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Dragons roll! (Er... shouldn't that be wagons?) Not in this adventure, bucko. You play the part of a v. Green and mega scaly dragon, called Thanatos the Destroyer. You are in total conflict with the forces of the Underworld, and we ain't talking British Rail employees here... although they're pretty fierce. No sir, we mean real dribbling hordes of evil stuff. Nasty little goblins fresh from Mischa and Stephen's jokebook, killer bees from T'zer's bonnet (Oi! T'zer), falling rocks bigger than Ed's dandruff... (Smack!) You must find the beautiful Eros (wahay!) for she is the only one who can guide you to the book of spells and back to the magic cauldron...
Gosh, this is heady stuff, all this dragonlore. Sounds like a really drippy idea for a game, like maybe the Orpheus effort about fairies? No way, Jose! This is a truly original idea for an arcade game, and so well executed. The graphics are stunning, from the flight/walk/swim animation of the dragon, to the way the background moves in 3D - the objects in the foreground move faster than the objects in the background. Sounds simple, looks marvellous.
The only thing you must be very careful of is over-exerting your dragon. You can see his little heart pumping in one corner of the screen and if he looks to be heading for a rupture you must land and rest, or take the consequences. It's a race against time, but you must look after your dragon if you want to finish the course.
So, okay wiseguy, why is this game so much fun? Hmmm? I'll tell you. No other game lets you fly a dragon. No other game lets you fly along blasting the enemy with flames from your nostrils. It's an original premise but it would be nothing if it weren't so nicely done. The game just oozes atmosphere, and that's a quality all megagames have.

Phil South

Thanatos for the ZX Spectrum was released in December of 1986 by Durell software - who were by now making a name for themselves as one of the premier games developers for the Speccy.

With legendary titles under their belt such as Saboteur, Scuba Dive and Harrier Attack, Durell (and Mike Richardson) proved yet again with Thanatos that they were at the forefront of ZX Spectrum arcade gaming.

The premise of Thanatos was that a good Sorceress called Eros had been imprisoned by an evil Lord of the underworld. Not only that, her belongings such as spell books, potions and so on had been locked away in separate castles. These had be returned to the Sorceress to allow her to bring enlightenment back to the land and forever clear the good name of dragons, who were misunderstood as being fierce creatures.

Enter the dragon (\'Thanatos the Destroyer\') who would undertake this quest and free the sorceress and restore the image of dragons throughout the land.

This ZX Spectrum game took place over a scrolling landscape, which was suitably displayed with mythical creatures such as sea-serpents and giant spiders and medieval buildings, all of which were smoothly scrolling with a multi-layered parallax view.

You had to work your way across the land, defeating enemies, burning down castle gates and battling with many mystical creatures before eventually rescuing the sorceress.

Your game character could walk over the ground slowly, but real fun was had by flapping his wings and taking to the air. As you flew across the landscape, humans would hurl spears and throw rocks at you - all of which would cause minimal damage.

You could either breath fire on these foes to kill them, or swoop down and pick them up with your talons before dropping them to their doom from a great height. It was also possible to drop one captured body onto another person on the ground and kill both this way - great fun.


ZX Spectrum Games Thanatos In Game Screen
Thanatos could take a fair amount of punishment and your energy level was represented by a beating heart. The more punishment taken (battling with foes such as giant spiders, killer bees and evil dragons was a lot more damaging to Thanatos than human encounters) caused the heart to beat faster.

Too much damage would cause too much strain and poor Thanatos\'s heart would give up. It was possible to restore health by taking a well earned breather if you found a nice quiet spot on your travels.

You also had a limited amount of fire to breath, represented by a goblet. In some parts of the game you needed to breath fire to pass through (such as a castle gate which had to be burned down) - so using your fiery breath cautiously added a little strategy to the game. It was possible to top up your fire level by eating an evil witch, but you would have to watch out for an expert dragon slayer who always seemed to be around whenever you fancied a quick snack of \'witch - very rare\'.

Once the sorceress was rescued she would climb up and ride on Thanatos\'s back - and she would have to be taken to the other castles and collect her stolen belongings.

There was a lot of land to play through with different environments, villages, beaches, the sea (complete with a nice shimmering moon reflection on the water), castles and caves. The varying enemies to battle added variety to the game, and certain parts were difficult to play through.

Thanatos was pretty tough, but was very playable and also something new. Who had seen a large green dragon as the main hero in a computer game before?

On Release:
Thanatos was a revelation when it was released. The parallax scrolling was the best yet on a ZX Spectrum, the level or perspective as the scenery flew by was pretty amazing. Couple that with the large game character (and large beasts to battle) - this arcade game stood out as a graphical achievement on the humble Speccy. Not only were the graphics jaw-dropping, the game was fun to play and kept you coming back for more. Breathing fire on giant killer bees and picking knights up from their horses before dropping them into the ground was brilliant fun - and the whole mythical theme was different from most other arcade adventure games at that time.

Crash magazine awared Thanatos a score of 93% and Durell software were onto another sure fire winner. Mike Richardson had developed yet another quality title for Durell who always seemed to come up trumps - and not even the relatively high price of £9.95 would put gamers off.

The test of time:
Here in the land of Spectrum games we reckon that Thanatos deserves a place as a unique and cult classic arcade game. The large game characters and parallax scrolling were miraculous when you consider the hardware. It certainly paved the way for future mythical games such as Shadow of the Beast, and even to this day it is pretty playable and challenging. Even the simple theme tune at the beginning evokes the right atmosphere before you start the game - another title that is a true classic game from Durell.

Get some fire in your belly and play Thanatos.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Thanatos for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Arcade Adventure)
RELEASE DATE: December of 1986
RELEASED BY: Durell Software
DEVELOPER(S): Mike Richardson
PRICE: £9.95 - UK

Let's face it, the dragons of this world have had a pretty bad press. Ever since George did his bit of dragon bashing, people have been going around being very butch and sticking it to these badly misunderstood creatures.

Quite understandably, the dragons have always resented this. Lovers of the peaceful life, constantly being harassed by these tin plate tinheads just didn't fit in with their lifestyle. Thus, in order to be able to put their feet up and get a good (k)night's kip, your average dragon has to torch a good fifty mile radius around his home just to be sure of a bit of 'ush. And thus the legend of the bad old drag' with a breath problem was born. So, he makes a snack of the odd maiden or two? Well, nobody's perfect!

In a bid to rehabilitate the image of these poor old creatures, Mike Richardson has foresaken his previous hi-tech worlds of fast cars and high flying helicopters for a more rustic setting.

In this pastoral land, the good dragon - Thanatos the Destroyer - must do his duty. The good Sorceress Eros has been imprisoned by an evil Lord of the underworld, and to add to her problems the rest of her belongings - spell books, trusty cat and so on - have been locked up in separate castles. These must be restored to the Sorceress so that she can bring light and enlightenment to the land, and forever clear the good name of dragons.

The Dragon is controlled by joystick or keys with up, down, accelerate and decelerate. Hitting the fire button does just that - the Dragon breathes fire, either up or down depending on the up/down keys. Pressing fire and the decelerate key causes the dragon to reverse direction.

The action takes place against a scrolling background. Thanatos and the meanies move in the foreground while mountains and villages in the background scroll past more slowly giving a perspective effect. All the meanies and Thanatos are animated: men throw spears, gulls wheel around in the sky and sea serpents writhe in the sea and plunge back into the water.

The dragon flies through the air by flapping his huge wings, waddles around on the ground on claw, or can paddle and swim in the sea. To take off, just trudge along and press the 'up' key. Apart from breathing fire, the drag' can set about his foes by picking them up with his talons and carrying them aloft. They are dropped again by pressing fire, and plunge to their death. By hitting another baddie with the falling body, two 'birds' can be killed with one stone and extra points won.

The higher the level, the more damage is done to the dragon with each brush with a meanie. These come in various shapes and sizes. Killer bees mob him, nasty two-headed dragons give him a hard time, sea serpents are out for his blood and deadly spiders hang from silver threads in the caves. On the ground he comes up against the odd pack of wolves, and has to cope with soldiers chucking things at him.

Thanatos's life force can be restored by taking a quick breather on the ground. His life force is shown by a beating heart and as he takes damage the beat quickens. If he gets really badly damaged, the heart turns blue. If he runs out of fire, he has to refuel by taking a quick snack of nasty witch. But watch out for the knight on a white charger doing his dragon slaying bit. The only way to deal with him is to grab him with your talons while he's galloping along - very tricky.

To win the game, Thanatos has to rescue Eros from one castle, and then take her on his back to other castles to collect various objects. There are three castles on the lower levels and four on harder levels, and it's no day trip rescuing damsels when you're a dragon...

Producer: Durell
Price: £9.95
Author: Mike Richardson



CRITICISM
"I was very impressed with my first game of Thanatos: the graphics are well up to the standard of recent Durell successes and the game as a whole is extremely original in look and play. The movement of the main dragon is very smooth and realistic, and all the characters, from bees to sea monsters, are well drawn and contain lots of colour. I found it very easy to get into and highly addictive, even though it presents the same problems in the same order every time. The game is well presented, but I feel that it is a little too hard so that you may end up missing out on quite a lot - which is a pity as it is quite expensive. Another very decent game from Durell.

"Eyes popped at the CRASH offices when we first saw the preview copy of Thanatos, and the final version is even better! You get totally enthralled in the mystic scenario. This is one game that I can't really see myself leaving alone for weeks. Graphically what can I say? Thanatos the Wyvern (it ain't a dragon 'cos it's only got two legs) is the best character I have ever seen on the Spectrum. All the other characters are very nicely done, as is the countryside which scrolls astoundingly. This is the best game I have played for months, even at ten quid it still represents good value."

"Wow! This game is really amazing; stunning, astounding, brilliant! The tune on the title screen is very nice, but the graphics are absolutely superb. The parallax scrolling works excellently, and the effect that it creates when you belt past a path, the castle, or a beach, is breathtaking (almost!) Playable and addictive, Thanatos is a game that I'll be playing for a long time to come; if variety is the spice of life then buy this and become a chicken curry."



COMMENTS
Control keys: redefinable, up, down, left, right, fire, P to pause
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Interface 2
Keyboard play: good positive feel
Use of colour: excellent, but badly masked
Graphics: gibber, gibber
Sound: a haunting tune, but beep, cough, burp effects
Skill levels: eight
Screens: scrolling
General rating: An excellent and rather different arcade adventure


Use of computer 94%
Graphics 95%
Playability 92%
Getting started 91%
Addictive qualities 94%
Value for money 90%
Overall 93%