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Review

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Huge playlist archive with games from 2018: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOanVBhqd3shFv7eRVs8C6iYc1zJzeJ0
INTRODUCTION:

Long after the destruction of the Ring, Gandalf comes back for a revenge with the four last demons of Middle earth. Help him to free the world of the remaining evil of Melkor.

An arcade / rpg mix with four rounds of 16 screens each. Each Round have a unique boss that have to be defeated to move to the next Round. Control can be by either 1 button or 2 button control. For the ZX Spectrum models with 128 Kb only.

Gandalf can gain experience, this will increase your fire range, levels are upgraded based your points: Also you can pick items that will increase your maximum health and mana. You can have a maximum of 200 health and mana.

Damage Table:
Deadly damage 50 points
Enemy damage 20 points
Bullet damage 10 points
Boss Bullet damage 10 points
Boss damage instant dead.

Coded on C using the powerfull z88dk compiler , the fabulous Nirvana Plus, and the genial Vortex II Player for AY music. The code is GPL’ed bitbucket.org/CmGonzalez/gandalf/

Code: Cristián González, Alvin Albrecht
Music: Hikaru
FX: BeykerSoft
Testing:Abu Simbel

Good luck wizard!

REVIEW:

As you can read in the introduction this game uses the Nirvana+ engine. Nirvana+ is a program that tells the ZX Spectrum to change the colors for every scanline, so basically this is as good as it gets on a Spectrum! Gandalf is a platform game and it is inspired by games from the 80s such as Crystal Caves, Castle Excellent, Mario and Lord of the Rings. There is also elements of RPG because you can find different things that will increase your powers and health.

There are four levels and every level has 16 screens, but because you will need some keys to unlock doors, you will have to visit some of the screens more than one time, and at the end of each level a Boss fight is waiting for you!

Level 1 is impressive, we start off in the woods heading for a castle, and everything is just gorgeous looking. A nice blue sky in the background and all stuff on the screen is highly colorful and detailed. I think this level so far is the closest we have been to a Mario game for the Spectrum.

The game plays really well and has it’s very own unique style, you have to find the right way to the exit / boss fight, and sometimes you can chose different routes, and you also have to decide if you want to go for the keys to unlock rooms to gain experience and collect treasures, or you just want to take the shortest way through the levels. You do off course also have to keep an eye on your health, especially if you get hit in the beginning, because your health points is only 100 at the start, but you can gain experience and increase this to 200. And more important – Don’t fire at everything, jump over enemies when you can, because else you will soon be out of bullets. You can do different kind of jumps depending on how long time you are holding down the jump button, and the jumping does also have variety depending on if you are standing still, moving a little or you are in full speed.

This game is very good looking, it's huge and has a good variety of design of the screens, and also has the gameplay to come along with it. Gandalf DLX is the final edition of this game, and if you have tried some of the other versions you will find out that this version features better controls, a much nicer looking Gandalf, and changed way of shooting from the bosses. The very first version also had some problems with stuff you could not collect and rooms you could not enter, this is off course also fixed and it is possible to collect everything and enter all rooms. The DLX version also features some very nice in game soundtracks, there is four soundtracks – one for each level, and then there is also a soundtrack for the menu screen, a special soundtrack for the boss fights, and a soundtrack for the ending of the game.

The first versions did only have the soundtrack for the menu screen because of memory problems, so the 128k is really pushed to the limit with this final version, and we are also very close to the limit for what the Nirvana+ engine and the ZX Spectrum can do.

Some minor details here and there could be better, and the jumping techniques needs some practice before they are mastered, but all in all this is a top class game that is pushing the Spectrum to the limits! I wish more people would use the Nirvana+ engine when they make games for the Spectrum, because this is really an awesome graphics mode!

Rating = 97%

The game can be downloaded here: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxdb/sinclair/entries/0032231/Gandalf(Deluxe).tap.zip

The game can be bought on physical cassette here: http://www.matranet.net/