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My quest to find Scarabaeus, the fabulous emerald of
the Pharaoh, began disastrously. As I entered the tomb,
a venomous spider bit me and now its slow terminal effect
is beginning to bear heavily upon me. I know that the
Tomb contains medicines that can cure me, but there
are also poisons which are far deadlier than that of
the spider's. At least I have the ancient scriptures
to help me work out which are which, but mostly I must
rely on my own instincts.
At
this present time I'm standing just inside the entrance
of the tomb. My heartbeat echoes eerily in the emptiness
of my surroundings and the ragged sounds of my breathing
only make me feel uneasy. It's a bit like standing in
a maze of giant hedges, although this is a far cry from
Hampton Court. Everywhere I walk there are passageways
leading left and right, some long, others leading to
dead ends. Thankfully I have with me a map of the tomb
to show me where I am, otherwise life would be very
difficult. I also have with me my health gauge which
shows how near to death I am and a heart register so
I know when I'm pushing myself to exhaustion. I'm ready
to go now . . . I sit and ponder upon the old scriptures,
I know what I have to do but I wonder if I am capable
of doing it.
One
of the many puzzles to be solved. Is it safe
to take the container at the top of the screen?
On
the first level I find the ghosts of the tomb. I know
from my readings that they will not kill me if I touch
them -- instead they give me a hieroglyph, nine of which
fill a key. Once the key has been completed I can examine
it and take note of the position of all the hieroglyphs.
This should allow me to distinguish between medicines
and poisons on the second level.
Getting
to the second level is by no means easy. A hand-operated
lift lakes me there -- the trouble with the lift is
that perfect rhythm is needed to make the lift go up
or down. One slip as the stick is turned clockwise or
anti-clockwise and the lift falls a level giving a terrible
jolt which isn't too good for me in my current state
of health.
AAARGH!
Attacked by a zombie on level three. The status
panel to the right of the screen shows an overall map
of
the tomb, the time elapsed (hour-glass), energy remaining
(door behind the figure), and exhaustion in the form
of an
ornate ticker tape readout at the bottom.
I
know that the second level is much the same as the first,
only differing in the colour of the walls and in its
size. I study my map carefully. Marked on it are the
places of information -- these, if used correctly, should
give me potions and traps for use in the final and very
dangerous third level. Each place of information has
a giant spider guardian which chases me once I've opened
its door. Once I have lured away the spider, I must
return to the place of information to retrieve the useful
items. Losing the spider proves no difficult task, but
using the key to work out whether I should take the
zombie trap and whether the potion is poisonous or not
before the guardian catches up with me again, isn't
so easy. In one of the places is the key to the Pharaoh's
tomb on level three. This is in the form of a slide
puzzle which I have to move around to form the shape
of the key before it can act correctly.
A
map of the third level, with the Pharaoh's tomb
in the centre of the maze and our intrepid
explorer to the far right.
When
I reach the final level, horrors yet unseen try to thwart
my progress. On this level are more information recesses,
although this time they are not properly guarded. On
examining a recess, ancient machinery causes a door
to smoothly slide upwards, revealing a shelf contained
within. On this shelf there should be a bottle of antidote
-- or is it poison? If I recognise the bottle from the
previous level, then it will be safe to take since it
must be the antidote. If I've never seen the bottle,
then it must be poison and should left well alone. On
examining a place of information a zombie is activated
and they chase after anything with living blood in its
body . . . I must be very careful, yet swift. The zombie
traps come in useful here and could well save my skin
more than once -- I'm glad I made sure I picked up all
four on level two.
When
all the antidotes have been recovered I can make my
way towards the Pharaoh's tomb, which is located in
the centre of the maze, to complete the final task.
Examining one of its eight entrances will give me a
fiendish puzzle of the sort only the diabolical Pharaoh
could have thought up -- forty moves to rearrange the
hieroglyphs into a regular 4 x 4 key so that any column
of hieroglyphs will match any line. If the puzzle isn't
completed within the forty moves, then the door is barred
and another entrance must be tried. It's difficult and
torturous work, but well worth it for the great emerald
Scarabaeus lies behind those confusing doors . . .
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