Labyrinth of Fear was written by Paul Barsby and published by Algray Software for the Colour Genie in 1983. This is the first game that I’ve covered for the Colour Genie which was a computer produced by Hong Kong-based manufacturer EACA and introduced in Germany in 1982. The BASIC was compatible with the TRS-80 and programs were provided to load TRS-80 programs into the Colour Genie. The operating system was a 16kb ROM containing LEVEL II BASIC.
The only other game created by Paul Barsby was Terry’s Travels which is a Frogger variant.
Labyrinth of Fear at first blush appears to be an obscure dungeon crawler. Your view is a first-person perspective featuring grid-based dungeon levels. You can turn 90 degrees and the wire-frame graphics are redrawn with every step that you take. I thought the main view of the maze was well done and movement through the maze seemed quick and fluid. Note that in the upper left corner next to the main view you are shown a layout of the maze as well as where the guards are located. The game is not really a role-playing game but falls more into the action category.
The documentation that comes with the game is rather sparse. The background information that you’re given is short and sweet:
You are about to return to the dawn of time when chaos and law battled for the souls of the infant human race, when all that stood between man and slavery were a few heroes.
Deep in the forest of Kraaw lies the Labyrinth of Jarwon where, in the time before time began, those that came before kept the five secrets that can unlock the chains that bind man.
This same background information appears in a loading screen at the beginning of the game.
Your task in this game is to enter the maze and recover five blue boxes. The boxes are referred to as secrets. When you discover a box and pick it up you are told that you obtained Secret #1 for example.
You have an information panel to the left of your main view and it will display the number of secrets there that you’ve uncovered.
The five blue boxes are your ultimate goal but there are also many green boxes scattered throughout the dungeon level. The green boxes contain gold pieces. Some of these boxes contain guardians instead of gold that appear when you attempt to open the box. You can choose to simply walk by the box or you can stop and hit O on the keyboard that represents (O)pen. These guardians for some obscure reason are referred to as elementals.
The full gamut of your game controls are listed below:
Movement = 4 arrow keys
O = Open Box
P = Pay for passage (if you meet a guard or want to bribe the elementals)
F = Fight
Spacebar = Swing Sword
If a green box has a guardian attached then there is the possibility of combat. This is where the game becomes even more eccentric. You have two choices: 1) the elemental will allow you to move on if you pay a bribe – they will dictate to you how much – however be aware that you can bargain with them too. Thus gold is a very important commodity in the game. If you have a decent supply of gold coins you can bribe both guards and elementals and carry on in your search of blue boxes. If you have NO gold and open a green box that has a guardian attached you are not even given the choice of combat, the guardian deducts a random percentage from your strength score – sometimes as much as 10%. This is equivalent to a grievous wound. Allow me to explain.
Combat is a bizarre affair. The combat in this game reminds me of the Crown of Arthain.
When combat ensues the main view changes to display two characters facing one another. You then find yourself slamming your spacebar over and over again in order to defeat your opponent. I have found that even when you get very good at defeating your opponent that you lose about 15% of your strength score doing so. This means that you have to learn to economize your strength.
The addition of a timer further complicates the game. You are given a set amount of time to find the five blue boxes and the timer runs down as you move about.
Once I spent some time with the game the following strategy seemed to work the best. I would ignore most of the green boxes. I would take my chances with a select few in the hope that I could amass SOME gold. I would use my time to quickly navigate the maze, searching every inch while avoiding the four guards. Once I realized I had to deal with the guards in order to continue my search I used my gold to bribe the guards that I could and then resorted to combat to dispatch the rest. If you try and open all the green boxes that you find you’ll discover that the elementals deplete your strength score so much that you are unable to complete your quest.
There are also hidden pits within the maze that can drop you to a lower level. Each new level also presents the problem of four new guards.
I was finally able to obtain five of the blue boxes and once you accomplish this task the game quickly begins again.
This was another obscure title I had never heard of. I suspect that the game made my list of games to play because the cover and screen shots pass it off as a role-playing game.
I played Labyrinth of Fear on the Genieous emulator and it took me about two hours to beat the game. I want to give a shout out to @Bennett from our discord room who helped me get the game started. If you’re going to use the emulator to play this game you’ll need to attach Labyrinth_Of_Fear_A.cas and enter the following instructions:
Loading
SYSTEM (RETURN)
At the *? prompt, type:
L (RETURN)
After a successful load, type:
/ (RETURN)
to start.
Wait about five seconds after the title screen has displayed, then Attach CAS and locate Labyrinth_Of_Fear_B.cas and then the game should run properly for you.
Next up on the docket is Dragonsbane.
Until next time…