The Sacred Armour of Antiriad is a Metroidvania by Palace Software. It was originally released in November of 1986 on the Commodore 64, the ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC. Thereafter, the game was ported to Apple ][ and DOS in 1987 and to TRS-80 CoCo and Sharp MZ-800 in 1988. In most countries, The Sacred Armour of Antiriad was released as such, as a direct translation of its original title, or simply as Antiriad. The outlier is the USA, where Epyx published it under the title Rad Warrior.
The Sacred Armour of Antiriad is the brainchild of Daniel Malone, who'd worked in the comic books industry prior. He began his video game career at Palace Software in October of 1985 and The Sacred Armour of Antiriad was the first project he worked on. In addition to the plot and the graphics, Malone also created the complementary comic book that explains the game's setting and goal. In the year 2068, a hundred years in the future of the game's original release date, Earth has been politically united and divided in the North Sector and the South Sector. These two are in an arms race that escalates when both discover that both have been developing anti-radiation combat suits. Because these suits are meant to protect against all known weapons, they have the ability to make all weapons useless and so each sector's entire arsenal is deployed before the suits can be mass-scale produced. This causes a nuclear war and centuries for mankind to recover to the point of hunter-gatherer societies. At this point alien marauders discover Earth and launch an invasion. The neo-humans are enslaved, but the elders hide a few male babies to raise them into potential champions to defeat the aliens. Of them, Tal is selected to clear the job and sent out on a two-point mission: he is to find one of the suits of legend and use it to blow up the aliens' volcano stronghold.
The game map has a triangular layout with a vast jungle at the bottom, the ruins of an ancient city higher up, and the rest of the map is an increasingly more vertical trip through the volcano. Tal begins his quest in the jungle. In most versions, he's armed with rocks from the get-go, but in the ZX Spectrum version he first has to pick up a pile of rocks a few feet away from him. From there, he has to reach the ruins to find an anti-rad suit and its upgrades that grant access to the rest of the map. With the acquisition of the anti-rad suit, the gameplay expands too, beginning with the activation of Tal's Heads-Up Display to keep track of his health. Relatedly, donning the suit is the only way for Tal to recover from damage. The suit itself cannot be damaged, but its energy can run out, leaving Tal with only his loincloth to keep him safe while he searches for a recharge cell. While enemies are found throughout the map, the further up the volcano, the more radiation poisoning becomes a concern. The suit is essential to shield Tal and so stepping out of it becomes increasingly unsafe the closer he is to his destination.
Since the conceptualization of the Metroidvania genre in the early 2000s, The Sacred Armour of Antiriad has drawn renewed attention not only for being an early example but also for being thematically similar to Metroid, one of the core games that define the genre. This is no more than an amusing coincidence because the two games were released only months apart in their respective home countries and had no bearing on each other's developments.
The Sacred Armour of Antiriad contains examples of:
- Alien Invasion: Tal's people were living a peaceful existence until marauders from space invade the planet. With the help of another neo-human race, they enslave Tal's people and force them into mines to collect valuable ore. For their longterm stay, they have a stronghold built at the top of a dormant volcano from which to rule the lands. When Tal sets out to free his people, it's this stronghold, or rather its energy generator, that he targets. He blows the facility up with a mine, which brings an end to the aliens' reign.
- All There in the Manual: The game itself gives no indication of who the protagonist is or what his goal is or what is going on. The elaborate backstory to the events of the game and even something as simple as the protagonist's name can only be found in the comic book included with the game.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: One of the enemies encountered are giant insects of some kind. They're most plentiful in the jungle, but do buzz around higher up in the volcano.
- Body Armor as Hit Points: The anti-rad suit can not be destroyed, but taking what should be damage does drain its energy supply. The anti-rad suit's energy meter is identical in appearance to Tal's life meter, but where Tal dies if his meter hits zero, when the suit's meter hits zero it simply shuts down until a new recharge cell is inserted.
- Les Collaborateurs: There are at least three neo-human races, and the biggest of them collaborates with the aliens to subdue the the protagonist's race. Their work once the aliens have taken control includes overseeing the slaves in the mines and protecting the volcano on which the aliens have their stronghold.
- Collision Damage: Tal is harmed by merely touching enemies, but in return, if they're not indestructible they outright die when he touches them.
- Destructible Projectiles: The one-hit kill projectiles dropped by the patrol leader drones can be taken out mid-air with a thrown rock or the anti-rad suit's pulsar beam.
- Early Game Hell: To emphasize Tal's primitivity compared to humanity before the nuclear winter, the heads-up display is inactive until he's worn the anti-rad suit. This means that until then, the player cannot keep track of Tal's health nor how many rejuvenations are left.
- Fantastic Radiation Shielding: The particle negator is an upgrade for the rad-suit that improves its protective qualities. Without it, high radiation near-instantly drains the rad-suit's energy. With, high radiation only rapidly drains the rad-suit's energy.
- Fast-Killing Radiation: There are four levels of radiation that get worse the closer Tal gets to the aliens' power supply system at the top of the volcano. The lowest four floors have negligible amounts of radiation and Tal can walk around freely without suffering its effects. The next three floors have enough radiation that Tal's health steadily decreases by 1 unit per second if he's not in the anti-rad suit. The four floors above these have radiation so bad that Tal loses health at 2 units per second if he leaves the suit. And the top two floors instantly destroy the suit itself if it isn't equipped with the particle negator. Even then, the suit loses charge at 2 units per second. Tal automatically gets locked inside the suit at this level.
- Force-Field Door: At various points inside the volcano are magno-fields. These let organic matter through, but halt the anti-rad suit. So to proceed, Tal has to temporarily leave the safety of his armour.
- Gameplay Randomization: At the start of the game, Tal finds himself in either the lower left corner of the jungle or the lower right corner.
- Hand Blast: The pulsar beam is a glove that combines with the anti-rad suit to make it capable of combat.
- Hollywood Acid: Among the ostensibly environmental dangers encountered are areas where acid drips from the ceiling. Upon contact, it cuts into Tal's health or the rad-suit's energy supply. Curiously, in the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64 versions, the drops of acid have faces.
- Human Subspecies: At least three variations of neo-humans have developed from the survivors of the nuclear war. Firstly, there's the recognizably human species that the protagonist belongs to. Then there are the subtains, "totally mindless sub-humans." They're hunched creatures that are hostile towards the protagonist's species. The third species isn't a fan of the protagonist's species either. When the aliens attacked, they allied with them and have since helped suppress and enslave the other neo-humans. These collaborators are larger than the protagonist, bald, and seemingly more technologically advanced.
- Inherited Illiteracy Title: The "Antiriad" of the title is not a proper name, but a misreading by the neo-humans' elders of "anti-rad". The blueprint they have in their possession has a tear in the paper between the "R" and the "A" that makes it look like there's an "I" there. So they read the description "anti-rad", short for "anti-radiation", as the name "Anti-riad".
- Loincloth: In the centuries after the nuclear winter, what little was left of humanity redeveloped itself into hunter-gatherer societies. High-ranking people wear fancy clothes, but the average worker wears simple clothing, such as a primitive loincloth. Tal is no exception. He starts his journey wearing nothing but a loincloth, starkly contrasting the hi-tech combat suit he ends his journey in.
- Lost Technology: Earth suffers a nuclear winter in 2086 and it takes centuries for the descendants of mankind to reform into societies. At that point, every bit of technology up to 2086 is lost, although remnants of knowledge are passed from one elder to the next. Within the events of the game, it is the anti-rad combat suit that is pibotal for the neo-humans to have a chance to defeat their alien oppressors.
- No-Gear Level: The anti-rad suit is incapable of passing magno-fields. This is a challenge when fetching the implosion mine. It is behind a magno-field, so Tal cannot reach it in his suit and it is in an area with radiation, so Tal not only has enemies and visible environmental dangers against him, but also time because he's slowly being poisoned without his suit.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Indestructible, fire-breathing dragon heads emerge from the walls inside the volcano. These are actual dragons, which as a species have become sedentary.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Among the enemies encountered are ghost-like beings. Some of these behave like the other floating enemies, but some also emerge from vases. No other enemy does that nor do vases ever hold anything but a ghost.
- Painting the Medium: Tal is from a primitive people, which for the player means that the heads-up display doesn't work when the game starts and Tal only has his loincloth and rocks on him. There's no keeping track of Tal's health until the anti-rad suit is recovered. Only after that does the heads-up display work, even if Tal isn't wearing the suit at that very moment.
- Powered Armor: The eponymous Sacred Armour of Antiriad is a combat suit capable of resisting extreme environments and not only protects its pilot but also heals them. It is hooked up to a teleporter and with the right parts, it can fly (gravity displacers), shoot lasers from an arm cannon (pulsar beam), dispatch a bomb (implosion mine), and further improve on its protective capacity (particle negator). Tragically, the combat suit played a key role in the destruction of mankind in 2086, because its development could eventually make all weapons ineffective. So before that could happen, the parties in power went at each other with all they'd got, causing a nuclear winter few survived. Centuries later, the remnants of mankind have reformed themselves into hunter-gatherer societies of which only the elders are taught what is still known about the cataclysm. Among others, they keep a blueprint of the "ANTI-RAD combat suit", but a tear in the paper between the "R" and the "A" causes them to read it as "ANTI-RIAD". When aliens enslave them, the elders send out the warrior Tal to locate the Antiriad armour and defeat the aliens. He successfully retrieves the suit and the extra components, eventually using the suit's implosion mine to do away with the alien occupation.
- Sacred Scripture: Any and all texts left over from 2086 and prior are considered sacred and carefully curated by the elders of neo-human society. One such text is the blueprint for the anti-rad combat suit 00. Because of a tear in the paper between the "R" and the "A", the elders read it not as "anti-rad", but as "Anti-riad". They understand enough of the blueprint to know that the anti-rad suit exists somewhere in the vicinity of the nearby volcano and is a valuable weapon would ever the need arise.
- Scoring Points: Destroying enemies grants points. The points mean nothing. They have no effect on gameplay and there isn't a scoreboard either.
- Shout-Out:
- Most releases of the game render the "Antiriad" portion of the title in the Iron Maiden font.
- When Tal uses the teleporter, the heads-up display reads "BEAM ME UP SCOTTY" of Star Trek fame.
- Summon Magic: Alarms droids are drones that solitarily float around on some screens. If an intruder, such as the protagonist, hangs out there for more than a few seconds, the droid summons patrol drones to launch an attack.
- Teleportation: In the right half of the jungle, there is a teleporter that sends the user directly to the anti-rad suit no matter where it's parked. It is the only such device in the game, but can be tracked back to for the first half of the game. Thereafter, tall rock formations make it impossible for Tal to return on foot. The teleporter is meant to decrease the chance of an unwinnable scenario.
- Tribal Facepaint: Tal and his people decorate their bodies with paint, tattoos, and possibly skin molding. They live in a hunter-gatherer society formed from the remnants of humanity after a nuclear winter centuries prior.
- Unseen Evil: The aliens that have enslaved Tal's people aren't ever shown, neither in the game nor in the comic. The creatures that appear like they might be the aliens are actually another race of neo-humans that collaborate with the aliens.
- Unwinnable by Design: Should the anti-rad suit be drained too much from damage negation, it comes to a standstill and Tal will have to leave it behind to look for a recharge cell. A number of things can make this situation unwinnable. For one, there is a limited supply of recharge cells to be found across the map, so once they're used up the suit is on its last life. For two, Tal himself can't fly and may not be able to get past surrounding obstacles on foot. And if he can, he may not be able to return to the anti-rad suit. And for three, the closer to the core of the aliens' energy generator, the higher the radiation. If the anti-rad suit stops working near it, Tal will die of radiation poisoning seconds after he leaves the suit's protection.
- Video Game Flight: Once the gravity displacers have been collected, the anti-rad suit can take to the sky. This is important, because the anti-rad suit cannot move any other way than by flight. The suit cannot be damaged, but taking what should be damage does drain its energy. If the energy meter reaches zero, the suit becomes inoperable until it receives a new recharge cell.
- Video-Game Lives: Tal has five lives, phrased by the game as four rejuvenations. There are no extra rejuvenations to be gathered or earned.
- Volcano Lair: The aliens have set up a stronghold at the top of a dormant volcano. There's an energy generator installed and it is Tal's mission to destroy the stronghold by blowing up this generator.
- A Winner Is You: The ending consists of Tal floating in the void in while a short message loops through the status box: THE OPPRESSORS ARE DEFEATED YOUR RACE IS FREE PRESS FIRE TO PLAY AGAIN
- The Trees Have Faces: All the trees in the jungle have eerie, distorted faces. Sometimes more than one. How the trees came to look like that isn't explained.
- Wrap Around: The map is fourteen screens tall. Of those fourteen screen, three spread out into rows that come full circle.
