The Commodore 64 version of Geoff Crammond‘s The Sentinel (aka The Sentry) is just as good as the original BBC Micro version of the game, if not better – ie. it’s absolutely bloody brilliant.
Like a game of chess – but far scarier – The Sentinel is a game of strategy and cunning that is played-out on a mountainous chequerboard landscape that is overseen by the titular Sentinel.
The Sentinel slowly rotates his view of the landscape and if he see you he’ll start absorbing your energy – energy that you need to get around, so avoiding his gaze is key to survival.
The basic aim is to move to a position where you can see the ground The Sentinel is standing on. This allows you to absorb him, and not the other way around. You move around using energy (represented as a bar at the top of the screen), but have a limited amount of it, so must absorb trees (and other, lesser guardians) in order to keep it topped-up. When you do move you create a sort of clone of yourself to teleport into, which you can then look back at and absorb for more energy, unless The Sentinel beats you to it.
The Sentinel is not a game that will appeal to those who’re looking for simple entertainment, but… You’d have to be pretty simple yourself to dismiss it as “boring”. It’s actually one of the greatest video games of all time!
All versions of The Sentinel on The King of Grabs:
BBC Micro (the original), Amiga, Atari ST, PC MS-DOS, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum
More: The Sentinel on Wikipedia
The King of Grabs 
Never played this – never even seen it until you mentioned it, but each time you have I’ve always thought to myself this seems like a concept that’s ripe for a comeback. Same concept, but updated graphics and lighting would be interesting to see.
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It was re-made in the late 90s, and called The Sentinel Returns. Can’t remember whether it was any good or not. Will have to re-visit.
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