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Long, long ago during the age of the Ring master, a
Falcon staff fell into the hands of Drakon, the Wizard
of Valonia. Drakon was loath to destroy such a prize
and kept it safe, not knowing that it would eventually
turn to the dark side of evil (has evil got a light
side?) and take the wizard with it. Soon the power of
the staff had completely overwhelmed Drakon and immersed
him in great magical powers with which he summoned forth
shadow demons to conquer the lands of Valonia. Drakon
walked among the vanquished, wearing a golden mask so
as not to be recognised, and took their souls to feed
the skull of evil which stood in the hall of rats.
Will
the Truth come out or will the darkside
demons prevail?
Eventually
becoming miffed with this evil mage violating his buddies'
souls, Ashmeard, the nice old wizard of Dral, stole
Drakon's mask and forced him to seek refuse in the cave
of Illindel.
Ten
years have passed and slowly, menacingly, the demons
are returning to stalk the Earth. As the dark forces
grow so Drakon returns.
You
play the role of Morrack, apprentice to Ashmeard. It's
your task to find and kill Drakon and retrieve the Falcon
staff while Ashmeard stays in Dral to fight the demons.
You must succeed before the main army of dark forces
crosses the lake.
Written
some time ago using the Quill and Illustrator
from Gilsoft, Demon From The Darkside offers
little innovation. The graphics are very basic, the
full potential of the Illustrator has not been
used and the location/event descriptions are sparse.
Spelling mistakes and inconsistencies are in abundance
and the puzzles are often obscure. The dragon is far
too easily dealt with -- 'KILL DRAGON' would you believe
-- and some of the spells available leave you guessing
as to their use. Even taking into account the age of
this game, corn is rife throughout: inserting rubies
into eyes to move statues, blowing horns to summon ferrymen
and throwing bones to dispense with three-headed dogs.
The game even includes the river Styx.
The
price of Demon From The Darkside sways the balance
in its favour but the overall feel of the game is out
of date. It has all been done before . . . and better.
Demon
From The Darkside is available mail order only from
Compass Software, 111 Mill Road, Cobholm, Gt Yarmouth,
NR31 0BB. They have promised further releases, let us
hope they are more original.
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