# The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (video game) {#the-warlock-of-firetop-mountain-video-game .reader-title}
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5--6 minutes
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| The Warlock of Firetop Mountain |
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| <div> |
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| Cover art by Peter Andrew Jones |
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| </div> |
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| Developers | Crystal Computing\ |
| | Neil Mottershead\ |
| | Simon Brattel^\[2\]^ |
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| Publisher | Puffin Books |
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| Designers | Neil Mottershead\ |
| | Simon Brattel |
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| Series | *Fighting Fantasy* |
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| Platform | ZX Spectrum |
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| Release | <div> |
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| | - EU: 1984^\[1\]^ |
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| | </div> |
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| Genre | Action |
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| Mode | Single-player |
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'*The Warlock of Firetop Mountain'* is an action game published by
Crystal Computing in 1984 for the ZX Spectrum home computer. It is
loosely based on the adventure
gamebook^\[*[broken\ anchor]{title="The anchor (Adventure gamebooks) has been deleted. (2024-07-28)"}*\]^
of the same name (the first in the *Fighting Fantasy* series) written by
Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, and published by Puffin Books in
1982.
The game was sold both as a regular cassette-only release and as a
\"software pack\" edition that included a copy of the original *Fighting
Fantasy* title at a higher price point.
As a third-person arcade adventure game, the player takes the role of an
adventurer on a quest to find the treasure of a powerful warlock, hidden
deep within Firetop Mountain. The treasure is stored in a chest with
fifteen locks, with the keys guarded by various monsters (e.g. orcs,
slime moulds and spiders) in the dungeons of Firetop Mountain. The
adventurer (equipped with a bow and a sword) must attempt to retrieve
the keys, with an added feature (over the game\'s predecessor, *Halls of
the Things*) being the ability to open and close doors to block the path
of pursuing monsters. Gameplay varies with each new game as the maze is
randomly generated.^\[2\]^
*The Warlock of Firetop Mountain* was announced in issue two of *Micro
Adventurer* magazine, which published a feature on the expansion of
Penguin Books children\'s imprint Puffin into the science fiction
software market with the video game *The Warlock of Firetop Mountain*,
hoping to emulate the success of the book title.^\[3\]^ The game was
announced as the first in the \"Puffin Personal Computer
Collection\"^\[4\]^ line together with three other unrelated titles
(based on science fiction titles by author Peter K. McBride).^\[5\]^
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Puffin contracted Crystal Computing, who had developed the fantasy game
*Halls of the Things*, to create the game.^\[6\]\[7\]^ According to game
designer Simon Brattel, they ended up doing it by accident: they met
Steve Jackson, one of the authors of the book, and after their
discussion, he became supportive of the project.^\[8\]^
According to hidden text within the game\'s code the developers only had
three weeks to complete the project.^\[9\]^ The Peter Andrew Jones
artwork for the original title was used for the video game
cover.^\[10\]^
Puffin Books briefly continued the trend of adapting the *Fighting
Fantasy* titles into video games, with early titles *The Citadel of
Chaos*^\[11\]^ and *The Forest of Doom*^\[12\]\[13\]^ being released for
the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 respectively.
*ZX Computing* described the game as simply a \"variation\" of *Halls of
the Things*, but praised the inclusion of the book as it encouraged
children to read.^\[14\]^ *Micro Adventurer* also commented on the
similarities, stating that \"it is so similar that it would be pointless
buying both games\".^\[5\]^
*CRASH* magazine criticized the control scheme (the number of control
keys and the developer\'s decision to use the horizontally adjacent N
and M keys to move the player\'s character up and down) but also claimed
the game less difficult and confusing, and with better graphics.^\[2\]^
*Computer and Video Games* expressed disappointment that the game had
little resemblance to the original *Fighting Fantasy* title.^\[7\]^
- *The Warlock of Firetop Mountain* at SpectrumComputing.co.uk
- *The Warlock of Firetop Mountain* at MobyGames
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