Sarakon

Title		Sarakon
Game Type	Puzzle
Players		1
Company		Starbyte
Compatibility	All
HD Installable	Yes
Submission	Marc Gorelick mgorelick@netscape.net

Review
Sarakon (Starbyte, 1988) is a puzzle game with an Ancient flair.  The
music and general atmosphere suggest a Chinese influence, while some of
the images in the game play are borrowed from astrology and archaic
European alphabets. In some ways, the game is reminiscent of the Windows
game Taipei (which uses Mah Jong tiles), although I think it's much more
entertaining.

The object is to remove pairs of tiles with matching symbols from a board.
This task is complicated by rules regulating when a piece is considered to
be blocked in-for example, two pieces must be in the same plane (did I
mention that the pieces are stacked on top of each other?) and be
connectable by drawing a line between exposed edges with at most two right
angles. Sound confusing? It takes about three minutes to learn the rules.
The board must be cleared before time runs out. Points are awarded for
time remaining when the board is cleared and for clearing successive sets
of tiles quickly. The game gets progressively more difficult as rounds
pass--the number of tiles on the board increase, and the number of
different symbols increases.

The graphics in the game are nothing extraordinary but they are plenty
good enough to make the game appealing and playable. The music is
appropriate but there are only about 8 measures of it, which repeat
continuously when the game is in "attract" mode. As such, it can get
rather annoying if the game is left unattended for any length of time.
Solution: Play it and it will shut up. The game plays fine on my A2000
with an 030 and OS1.3 or OS3.1. The version I have also runs from a DOS
prompt and is in fact installed on my hard disk. High scores are not saved.

I find this game very entertaining and can play it for long stretches. If
you are into puzzle games, I think you will like it quite a bit. For
people who do enjoy this game, I also recommend Tangram, which is another
Chinese-flavored puzzle game.

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