Aladdins Cave

Copyright : Artic Computing Ltd | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

Originally written by Keith Purkiss and distributed through Artic Computing Ltd this platform adventure sits you in the ancient clothes of Aladdin, a young thief from times gone by who goes in search of riches in one of the most deadly caves ever.

Here is how Artic explained the game on the cover: "In this exciting arcade/adventure you must overcome the evil wizard by collecting objects and spells which allow you to transform into other lifeforms."

Is it as good as they think it is? find out below...

Graphics

At first glance this platform game from 1985 looks similar to the platforming classic "Chuckie Egg" and in some ways it borrows ideas from the legendary platformer, you?ll see what we mean when you throw it into your emulator.

Graphics wise the game is pretty clean, a great use of colours is on offer from start to finish and considering the age of the game the graphics are pretty well drawn - nothing you wouldn?t see inside your Amsoft pack but certainly a great effort all around. As is the case with most old platform games it does suffer from a few strange effects, for example of you jump anywere in the game you?ll notice that Aladdin is capable of super hero sized jumps from ledge to ledge but he moves about as fast as your mum when she goes shopping with her mum!

Sound

As for sound well yet again another great attempt with some nice music and the occasional sound being made from our hero, mainly when he dies horribly or collects one of the treasure scattered about the rooms. Other than that there isn?t much on offer but you have to remember that it was coded in 1985 - a very long time ago and we suspect some of our visitors wouldn?t even have been 1 year old back then!

Gameplay

Now gameplay, back in the late 80?s and early 90?s people bought games based on the cover and the description - the rest was done purely by the mind, graphics weren?t an issue and if the game had any sound at all it was classed as a luxury, this is certainly the case with Aladdins Cave which was probably purchased by people of that mindstate.

The game is good clean fun with no gore, no fancy 3D engine and no need to update your system to a billion gigahertz to be able to play (like todays PC world). It?s simple enough, get from one end of the room to the other and collect as many treasures as you can along the way, watch out for falling objects and monsters though overwise it could be an early game over. It?s got an easy control system and people of all ages should be able to pick it up very quickly indeed, a very nice game for such an early age in gaming.