Become a great Shaolin warrior by taking all six tests and then start your quest to save your beloved sister Leia, kidnapped by the Emperor's troops. Released for the Amiga, Atari ST and Commodore 64/128.
Review
STORY / GAMEPLAY In Chambers Of Shaolin, you control Hang Foy sent to the Shaolin Temple in the hope that the monks would help you master your Shaolin Kung-Fu skills and cope later with the Emperor and his troops. But before you could leave the Temple, you would have to pass through the six Chambers of Shaolin. Only a handful of monks had actually made it through the chambers, few ever returned!
The game consists of six different tests, each one requires the use of a specific skill for completion. You (as a student) are given a target to reach and you must perform this task successfully. When all six passed by scoring the required metrics, you can save your character. Only then you are able to continue your quest by getting into fight with four of the best Shaolin monks in the Temple. The game offers a wide range of Kung-Fu moves that will help you defeat the four monks. Note that your health is limited and can be very easily decreased from hits. Should your energy reach zero, you will be defeated and have to fight the first Shaolin monk again. After all these done, you will be ready enough to face Emperor's evilness. As you leave the Temple and reach the city gates, you will face a red dragon that breathes fire! Use your mastered Shaolin Kung-Fu skills in order to succeed! Overall, this game is great! The six tests are excellently presented and differentiate the game from other typical fighting games (such as International Karate etc). All six are a joy to play while the combat sequences continue the outstanding playability of the game.
GRAPHICS / SOUND The graphics look great on the ST version which is almost identical to the Amiga! Each level has an attractive, and in many cases animated, background whilst the sprites are well drawn with great animation! The frames move flawlessly to simulate Kung Fu moves as better as possible! The game has many colors on the ST (50+) which is an awesome surprise for this computer! The sound is also good, featuring either Chinese-style music or sampled sound effects (Amiga supports both) which are particularly effective and add to the gameplay! Note that the introductory and gameplay tunes are composed by Jochen Hippel, one of the best game music composers of all time!
CPU: Motorola 68000 16/32bit at 8mhz. 16 bit data bus/32 bit internal/24-bit address bus. MEMORY: RAM 512KB (1MB for the 1040ST models) / ROM 192KB GRAPHICS: Digital-to-Analog Converter of 3-bits, eight levels per RGB channel, featuring a 9-bit RGB palette (512 colors), 320x200 (16 color), 640x200 (4 color), 640x400 (monochrome). With special programming techniques could display 512 colors on screen in static images. SOUND: Yamaha YM2149F PSG "Programmable Sound Generator" chip provided 3-voice sound synthesis, plus 1-voice white noise mono PSG. It also has two MIDI ports, and support mixed YM2149 sfx and MIDI music in gaming (there are several games supported this).