People who are fond of black magic but squeamish when it comes to the ingredients (eye of newt, tongue of lizard, wing of bat, etc.) will be ecstatic over Necromancer. This enchantingly original game allows you to weave perfectly respectable spells without having to deal with anything really repulsive.


You're a sorcerer doing battle against some rather voracious spiders. Your weapons - and the spiders' favorite thing to poison - are the trees. Only these are enchanted trees which you control with your magical wisp. Using the wisp you plant the seeds, nurse the saplings to maturity and prevent them from being trampled on by uncouth Neanderthal thugs wearing nothing but large wooden clubs. Later, you take your deciduous army to the next screen where you position them strategically over unhatched spider eggs located in brick incubators. If you're skillful, the roots will erode the brick and the tree will crash down, crushing the egg and killing the fledgling spider inside. If you're sluggish, the spider hatches, eats the tree and comes after you. Leave no eggs uncrushed because they all become spiders which come back to haunt and hunt you in the last screen - the final showdown between you and the Necromancer himself who, unable to find an apartment, has moved in to the cemetery.


Your wisp has more uses than a Cuisinart and is joystick controlled. In the first screen you throw it away from you and, by pressing the fire button, plant your seeds. In subsequent screens, you throw the wisp to magically move your trees to the positions you want them in. The wisp is also useful for destroying spiders and thugs. The only things the wisp cannot do for you are replenish your strength and create ladders. Strength is provided by walking into a small circular object that appears on the screen from time to time. Ladders for climbing lower and lower in the egg hatchery are procured by walking into question marks left by mysterious arms that descend from above. The arms can also spirit both you and your trees away if you happen to be under one of them when it takes a notion to come on down.


All of this action is accompanied by wonderful jazz music - almost as if Dave Brubeck and his band were inside the eggs instead of spiders. The graphics are magical - your wizard has a long-sleeve garment on and thrusts his arm forward authoritatively and the wisp and trees sparkle enchantedly. You walk away from the game feeling as if you could actually point to a broom and make it sweep. You can't.


In the first screen, plant a tree in each corner first and the row of trees you plant between them will be protected. The Neanderthal bullies turn right around and retreat from trees that are bigger than they are.