Black Magic (video game)

Black Magic is a multi-directional scrolling action-adventure game written for the Apple II by Peter Ward of Action Software and published by Datasoft in 1987. Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC versions were also released.

Black Magic
Developer(s)Action Software
Publisher(s)Datasoft
U.S. Gold (UK) [1]
Designer(s)Peter Ward [2]
Platform(s)Apple II, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC
Release1987
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Plot

The evil wizard Zahgrim has turned the good wizard Aganar to stone, removed his six eyes, and placed them in different locations across the land so they may view the destruction being reaped.[3] The player's objective is to find the six eyeballs.

Gameplay

The player moves through a large, vertically and horizontally scrolling world, picking-up food, arrows, and spells. Roaming enemies can be avoided or shot with arrows. The goal is to find the statue's six eyes scattered across the world, but always in the same locations. The game plays differently depending on the order the eyes are recovered. When one of eyes is collected, stronger types of monsters appear in the world making travel more difficult.

Resources are limited. Food is always on the verge of running out and arrows are in short supply. A large bird can carry the player to a different part of the world, similar to the bat in Adventure for the Atari 2600. Shooting the bird with an arrow makes it go away temporarily.

Spells provide alternate approaches to problems. For example, invisibility prevents damage from monsters. Casting Freeze on water immobilizes the creatures in it and allows the frozen surface to be walked across. Every 4000 points, a new rank is awarded: apprentice, wizard, sorcerer, and necromancer. New spells are unlocked with each rank.

Once all six eyes have been found and placed in the Blind Statue's empty sockets, a message appears explaining how to end Zahgrim's rule over the land once and for all. The player is then able to enter Zahgrim's castle, a difficult maze of traps and monsters.

Reception

The game was reviewed in 1987 in Dragon #124 by Hartley and Patricia Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers stated the "Certainly, this is one of the better games in the current crop of arcade/adventure games, as the tasks required to complete the quest are quite varied."[4]

References
  1. Black Magic at SpectrumComputing.co.uk
  2. Hague, James. "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
  3. Black Magic manual. archive.org. Datasoft. 1987.
  4. Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia (August 1987). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (124): 92–96.
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