Under the intense heat of the Egyptian sun, the Giza Plateau shimmers like a jewel in the desert. Villains and treasure hunters have searched the pyramids extensively, but according to Sir Arthur Pendragon, the keys to the kingdom rest in an ancient artifact - the Eye of Osiris. The aristocratic adventurer discovers the relic at the foot of the Great Sphinx and experiences its otherworldly power only briefly before it is swallowed by the earth and thrown into a forgotten grave far under the sand! Sir Arthur narrowly escaped disaster in his previous adventure, The Staff of Karnath, and is now in an underground chamber with the risk of every breath being his last. Only with the help of the sacred scrolls left by the Egyptian god Set does he have to decipher every puzzle that leads him to the surface before his fate is sealed.
Gameplay
Entombed is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game for the Commodore 1985 in 64. It is the second installment in the Pendragon series and a sequel to The Staff of Karnath. The game features the series protagonist and aristocratic adventurer Sir Arthur Pendragon trying to escape an ancient Egyptian tomb before all the oxygen runs out. Like its predecessor, Entombed is presented in an isometric format. The game was developed and designed by the brothers Dave and Bob Thomas, with the Ultimate founders Tim and Chris Stamper not otherwise involved in the development. Entombed took significantly longer to develop due to the reprogramming of the game engine. When released, it received positive reviews from critics, with praise centered on its playability and graphics. A sequel followed, Blackwyche, which was released later in the year.
The game is presented in an isometric format and is located in an ancient Egyptian tomb. Sir Arthur Pendragon's main objective is to escape the tomb, the Great Sphinx, before all of the oxygen runs out. To achieve this goal, the player must navigate a series of chambers connected by corridors, solve logical puzzles, and deal with enemy enemies by either avoiding or fighting them. The tomb has seven floors. Pendragon's only form of defense is his whip, which he can use to defend himself against enemies. The player also has access to a torch that allows them to see certain pitch black areas of the tomb. Unlike other games in the Pendragon series, Entombed does not include any collectable items that are required to complete the game. The player character has a life bar that decreases every time he makes contact with an enemy. To replenish life the player must kill crows that appear in rooms at different times. After his death, the crow drops an ankh symbol, the ancient Egyptian "symbol of life". If the player runs out of life or if the grave runs out of oxygen, the game ends.
Development
The Pendragon series and The Staff of Karnath were created by brothers Dave and Robert "Bob" Thomas rather than Ultimate founders Tim and Chris Stamper. Dave Thomas began his career in 1983 when he began making games for the Atari 400, including medium-weight sellers like Warlok, which fetched him £ 5.000 in a Calisto Software contest. Although he later started working for the company making video games, he quit due to the strain on his 109 km daily commute. Shortly after Dave Thomas left Calisto Software, he began working on The Staff of Karnath. Bob Thomas was a trained technical illustrator for the Department of Defense and had experience designing interiors for the Royal Navy, which later contributed to the military themes of the Pendragon series. As with all games in the Pendragon series, Entombed was programmed by Dave Thomas, while the graphics were designed by Bob Thomas. Dave Thomas admitted in an interview in March 2008 that the name of the series protagonist "Sir Arthur Pendragon" was copied from the character of the Black Prince Pendragon from the stories of Jack the Giant Killer. aut Dave Thomas Entombed had the longest development cycle due to the expansion of the previous engine.
front desk
The game received positive reviews when it was released. John Cook of Popular Computing Weekly praised the graphics and announced them as "colorful" and the details of the stages as "beautiful". Julian Rignall from Zzap! 64 also praised the game's presentation and expressed its surprise at the size and graphical progress of its predecessor. A computer and video game reviewer praised the graphics as "excellent" while noting the resemblance to Indiana Jones. A Computer Gamer reviewer also cited the graphics as "excellent" and stated that it was "what they want in an Ultimate game." However, they criticized the entire gameplay, saying it was "very boring" and "slowly smeared". Cook praised the game's puzzle pieces, compared them cheaper than its predecessor, and concluded that the game was "definitely a must-have for an adventurer's collection". Rignall explained that the puzzles were "reflective" and similarly praised them more favorably than those on the staff of Karnath. However, Rignall criticized the game's sprites, claiming they were "big and raw".