Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

F RENCH games label
r Tomahawk has its sights
well and truly set on 1992.
Not satisfied with being part
of one of the top three houses
in France, Tomahawk is
ready to invade Britain and
Europe in a big way.
The label was launched
earlier this year as a sister to
Coktel Vision, which has
already had a taste of the discerning
British with the
success of Freedom (80%,
AmC Februmy 1989) and the
failure of 20,000 Leagues
under the Sea (15%. AmC
March 1989).
You'll remember Tomahawk's
fi rst release,
Emmanuelle. It sank like a
brick, scoring 3 7 "/o in the
June issue. But it served its
purpose in getting the
Tomahawk brand name
known.
Sensational publicity stunt
over and done with. Tomahawk
has announced its
release schedule for the
coming months. And it's
looking good.
Already in your shops is
African Raiders, a game
which the company
modestly understates as a
"simulation of driving".
It's a whole lot more than
that. Have you ever played a
driving game and wished
you could whizz off in any
direction under the sun?
Well now you can.
African Raiders is a race
from Tunis to Dakar across
the burning sands of the
western Sahara. There is a
track — for those who want to
follow it — marked out with
oil drums, but it takes a
winding course and sticking
to it isn't going to get you
home first.
The game comes with a
-1frican Raiders. Inst action and good gameplay
poster which also serves as
an accurate map. Within it's
limits you can travel in any
direction you like. Not just
north, south, east and west,
but right around the 360
degrees of the compass.
You can even reverse. In
fact situations crop up
regularly where going
backwards is the only way
forwards.
Leaping and bounding off
the beaten track at more than
200 kph has its hazards.
Great herds of camels
sleeping behind rocks
inhabit some areas. Other
districts are littered with
bones — last year's models,
says Tomahawk.
Quicksand is all over the
place. Which is where your
selectable two-wheel or fourwheel
drive comes in handy.
Doesn't help much in the
graveyard though, where the
rusting wrecks of unsuccessful
competitors — bikes,
buggies and jeeps — stick up
out of the dunes like
tombstones and stop you in
much the same way as do the
camels.
All the hazards are marked
clearly on the map. Careful
drivers will avoid them.
Explorers and burn-it-up
merchants will deliberately
seek them out.
Tomahawk boss Roland Oskian
has a wink and a smile for the
hard-to-please British
It's fast, it's fun and it's in
the shops now priced at
E19.99. We'll have a full
review next month.
Hot on the heels of African
Raiders will be The Legend
of Djel, a point-and-click
adventure featuring 30 superbly
drawn screens. Set in
the Middle Ages, you live in
one of four imaginary kingdoms,
all of which are suffering
from different
problems due to circumstances
under the control of
neighbouring lands.
Your mission is to rescue a
sorcerer's daughter — represented
on-screen by a (nontacky)
rendition of the
graphics artist's girlfriend —
Above: Superb graphics in The Legend of Mel add to the atmosphere
Left: ESS Hermes blasts into orbit in this early Amiga version screenshot