[{"TitleName":"Se-Kaa of Assiah","Publisher":"Mastervision","Author":"Clive Wilson, Les Hogarth","YearOfRelease":"1984","ZxDbId":"0006952","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 14, Mar 1985","Price":"£0.85","ReleaseDate":"1985-02-28","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":132,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nAssistant Editor: Graeme Kidd\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nArt Editor: Oliver Frey\r\nProduction Designer: David Western\r\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nStrategy Editor: Angus Ryall\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Matthew Uffindel, Chris Passey, Robin Candy\r\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\n\r\n©1985 Newsfield Limited.\r\nCrash Magazine is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nTelephone numbers\r\nSubscriptions [redacted]\r\nEditorial/studio [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\nHot Line [redacted]\r\n\r\nColour by Scan Studios, [redacted]; Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset Ltd (Member of the BPCC Group), [redacted].\r\nDistribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCirculation Manager: Tom Hamilton\r\nAll circulation enquiries should ring [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £10.50 (UK Mainland post free), Europe: 12 issues £17.50 post free. Outside Europe by arrangement in writing.\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return any written material sent to CRASH Magazine unless accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material which may be used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates. The opinions and views of correspondents are their own and not necessarily in accord with those of the publishers."},"MainText":"SEE-KAA OF ASSIAH\r\n\r\nProducer: Mastervision\r\nRetail Price: £3.99\r\nLanguage: Basic with some machine code\r\nAuthor: Les Hogarth and Clive Wilson\r\n\r\nSee-Kaa of Assiah comes from Mastervision, famous for their takeover of the Wrath of Magra project and its subsequent marketing. I didn't think Wrath of Magra was a game which was developed to its full commercial potential, but alas Se-Kaa of Assiah has even less to offer the prospective purchaser. In fact it is so run-of-the-mill, and with so little creative invention, one wonders when Mastervision will stop floundering among the dead men and begin to realise that only quality will succeed in today's marketplace. Unlike music sales, software sales are not governed so much by taste - there is a definite good and a definite bad, despite what some magazines might lead us to believe.\r\n\r\nWhen the Wise Ones ruled the land, produce was plentiful and the people happy. But then came the Dark Hordes, a mutated race of evil beings who wreaked havoc and destruction throughout the realm and stole the Great Artefacts of the Wise Ones. These were the Rod of Light, the Hammer of Vib-ra and the Casket of Vib-ra. Your quest is twofold: first you must endeavour to find the whereabouts of the Great Artefacts which have been hidden within the grim Castle of the Dead in the lands of Assiah; second, you must escape from the castle and locate the resting places of the Artefacts so that you can return them. Once the Artefacts are in their rightful place, the Wise Ones regain their lost powers and can defeat the Dark Hordes, restoring peace and contentment to the land. Access to the second part of the adventure is conditional upon successful completion of the first section.\r\n\r\nThe game accepts full English sentences such as TAKE THE CASKET OF VIB-RA, and multiple commands are allowed using AND, so GET THE CASKET OF VIB-RA AND GO NORTH is accepted. Some special commands are TAKE ALL or GET ALL, and DROP ALL. There is a pause option and you can repeat your last command. The two 48K programs have over 170 illustrated locations.\r\n\r\nSo far, so good - so what's wrong?\r\n\r\nThe first major irritation is the input routine. An input routine is as fundamental to an adventure as graphics are to an arcade game. The routine used in this case repeats a key amazingly quickly, so it is almost beyond the fidelity of a rubber keyboard to get an error-free input, even if it is a single character - in tests, nine out often 'E's (for EAST) came up as 'EE'. The locations suffer from feeble descriptions and the graphics, far from making up for this shortfall, are often uninteresting and of poor design. There aren't many problems, and those that can be found are illogical and their solutions arbitrary. After wandering for hours I finally found a way to kill the Guardian, only to find that no gain had been made, no new avenues to explore and no new objects - just one Guardian down.\r\n\r\nAlthough two programs for £3.99 appears good value, I felt this package lacked any addictive quality. The first game largely consists of one long maze. It is not a game I will be returning to; 'nough said?\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nDifficulty: rather difficult, owing to lack of logic\r\nGraphics: on all locations; unfortunately they replace text\r\nPresentation: rather poor\r\nInput Facility: awful auto repeat\r\nResponse: touch slow\r\nSpecial Features: played in real time","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: Lacks addictive quality.","Page":"102","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Derek Brewster","Score":"5","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Atmosphere","Score":"4/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Vocabulary","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Logic","Score":"4/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Debugging","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall Value","Score":"5/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 36, Mar 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-02-21","Editor":"Bill Scolding","TotalPages":148,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Bill Scolding\r\nDeputy Editor: John Gilbert\r\nStaff Writer: Chris Bourne, Clare Edgeley\r\nIllustrator/Designer: Craig Kennedy\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Rob Cameron\r\nDeputy Advertisement Manager: Louise Fanthorpe\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executive: Kathy McLennan\r\nProduction Assistant: James McClure\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Maria Keighley\r\nEditorial Assistant: Colette McDermott\r\nSubscriptions Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nAssistant Publisher: Neil Wood\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\n96,271 Jan-June 1984\r\n\r\nTelephone\r\nEditorial and advertising departments\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to Sinclair User please send programs or articles:\r\nSinclair User\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nOriginal programs should be on cassette and articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped-addressed envelope is included.\r\n\r\nWe pay £20 for the copyright of each program published and £50 for star programs.\r\n\r\nAll subscription enquiries to\r\nMagazine Services,\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1985\r\nSinclair User\r\nISSN NO. 0262-5458\r\n\r\nTypeset by Saffron Graphics Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nPrinted by Peterboro' Web, [redacted]\r\n\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd."},"MainText":"SE-KAA OF ASSIAH\r\nMastervision\r\nMemory: 48K\r\nPrice:\r\n\r\nEvil rules the land - yawn - and only a hero can bring home the bacon by finding the Three Great Artifacts of Power and returning them to their rightful owners. In Se-kaa of Assiah you become the hero of the title - geddit? - and begin your quest in a village close to the dread castle of the Dark Ones. Enter at your peril and brave the forces of darkness.\r\n\r\nThe program is a two-part game which purports to be a text adventure with graphics. After a short foray into the fortress you will soon realise that there is precious little description or supporting text beyond your own input. The inevitable result is a featureless and empty world which fails to grasp the imagination successfully. The graphics are interesting but do not add enough to the very slim story line to hold your attention for very long.\r\n\r\nIn some ways the game might have been more likely to succeed if the programmers had decided to make it into either a graphic monster maze type game or a pure text adventure. The concentration on slick pictures has clearly reduced the power of the interpreter and the space available for words.\r\n\r\nAlthough the program is cheap adventurers still have the right to expect more than this for their money.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"36","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"John Gilbert","Score":"3","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Gilbert Factor","Score":"3/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer Games Issue 15, Feb 1985","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1985-01-17","Editor":"Chris Anderson","TotalPages":108,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Chris Anderson\r\nDeputy Editor: Steve Cooke\r\nProduction Editor: Roderick George\r\nArt Editor: Ian Findlay\r\nStaff Writers: Peter Connor, Bob Wade\r\nEditorial Assistant: Samantha Hemens\r\nCartoons: Kipper Williams\r\nScreenshots: Chris Bell\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nGroup Publisher: John Cade\r\nPublisher: Tony Harris\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Peter Goldstein\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Sarah Barron\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Phil Pratt\r\nSenior Sales Executive: Ian Cross, Alan Gibson\r\nProduction Manager: Noel O'Sullivan\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Andrea Lawrence\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 1985."},"MainText":"MACHINE: Spectrum, Commodore 64\r\nPRICE: £2.99\r\n\r\nAttention please, penniless adventurers and apprentice Enchanters on low pay, this month sees the beginning of a revolution in adventure software prices.\r\n\r\nMastertronics, who have already put the cat among the pigeons with their budget-priced games in the arcade market, are launching a new label 'Master Adventurer'. Their first release, Se-Kaa of Assiah, offers 170 illustrated locations and 'full sentence analysis' in two 48K programs for the mind-blowing price of £2.99! On hearing this news, the White Wizard immediately despatched obedient dwarves to secure a copy of the program.\r\n\r\nHmmm... Well, the first thing to point out is that just because a program offers 'full sentence analysis' doesn't mean it's going to be any better at understanding what you type in. After all, 'Examine book' is a 'full sentence', so most games fall into this category.\r\n\r\nIn fact, Se-Kaa of Assiah only checks the first three letters of each word you type in and doesn't have a very large vocabulary. Furthermore, it isn't at all helpful when you get it wrong, saying merely 'Try something else' or 'That will get you nowhere'. Combine these two facts and you'll find that what puzzles there are become fiendishly difficult.\r\n\r\nThe aim of the game, which comes in two parts, is first to collect three legendary treasures and then, in the second part, to restore them to their proper resting places. The program is mostly written in Basic and is slightly slow in responding to the keyboard.\r\n\r\nEvery location has graphics and without these the game would be pretty dire since most locations don't have anything EXCEPT graphics - although there's a lot to look at, there isn't much to find. Unfortunately, although initially attractive, the graphics are rather repetitive and don't contribute much to the game. Even more serious is the fact that you can't save your position without quitting the game.\r\n\r\nMastervision, alias Mastertronics, are to be congratulated for bringing out these cheap label games. For people on a budget, Se-Kaa will be a useful purchase, but don't expect too much and be prepared to spend more on something else if you want a really good game.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"79","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Steve Cooke","Score":"5","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Atmosphere","Score":"4/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Complexity","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Interaction","Score":"4/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"5/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer News Issue 103, Mar 1985","Price":"","ReleaseDate":"1985-03-16","Editor":"Peter Worlock","TotalPages":58,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editorial\r\nEditor: Peter Worlock\r\nDeputy Editor: David Guest\r\nProduction Editor: Lauraine Turner\r\nDeputy Production Editor: Harriet Arnold\r\nEditor's Assistant: Karen Isaac\r\nFeatures Editor: John Lettice\r\nSoftware Editor: Bryan Skinner\r\nPeripherals Editor: Kenn Garroch\r\nHardware Editor: Stuart Cooke\r\nArt Editor: Dave Alexander\r\nPublisher: Cyndy Miles\r\nPublishing Manager: Peter Goldstein\r\n\r\nAdvertising\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Sarah Barron\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Laura Cade\r\nSales Executives: Phil Benson, Mike Blackman, Jacqui Edmiston, Andrew Flint, Sarah Musgrave, Tony O'Reilly\r\nProduction: Richard Gaffrey\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Andrea Laurence\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":"[ZXSR: Empire of Karn is not a review for the Spectrum version, but the C64's. Spectrum Heroes of Karn was reviewed at the same time and shares the exact same text, plus the C64 review could equally describe the Spectrum version. No scores are present for either review so would not cause score-skewing.]\r\n\r\nHEROES' REINKARNATION\r\n\r\nThe hero returns in the second instalment of Interceptor's Karn series, but some of the pizzazz has gone out of the puzzles, says Bob Chappell.\r\n\r\nFans of Heroes of Karn should be pleased to hear of its sequel, Empire of Karn, whose style stays pretty faithful to the original's. The program, from Interceptor, runs on the Commodore 64 and costs £7.\r\n\r\nEmpire follows the current fashion for blending graphics and text. Each location is presented pictorially in the top half of the screen when you first arrive. Thereafter, the picture disappears but can be recalled easily. The graphics are fair, and swiftly drawn but add little to the game itself.\r\n\r\nBRIEF ENCOUNTER\r\n\r\nThe text is spartan, merely a terse description (two short sentences at most) and a list of any objects. In fact, the music that flares up at the beginning and at certain points thereafter is definitely the best feature. '\r\n\r\nWhat made the original Heroes of Karn so successful was the volume of puzzles to be solved. In Empire, this element is sadly lacking. In fact, I managed to score over 70 per cent quickly, and with little imaginative effort. Whether the tough stuff has been saved for last remains to be seen.\r\n\r\nSHIPPING LIST\r\n\r\nA sword was waiting right at the starting gate but a magical force prevented me from taking it. An inventory (LIST is the unconventional command used in this game) revealed that Darin, one of the heroes from the previous adventure, was with me. If I was too weedy to take the sword, Darin certainly wasn't.\r\n\r\nI grabbed myself a nearby Egan and tinderbox, and clambered aboard a conveniently moored ship. A wedged chest, powder keg, bottle of rum, date (edible) and a cat were obviously going to come in handy but where was the trusty lantern? You always find a lamp of some sort early on, so where was it? Aha! Way up in the crow's nest. Drat! It was nailed to the mast and no amount of pulling, pushing, kicking or swearing would budge it.\r\n\r\nAfter one or two unsuccessful launches, I piloted the ship to a sandy beach and thence to a desert. Not far away was a bazaar which housed, among its shops and stalls, a weaver, fortune teller, apothecary and belligerent widow. A nomad's tent was home for one Krizcokz the minstrel - the music in the game was supplied by Chris Cox.\r\n\r\nA trapdoor and a crack in a pyramid presented problems, as did a snake in a basket. But even without cracking those or extracting any joy from the weaver, apothecary and for, tune teller, my score indicated that I was almost three-quarters of the way through.\r\n\r\nWIPE OUT\r\n\r\nI didn't much like the Save routine either. If you opt to save a game straight to disk (which you can do only by first quitting the game), you can't name the saved file. This means that any previously saved game will automatically be overwritten. Tough luck if you've saved yourself in a room with no way out - you'll just have to start again from scratch.\r\n\r\nThe only way round this is to tie up several of your disks in a, grandfather, father, son type rotation.\r\n\r\nEmpire of Kara simply isn't as nourishing as its predecessor. The few exceptions to the general mundaneness of the puzzles just prove the rule. It's mostly a question of trudging around collecting bits and pieces, and no atmosphere prevails, mainly due to the impoverished text. Enjoyable enough in it's own right but I think Karn fans will be disappointed.\r\n\r\nHEROES RETURN\r\n\r\nA Spectrum version of Heroes of Karn, for £5.50, has also been released by Interceptor, with an Amstrad version imminent. The number of graphically depicted locations is restricted on the Spectrum, but those that remain are far, far superior in quality to those on the 64, thanks to the efforts of graphics designer Terry Greer. The pictures are pleasing to the eye and definitely add to the adventure. Terry Greer also did the excellent graphics for Interceptor's earlier Jewels of Babylon.\r\n\r\nThe command format has been tidied up, too. Instead of LIST, good old I (for inventory) is back, and you can address Darin directly.\r\n\r\nHeroes of Kern can still be confidently recommended, with its bags of puzzles spread evenly throughout. Shame the music's gone but the improved command analyser and the superb graphics more than make up for the loss.\r\n\r\nCHEAP THRILL\r\n\r\nJust room for a brief mention of Se-kaa of Assiali, a text and graphics adventure from Mastervision. This is a two-part 48K Spectrum adventure, all on the one cassette, featuring over 170 instantly illustrated locations.\r\n\r\nMany of the graphics are similar and simple, but colourful and effective, particularly those inside the castle where flickering torches deck the walls.\r\n\r\nYour mission as Se-Kaa is twofold. You must discover the whereabouts, within the Castle of the Dead, of three great artifacts and restore them to their rightful resting places.\r\n\r\nAlthough the adventure breaks no new ground and is fairly straightforward, it only costs £2.99, so must be considered a bargain.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"34","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Bob Chappell","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]