spiritual health and boosts the player's health, and the opposite effect occurs passing through a blue gate. Use in conjunction with war or spiritual books can boost respective health significantly. Passing through a tan gate changes nothing. The player may keep going down levels (by accessing a ladder located inside each maze) until level 256, after which the game cycles the player back to level 1, with the player's character retaining their inventory and health, but attacking enemies at the first floor's easier difficulty. It is possible to be defeated but not lose the game. Upon dying, the player can be 'reincarnated' to another section of that maze, with all of their pack's inventory gone while retaining the contents of their weapon and shield slots as well as their supply of arrows and food. Publication history The game was written by Tom Loughry in 1981 and was published by Mattel in 1983. Treasure of Tarmin was the second AD&D game for the Intellivision, after Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain. A version was also released for the Mattel Aquarius home computer. In 1983, Mattel Electronics commissioned an Atari 2600 version of Treasure of Tarmin. This was developed by Synth Corporation in Chicago. Two Synth software developers, Michael Bengtson and Neal Reynolds, wrote the game to conform to the play of the Intellivision version. While the game was completed, it was not released before Mattel Electronics closed their doors. Reception German gaming magazine TeleMatch gave the game a very positive review, giving it a one and a half out of six, (on their rating system one is the highest), stating, "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is already the outstanding pinnacle of Intellivision-Cassettes, but Treasure of Tarmin raises the bar even further" and, "At least for the German market, no other video game of this type exists ... What happens next is almost unbelievable: you yourself are the adventurer, and you're not represented by a symbol of a small man on the screen, rather you see what one would see if one was walking." TeleMatch was also very impressed by the number of levels in the game, and felt that the awarding of points for defeating monsters was rewarding. In a retrospective review of Treasure of Tarmin in Black Gate, Ty Johnston said "this is a game worth playing, loaded with thrills and fun". References External links Review at XGD In depth page