Reviews

1984 Creative Sparks (UK)
by Phil Snell and Dean Lock

Brilliant. One of my most loved games. Neat graphics, good colours, nice sound, great play. I only regret having so few levels.
Defend your castle against the invaders that try to destroy it. Besides the soldiers you have to defeat the Sorceror's and the Demon Trolls. All fun, but the Orc soldiers level is the best, its great fun to throw rocks at the soldiers while they try and climb the ladders. And the hot boiling oil is a nasty but most fun feature.
The booklet mentions a fourth level called Stone Warts, but I never seen it and cant recall anyone who has played it. Judging from Crash Magazines review and my experience with the game, I'm safe to say that it's a bogus level on the Spectrum and you just return to the soldiers attack again. On the Atari and Commodore version, for what I'm aware of, there is in fact this level and another one called Ninja Orcs, that climb the castle walls without the help of ladders. I haven't played any of these two levels on those machines, so I cant tell what they play like, but I can ensure that there isn't any Stone Warts level on the Spectrum. Which is a real pity, for this is a really good game.

4,5 points

A very good game indeed !! Original plot. Simple but addictive. Elude the arrows of the enemy while defending your fortress ... be a knight for a while !!

This old game has a vintage charm that cannot be put into words . . . 3,5 / 5 .

Ok, your castle is sieged by the orcs, who are hauling and lifting up ladders to jump over your walls, and in the meantime they're shooting arrows from the ground, which eventually become FLAMING arrows - and you're done.
It's quite hard, and the inertia of your character makes it rather laborious to place exactly over the orc, in order to throw the black thing - whatever it is - over them and kill'em. [it could be even a pot of hot oil, I don't know]. When they reach the top of the wall, they start crushing its peaks, and then pull out the sword to hit you. At this time you'll need a sword too - and it will appear at the extreme left or extreme right of the screen. The same happens with the black thing/oil pot/black ball/whatever it is. The orcs are very fast in placing the ladders and climb them, so the action is quite frantic - in spite of your slow start running. At a certain point, it becomes very busy, with multiple arrows, normal and flaming, flying around, and hordes of orcs shaking swords under you. The graphics are a bit primitive, but functional. Can't give it less than 3/5.

edit:
tried again
I now think it deserves
4/5