[{"TitleName":"Aztec: Hunt for the Sun-God","Publisher":"Hill MacGibbon","Author":"Five Ways Software Ltd, Mike Embden","YearOfRelease":"1984","ZxDbId":"0005985","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 40, Feb 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-01-16","Editor":"Tim Metcalfe","TotalPages":132,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Tim Metcalfe\r\nDeputy Editor: Wendie Pearson\r\nEditorial Assistant: Lesley Walker\r\nStaff Writer/Reader Services: Seamus St. John\r\nArt Editor: Linda Freeman\r\nDesigner: Ian Noble\r\nProduction Editor: Mary Morton\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Louise Matthews\r\nAdvertising Executives: Bernard Dugdale, Sean Brennan, Phil Godsell\r\nProduction Assistant: Melanie Paulo\r\nPublisher: Rita Lewis\r\n\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES POSTAL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE. By using the special Postal Subscription Service, copies of COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES can be mailed direct from our offices each month to any address throughout the world. All subscription applications should be sent for processing to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES (Subscription Department), [redacted]. All orders should include the appropriate remittance made payable to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES. Annual subscription rates (12 issues): UK and Eire: £15. Additional service information including individual overseas airmail rates available upon request. Circulation Department: EMAP National Publications. Published and distributed by EMAP National Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\nPrinted by Severn Valley Press. Typeset by In-Step Ltd.\r\n\r\nCover: Bob Wakelin"},"MainText":"AZTECS EVERYWHERE!\r\n\r\n\"Games with a little bit more,\" reads the slogan above the title Aztec - Hunt for the Sun God. This is a game whose text input is by single keystroke, decoded by using a single strip overlay above the top row of keys on the Spectrum. The commands covered are TURN (left and right), MOVE (forward), BRING ALONG, LEAVE BEHIND, EAT/DRINK, etc.\r\n\r\nMovement is on a 10 by 10 grid from which you can see a widening perspective view in a forward direction. To the right of the view is a pictorial list of objects carried, an updated compass showing north and a sun which slowly sinks, timing you out. Below is a text window which reiterates your abbreviated commands in full and gives you the relevant replies.\r\n\r\nYour objective, as a young Aztec coppersmith, is to find the sun which hasn't risen this day over your village.\r\n\r\nThe Aztecs, since they're into sorcery, might be expected to have use of spells and indeed there are various of these at your disposal. To use them, you must refer to a special chart supplied on a poster contained in the pack.\r\n\r\nThe game is primarily intended as an introduction into adventure for children.\r\n\r\nI found that a great deal of concentration was needed to keep track of my whereabouts on the grid. You are advised to draw out your own blank grid and plot your way around. I certainly wouldn't have managed without taking this advice, so it is, perhaps, a pity that a pad of printed grids is not supplied.\r\n\r\nOnce on the move, I found it difficult to relate the pillar which limits movement to the scenario described in the instruction booklet - it just didn't have the feel of the village and mountains described. Although the mode of movement and display of graphics is similar to that in Lords of Midnight, there is nowhere near the feeling of wide open spaces imparted by Midnight. Whereas Midnight gives the feeling of infinitely variable control, Aztec movement is in discrete \"chunks.\" In fact, it plays more like a perspective maze Adventure, such as Asylum, but nowhere near as devious.\r\n\r\nNevertheless, it is a well-produced game that should give considerable enjoyment to children, for whom it is primarily intended. The aim is to teach spatial awareness and logical reasoning. I wonder if they need this educative approach? Seems to me that many kids are quite capable of finding their way around and solving the most complex Adventures without any weaning!\r\n\r\nAztec - Hunt for the Sun God is for the 48k Spectrum, priced £7.95 and Commodore 64 priced £9.95, from Hill MacGibbon.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"69","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Big K Issue 10, Jan 1985","Price":"£0.85","ReleaseDate":"1984-12-10","Editor":"Tony Tyler","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Tony Tyler\r\nAssisted By: Richard Burton\r\nArt Editor: Ian Stead\r\nFeatures: Nicky Xikluna\r\nSoftware: Fin Fahey\r\nContributors: Kim Aldis (Features); Steve Keaton; John Conquest; Richard Taylor; Nigel Farrier, Gary Liddon; Tony Benyon; Steve Way; Sean Cox\r\nPublisher: Barry Leverett\r\nPublishing Director: John Purdie\r\nGroup Advertising Controller: Luis Bartlett\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Erica Vickers [redacted]\r\n\r\nEditorial Address: [redacted]\r\nTelephone: [redacted]\r\n\r\nPublished approximately on the 20th of each month by IPC Magazines Ltd. [redacted]. Monotone and colour origination by G.M. Litho Ltd [redacted]. Printed in England by Chase Web Offset, Cornwall. Sole Agents: Australia and New Zealand, Gordon& Gotch (A/sia) Ltd.; South Africa, Central News Agency Ltd. BIG K is sold subject to the following conditions, namely that it shall not, without the written consent of the Publishers first given, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade at more than the recommended selling price shown on the cover, and that it shall not be lent, resold or hired out or otherwise disposed of in a mutilated constitute or any unauthorised cover by way of trade or affixed to as part of any publication or advertising, literary or pictorial matter whatsoever. IPC MAGAZINES 1984."},"MainText":"CONDOR MOMENT\r\n\r\nMAKER: Hill MacGibbon\r\nFORMAT: cassette\r\nPRICE: £7.95\r\n\r\nVirtually identical to King Arthur's Quest in almost every respect, except, of course, for the scenario. This time you're an Aztec who finds that his fellow villagers have been hi-jacked by condors and the sun has failed to rise. Natch, it's up to you to sort all this out and again, time is against you as your strength ebbs in the cold. As with Quest, you get an overlay and very brief outline and have to work everything out for yourself.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"36","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"John Conquest","Score":"2","ScoreSuffix":"/3"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"2/3","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Micro Adventurer Issue 13, Nov 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-10-18","Editor":"Brendon Gore","TotalPages":60,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Brendon Gore\r\nAssistant Editor: Martin Croft\r\nSoftware Editor: Graham Taylor\r\nMaster Adventurers: Tony Bridge, Mike Grace\r\nEditorial Secretary: Geraldine Smyth\r\nAdvertisement Manager: David Lake\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Simon Langston\r\nAdministration: Theresa Lacy\r\nManaging Editor: Brendon Gore\r\nPublishing Director: Jenny Ireland\r\nTelephone number (all departments): [redacted]\r\nUK Address: [redacted]\r\nUS Address: [redacted]\r\nSubscriptions: UK £10.00 for 12 issues, overseas surface (excluding US and Canada) £16 for 12 issues, US and Canada air-lifted US$33.95 for 12 issues.\r\n\r\nMicro Adventurer is published monthly by Sunshine Books, Scot Press Ltd. Typesetting by In-Step Ltd, [redacted]. Printed by Eden Fisher (Southend) Ltd, [redacted]. Distributed by SM Distribution, [redacted].\r\n\r\nISSN 0265-4156. Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper.\r\n\r\n© Sunshine Books 1984"},"MainText":"ADVENTUROUS ARTHUR AND THE AZTECS\r\n\r\nJohn Fraser reviews King Arthur's Quest and Aztec\r\n\r\nFew adventurer's can have failed to notice the new breed of graphic adventures which has been emerging recently. Now, in the wake of such epics as Lords of Midnight, come two more games which allow the player to roam through a three dimensional world.\r\n\r\nKing Arthur's Quest and Aztec are the first adventures to be released by Hill MacGibbon, and very impressive they are too. Although their graphics are not animated, each time you move your view alters accordingly. Trees, towers, etc, become larger as you approach them. Amazingly, if you walk into something the picture sways drunkenly with such realism that at first I thought I needed to adjust my TV.\r\n\r\nThe first thing you will notice is that the screen is divided into three or four areas, depending on which game you have loaded. The rectangular window in the centre gives you your view of the land. To the right of this is a smaller one which displays the objects you have picked up. Beneath these windows is a third in which messages from the various characters appear, and these scroll independently. In King Arthur the sword Excalibur is also shown, glowing brightly at the start of the game. Then, as the game progresses, its brilliance diminishes until it has faded altogether and your time has run out.\r\n\r\nThere is also a time limit with Aztec, but in this case you see the sun (top right hand corner) sinking slowly towards an Aztec god; when he finally grasps it the game is over.\r\n\r\nWith both games you are restricted to using the top row of keys for movement, picking up and dropping objects, drinking, and using spells. Obviously with this one key system for inputting instructions it's impossible to have any sort of dialogue with the characters or to perform more than a narrow range of actions.\r\n\r\nTo some extent the 'use' key compensates for this deficiency. If you wish to, say, unlock a door, you press '7' on the keyboard followed by space until the object's name appears in the communications window. Then, when you press enter, the door will be opened. It's as simple as that.\r\n\r\nCasting spells is just a little more difficult, as you have to decode clues which you will find on your journey. This entails consulting the 'spell breaker' on a colourful poster which is provided with the game.\r\n\r\nOne of the attractions of these games is that, unlike many adventures, your movements are not confined to a particular route. You are free to explore as much of the land as time permits, although unless you keep track of where you are you may find yourself retracing your steps frequently.\r\n\r\nThe ground over which you travel is divided into ten by ten squares; you can see this crosshatching before you as you move. Each game has eight such areas and they take a while to explore thoroughly. When you take into account the time taken to cast spells and so on, you will have to set aside several hours for play.\r\n\r\nAlthough the landscape is sometimes flat and monotonous, the objects and creatures you encounter are drawn in high resolution graphics and the medieval lettering is superbly done. What defects there are seem trivial when you consider the novelty of approach.\r\n\r\nMake sure, however, that you get a properly printed instruction booklet with the game you buy. The ones with my review copies were mixed up and I had a job sorting out which page referred to which game.\r\n\r\nThe scenarios draw on the mythology of the Aztecs and King Arthur's Camelot for inspiration. In King Arthur you assume the role of the legendary King Arthur (no not Arthur Scargill) who must rid the land of the evil witch Morgana Le Fey. In Aztec you are a young coppersmith who dreams that rainclouds will come and drown the sun. When you wake you find that the sun had failed to rise and so you set off on a quest to discover the meaning of your dream which you hope will enlighten you.\r\n\r\nThese poetic metaphors are translated into imaginatively conceived and constructed adventures which transform the traditional text and graphic adventure almost beyond recognition. The shape of things to come, perhaps?","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"39","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"John Fraser","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair Programs Issue 27, Jan 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1984-12-13","Editor":"Rebecca Ferguson","TotalPages":68,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Rebecca Ferguson\r\nStaff Writer: June Mortimer\r\nDesign/Illustration: Elaine Bishop\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Howard Rosen\r\nEditorial Assistant: Colette McDermott\r\nProduction Co-ordinator: Claudia Viertel\r\nSubscription Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nAssistant Publisher: Neil Wood\r\nPublisher: Gerry Murray\r\n\r\nSinclair Programs is published monthly by EMAP Business and Computer Publications.\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nIf you would like your original programs to be published in Sinclair Programs, please send your contributions, which must not have appeared elsewhere, to:\r\nSinclair Programs\r\nEEC Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrograms should be on cassette. We cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped-addressed envelope is included. We pay £25 for the copyright of listings published and £10 for the copyright of listings published in the Beginners' section.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1985 Sinclair Programs\r\nISSN No. 0263-0265\r\n\r\nPrinted and typeset by: Cradley Print PLC, [redacted]\r\n\r\nDistributed by EMAP National Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\nAll subscription enquiries:\r\nMagazine Services,\r\nEMAP Business and Computer Publications\r\n[redcated]\r\n\r\nCover Design: Craig Kennedy"},"MainText":"PRICE: £7.95\r\nGAME TYPE: Maze Adventure\r\n\r\nThere are months when mapping aversion overcomes software reviewers. Indications of this are desks covered with enormous, badly-glued-together sheets of paper, a worn 'hold' button on the keyboard, and reviewers sitting in the corner of the room, murmuring through gritted teeth, \"Take the right fork at the lion's den, swallow the mouldy cheese, bounce across the lake, turn left...\"\r\n\r\nTime comes, of course, when the editor drags them screaming to their type writers. \"Show you know the game\", she hisses, \"but don't go on about the maps\". It is true, though. Buy any good game this month and you will be showing the same symptoms. They all need maps.\r\n\r\nKing Arthur's Quest and Aztec: Hunt for the Sun God are cases in point. They are both maze adventures, with excellent graphics. You move from one location to the next, able to see those locations a short way in front of you. You collect objects, and use them as you think necessary. Some will kill you, some are essential to your progress.\r\n\r\nYou can never see objects in a location, until you have been there. Each game has 800 locations, the majority of which can be visited. To avoid missing objects or walking round in circles, it is necessary to map each location. Make a mistake, and making the right decision is based largely on chance, and you will have to begin again.\r\n\r\nThe story lines are charming, the graphics effective, but the games themselves are little more than tests of your patience and mapping ability.\r\n\r\nProduced for the 48K Spectrum by Hill Mac-Gibbon, [redacted].","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"16","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"June Mortimer","Score":"50","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Rating","Score":"50%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer News Issue 88, Nov 1984","Price":"","ReleaseDate":"1984-11-16","Editor":"Peter Worlock","TotalPages":66,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editorial\r\nEditor: Peter Worlock\r\nDeputy Editor: David Guest\r\nProduction Editor: Lauraine Turner\r\nSub Editor: Harriet Arnold\r\nEditor's Assistant: Karen Isaac\r\nNews Writer: Ralph Bancroft, Sandra Grandison\r\nFeatures Editor: John Lettice\r\nSoftware Editor: Bryan Skinner\r\nPeripherals Editor: Kenn Garroch\r\nHardware Editor: Stuart Cooke\r\nPrograms Editor: Nickie Robinson\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nArt Editor: Dave Alexander\r\nAssistant Art Editor: Tim Brown\r\nLayout Artist: Bruce Preston\r\nPublisher: Cyndy Miles\r\nPublishing Assistant: Tobe Bendeth\r\n\r\nAdvertising\r\nGroup Advertising Manager: Peter Goldstein\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Bettina Williams\r\nAssistant Advertisement Managers: Laura Cade, Claire Rowbottom\r\nSales Executives: Claire Barnes, Phil Benson, Mike Blackman, Julian Burns, Steve Corrick, Tony Keefe, Andrew Flint, Christian McCarthy, Isabel Middleton, Sarah Musgrave, Tony O'Reilly, Anita Stokes\r\nProduction: Richard Gaffrey\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Jan Moore\r\nSubscription Enquiries: Gill Stevens\r\nSubscription Address: [redacted]\r\nEditorial Address: [redacted]\r\nAdvertising Address: [redacted]\r\n\r\nPublished by VNU Business Publications, [redacted]\r\n© VNU 1983. No material maybe reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\nPhotoset by Quickset, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Chase Web Offset, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Seymour Press, [redacted]\r\nRegistered at the PO as a newspaper"},"MainText":"PRICE: £7.95\r\nPUBLISHER: Hill MacGibbon [redacted]\r\n\r\nThis is initially an impressive package. There's cassette, booklet, wall-chart and keyboard overlay, all in a large colourful box for £7.95.\r\n\r\nYour part in the game is that of Quick-lizard, a young Aztec coppersmith. You rush into your village alter a strange dream and you find it deserted save for a humming bird, which stops humming long enough to tell you its name is Hwee-Tsee, and that it has been sent to help you.\r\n\r\n'While you were in the forest, evil oondors attacked and took the villagers into the east,' it tells you.\r\n\r\nYou alone escaped that but you must hurry to help save your fellow villagers. Speed is vital as the sun is sinking slowly down the right-hand side of your screen, alongside which is space for pictures of the objects you are carrying. The remainder of the screen shows the way forward with a small text window beneath.\r\n\r\nAfter the promise of 'beautifully drawn scenes' it's disappointing to discover they are mostly black squares in the same style as the first crude attempts at 3D graphics mazes. These spread before you, with the occasional cactus and a few walls blocking your view in certain directions. Your village is a 10x10 grid, and you're meant to map out for yourself what you find in each square, where the walls are, etc. As you're not told in which square you start out, it's difficult to begin mapping. You'll need eight such grids in all (they could have been provided as the maps don't alter), because if you successfully leave the village you'll move on to the River Valley, the Aztec City and so on.\r\n\r\nApart from background graphics, you don't see what's in a square until you land on it, and these objects when they pop up are poorly done as block graphics... so called because they block out what's behind them. Perspective is confusing as you can always see the square you're actually on, so what appears to be slightly ahead of you to the right is in fact next to you, and switching viewpoint or moving forward is clumsily and jerkily done too.\r\n\r\nUsing single key presses to move forward or turn left or right through 90 degrees. The adventure for the most part is little more than a succession of forward moves until, from time to time, you stumble across an object such as a key, a copper pot or some maize. There have been similar efforts from several publishers recently and Aztec, along with the similar and simultaneously released King Arthur's Quest, is not of the best. It doesn't live up to the blurb, which promises 'an imaginative quest.'","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"48","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mike Gerrard","Score":"5","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"5/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]