (sorry!) goal by reading the strange rhyme on the instruction card. It goes like this:

Thy path is long so tread with care.
Beware the Wulf and pass his lair.
Danger threatens all around
So take ye from this hidden mound.
To free thee from this sunken gate
By way of cave or meet thy fate.
An amulet to seek thy will.
'Twas split by quad and hidden still
Pass the keeper wrought with hate
To gain an entrance to the gate.
The pieces lost must thee amass
For if no charm then none shall pass.

Hmmm.

So the idea is to collect the four pieces of a charm (another word for amulet) which are hidden around the area of play. We managed to find one of them and my top score currently stands at around 17 per cent.

By now, you're probably wondering why the game's so hard. Wandering round a maze isn't really that difficult. But you're not alone in your quest. There's a strange variety of other creatures in that there jungle. Some are helpful and will give you extra points or lives, while some will cause your instant death.

Your character is that of a small explorer. You are initially coloured white, but certain events will have a drastic effect on your colour. If you turn red for a few moments, then you are immune to all enemies and you can wander to your heart's content without fear of being splatted. There's one thing better than being red, though, and that's being blue. When you're blue, not only are you immune to torture but you also travel at twice the speed of your red counterpart.

Other animals which you'll encounter on your safari are tarantulas, scorpions, snakes, fruit bats and more. There's also a strange, vicious creature called the Sabre Wulf. Which is lucky, really, otherwise they wouldn't know what to call the game.

Your weapon against the cruel world of nature is a sword. Pressing the fire button on the joystick will activate your sword and you have a high chance of surviving. You have to hit an animal straight on to be in with a chance of killing it, though, so timing those corners is crucial.

But it's the graphics which make up the playing screen that really make the game worth every penny. The detail the animals themselves and in their movement continue to make Ultimate number one among the Spectrum software houses.

If you feel that you must get hold of you own copy, then you should find one in your local computer shop somewhere. It's also available in W. H. Smith.

Sabre Wulf costs £9.95 which is pricier than most games. Ultimate claims that this is necessary because of the vast amount of time it took to develop Sabre Wulf. I can believe it.

WATCH YOUR STEP IT'S A REAL JUNGLE OUT THERE!

Ultimate Play-the-Game's newest and lushest hit to date is Sabre Wulf, a mean, fast, brilliantly coloured jungle frenzy with all the puzzles and super-smooth coding now expected from its authors. Or is it nothing more than an over-priced retread of Atic Atac? Richard Burton plays the game...

"In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight..."

So sang Tight Fit in 1982 (and so did Karl Denver, for those of us with longer memories). In a strange way the song seems more than appropriate to Ultimate's newest offering, Sabre Wulf, because the lion is about the only beast that does sleep - every other creature in this jungle is nauseatingly active and out to make life hell for you!

With just six games Ultimate have carved themselves out a heavy rep with the games punters to the extent that each new release is as eagerly anticipated as the next Michael Jackson Album. So far they have only once gone back to a previous game theme for a new release, Lunar Jetman was a souped-up version of JetPac. With Sabre Wulf they have returned, justifiably, to many of the arcade-adventure elements that made Atic Atac such a chart success.

The word 'enigmatic' almost sums up the game. It comes in a plain black box with simple title stickers front and back. Inside a six-page fold-out leaflet contains cryptic comments in purple prose that are little or no help. Basically, you're on your own in discovering exactly what this game holds.

The scenario, as said, is a vast jungle maze, glossily rendered in colourful hi-res graphics, (See map opposite for crib.)

You have control of a tiny, sword-wielding (?) explorer in search of four parts of an amulet. Obstacles are constantly appearing in his path in the form of snakes, bugs, lizards, wart hogs, gorillas, hippos, rhinos, etc. There's a list of 14 of the critters in the instructions. A quick thrust with the sword will finish off most of these or, in the case of the larger beasts, at least scare them off. Also the local plant life can aid or endanger any of your three lives.

Many items appear in your path which can be picked up simply by crossing them. Unfortunately, Sabre Wulf doesn't feature Atic Atac's on-screen display of what you're carrying. Again, it's up to you to find out what these items are and how they can benefit you.

Sabre Wulf is a safari of discovery, a Big Game hunt where you are the prey. It's the nearest yet that Ultimate have come to an adventure game (note the Hobbit-style 'percentage complete' indicator) and is sure to fuel the letters pages of the computer press for some time.

It's another high quality Ultimate product and value for money (just about), even at £9.95, a figure that Ultimate claim reflects "higher development and packaging costs".

Luckily it's not the sort of game that will lose its appeal quickly.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
CONTROL: Kemp, Crsr, Sinc
FROM: Ultimate, £9.95

The weeks before the release of a new Ultimate game are always exciting. The company's previous two releases, Lunar Jetman and Atic Atac, were not only expertly programmed but brilliantly original - both pushed back the frontiers of what was possible on a Spectrum.

So what would the next game be? Could Ultimate do it again? With hands sweating, you jam the cassette into your recorder and load up while feverishly trying to make sense of mysterious clues in the cassette inlay. It's loaded. You start playing and... disappointment.

It's just a version of Atic Atac.

Those are your first thoughts. But as you begin to get into the game, begin to understand those subtleties and those visions, your disappointment is replaced by mounting awe, mounting delight. Make no mistake, Sabre Wulf is Ultimate's best entertainment yet.

As is Ultimate's custom the game's instructions do not spell out exactly what you're supposed to do, nor how the various game features work. Some things quickly become clear. Others don't. If you want to work it all out for yourself, don't bother reading on.

You play the part of a new hero, Sabreman, who finds himself lost in the middle of a mysterious jungle. The jungle is in fact a vast maze which, after hours of work, we have mapped out for you on the next page. It's a size of no less than 256 screens, although this has been achieved by repeating many screens in different locations.

Each individual screen shows pathways walled off by rows of extremely colourful plants and trees. When you move Sabreman along the path to the edge of the screen, the picture is replaced by the adjacent screen of the jungle.

As in Atic Atac, no sooner has the explorer moved into a location than vicious creatures materialise all around him: from snakes, scorpions, frogs and parrots, to gorillas, fruit bats and lizards. They're colourful, nicely animated and lethal to touch.

But our hero is not called Sabreman for nothing. His sabre chops into them, makes them disappear in a puff of smoke. Other animals such as rhinos and hippos are indestructible but are turned away by the sabre.

The way Sabreman uses his sword is a delight. Just press the fire button, and he weaves, flashes and thrusts in fantastic style. Provided he is facing the attacker, he is safe.

Another crucial aid is the use of orchids. These flowers will bloom for a couple of seconds, and if Sabreman is nearby he will be stained the colour of the flower and rendered invulnerable to attack so long as the intoxication lasts.

There are five different types of orchid: one speeds him up, another slows him down and the purple orchids disorientate him so that you must operate the controls in reverse! Despite these complications it's imperative to make good use of the orchids, because under their protection Sabreman can cover a good deal of ground in safety.

On his travels he will come across a large number of objects which he collects automatically by passing over them. Most of these are simply treasure or spoils to gain extra points. But the small red statues are invaluable as each one of these gives an extra life.

What about the 'Wulf' itself? This impressive looking creature inhabits a strip at the bottom of the jungle and is invulnerable to Sabreman's sword. But apart from the occasional savage attack his part in the game is relatively minor.

The task, apart from "staying alive, is to escape from the jungle through a cave. The cave is hidden inside a temple, which is two locations above the start. But to reach it you must travel through almost the entire maze.

What's more, the cave is guarded by a keeper who will only be moved by an amulet which has been broken into four pieces and hidden around the maze. So you must find the pieces, which are hidden in different locations in each game. and then enter the temple.

I can reveal that the only clue to the whereabouts of the amulet pieces is given by the natives. When they are directly in line with a piece horizontally and vertically, they turn slowly and a stern tune is played.

That is just one of the many fine effects that show the incredible attention to detail in this program. Sabre Wulf will get even an expert game-player engrossed for many hours. I'll even stick my neck out and say it's more fun than Atic Atac.

ULTIMATE ORCHIDS - BEWARE

MICRO: Spectrum 48K
PRICE: £9.95
FORMAT: Cassette
SUPPLIER: Ultimate Play the Game, Ashby Computers and Graphics Ltd, The Green, Ashby de la Zouche, Leicestershire LE6 5JU

If it is not top of the Spectrum charts now, it will be in two weeks. The only game currently around of the same standard and type is Jet Set Willy. This is Ultimate's game in the same genre, a multi-screen graphic adventure with superb graphics, instant response, and a whole host of varied monsters ranging from hippos to parrots to orchids.

As usual there are objects to collect as you wander through the maze. Collecting them is instantaneous as you pass over them. Your ultimate aim is to collect all four pieces of an amulet, but you tend to pay little attention to this as most time is taken exploring the jungle setting and coping with the monsters.

The orchids act something like potions in a more conventional game. Each one of the five has a different effect, but you need not pause to sniff them, because they act the moment you pass over and turn you an appropriate colour.

Purple orchids reverse the effect of the joystick or keyboard, which is a mean trick; yellow orchids delay you (unless you have previously visited a white orchid); red orchids turn you into an unkillable zombie; and blue double your speed. Unfortunately orchids only flower for a short while, so you have to be quick on your feet (or rather your fingers) to suffer the effect.

There is not enough space to describe all the game's features, but I don't think the blurb exaggerates by claiming fifty.

Control is by the QWERT keys (for left, right, down, up and fight) or joystick. The fighting animation is the best I've seen, with our hero flourishing his sword in the best swashbuckling tradition.

In fact all the graphics are first class and even the transition from screen to screen (apparently instantaneous) only, disturbs you the first time you play until you are accustomed to the flash.

My reviews are generally rather jaded - software by and large is very much the same. But Sabre Wulf has me wanting to use phrases like 'the best graphic game for the Spectrum I've ever seen' or 'this makes the Spectrum seem like a new machine'. One word of advice - if you do not have a joystick, buy one. It is not essential, but it improves the game no end. There is not much puzzle or intellectual struggle in this game but it will be difficult to find a better action adventure. Excuse me, my wife has just left the Spectrum untended...

We look at the best and the worst releases in a month which offers new games from top software houses Fantasy and Ultimate.

DUEL TO DEATH AS KILLER PARROT ATTACKS MAN

Sabre Wulf sends the player rushing round a lusciously-flowered maze-like forest in search of the four portions of an amulet which will allow escape. On the way are superbly-animated creatures to be killed or avoided and an assortment of objects and treasure to be collected.

As with Atic Atac from the same company, a joystick is almost essential to any progress in the maze. Each location is packed with lethal creatures and as fast as one set is killed, another set appears. Stay in any place for any length of time and the lethal, indestructible voodoo flame will get you.

There is a choice of objectives. A percentage at the end of each game indicate how much of the maze you have covered; a score at the top of the screen registers most events, including monster, killed and, of course, there is the ultimate goal-escape.

Apart from the obvious problems posed by an intricate maze and deadly creatures, there are tactics to be learned which can help the player to success. Each object collected has a use, although they are difficult to deduce, and even working-out which of the several objects collected has provided an extra life can be difficult.

There are the orchids which bloom occasionally. One sends your movements haywire, another moves you super-fast, a third transforms you into a zombie. Some are essential to progress, others should be avoided completely.

Then there are the pieces of amulet. They move round, so have to be rediscovered in each game. Next there are the knights in armour, and the fruit bats, and the wart hogs, the tarantulas, the killer parrots - and so it goes on.

If you like Atic Atac, you will love Sabre Wulf. If you missed Atic Atac, rush and buy both games now. Produced by Ultimate Play the Game, The Green, Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, Sabre Wulf costs £9.95.

Ultimate, Play the Game
The Green
Ashby de la Zouch
Leics LE6 5JU
£9.95

This has GOT to be the program of the issue, wow what graphics! OK, so it's the same sort of theme to Atic Atac but with 256 locations instead of around 150 and it's set in a jungle instead of a house.

Some of those beasties are really something! I loved the Hippos and the De-orientation Orchids really freaked me out, I could almost forgive them for charging £9.95 for it.

Joystick options for Kempston, Interface II or cursor keys are provided as well as using the keyboard. Keys QWERT control left, right, down, up and fight. A bit close together and a strange combination but fairly easy to get used to, although I reckon a joystick is a must for this game.

So what's it all about? You, an intrepid explorer, have to wander the forest in search of the four parts of an amulet before escaping from the a-mazing jungle. Many other items such as a chalice, gems and magic rings are littered about the place and these are collected by passing over them.

The forest teems with wildlife which rush around the screen. Frequently other members of the animal kingdom materialise to add to your problame. To defend yourself you have a sabre, which gives you your nickname "Sabre Man", and your most potent enemies are the Wulves.

Sound is used sparingly but effectively - I liked the intro tune, but it only plays once each time you get back to the menu screen.

Scoring is in two forms, the standard numerical score and also a percentage of the game completed. A high score chart is not used, only the highest score of the session is kept, and no name either! This high score is initially set at 102275, so it takes a few plays to establish your own. An option for one player or two players playing alternately is also provided.

Animation (or should I say animalation?) is superb. Watch how you are thrown across the screen when a beastie gets you! Not a game for those who give up easily.

So go get it, load up and be ready to run, dodge, fight and generally have a frantically great time!

A successor to Atic Atac rather than a direct sequel, Sabre Wulf is a gigantic maze game set in a strange jungle full of riotous life, most of it hostile. You must collect four parts of an amulet to escape, while fending off abundant attacks from a wide range of beasts. Magic orchids bloom suddenly in your path, and a host of objects can be found which may aid you on the way.

The graphics are extremely rich and varied, although not as well disciplined as earlier Ultimate games. The playing area is enormous and it is a maze game of great distinction.

Position 31/50

CRY OF THE WULF

Those howls aren't coming from the night - it's Ross Holman (winner of Software Projects' JSW competition) pitting his animal wits against Ultimate's mighty Sabre Wulf. Read on... we dare you!

Thrust deep into a steamy tropical jungle, your trusty sword and your wits are the only defence against the myriad creatures lurking in the foliage. Yes, you are the pith-helmeted explorer who has to collect four parts of an amulet that have been carelessly left around the jungle - and then get out safely.

By now, many should be familiar with the scenario of Ultimate's latest 48K adventure Sabre Wulf - perhaps they've even had enough time to recover from the £10 price tag. For the extra cash you get a large Hobbit-like box which holds one tape and an enlarged glossy version of the cassette sleeve - containing the usual silly storyline, loading instructions and control key info.

STEP INTO DANGER

Loading completed, you're met with an options screen attractively bordered by dense tropical plant life. That may look pleasant, but what's less obvious is that the keyboard controls are very poorly selected - left, right, up, down and fight are configured on the 'Q', 'W', 'E', 'R', 'T' keys. This may be a nice easy way to do things from the programmer's viewpoint, but it doesn't help the player without a joystick; incidentally, most joystick protocols are catered for.

Press the '0' key and the action begins. Our hero, Sabre Man, is standing in a quiet clearing and soon various unsavoury jungle inhabitants are bursting through the ground (literally!) to attack him. You might at this point spot something of an Atic Atac influence in the way you have to move about within one 'room' at a time, fighting off nasties, then shifting off to the next in a logical way. However, in Sabre Wulf each room contains strips of foliage (to give it that 'outside' feel) and these are all linked by pathways; so overall, the playing area is an intricate maze, with you looking down on just a small part of it at any one time. There's a total of 256 screens that link up to create (surprise, surprise) a 16 by 16 maze bordered by threatening mountainous scenery.

The jungle creatures bent on your destruction can be split generally into two groups - those you can kill (which cannot exit your present screen) and those you can only fight off (which have a nasty habit of following you around from screen to screen). In your favour you have a trusty sabre for bumping off the smaller creatures - gaining points in the process - or causing the larger animals and tribesmen to turn tail and run.

FLOWER POWER

The graphics are what we have come to expect of Ultimate - large, bright and frequently with a sort of cute cartoon-like quality (take, for example, the sleeping hippos). Most of them appear to have two stages of animation as they move pixel-wise around the screen. The exception, however, is the wulf, for he/she is a good example of what Ultimate excels at - giving characters intelligence. The wulf only inhabits a small but vital part of the maze and is extremely vicious; the other characters (though rather less virulent) can still be awkward.

Other than your trusty sword, the most helpful items in the jungle are the orchids; they grow in five different colours, blossoming and withering very quickly. If you can run over an orchid while it's in full bloom, then you'll find yourself affected by its strange powers. Ultimate has designed these to be a help rather than a hindrance. But there are two you don't want to run over - the yellow and the white: the first induces sleep for a few seconds, allowing any graphics to pass straight through you; while the other will 'cure' you of the effects of the other orchids - which is not as useful as it sounds! Of the other orchids, red allows you to run through any nasties without any harm coming to you (or it), cyan gives you the ability to run much faster, and the purple bloom reverses the controls (so that left becomes right, up becomes down, and so on).

TROPICAL TACTICS

One important thing to realise about Sabre Wulf is that jungle inhabitants appear in the current 'room' some short while after you've entered. The delay is often enough to manoeuvre Sabre Man to another exit - or at least to a strategic position (remembering that he runs faster when not in fight mode). The technique I employed was to run fast through a room, only pressing the fight key at the sound of the bleep that accompanies the materialisation of either animal or non-killable graphics. But it's advisable to be in fight mode when actually entering a room, because a rhino or similar beast may at that moment be charging across the screen. Even when using a sword, you can be killed by attack from behind - and sometimes from above or below (when in the vertical positions). It pays, therefore, to study how the different characters behave; some go straight for you while others will wait for you to move first. If you learn where they tend to appear, and how to lure them on to the end of your blade, then you're halfway to beating the game.

Another useful trick involves gaining the ability to fight off the larger animals and get past them without dying. You do it by backing them into a corner, keeping your finger on the fight key and moving closer until you can squeeze past onto a vertical path. The same approach can also get you past the tribesmen, although their greater intelligence makes it more risky; aggressive fights often result in loss of life. The other (and sometimes the only) way to get past awkward situations is to wait by a nearby orchid until it blossoms into something useful - then run straight through the blockage. Remember when doing this though, that staying in one room for too long causes an indestructible flame to start licking at your boots; you can avoid that by exiting and re-entering the room every so often.

The biggest problem you'll encounter is the wulf itself; getting past it involves either 'flower power' or trickery. The wulf patrols a long horizontal passage at the bottom of the maze which has vertical passages leading up from it. Wait under one of these until it appears on your screen, then leap down, pressing and holding down the fight key; this makes the wulf crouch until you release - at which point it'll pounce. Now move into the room above and wait until you think he'll have just gone past, then move back down and run for your life. Don't leave it too long to come back down, or the wulf will have turned around and got you for sure.

SPOT THE AMULET

Once you've mastered techniques like these you'll be able to happily explore a far larger area of the maze; in fact, you'll probably now be thinking that it's very intricate, although this is partly illusion - many of the passages don't lead anywhere at all (not even on to the next logical screen).

My experience with Atic Atac suggested that pieces of the amulet might perhaps lie in the same rooms each time you load the game. To test the theory. I numbered all the open rooms (the ones the pieces seem to appear in) and started playing a series of five games - finding the pieces and then re-loading. I saw no obvious way of discovering from loading where the pieces would be, but after a while I did find a pattern of sorts. As it turns out, there are a number of set patterns and now, by checking a few rooms, I can predict what pieces are going to be in which rooms. Cutting down your risks in this sort of way makes the game easier to beat - and in many ways, more satisfying.

Finally, for all those whose adrenaline needs a little boost, find all the parts of the amulet and you'll be let in on a riveting secret about Sabre Man. Say no more!

CONCLUSION

The real attraction of Sabre Wulf is the combination of simplicity and complexity; a straightforward maze game but with elements such as the orchids to raise it to a far higher level. The graphics and animation make it fun to play on one level... the sheer size of the playing area and all it entails means it's quite a challenge on another.

SOFTWARE SCENE

While some software houses are taking the Spectrum to its limits and beyond others doggedly continue to churn out ever more diabolical pieces of programmed junk. John Gilbert present a personal pick of the bunch, and Chris Bourne take an irreverent look at the dwindling ZX-81 software scene. Their talents are combinedd in listing the Top Ten Turkeys of 1984. Let the reader be warned.

SPECTRUM SOFTWARE

A cynic may argue that development within the software market in 1984 was non-existent. The same type of game appeared as those which took the lead in 1983, the most popular being of the arcade variety. The programs were written in the same style and to please the same type of customers.

That is only a superficial view, however, and if you look at the games market as a whole, dividing it up into sectors such as strategy, arcade and adventure, you will see that substantial and sophisticated changes have taken place. Despite what some pundits have said you will find that the world of computer games is still buzzing with life.

£9.95
Ultimate

Another cult game to appear on the shelves was Sabre Wulf. Produced by Ultimate it closely followed the format of the company's last best seller, Atic Atac.

The concept is similar to the earlier game. You must seek four parts of a hidden amulet to escape from the jungle maze; on the way you must battle a dazzling variety of foes, some weak and others seemingly invincible. There are numerous treasures to inflate your score, some of which may prove of use in the game.

The game is played over an enormous maze of jungle paths and clearings.

One major feature is the various coloured orchids which, when eaten, have strange temporary effects on your abilities.

The disorientation orchid, which reverses all joystick controls, is particularly infuriating.

While the graphics are not entirely flicker-free, with the usual problems when figures pass over each other, they are up the high Ultimate standards and the action is fast.