THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE BRIAN BLOODAXE PUBLISHER The Edge AUTHOR Charles Bystram YEAR OF RELEASE March 1985 DESCRIPTION Huge platform game very much in the mould of Jet Set Willy. INSTRUCTIONS Brian Bloodaxe has landed on the shores of Britain in his viking longboat. His first quest is to become ruler of the land by finding the crown jewels and sitting on the throne while wearing them. After that, God will send further instructions. CONTROLS Keyboard LEFT-CAPS SHIFT RIGHT-Z JUMP-C PICK UP/DROP-V/SPACE BAR FIRE/USE-X TUNE ON/OFF-T RESTART GAME-enter + H Joystick LEFT-left RIGHT-right JUMP-push forward FIRE/USE-pull back PICK UP/DROP press fire button Control type selection Press ENTER to start the game if you are using the keyboard, cursor joystick, or Kempston joystick. These are detected automatically. If you are using Sinclair Interface II then press "S" to start the game. Pressing one of the above keys will take you out of the initial screen mode or out of the demo mode into the game itself. For a demo just let the game run when it starts up. TIPS/CHEATS The map of the game is huge - over 104 rooms, and horizontal levels of rooms loop back on themselves left to right across the room with the shark. The exit from the shark room (on the left or right) leads to whichever room you accessed that exit from last. This, used judiciously, can be used to cross large areas of the map quickly. Pints of beer can be used to refresh yourself and restore energy. Money has no use other than as an object to stand on. The revolver can be used to kill creatures, but has limited shots. You can also kill creatures by head-butting them from below with your horned helmet, but this carries a risk of injury to yourself. You can ascend great heights by standing on an object, and jumping up as you simultaneously pick it up. Of course, if you get it wrong, falling more than a certain distance will kill you. Bombs are extremely useful, and a lot of fun, but you need a detonator to use them. Drop the bomb, select the detonator and press DOWN to trigger it. And stand well clear..... Spades are also seriously useful things to have. The vast underground area (mines) is fun to explore, but not particularly relevant to the game: none of the key objects will be found there, but it is a useful source of bombs, detonators and spades. If you descend to the deepest levels, you can find yourself in Hell. Abandon all hope - Hell is very hard to leave. You can use bombs to blow holes in any wall in the game. This also means you can put a hole in a ceiling or floor and move between rooms with no connecting door. This can lead to some interesting places..... One thing NOT to do no matter what, is to blow up "The hand of God". Placing a bomb next to it and then detonating it can and usually does result in the game resetting. SEQUELS/PREQUELS/RELATED GAMES: Although there was no follow-up to Brian Bloodaxe, C.Bystram, the author went on to program a 3D isometric game called "Wulfan". This was released on the 1.99 Bulldog label back in 1987. It wasn't very good. INLAY CARD TEXT The game will start automatically once loading is complete. PLease note that this game features our turbo loading technique. This means that the game will load approximately twice as fast as is usual on the Spectrum. However, to ensure reliable loading do please check that your tape player's heads are clean and regularly demagnetised, and that it is either running from mains or from well charged batteries. If these simple precautions are taken then you should enjoy trouble-free loading of this game. WARNING. Do not play this game. This game features "Primary Imbalance" and may be injurious to mental health. Well you seem to have ignored my warning, so I'd better tell you something about this silly game. THE GAME "It was a Thursday afternoon at around 3 o'clock when the signal to go was beamed across the known universe. Boarding your supa-interspatial mega-galactic craft you set off knowing full well that you are Mankind's last hope, but not at all sure that you remembered to lock the front door..." Sorry, wrong game, lets try again. "Wow are you hungry, and as you guide your snapping form around the maze you find fruit to devour, but look out! Those nasty ghosts are..." Hum, No, that's wrong too. I'm sure I had it here somewhere...Ah yes here it is. BRIAN BLOODAXE, Conqueror of the Brits It was pretty late in the week, probably Thursday I should think, when Brian got bored. Well, you'd get bored too, I can tell you, if you'd been stuck in a flaming great ice-cube floating about in the North Atlantic for a few centuries. Brian had reached a decision, not before time you might say as it had taken him around 500 years to formulate. But then Brian was never much of a quick thinker. "I'll invade the Brits ..." spluttered forth his excuse for grey matter. So he did. Trouble is he chose a certain Tuesday in 1983AD when the entire population were either "out to lunch", "in a meeting", or on the edge of their seats about to be informed who exactly had shot J.R. Not being put off, Brian set forth to conquer. Being an exceptionally sly creature Brian decided to choose one of three major invasion points around Britain, non of which were Hastings. Oh yes, due to an old war-wound (and, some say, an inherent laziness) Brian can only carry three things at a time. "Uh that's about it really. "You sure? "Well, yeah. I think so. "Haven't told them much hve you? "No. S'pose not really. But they'll soon get the hang of it. "What do you think those bird brains out there are going to be able to make their little ways around all 104 screens, each of which present a unique and mind boggling mental puzzle? "Yea. "And discover all the weapons, tools and goodies as well as how to use them? "Hope so. "And discover the point of the game?!! "Well, no. S'pose not really. "Well aren't you going to tell them about how Brain's task is to get hold of the Crown Jewels and sit on the Throne with them? "Yea, all right. But I'm not telling them the rest. "What not even the penguins? "Nope. THE COMPETITION If you're the fist person to get the Crown Jewels and to sit on the Throne then bully for you, but we're not giving prizes for that. No, acheive that petty task first and then you'll be asked to do something else. None of your simple problem solving here, no, the final task is a real humdinger (the dinger's humming is full animated). At the end of Brian's final quest he can be carrying up to three things - it's the war wound you see - and the first person so solve the game WILL WIN THEIR CHOICE OF ONE OF THE THINGS BRIAN IS CARRYING WHEN THE GAME ENDS. But a word of advice to this lucky winner, 'play in the spirit of this game and you'll win in the spirit of this game, and be amply rewarded. SCORES/REVIEWS: Crash, March 1985, 86%, page 114 SNAPSHOTS/URL: ftp.dcc.uchile.cl:pub/OS/sinclair/snapshots/b/brianaxe.zip FACTS ABOUT THE GAME: The original loading screen (lost from the snapshot) featured a large stone title of "Brian Bloodaxe", done as for the "Life of Brian" title. After the game finishes loading, Brian walks down the title and walks off screen. The Spectrum now resets! The screen goes black, then white, and starts to print "(C) 1982 Sincl". Just as you are cursing your ill-fortune and getting ready to rewind the tape, the message stops and the screen prints out: "WARNING! THIS GAME FEATURES A HEAVY DOSAGE OF PRIMARY IMBALANCE, WHICH MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO MENTAL HEALTH, should you still wish to play then blow gently on the keyboard... Don't say I didn't warn you!" Once this has appeared, the game starts properly. This nasty trick has been sadly(?) lost from the snapshot. After the third and final quest, Brian is crowned king in the start room, and the game saves the winning screen to tape. This was for the competition when the game was released, and the first person to send their winning screen to the EDGE got the prize. NOTES The game is heavily influenced by Manic Miner, and JSW (toilet seats, giant pairs of scissors, clockwork oranges) and also by Monty Python (Knights, the Holy Grail, the Hand of God) but has its own unique flavour (Daleks, Loch Ness Monster, cruise missiles etc). It is also much larger and more complex than either, with a strong game objective. The music, which rapidly becomes irritating, is, of course, the John Philip Souza march now irredeemably associated with Monty Pythons Flying Circus and actually sounds to many people like it's being played on a set of teeth!