If like me you are fascinated by the mysteries of ancient Egypt, if you see at least once every year Stargate, The Mummy and The Ten Commandments (the original of 1932, I recommend) and if you dreamed of as children explore the tombs of pharaohs in search of treasure buried for centuries, this is the game for you ...
In 1990 a young programmer, George Broussard holder Micro F / X Software , go and knock on the door of the newly Apogee Software seeking a distributor for its Pharaon's Tomb. Among Scott Miller (founder of Apogee ) and Broussard understanding is immediate, and this first collaboration marks the beginning of a fruitful relationship, then will monitor our one of the most famous of PC gaming landscape. I'm obviously talking about Duke Nukem , foul-mouthed hero, and wiry in more than one occasion it was spent for the salvation of the earth and mankind. After this brief digression, to frame the appropriate size of the character and the period of the heat of platform PC / MS-DOS to talk about the title subject of this review ...
In the game we will have to play as Nevada Smith, a brilliant young assistant professor, whose achievements as an explorer and treasure hunter has always been "stolen" by the teacher sat by him. Tired of this life with no awards, Nevada decides to take possession of one of the old maps recovered from him, kept in the office of professor, and set off in search of treasures hidden in the depths of the pyramid of Pharaoh. What I'm told is the short preamble which introduces the first episode of the quartet of Pharaon's Tomb : Raiders of the Lost Tomb (Raiders of the Lost Tomb, heading vaguely inspired by the first Indiana Jones Adventure !). Consistent with the distribution strategy Apogee (the famous Apogee Model) This episode was released for free with the option to purchase, mail order, the remaining three (along with the printed manual). The game begins with
Nevada at the foot of the pyramid of Pharaoh ready to enter into his meanderings in search of fabulous treasures. Of course, his epic undertaking will be disturbed by the countless number of guards and artfully placed traps to deter violators ... It's your job to be free to cross winds layers that make up the game until the final reward accumulating wealth, which is located in the den of the sarcophagus.
Nevada began its descent into the depths of the tomb of Pharaoh
Pharaon's Tomb looks like a classic plaftorm old-school , nien scrolling but the levels at fixed screen in which we are to recover the golden key that will grant us access to the following framework (accessible through the door of equal color). To make the crossing, enemies look menacing, deadly devices (sharp points, which slots are lethal projectiles fired, rhythmic spikes that hang from the ceiling, self-propelled platforms, etc.) and any accessory keys (red) needed to reach that golden. Your only weapon of defense weapon that can hurl their javelins against the enemy to halt their advance. The number of spears is not infinite (it can carry a maximum of five) and will recover over the levels in the same way treasures ... then use them sparingly (monsters can easily be skipped most of the time). Realistically, the game does not allow the javelin throw when you are close to the target, paying particular attention to this and then procuring a duel.
The second and third levels of the first episode
As you read and noticed from the pictures, the game is strongly inspired by the classic Brothers Partner, Montezuma's Revenge (1984), of which I propose to you a snapshot .
Montezuma's Revenge in its incarnation for the PC / MS-DOS
Comparing the two images the first thing that catches the eye is the similarity of the graphics in both games, is based on four colors made available by the standard CGA. Methinks I see your face startled intent to wonder: "How is that possible? In 1990 when the VGA was now the mistress of a CGA game?". The question is more than legitimate, and program's response to "justify" such a choice was to ensure the gameplay even on systems not quite in step with the times. My personal opinion is, however, that this title is meant to be first and foremost a tribute by Broussard games that had made him dream (even then there was the phenomenon of retrogaming !!!!). In any case, do not be fooled by the limits graphics and sound (a few croaking products from beeper inside) because Pharaon's Tomb brings with it all the elements that so much we had enjoyed in the titles of the generation sessantaquatrista, from the unique gameplay that requires us to play and replay up to end of the game.
Two levels particolarmenti articulated
The only comment that I would move to the title is that you can get stuck inside the layer in case of error. For example, at the beginning of level three (of which there is a faint image above) mistakenly jump start we will unable to retrieve the key and then have to start the game, returning to the title screen. In contrast to the top of each picture is provided by pressing the S key, the ability to save your progress each time to avoid being forced to start over.
Longevity Title is not greatest, the twenty levels of the first episode ends pretty quickly (although not simple especially the more advanced) but if we consider that there are three other episodes (all released as freeware and freely downloadable from the site of Apogee/3DRealms ), we arrive at a total of 80 levels that are more than enough to ensure a lasting experience.
Finally a few words on the control system selectable joystick and keyboard. If you choose to rely on the latter: the arrow keys to move your character, Spacebar to jump and the F key to hurl the javelin.
Before leaving the inevitable video of me juggling with mixed success on some levels, I propose a couple of interesting facts on the title:
- Like the protagonist of Montezuma's Revenge , Jo Panama and the Nevada Smith name is inspired by the treasure hunter par excellence, the Indiana Jones Spilberga (Nevada, Panama and North American Indian)
- the title screen, the programmer has misspelled his name: George Broussad (missing an r)
PS I forgot one important thing, the ' game engine (FAST, Fluid Animation Software Technology ) to facilitate the "work" less advanced processors, the objects considered equal to the width of the rectangle that contains them (the bounding-box ). Therefore it is with this that you will have to face when you get close to various amenities (eg to overcome them with a jump). This technique allows to simplify the management of collisions but makes some gameplay less clear.
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