In Atic Atac you were trapped in the evil haunted castle. The main doors slammed shut behind you and that was the only exit. To escape you had to find the three pieces of the Golden Key of A.C.G. hidden over the five floors and find your way back to the main doors.

You had a finite amount of energy that could be topped up by finding food. It's level was shown by a roast turkey at the right side of the screen which was gradually reduced to it's bare bones. You had a choice of three characters to play. You were a Knight, Surf or Wizard. The difference was that each character had his own set of secret passages to help you get round the castle.

The knight used the grandfather clocks, the Wizard the bookcases, the Serf the 1884 barrels. In certain rooms powerful monsters would walk into you and drain your energy. These could be scared off if you had the right object but you could only carry three at a time. This number included the coloured door keys and the pieces of the Golden Key.

Ultimate called the program "interactive G.A.S. adventure software" and started the popularity of arcade adventures. When you lost your last man you were given time played, score and percentage of rooms visited. It was possible to complete the game with less than 100% but people would desperately try for the full amount. It's good to figure out which object kills which bad guy (the spanner kills Frankenstein, the cross repels Dracula etc).

It is also quite a big game, spread over five floors of the castle. Playing Atic Atac now is still a lot of fun. Atic Atac really confirmed Ultimate's place as the best Spectrum software house. But they still had another twist up their sleeves.

In part two we will finish the Ultimate story and amongst other things you will meet the Sabre Wulf and go all 3-D with Knight Lore.

Part Two can be found in issue four of RETROGAMER fanzine which is available for £1.50 from:

Keith Ainsworth at 52 Kingfield Road, Orrell Park, Liverpool, L9 3AW, United Kingdom.

This document is copyright 1995-2001 Keith Ainsworth and can be found at http://retrogamer.merseyworld.com/

I have several original Ultimate Spectrum cassettes for sale here. You can also buy a selection of Sinclair computers and hundreds of other games.

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