Sabre Wulf

Sabre Wulf is an action-adventure game for the ZX Spectrum home computer in 1984. The player navigates the pith-helmeted Sabreman through a 2D jungle maze while collecting amulet pieces to bypass the guardian at its exit. It is also known as a seminal work in British gaming history and an iconic game of the 1980s for its popularization of the Sabre man character.

About Sabre Wulf in brief

Summary Sabre WulfSabre Wulf is an action-adventure game for the ZX Spectrum home computer in 1984. The player navigates the pith-helmeted Sabreman through a 2D jungle maze while collecting amulet pieces to bypass the guardian at its exit. Each screen is filled with colourful flora, enemies that spawn at random, and occasional collectibles. The game was later featured in compilations including the 2015 retrospective of games by Ultimate and its successor, Rare. Several gaming publications recommended the game, and Crash magazine readers named it the \”Best Maze Game\” of 1984. It is also known as a seminal work in British gaming history and an iconic game of the 1980s for its popularization of the Sabre man character and its graphical advancements. The developers had finished the game’s sequels in advance of its release but chose to withhold them for marketing purposes. The sequel, Underwurlde, was released later that year and is the first game in the series to feature a fully-functional SabreMan character. It was released for the Spectrum at an above-average price to combat piracy. The company rarely gave interviews or revealed details about their internal practices or upcoming games.

After releasing Atic Atacac at the end of 1983, Ultimate went silent until it ran silent until April 1984. They had already prepared Knight Lore, the third game in Sabre Lore, for release in the same year, but withheld it because they felt it would not have sold as well once players saw the former Knight Lore’s graphical advancements for the former Z80 microprocessors. The sequels were swiftly released later in the year and were a financial success. They were later ported to other platforms: the BBC Micro, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC. The Spectrum and Commodore 64 releases include a two-player mode in which players take turns controlling their ownSabreman. The maze is presented in flip-screens such that the player views one static tile of the maze’s grid at a time. Some effects empower while others impair the player, while the player can also collect treasure and extra lives scattered throughout the maze. Some enemies are killed, others flee when hit, and the wolf, cave guardian, and bushfire are unaffected by the sabre. When the player idles too long in thesame screen, an indestructible bushfire appears to pursue the player.