Vradark’s Sphere is a Roguelike fantasy role-playing game that was created by Aleksander Udotov, for 128K Spectrums, and first released in 2018. To me it is the epitome of what I would call “Modern Retro” (ie. a modern game, made to look old or be played on old hardware), and it looks and plays fantastically well.

Gameplay is based upon the concept of “nobody moves until you’ve moved“, and you play as a wizard who is trying to survive his way through nine increasingly difficult randomly-generated mazes to find Vradark’s Sphere and escape with it.

You attack by trying to move into a location occupied by an enemy, or you can hold down fire and push in a chosen direction to shoot a fireball.

A map in the top right of the screen reveals more of a level as you explore it. The panel on the right-hand side of the screen shows you how much life you have remaining (the red bottle); how many magic shots you have left (the blue bottle); how close you are to gaining a level (the scroll); your current level (the sword), and how much money you have (the coins).

As you explore you’ll find chests that can be opened for random drops. If you’re lucky they’ll give you health and mana boosters, to keep you in the game. In you’re unlucky they’ll give you nothing. If you’re ‘savvy’ you’ll quicksave before opening a chest and re-load and try again if you got nothing. 😉

An increase in challenge comes from opponents who fire projectiles at you. Skeletons with bows, or Warlocks that can shoot fireballs at you. They have limited range, and won’t fire at you through other enemies (which you can use to your advantage), but they can kill you in two or three hits. So you have to be careful and try to take out magic or bow-firing enemies quickly and efficiently. Which is not easy. At times the dance of death, between you and a skeleton archer can feel a bit like chess. One wrong move and it could be game over…

The coins you collect are useful for only one thing: continuing where you left off when you die. For ten coins you can make a deal with death and retain your levels, but you lose your experience and have to start the current level from scratch. If you don’t have enough money to make a deal with death you have to start again from the very beginning.

To make it to the next level you need to kind a key to the door leading to it. This key is found somewhere hidden in the level – usually inside a chest, but not always – I sometimes found it by searching a gravestone.

Vradark’s Sphere reminded me of the Pokémon Rescue Team games; Torneko’s Great Adventure, and of course the various versions of Rogue out there. And – like many Roguelikes – it can be frustratingly difficult unless you play very carefully (and get lucky with RNG).

Since Vradark’s Sphere is a free-to-play download; since it was made with obvious love and care, and since it is a playable and absorbing game, it’s a title that I think everyone should play at least once in their lives. Unless you hate Roguelikes…

A sequel to this – called Vradark’s Revenge – was released for the ZX Spectrum Next in 2022. The sequel is a ‘paid-for’ title and is even available on Steam for those who don’t have a ZX Spectrum Next.

Tips: hold Enter to show on-screen enemy Hit Points and Damage capabilities. Also: it helps if you can clear out an entire level of monsters before moving on – especially early on – because you need to level up as soon as you can. Also: leave red and blue potions on the ground if you don’t immediately need them. They won’t disappear and you can return to them later when you need them.

More: Vradark’s Sphere on zxonline.net
More: Vradark’s Sphere on spectrumcomputing.co.uk