Imhotep (1985)

Life as a Pharoh for Zoser has been a prosperous and peaceful time in Egypt until in his tenth year a great famine has swept the land causing hardship and death for his loyal subjects. Years have passed with still no solution to the problem and now his subjects who worshipped him have lost patience and are now gathered outside his temple in Memphis. The Pharoh has turned to his wisest man, Imhotep for help but the only solution to be found is for the wise man to find a Princess with the sacred books called the Souls of Ra. Problem is her location is only known to the God of Wisdom, Throth and to reach him in to ask for directions in his land called Thebes, Imhotep must cross the lands of the Jawi Nomads which are hostile and heavily armed. You play the role of Imhotep as you attempt to cross the hostile lands before finding the location of Throth and finally the Princess over a number of levels. You start the game on a bird flying over the landscape which is a horizontally side view scrolling shooter as you avoid or shoot Nomads on birds as well. The Nomads will fire back with fireballs and if you are hit by a fireball or touch a Nomad then you lose one of five lives. As you progress rocks and huge droplets will also fall from the sky and have to be avoided. After a certain distance of flying you must now disembark your bird and carry on across the landscape on foot. This part of the game is viewed once again from the side with the screen constantly scrolling. The Nomads are once again flying on their birds with rocks and droplets falling from the sky but you also have to jump gaps or lose a life if you fall in. If you survive the hostile lands you now play various single screen platform games with various floors connected by ladders and stairs. There are various creatures moving about the screen and touching one loses a life and to complete the screen you have to collect a certain number of items.

• Release Date: February 1, 1985