[{"TitleName":"The Pharaoh's Tomb","Publisher":"Phipps Associates","Author":"Mike Farley","YearOfRelease":"1983","ZxDbId":"0006794","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 1, Feb 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-01-19","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":112,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nDesigner: Oliver Frey\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nStaff Writers: Lloyd Mangram, Rod Bellamy\r\nAdvertisement Manager: John Edwards\r\nProduction Designer: Michael Arienti\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\n\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nMono printing, typesetting & finishing by Feb Edge Litho Ltd. [redacted]\r\nColour printing by Allan-Denver Web Offset Ltd. [redacted].\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post included)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post included).\r\nSingle copy: 75p\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to CRASH please send articles or ideas for projects to the above address. Articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope\r\n\r\nCover Illustration:Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Phipps Associates: 48K\r\n£4.95\r\n\r\nMake yourself rich by plundering a luxurious Pharaoh's tomb. Phipps have put together a well planned and sometimes amusing adventure game here, with text and location graphics, which are simply but attractive. Responses are very fast and the atmosphere draws you in again and again. Good value for money and well worth playing.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"64","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 2, Mar 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-02-23","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":112,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nDesigner: Oliver Frey\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nStaff Writers: Lloyd Mangram, Rod Bellamy\r\nAdvertisement Manager: John Edwards\r\nProduction Designer: Michael Arienti\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\n\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nMono printing, typesetting & finishing by Feb Edge Litho Ltd. [redacted]\r\nColour printing by Allan-Denver Web Offset Ltd. [redacted].\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post included)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post included).\r\nSingle copy: 75p\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to CRASH please send articles or ideas for projects to the above address. Articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope\r\n\r\nCover Illustration:Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Phipps Associates: 48K\r\n£4.95\r\n\r\nMake yourself rich by plundering a luxurious Pharaoh's tomb. Phipps have put together a well planned and sometimes amusing adventure game here, with text and location graphics, which are simply but attractive. Responses are very fast and the atmosphere draws you in again and again. Good value for money and well worth playing.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"67","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 4, May 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-04-19","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":128,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nProduction Designer: David Western\r\nArt Editor: Oliver Frey\r\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Matthew Uffindel, Chris Passey\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nTelephone numbers\r\nEditorial [redacted]\r\nSubscriptions [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\nHot Line [redacted]\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nColour origination by Scan Studio, [redacted]\r\nPrinted in England by Plymouth Web Offset Ltd, [redacted].\r\nDistribution by Comag, [redacted]\r\nAdditional setting and process work by The Tortoise Shell Press, [redacted].\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post free)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post free).\r\n\r\nWe cannot undertake to return any written or photographic material sent to CRASH MICRO unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Phipps Associates: 48K\r\n£4.95\r\n\r\nMake yourself rich by plundering a luxurious Pharaoh's tomb. Phipps have put together a well planned and sometimes amusing adventure game here, with text and location graphics, which are simply but attractive. Responses are very fast and the atmosphere draws you in again and again. Good value for money and well worth playing.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"76","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer Games Issue 2, Dec 1983","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1983-11-16","Editor":"Kathryn Custance","TotalPages":148,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Guest Editor: Kathryn Custance\r\nContributing Editor: Deidre Boyd\r\nConsulting Editor: Geof Wheelwright\r\nProduction Editor: Eric Robbie\r\nTechnical Editor: Stuart Cooke\r\nNews: Tony Takoushi\r\nFeatures: Steve Mann and David Janda\r\nAction Freeze: Oliver Tucker\r\nScreen Scroll: Wensley Dale, Edward Ferdinand, Tony Harrington, Steve Mann and Ian Ritchie\r\nChess: Tony Harrington\r\nControl Guardians: Jeff Riddle\r\nCartoons: Kipper Williams\r\nAction Freeze Illustration: Mark Watkinson\r\nArt Editor: Dolores Fairman\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nAdvertisement Manager: James Scoular\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Herbert Wright\r\nSales Executives: Jill Harrison, Louise Hedges, and Jerry Davies\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Karen Isaac\r\nAdvertisement Production: Laura Cade\r\nGroup Editor: Margaret Coffey\r\nAssistant Publishing Manager: Sue Clements\r\nPublishing Manager: Mark Eisen\r\nPublishing Director: George Littlejohn\r\n\r\nPublished by VNU Business Publications, [redacted]. Typesetting by Spectrum Typesetting, [redacted] Origination by Fourmost Colour [redacted]. Printed and bound by Chase Web Offset [redacted]. © VNU Business Publications 1983."},"MainText":"MACHINE: Spectrum 48K.\r\nPRICE: £4.95.\r\nFROM: Phipps Associates.\r\nFORMAT: Cassette.\r\n\r\nTHE CHALLENGE\r\n\r\nThis is not a game for the zap and splat crowd, but rather a well-executed adventure in words and pictures. Pharoh's Tomb is most of all a brain- teaser, a game you'll need to spend a good deal of time with for it to be worthwhile. There's a stunning Egyptian treasure at stake here, so the time you spend on it will no doubt be worth it. You are an explorer in the land of the Pharoh, and one who's hot for all the gold and jewellery that's offered.\r\n\r\nHOW TO WIN\r\n\r\nPharoh's Tomb uses split-screen graphics to give you a picture of the inside of the tomb AND the command line to control your characters. The command line is a scrolling text window which displays your questions or commands, and the program's response to them.\r\n\r\nTo give you the solution would be cheating, but suffice it to say that victory in this game takes a hell of a long time. The program has a limited vocabulary which includes oblique and unhelpful responses, such as, 'I don't understand,' and, 'I can't'.\r\n\r\nAs the game progresses, you start to work out the hints that lead you from room to room within the tomb. For example, the commands 'Go West', or 'Go South', or 'Move stone', or 'Pick up Cloak' would move you from the Crystal Room to the Sacrificial Chamber. But you don't really want to know whether that's closer to the treasure or not = do you?\r\n\r\nThe program's rather short and vague responses make the game, to say the least, rather difficult. And after seeing 'I can't' 150 times or more, it can get rather boring. Patience is a big virtue here since even the 'Help' key is distinctly unhelpful, and the program refuses to give any hints at all - except repeatedly telling you that you don't need any - which tends to wound the old self-confidence.\r\n\r\nA feature of the game is that you can leave it and take it up where you left off.\r\n\r\nVIDEO VERDICT\r\n\r\nIf you like something that taxes the mind and makes you think a lot, then this is the game for you. My complaint is in the lack of language that the computer understands - but then that is just my excuse.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"74,75","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Hmm. 'GO WATER' it doesn't seem to understand. What if you try 'DRINK WATER'? Ah…"},{"Text":"Now what? Throw the stone? Wave the fan? More important, which way is the treasure?"},{"Text":"You get a picture of the inside of the tomb and a command line to control your characters."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer News Issue 28, Sep 1983","Price":"","ReleaseDate":"1983-09-21","Editor":"Cyndy Miles","TotalPages":90,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"CHARACTER SET\r\n\r\nEditorial\r\nEditor: Cyndy Miles\r\nAssistant Editor: Geof Wheelwright\r\nProduction Editor: Keith Parish\r\nManaging Editor: Peter Worlock\r\nSub-Editor: John Lettice\r\nNews Editor: David Guest\r\nNews Writers: Ralph Bancroft, Sandra Grandison\r\nHardware Editor: Max Phillips\r\nPeripherals Editor: Ian Scales\r\nFeatures Editor: Richard King\r\nPrograms Editor: Ken Garroch\r\nListings Editor: Wendie Pearson\r\nEditor's Assistant: Harriet Arnold\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nArt Editor: David Robinson\r\nAssistant Art Editor: Floyd Sayers\r\nPublishing Manager: Mark Eisen\r\nAssistant Publishing Manager: Sue Clements\r\n\r\nAdvertising\r\nAdvertisement Director: John Cade\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Duncan Brown\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Nic Jones\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Mark Satchell\r\nSales Executives: Christian McCarthy, Marie-Therese Bolger, Jan Martin, Julia Dale, Dik Veenman\r\nProduction Manager: Eva Wroblewska\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Jenny Dunne\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\r\n\r\nCover photo by Chris Stevens"},"MainText":"NAME: Pharaoh's Tomb\r\nSYSTEM: Spectrum 48K\r\nPRICE: £4.95\r\nPUBLISHER: Phipps Associates, [redacted]\r\nFORMAT: Cassette\r\nLANGUAGE: Machine code, some Basic\r\nOTHER VERSIONS: Limited version for 16K ZX81\r\nOUTLETS: Mail order, most specialist computer shops.\r\n\r\nRIDDLE OF THE SANDS\r\n\r\nThe only introduction needed for this piece of software is to say that it is an adventure combining graphics and text, set in the rooms and caves of the tomb of one of the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt. These must have been pretty restless corpses as the tomb comprises 62 rooms - including a rest room -and I'll leave you to wonder what ancient treasure you may or may not find there.\r\n\r\nOBJECTIVES\r\n\r\nThe opening screen tells you: 'I am standing at an oasis in the Egyptian desert, close to a place where rumours suggest that an ancient burial place exists. To win, I must gather all the golden treasures that I may find and place them by the oasis.'\r\n\r\nFor each of the treasures you gather you collect points, the points increasing if you take the treasures out of the tomb and to the oasis. Your goal is the maximum tally of 1,520, and you can find out how well you're doing at any moment by simply typing SCORE. There is one other tiny objective as well, I suppose. In that like most adventure games your chances of winning are increased considerably if you manage to stay alive, though if you're going to die somewhere it might as well be in a luxurious tomb such as this.\r\n\r\nFIRST IMPRESSIONS\r\n\r\nThe cassette inlay is a professional job, and for once it is fairly restrained, avoiding those garish drawings and wild claims made by some companies who say 'This game will scare you half to death,' and suchlike nonsense. The inlay contains the loading instructions, the tape offers two copies of the program, and the program incorporates the simple playing instructions. Phipps Associates also offers to send you the solution if you're screamingly desperate. What more could you ask?\r\n\r\nIN PLAY\r\n\r\nYou begin at the oasis, with a path to the north, steep steps going up a mountain, and a book of matches lying at your feet. As on all screens, a helpful compass appears in the top right corner pointing north.\r\n\r\nThe directions you can input are the simple N, S, W, and E, with the addition of Up and Down. The program recognises about 70 words in all, including the usual Get, Drop, Use, Look, List, Help and Quit. You shouldn't need the Quit option just yet, unless you can't decide whether to go north or climb the mountain, but if you use it later you will be offered the chance to save the game to tape, and this does seem to be one of those games where the various objects stay where they are: put the matches down in one place and they'll still be there if you go back for them later.\r\n\r\nThe graphics occupy the top half of the screen, and are colourful and good without exactly being breathtaking, while the text scrolls up the bottom half. 'What do I do now?' your guide will prompt you, and the machine code word scanning ensures that he responds to your orders very quickly, even if it's only to say 'I can't do that now' or 'I don't understand.'\r\n\r\nIt isn't giving too much away to say that if you head north you arrive at the entrance to the tomb, where a large rock blocks the way in. An example of the game's occasional humour is uncovered if you request 'Move rock'. The answer comes back: 'Are you sure you want me to risk having a hernia?' Being a harsh taskmaster, of course I replied 'Yes.' to be greeted by a series of grunts while my guide made very heavy weather of moving the rock.\r\n\r\nThe first room is the Fire Room, at which point the matches promptly ignite, assuming you've brought them with you. As these will obviously be of some use later on, my first aim was to solve that problem, which was no mean feat as it involves a combination of two items and a thorough exploration of about a dozen rooms.\r\n\r\nOther places you'll encounter include the Burial Chamber, Music Room, Death Row and the Windy Tunnel, which appears to be the only place where chance enters into the adventure. Apart from the treasures you'll find potentially useful items such as lamps, magic cloaks, fans and magic rings, and you can carry up to six items at one time.\r\n\r\nThe responses were more or less instant, and the only annoying delays occurred when I wanted to rush back to a particular room to try something out and bad to wait while each of the rooms I passed through was drawn on the screen. Even though this only takes a few seconds, and there's probably no way round it. It does seem like ages.\r\n\r\nThe game itself was well worked out, and there were no simple answers to anything. Most hurdles to be overcome involved using at least a couple of items, perhaps carrying one thing while wearing something else, but afterwards all these answers seemed very logical... once you'd worked them out, of course. One area of the tomb has to be explored in a limited number of moves, before a door closes and locks you inside forever, while the almost impenetrable maze lived up to its name.\r\n\r\nVERDICT\r\n\r\nAlthough I only unearthed one item of treasure in several hours of playing. I wasn't inclined to give up as each time I seemed to get just that bit further, tempted on. The game itself is like the graphics: good without being great. It's certainly not The Hobbit, but at less than a fiver it's definitely value for money.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"54","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mike Gerrard","Score":"5","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Lasting Appeal","Score":"4/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"4/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Use Of The Machine","Score":"4/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall Value","Score":"5/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]