THE KEYS OF MARAMON

 The events of THE KEYS OF MARAMON are contemporaneous with, but independent of,
those of THE MAGIC CANDLE, Mindcraft's previous CRPG. Experience with THE MAGIC
CANDLE is useful only in that the game system is very similar. (This review is
based on the IBM-PC version.)

 KEYS is primarily an arcade-style role-playing game. While there is much
talking, puzzle-solving, and improvement of your character's abilities, the
prime requisites for this game are fast reflexes and a quick trigger finger.
Fighting is plentiful. As is typical of arcade-style programs, the player only
controls one character. There are four pre-rolled characters to choose from.

 The town of Maramon is invaded nightly by monsters. You must kill these
monsters or suffer a penalty. Eventually, you must venture into the dungeons of
Maramon and find the source of the monsters. The key to getting into the
dungeons is to find the lost keys of Maramon. Fighting the nightly monsters will
result in finding some of the keys.

 As in THE MAGIC CANDLE, there is a fair amount of housekeeping to do. For
example, weapons need to be periodically repaired or they will break. Magic is
done using magical mushrooms. All of this will be very familiar to veterans of
THE MAGIC CANDLE. The town of Maramon has the necessary stores to provide your
character with all the basic necessities. Much of the housekeeping is done
automatically, which is an improvement from THE MAGIC CANDLE. For example,
weapons are automatically fixed when resting at the guest houses.

 If you fail to kill all the nightly monsters, they will do some damage to the
town. This raises the prices charged by the stores in Maramon and can close a
store for a given time period. That is the penalty you pay for failing to sweep
the town clear of monsters. The monsters wander around the town, so you have to
hunt them down. However, the wandering is not completely random. There is a
pattern to the monsters' appearances. Discovering this pattern and making use of
it can make the game much easier to play. It is worthwhile to replay a night
fight if any monsters escaped.

 As in THE MAGIC CANDLE, time is important. You should note which day of the
week it is, and when sunrise and sunset occur. Since time advances continuously,
you should make liberal use of the Escape key to pause the game.

 There is no speed adjustment available, but the program appears to
automatically adjust for machine speed. The game played the same on an 8MHz AT
as it did on a 12MHz AT. There is also no joystick recalibration, which is
serious, as there are situations where the joysticks on PCs will drift. The game
was deliberately played in one such situation and quickly became unplayable as
the joystick drifted. The workaround is to exit the program and restart it.
Fortunately, the game can be saved at just about any point, and the whole
process goes quickly.

 The program is supplied on both 5-1/4" and 3-1/2" disks. The IBM version
supports a joystick, but not a mouse. No sound cards are supported. On a VGA
video system, the graphics are very nice and look just like those in THE MAGIC
CANDLE. Copy protection is manual-based.

 My review copy (version 1.0) contained several bugs. However, Mindcraft is
quite good about upgrading their programs for registered users. The serious bugs
don't show up until later in the game, so it is possible to play while waiting
for an update. The documentation implies you can resume play with the new
version. The save files are KMSAVA.MCS through KMSAVD.MCS for slots A-D.
KMSCOR.MCS is the list of high scores.

 KEYS is a good game, but it is also an arcade game; MAGIC CANDLE fans should be
aware of this important distinction. Except for this difference, the game has
much the look and feel of THE MAGIC CANDLE. In one sense, THE KEYS OF MARAMON
carries the time pressure aspect of THE MAGIC CANDLE to its logical conclusion.

 THE KEYS OF MARAMON is published by Mindcraft and distributed by Electronic
Arts.

*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253