| THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE
THANATOS PUBLISHER Durell AUTHOR YEAR 1986 CATEGORY Arcade CONTROLS Keyboard, Kempston, Cursor. KEYS: Redefinable Pause - P INSTRUCTION Having got fed up with being stereotyped as a nasty, greedy creature, Thanatos the Dragon sets out to rescue the Sorceress Eros and her belongings - spell books, cat and so on - from the various castles in which they have been locked up. Thanatos flaps across a left/right scrolling landscape which is full of hazards - killer bees, two-headed dragons, sea serpents, spiders, soldiers throwing spears and knights in armour. He can however fry all of these with his (limited) amount of fire. He can also pick his foes up with his talons and carry them aloft to be used as "bombs" against other foes; it doesn't do a soldier any good to be hit by a falling sea serpent! Thanatos' life force is shown by a beating heart on the left and a bag of blood (?) on the right of the screen represents his fire supply. As he takes damage his heartbeat quickens and if he is really badly injured, the heart turns blue. He can recover by landing and taking a quick rest on the ground. If he runs out of fire, he can refuel by eating a witch! To win the game, Thanatos has to rescue Eros from one castle and then take her on his back to other castles to recover various objects. There are three castles on the easier levels and four on the harder ones, and it keeps getting tougher... SCORES RECEIVED "An excellent and rather different arcade adventure." 93% (CRASH #35, December 1986) GENERAL FACTS NOTES hich the girl can cast her spell. Land nearby. GENERAL PLAYING TIPS You can pick up foreground object (eg: knights, horses, rocks, and soldiers) by flying over them and touching them with your open claw. You can then take them up high and drop them (on other objects, if you wish!). You can also burn foreground objects with your breath. If you get attacked by the knights, dragons, rockfalls, etc, your heart (shown on the bottom left of the screen) will beat faster, eventually flickering blue just before you die. To slow down your heart rate you must land and stand still (or walk slowly - especially when in the caves!) without being attacked. To win the game you must carry the girl all the way to the cauldron. If you turn around quickly she may fall off, and you will have to pick her up again. CHANGING CONTROL KEYS & JOYSTICKS If you have a Kempston joystick interface, select the REDEFINE KEYS option, and press Y when asked. If you wish to use different keys, or if you wish to set-up or or adjust the "cursor key" type joystick interface (eg: Protek and Interface 2), then select the REDEFINE KEYS option, answer N to the Kempston joystick question, then press the joystick keys of your choice in response to the prompts. SCORE Select the VIEW SCORES option to check your position on the high score table. You score bonus points for wiping-out entire attack waves in a single pass, and you get double points for killing the enemy by dropping objects on their heads. OTHER GAMES BY DURREL £9.95 BIG4: Turbo Esprit, Saboteur, Combat Lynx, Critical Mass £9.95 DEEP STRIKE £9.95 FAT WORM BLOWS A SPARKY £2.95 HARRIER ATTACK £2.95 SCUBA DIVE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Complete Instructions typed in by Paul Thompson, March 2003 ---------------------------------- Complete Instructions typed in by Paul Thompson, March 2003 |