{fh30000FFSimon the Sorcerer
{fb1000000This game has had so much publicity (on purpose?) because it was around a year late. It is also big, no sorry, BIG. The first true Lucas Arts point and click adventure on the Acorn Platform; so what does this point and click thing mean then? It couldn't be easier. Ye olde adventures meant you had to type things in ie 'North', 'Get Gun', 'Talk to...', etc. and if you were lucky, you would get some nice GFX. The purist loved this kind of game and spent many hours 'walking' round in these text based worlds using their imagination to picture scenes, people etc. LucasArts thought this was all very well, but, what about the people who had short attention spans and would become very bored with this sort of game. They came up with a game engine which would allow the user to interact with a fully animated world, still following the same rules as a text adventure, but now you didn't have to type, you could just click to where you wanted to walk to. If you can to talk to a character you would just click on the 'Talk to' icon and the the desired character. I can't remember the first game to use this engine was (I am sure that somebody will tell me, Email address in the !Help file). Adventure games would never be the same. 

This type of game is common now, but why has it taken so long for one to be produced (converted) on the Acorn? Who knows? Anyway Simon is a beautifully produced game, the GFX are easily the best in an Acorn game that I have seen, the attention to detail is of a very high standard. For example when you enter the forest there are stags on top of the hills eating grass, there is even a bird of prey which captures its food right in front of you. There are butterflies etc. The text is humorous, but does not distract from the plot. I am not going to say much about the plot as I always find that finding out for yourself is half the fun. I will only say that you have to save the world by finding an elderly wizard, and the only way to do that is to become one yourself.
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The perfect game? This all depends on which storage medium you are using. If you are using a hard disc then yes, otherwise you have the endless disc swapping (a game in itself?). Before I finish this review I must make comment on the music, all the other sound FX and music in the game are great, BUT the main tune is SO irritating that you have to turn it off after about two minutes (but if you're like me you would stick a CD on anyway). Remember all those sleepless nights you had with Lemmings? Well get ready for some more!

9/10

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Product: Simon the Sorcerer
Price: 39.99
Availability: All Acorn 32-bit machines
Contact: Gamesware (01703) 456523

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