The Sacred Armour of Antiriad

The Sacred Armour of Antiriad
Title screen of the game
Game No.	544
Voting	7.50 points, 8 votes
Developer	Code: Stanley Schembri Grafik: Daniel Malone, Stephen Robertson
Company	Palace Software
Publisher	Palace Software, Epyx, Hi-Tec Software
Musician	Richard Joseph
HVSC-File	/MUSICIANS/J/Joseph_Richard/Sacred_Armour_of_Antiriad.sid
Release	1986
Platform	C64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Apple II, PC (DOS), TRS-80 CoCo
Genre	Adventure
Gamemode	Single player
Operation
Media
Language
Information	aka Robotron 2048 or The Antiriad, La Armadura Sagrada de Antiriad or Antiriad , Die heilige Rüstung des Antiriad 1988 by Epyx also under the title "Rad Warrior", also known as Rad-Warrior or Radwarrior, also for the Apple II and the IBM PC

Description

The Sacred Armour of Antiriad, or simply Antiriad, is an action adventure game that spans 69 screens. There is no scrolling; the screens are displayed using a flip-screen method. As the Stone Age hero Tal, the player traverses the primeval forest and the ruins of a fallen civilization to acquire the sacred armour "Antiriad", along with its accessories and weapons. With this, he then wages war against alien invaders who have enslaved his tribe. Once he destroys the occupiers' power center, the tribe is freed, and the player's quest is complete.

Vorgeschichte

The Hero Tal

In the year 2086, Earth is divided into two warring power blocs: the northern and southern sectors. After the failure of disarmament negotiations, hostilities escalate into a nuclear war that plunges Earth into a nuclear winter and wipes out human civilization. Only centuries later do the survivors reunite to form a tribe that henceforth lives the peaceful life of Stone Age humans.

This harmonious period comes to an abrupt end when alien invaders seize control of Earth and enslave the tribe with highly advanced weapons in order to exploit its natural resources. In their direst need, the tribe's elders remember a worn document, the last relic of the civilization destroyed in the nuclear war: Under the heading "Anti-Rad", it depicts a radiation suit. The elders consider this armour sacred, and because they mistake the crack after the letter "R" in the heading for an "I" (see the back of the comic in the section "Accessories"), they venerate it under the name "Antiriad."

They now train young men in ancient martial arts to defend themselves against the invaders. They eventually send the strongest among them, the hero Tal, to acquire the sacred armour "Antiriad" and use it to defeat the occupiers.

At the start of the game, Tal is naked, and he can only defend himself against the numerous enemies who lie in wait for him and drain his life energy on contact by throwing stones. While exploring the jungle and the adjacent ruins, he finds armour as well as a number of accessories and weapons. With their help, he can replenish his energy reserves and finally make his way to the invaders' power center, which is located inside a volcano and is heavily contaminated with radiation.

Design

During the game, the hero Tal traverses the richly detailed and atmospheric environments, where he encounters fantastic and sometimes elaborately designed enemies. The fire-breathing dragons and the gunman, shaken by the recoil of his machine gun, are particularly noteworthy (right and middle images in the gallery below), as are the menacing trees of the jungle (left image). Tal himself is animated very smoothly and anatomically correctly, especially when jumping and throwing stones. The background music is occasionally a bit intrusive, but overall it works well.

At first, Tal can only defend himself against his enemies by throwing stones.

In the underground tunnels, ...

... numerous enemies and dangers await Tal

Graphics

The screen output is split into two sections. The upper half, measuring 320x128 pixels, displays the game's action. With adjacent screens, the current screen shares the left and right 64 pixel columns. The lower section shows the armour's status indicators.

The on-screen display uses text mode, with the action presented partly in monochrome (jungle) and partly in multicolor (buildings). The armour's status indicator is initially deactivated and appears in monochrome; the display switches to multicolor mode as soon as Tal equips the armour for the first time. The character set for the upper half of the screen is located at memory address $7800, and the character set for the status display in the lower half is located at address $7000. Both screen areas share the video RAM starting at address $4000.

Tal is represented by two single-sized multicolor sprites (sprites 0 and 1), which are normally displayed vertically one above the other, but horizontally side by side after his death. His unequipped armour is represented by two monochrome sprites (sprites 3 and 4), and the stones he throws and his projectiles are represented by a monochrome sprite (sprite 2). Single-sized, multicolor and monochrome sprites (sprites 4 through 7) are used for the collectible items and most of his enemies; only three of his foes (purple monkeys hanging from the trees and reaching for him, as well as fire-breathing dragons and machine gunners) are part of the text display.

Sound

A three-part melody, incorporating numerous interesting sound effects, plays when the title screen is displayed. During the game, only short sound sequences are heard, underscoring the action (for example, gunshots or collisions with enemies).

Hints

The goal of the game is to reach and destroy the invaders' power center in order to free Tal's tribe from its oppressors. To do this, Tal must first find the sacred Antiriad armour (the radiation suit of the civilization that perished in 2086) and briefly equip it to activate it.

Both Tal and his armour have their own energy reserves. When Tal's energy is depleted, he collapses to the ground, exhausted, but can rise again four times after a short break and continue his journey. This process — referred to in the game as "Rejuvenation" — restores Tal to a playable character with a total of five lives.

Tal rises again, rejuvenated after a fall.

As long as Tal wears the armour, he is immortal and even receives new energy from it. However, if the armour's energy supply runs out, it sinks to the ground and remains motionless. In this case, Tal is forced to remove it and set out on foot to find an energy pack.

There is no time limit for completing the mission. Only the time Tal can spend outside his armour is limited by the level of radioactive radiation in the current room.

Screen Layout

Typical scene from the game and armour status display

With the help of the radiation meter in the right part of the status display, Tal can adjust his actions to the level of radioactivity present in the current room:

Low radioactivity, harmless to Tal

Increased radioactivity, outside the armour, Tal's energy reserves decrease by 1 unit per second

High radioactivity, without armour, Tal's energy reserves decrease by 2 units per second

Very high radioactivity, the armour locks automatically and cannot be exited

To successfully complete his mission, Tal must find four items — sometimes with, sometimes without, his armour. They are shown in the following gallery in the order in which they are easiest to collect during the game; Tal receives 50 points for each item:

"Gravity Displacer" allows the armour to fly

"Pulsar Beam" grants Tal a firearm

"Implosion Mine" can destroy the invaders' power center

"Particle Negator" protects against the extreme radioactivity in the invaders' power center

A whole host of enemies make Tal's life difficult in these endeavors. The following enemies drain Tal's energy upon contact, but perish in the process. They can be destroyed with one or two stone throws or shots; precise details can be found in the captions of the individual images. The energy units drained are to be compared to Tal's total energy reserve of 31 units, or the armour's maximum energy reserve of 63 units. The indicated score is awarded upon defeating the respective enemy. If the enemy is destroyed by contact (and the resulting energy loss), only half the points are awarded.

2 shots/8 energy units 40 points

2 shots/8 energy units 50 points

2 shots/8 energy units 60 points

1 shot/4 energy units 40 points

1 shot/4 energy units 20 points

1 shot/4 energy units 30 points

1 shot/4 energy units 50 points

1 shot/32 energy units 40 points

Other enemies cannot be defeated by Tal; they continuously drain his energy upon contact. For example, Tal loses 4 energy units per screen refresh (20 ms) upon contact with the acid droplet in the first image of the following gallery. A "bullseye" costs Tal all of his energy reserves and thus one life.

Acid drop

Thrusting thorn

Aggressive monkey

Fire-breathing dragon

The following objects are also important in the game:

Teleporter, takes Tal to his armour

"Recharge Cell", energy pack for the armour

Energy barrier, which can only be crossed without armour

Enemy that throws bombs and cannot be defeated, but can be safely touched

The energy pack replenishes the armour's energy reserves to the maximum level, and Tal is also awarded 25 points for doing so. Collecting another pack is only worthwhile if the armour's energy reserves are depleted again — through contact with enemies.

The teleporter is Tal's lifeline if he has left his armour somewhere he cannot later reach. This can happen, for example, after a fall (left animation in the gallery below), or if Tal sets out on foot to find new energy packs after the armour has become immobile due to a lack of energy. In this case, he returns to the jungle at the bottom of the game board and finds the teleporter there to be transported back to the armour. During this process, the armour's status display shows the message "BEAM ME UP SCOTTY".

If Tal is separated from his armour...

... the teleporter quickly brings him back to it.

Controls

Without armour: If Tal is facing the player directly, he can equip the armour or use the teleporter in this position. All other functions are only available if Tal is facing either left or right:

• : Throw a stone in the direction he is facing.
•  : Move left or right.
•  : Jump left or right.
•  : Jump vertically.
•  : Crouch and possibly pick up an item.

Once Tal has equipped the armour and is hovering, he can be moved in any direction using the joystick. If Tal is armed with the Pulsar Beam, pressing the fire button fires a shot in the direction he is facing. When Tal lands, he can remove the armour by moving the joystick left or right.

Pressing the Q  key starts a new game. This is useful whenever the armour becomes immobile due to a lack of energy and Tal has no way to search for new energy packs on foot.

Solution

Map

For better orientation, the map includes a grid and a coordinate system, to which all subsequent location references refer.

The level of radioactivity in Tal's surroundings can be estimated based on the altitude he has reached within this game board: In the lowest levels, marked 14–11, the radioactivity is harmless. In levels 10–8, he encounters elevated radioactivity, and in levels 7–6, high levels. Outside his armour, Tal loses 1 or 2 energy units per second in these areas, respectively. Levels 5-3 are highly radioactive, causing the armour to automatically lock and preventing exit. Levels 2-1 can only be accessed with the particle negator.

Step by Step

• Tal begins his mission on the left or right edge of the lowest level (room B14 or N14), naked and armed only with stones to use as projectiles.
• As a first step, Tal must find the armour (room I14) and put it on for the first time to activate it. Although the armour is still held in place by gravity at this point (status message: "GRAVITY PREVENTS TAKEOFF"), Tal replenishes his energy reserves and is now able to acquire the four additional parts required for the armour.
• Tal then retrieves the gravity displacer (room C13), special shoes that negate gravity. Once he returns to the armour with these items and puts it on, he can fly (status message: "GRAVITY DISPLACER ACTIVATED SUIT MOBILISED") by first moving the joystick upwards and then in any direction.
• After picking up a "Pulsar Beam" (Room K11), a firearm, Tal is well prepared for the upcoming battles with various enemies (status message: "PULSAR BEAM ENERGISED FIRING ENABLED").
• Next, Tal takes the "Implosion Mine" (Room H8), an explosive device with which he can later destroy the invaders' power center (status message: "IMPLOSION MINE PRIMED CAUTION HIGH RADIATION WILL DETONATE"). He must briefly leave the armour to do this, as the mine is located behind an energy barrier that he cannot cross while wearing the armour.
• A "Particle Negator" (Room K5), which protects against the intense radioactive radiation in Rooms H1 and H2, completes Tal's equipment (status message: "PARTICLE NEGATOR OPERATIVE SHIELDS AT FULL POWER").
• Thus equipped, Tal goes to the invaders' power center (Room H1) and triggers the implosion mine by pushing against the upper pole of the force field (middle animation in the following gallery).
• The armour's energy can be replenished using energy packs ("Recharge Cells"), which Tal finds in Rooms H3, I5, G6, J6, H7, H8, G9, D11, L11, I12, O12, B13, D13, F13, J13, D14, G14, and L14.

Equipping the Holy Armour for the first time

Successful completion of the game

...or perhaps a points chase instead of a fight for freedom?

Cheats

The CSDb database contains a large number of cracks with a trainer function. The version "Antiriad +4D" by Remember (first image in the gallery below) offers the most extensive customization options.

Internal Data Structures

For developing custom trainer functions and for analyzing or manipulating the data used by the game, knowledge of memory allocation and internal operation is helpful. The following table therefore compiles a range of information about "Antiriad".

Address	Content	Remarks
$004F	Armour Energy	Remaining Armoured Suit Energy; value range 0..63
$0050	Armour energy displayed	Protective suit energy currently displayed, gradually increasing to the value from $004F
$0051	Health	Character's remaining energy; value range 0..31
$0052	Health displayed	Currently displayed energy of the game character, gradually approaching the value from $0051
$005B	Room number	Number of the current screen, range $00..$44 (0..68). The location of the individual screens is shown in the following diagram.
$007B	Armour Status	$00: inactive, $02: active/not equipped, $B2: active/equipped
$00A7	Energy Pack	Bit 7 set: Tal is carrying an energy pack, Bit 7 cleared: no energy pack
$00AC	Revivals	Number of revives already performed, range 0-4
$0661 — $0669	Energy Packs Found	69-bit bitmap indicating the rooms where Tal has picked up an energy pack (bit set: energy pack picked up, bit cleared: no energy pack in the room or energy pack not yet picked up). Bit 0 at address $0661 represents room $00, ..., bit 4 at address $0669 is assigned to room $44.
$067A — $067D	Flags for "Item newly found"	$80: Item newly found, therefore display the corresponding message and clear the flag once Tal is wearing the armour ($067A: Pulsar Beam, $067B: Particle Negator, $067C: Gravity Displacer, $067D: Implosion Mine), $00: No message required
$067E — $0681	Flags for "Item owned"	$80: Tal owns item ($067E: Pulsar Beam, $067F: Particle Negator, $0680: Gravity Displacer, $0681: Implosion Mine), $00: Tal does not own item
$0682 — $0686	Displayed score (digits)	Lowest digit first, gradually increasing to the value from $687–$068B
$0687 — $068B	Score (Digits)	Least significant digit first
$0694 — $0696	Displayed score (binary)	Little-endian (least significant byte first), gradually approaching the value from $697 — $069A
$0697 — $069A	Score (binary)	Little-endian (least significant byte first)

Numbering of individual screens

Votes

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
7.50 points at 8 votes (rank 263). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
ZZAP64	93% (Presentation 97%, Graphics 98%, Sound 91%, Hookability 95%, Lastability 90%, Value 93%)	Ausgabe 20 (December 1986), S. 36
ASM (Aktueller Software-Markt)	Grafik 10/10, Sound 10/10, Spielidee 9/10, Spielmotivation 10/10 Grafik 10/12, Sound 6/12, Spielablauf 9/12, Motivation 11/12, Preis/Leistung 11/12	Ausgabe 9/86, S. 27 Ausgabe 6+7/90, S. 151
Happy Computer	81/100 (Grafik 91/100, Sound & Musik 85/100)	Ausgabe 38 (12/86), S. 90, und Sonderheft 17, S.45
Commodore User	8/10 (Graphics 9/10, Sound 7/10, Toughness 8/10, Endurance 8/10, Value 8/10) 89%	Ausgabe 38 (November 1986), S. 33 Ausgabe 65 (February 1989), S. 67
Sinclair User	5/5	Ausgabe 57 (December 1986), S. 29
Computer and Video Games	Graphics 10/10, Sound 9/10, Value 9/10, Playability 10/10	Ausgabe 62 (December 1986), S. 83
Computer Gamer	80% (Graphics 5/5, Sound 3/5, Friendliness 4/5, Addictiveness 4/5)	Ausgabe 21 (December 1986), S. 36
Crash	89% (Use of computer 90%, Graphics 94%, Playability 88%, Getting started 87%, Addictive qualities 87%, Value for money 86%) 74%	Ausgabe 35 (December 1986), S. 18 Ausgabe 64 (May 1989), S. 31
Your Sinclair	8/10 (Graphics 9/10, Playability 7/10, Value for Money 8/10, Addictiveness 8/10)	Ausgabe 13 (January 1987), S. 79
Your Computer	5/5 (Graphics 5/5, Sound 4/5, Playability 4/5, Value for money 4/5)	Vol. 6 Nr. 12 (December 1986), S. 45
Sinclair User	93%	Ausgabe 86 (May 1989), S. 56
Tilt	4/5	N° 37 (Décembre 1987), S. 35
Universal Videogame List	3.8/5	18. Februar 2023

Critics

Stephan64: "In terms of gameplay, Antiriad is one of the usual platformers and collectibles, with the same enemies and items in the same locations — and only stands out from the crowd due to its excellent graphics. For me, however, Antiriad is also linked to a childhood memory of my friend Sascha, who one day appeared on my doorstep beaming and holding, ahem, a backup copy of "Antiriad". I only understood the deeper meaning of the game years later, even though we spent the whole afternoon struggling with the game, and especially with that wretched armour... 7 points, those were the days."

Shakermaker303: "Antiriad captivated me back then because of its beautiful graphics and animations. Once you found the armour, the game really got going. Unfortunately, I never managed to finish it. Nevertheless, it had good depth and kept me occupied for quite some time."

Miscellaneous

Cover

Cover of the cassette for the game "Antiriad"

Inlay

Inlay, outside

Inlay, inside

Cassette

Cassette for the game "Antiriad"

Theme

The following image shows the beginning of the theme melody, insofar as it can be captured in standard musical notation. For creative reuse of the melody, the sheet music is also available as a PDF document (File:Antiriad Theme PDF.pdf) and in ABC musical notation (File:Antiriad Theme.abc.txt).

Sheet music of the theme melody (first part), reconstructed by logging all write accesses to the SID

Fastloader

The cassette version of Antiriad uses an integrated software fast loader, which is automatically activated during loading and speeds up the loading process by a factor of approximately 6.5.

The fast loader is capable of sequentially loading any number of program components to any location in memory. Each such program segment is preceded by an 8-byte data structure containing the start and end addresses of the following data block, the entry address, and two flags. The first flag identifies the last block of a program, while the second distinguishes between machine language programs (which can be accessed directly) and BASIC programs (which must be rebound and then started with RUN_(BASIC)|RUN). Thanks to optimized encoding (shorter intervals for 0 and 1 bits, no duplicate storage of program data), loading Antiriad takes only about three minutes, whereas the datasette routines of KERNAL could only load a file of this size in two consecutive steps, requiring approximately 20 minutes.

The fast loader is identical to that of Firelord, but uses pulses that are about 30% shorter for recording, thus achieving a higher data rate. The program code is divided into four sections (2 KB at $D000-$D7FF, which are first loaded to $1000-$17FF and then copied over; in addition, approximately 30.5 KB at $06A0-$7FFF, approximately 20 KB at $8000-$CE32, and approximately 8 KB at $E000-$FFF0).

Video Recording

Longplay with the solution to the game in just under 7 minutes

Screenshot comparison

Antiriad was also published in 1988 by the publisher Epyx under the title "Rad Warrior"; This re-release differs from the original version only in the graphic design of the cover:

Title screen of the original version of "Antiriad"

Title screen of the re-release under the name "Radwarrior"

Trivia

• The review of "Antiriad" in the December 1986 issue of the magazine "Zzap!64" raves about over 100 rooms to explore, even though the game consists of only 69 screens. The exact reason for this exaggeration is, of course, no longer ascertainable, but a likely explanation could be the levels, in which the rooms are arranged cyclically, thus forming an endless corridor.

Accesories

The game includes a 16-page postcard-sized comic that tells the backstory of the game — from the tensions between the North and South sections to the dispatch of the hero Tal.

Front page

Pages 2-3

Pages 4-5

Pages 6-7

Pages 8-9

Pages 10-11

Pages 12-13

Pages 14-15

Back cover

Highscore

The following gallery invites you to immortalize yourself with your personal high score. The primary sorting criterion is the number of items Tal has collected, indicated as a "Level" (for example, "Level 1" for collecting a "Gravity Displacer"), or, as the highest achievement, the destruction of the enemy power center (corresponding to "Level 5"). Only in the event of a tie regarding this level does the score determine the placement, since arbitrarily high scores can be achieved safely by shooting the same opponents for hours on end (see right animation of the gallery in the section Step by Step).

Topscore of Riffislam

1. Riffislam - 3965 - 5 (06.01.2023)
2. Stephan64 - 1635 - 3 (01.01.2023)
3. Niemand - 0 (tt.mm.jjjj)

	#2 Stephan64		#3 Niemand

Links

• C64Games.de - Game No. 10
• Gamebase64.com - Game No. 327
• Gamebase64.com - Game No. 16253 Antiriad
• Gamebase64.com - Game No. 10983 Die Heilige Rüstung des Antiriad
• Lemon64 - Game No. 121
• C64.com - Game No. 1375
• ready64 - Game No. 489
• CSDb
• CSDb Antiriad
• The SixtyFour Originals DataBase - Game No. 1577
• The SixtyFour Originals DataBase - Game No. 1452
• Universal Videogame List

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Rad Warrior (Epyx)

• Gamebase64.com - Game No. 6159
• Lemon64 - Game No. 2067
• C64.com - Game No. 1591
• CSDb
• The Sacred Armour of Antiriad at MobyGames

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Test Reports

• ZZap64 test report Tipps (S. 90f)
• Test Report No. 1409 on Kultboy.com
• Commodore User test report (S. 32f.)
• Commodore User test report (p. 67)
• Happy Computer test report (p. 90)
• Happy Computer test report (p. 45)
• ASM (Aktueller Software-Markt) test report (p. 26)
• Sinclair User test report (p. 28)
• ZX Computing test report (p. 46)
• Computer & Video Games test report (p. 82)
• Computer Gamer test report (p. 36)
• Crash test report (p. 18)
• Sinclair User Magazine test report (p. 56)
• Your Sinclair test report (p. 79)
• Tilt test report (p. 35)
• Micro V.O test report (pp. 78)