Reviews

For their second outing, Gargoyle moved away from the futuristic space-going action of Ad Astra to create a graphical adventure based on ancient Celtic mythology.

The game was built around an animation of a walking man in front of a smooth scrolling background. From this simple, but graphically very pleasing beginning they managed to construct a giant maze of pathways populated by a plethora of characters, with objects to pick up, weapons to wield and puzzles to be solved. The first creatures you were bound to run into were the Sidhe; you could try and fight them but without getting hold of the correct weapons first, your chances weren't great so after a few resurrections you'd soon get the habit of running away quickly whenever you hear or see one coming.

Although offering a hugely atmospheric environment, it was difficult to make swift progress with the game. A common problem was losing a vital key behind a locked door, and having to restart from scratch because of this. The sheer size of the game made mapping a necessity and some of the puzzles were rather obscure to say the least.

That said, Gargoyle succeeded admirably in creating a novel form of graphical adventure; one that they were to revisit several times with ever increasing standards.

1984 Gargoyle (UK)
by Greg Follis and Roy Carter

Tir Na Nog, meaning Land of Youth in gaelic, the Celtic Other World.
You play Cuchullain, which sounds more Mayan than Celtic, anyway, our hero has left the world of the Living and enter Tir Na Nog, the Other World.
His quest his to collect the fragments of the Seal of Calum to gain youth and return to life.

It's useless to say this is an excellent graphic adventure, anyone can see that. Very well followed up by Dun Darach and later by Heavy on the Magick.

A enjoyable adventure by Greg Follis and Roy Carter for Gargoyle Games that takes place in the mythical land of Tir Na Nog, 'The Land of Youth' where the monkey-like Shide live.

Cuchulainn, our hero, must collect the four pieces of the Seal of Calum and thus defeat the Great Enemy to free the land.

Tir Na Nog is a true open world to explore, pick up objects (weapons, keys, ...) and interact with certain characters.

Graphically excellent with infrequent big characters, well designed. Their movement is almost perfect, one of the best ever seen on a Spectrum. And the appealing backgrounds and the use of parallax scroll are another great feature.

Definitely one of the best adventures to play on the Spectrum.