Retro Game Lookback: Golden Hawk For ZX Spectrum

Golden Hawk, developed by David Falcon and released by Micro Mart Software back in 1984, offered something a little bit different from games of the day. Essentially it was an exploration and logic game where you explore deep, dark, caverns in a bed to locate the precious Golden Hawk statue. As the blurb tells us “Your quest for the GOLDEN HAWK has led you to a mountain. You enter a cave and immediately you find yourself in a labyrinth of rooms. You are trapped. The only way you are likely to escape and find the mythical GOLDEN HAWK is by pleasing the guardian of the treasure, by finding and delivering to it the 22 different objects scattered in the different rooms.”

On each screen you are presented with up to three path ways, each with a unique number, a bit like the movie “The Cube” – with good, bad, and indifferent rooms set in a labyrinth of rooms. To explore rooms you type in the number identifying the room you want to explore which leads to further rooms which have their own pathways, and sometimes objects.

Some rooms have objects you can pick up but you can only carry three items at any time. You will encounter various creatures on your journey, some are good and may help you, others will be instantly fatal, whilst others want something you may have. You can help the creatures but the ultimate challenge is to locate the room containing the guardian and deliver the items you find along you way.

To really progress through the game you need to draw a map which links each room number with other room numbers otherwise you may fall in an unexpected pit or be robbed by a pirate. Only with a good map, or an amazingly alert memory, do you stand any chance of achieving the goal and obtaining the golden hawk. We found it best to write a list of numbers from 1 to 255 then add the room paths ways as we found them together with any descriptions or objects found – this helped to make sure we didn’t double up any rooms.

Overall the game of Golden Hawk is an interesting and enjoyable one – definitely worth a second look if you have it laying around in your collection.