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Orpheus, £8.95 cass
ONLY RUNS ON 464

With the release of Elidon, faeries now reside in the RAM of the Amstrad as opposed to the more traditional bottom of the garden.
In charge of guiding a humble faerie through the secret forest of Elidon, your job is to collect the seven secret potions to water the ftowers of Finvara. Once thus refreshed, the flowers are able to grow, enabling you to weave them into a garland fit to grace the head of Queen of the faeries — such are the drab everyday tasks of faerie folk. The forest of Elidon is no safe place though. Throughout there are jealous tree spirits and harmful flowers that deplete your energy. In some far flung sections of the forest you may come across dark places difficult to navigate safety. Throughout your task you must be careful to watch your faerie dust, the vital supply of energy without which all faeries die.

This first release for the Amstrad from Orpheus is a conversion from the original Commodore program. Elidon is a large scale arcade adventure spanning an impressive 256 screens The screens flip from one to another as you travel between them, each screen containing up to four exit/ entrances.
Because of the delicate wings affixed to her back the faerie you are guiding has the power of flight and is able to move in all four directions. Using a control method similar to that used in Sorcery, you control the left/ right and up movement while the laws of gravity takes care of any downward motion you need to make. Instead the down key picks up objects. Using the fire control allows the faerie to hover.
About the forest you are likely to run into tree spirits that sap your faerie dust. There are three faeries (lives) you are given to control each with a limited amount of faerie dust. Run out and a small cross bearing the legend R.I.P. appears and you're one faerie less. Luckily, throughout the forest are scattered spare piles of faerie dust easily collected by passing over them. Also scattered about the forest are lucky charms, each charm has different effects on your faerie dust supply either decreasing or increasing it.
In the forest are various useful items such as pan pipes or magic leaves to help you on your quest though only three object can be carried at once. The method of picking and drop- I ping helpfull items bears simil-arity to the way Ultimate do it. For background music you're supplied with the funky bop strains of Ibsen's Peere Gint by Grieg.

CRITICISM

Elidon, converted from the 64, didn't quite live up to the hopes I had for it. Looking at the 64 game it seemed the like the sort of thing that would convert quite succ-essfully, no scrolling, not many things flying about the room. Well, even though the static graphics aren't bad. moving objects seem to have a very bad case of the flickers. Apart from poor programming I can't see any reason why this should be. Having said that, the game elements are really quite good. The puzzles set are of an intriguing nature and hold interest for some time. The map, at 256 rooms, is trifle large and can overawe at times making get-ting lost very easy. The tune really got on my nerves, though, making me grateful for the Amstrad's volume control.

I first saw this on the Commodore and was very impressed with its brilliant and colourful graphics. When I learned that it was being converted to the Amstrad I much looked forward to it - with the computer's better colour capabilities surely it would be much improved. Unfortunately it's not, the graphics are very chunky and the flowers are totally unidentifiable. As an arcade adventure goes it's not too bad. It has loads of rooms and puzzles to explore and solve — but it is just let down by its graphics ... Nice tune though.

I was really disappointed by this Amstrad version of Elidon. The graphics though colourful, are nowhere near as good as they could have been, given the imaginative scenario. The shapes flicker and the backgrounds are chunky and not well coloured. The sound is a bright point in an otherwise ratner poorly presented game, though it may become irritating after a few games. At least the Amstrad has its own built in volume control unlike other computers. Thankfully, in itself, Elidon is a very good arcade adventure and this certainly makes up for most of its inadequacies! I just felt let down by the overall impression that looking at the game gave me that it hasn't been that well implemented in its conversion.

Presentation 73%
Attractive and suitably faerie-like

Graphics 72%
Nice and colourful but a bit chunky and ftickery

Sound 86%
Good tune but few spot FX

Playability 79%
Easy to get into and jolly to play

Addictive qualities 77%
Plenty to map and lots of puzzles to solve.

Value for money 70%
About right for the size of the game.

Overall 78%
An unusual game that makes a refreshing change from alien zapping, slightly let down by its appearance.