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Adventures
| Amazon, Michael Crichton's | Telarium | [top] | |
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This is an original story from Michael Crichton (famous for Jurassic Park) back when text adventures were attracting major authors. As an agent of the NSRT (National Satellite Resources Technology), you happen to be the first witness of the sad fate suffered by all members of an archeological expedition sent to uncover the fabled Lost City of Chak. Apparently, the whole expedition was murdered by a tribe of cannibals. And guess what? Now YOU are the one who has to travel to the Amazon to uncover the mystery. And that's only the beginning of your problems. Mysterious people are trying to kill you. Professor Benekker, an expert on the Amazon who was supposed to accompany you, turns up dead. As a replacement, you'll end up with his highly-intelligent (but highly-obnoxious) parrot, Paco. Be prepared to face wild animals, savage tribes, guerillos, and even a live volcano, as you make your way to the remnants of the expedition and the Lost City. The parser is a bit weak but the story is involving. | ||
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| Below The Root | Telarium / Windham Classics | [top] | |
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Based on the fantasy book series "The Green Sky Trilogy" this game was the most expansive adventure game of it's time. The story is devised completely from scratch, with few real ties to the series of books. You can choose one of five characters, each of whom has different skills and levels of magical powers, which make the game easier or more difficult. Each of the games is otherwise the same, however. You're either a member of the "Kindar", a tree dwelling race, or the "Erdling", an underground race, in an attempt to quell the racial and political tensions building between the races. For originality, Windham Classics deserves high marks but it is also very difficult, and requires much time and exploration. | ||
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| Black Sanctum, The | Bob Withers & Ron Krebs / Mark Data Products | [top] | |
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Encounter the forces of black magic as you roam around an old 18th century monastery. See all the evil locations in this spooky adventure in full hi-res detail. If you like suspense, you'll love searching out and destroying the evil in this classic tale. This is similar to early Polarware and Scott Adams titles. While these company's games were reasonably successful on Tandy's CoCo computer, the IBM PC versions did not achieve the same level of success. While the graphics are quite good at the time, the parser is quite primitive. The games make up for this with well-written plot, fun characters, and some clever puzzles. Bob Withers, co-creator of these games now offers them free and their source codes as well. | ||
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| Calixto Island | Bob Withers & Ron Krebs / Mark Data Products | [top] | |
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A valuable museum treasure has been stolen; can you recover it? Calixto Island is a challenging puzzle with and occasional twist of humor. You'll visit a laboratory, a Mayan pyramid and you'll meet crazy Trader Jack - all in living color and exciting detail. This is similar to early Polarware and Scott Adams titles. While these company's games were reasonably successful on Tandy's CoCo computer, the IBM PC versions did not achieve the same level of success. While the graphics are quite good at the time, the parser is quite primitive. The games make up for this with well-written plot, fun characters, and some clever puzzles. Bob Withers, co-creator of these games now offers them free and their source codes as well. | ||
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| Crypt Of Medea | Sir-Tech Software | [top] | |
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Sir-Tech is best known for their Wizardry series of RPGs, but they did produce a couple of pure adventure games as well. Crypt of Medea is a horror game, with a lot of shock value for its time and a warning label recommending it for mature players only (though it's tame now when you look at, say, Resident Evil or Postal). The goal is simply to escape said Crypt. Lots of do-or-die puzzles, not much plot. Based loosely on the famed Greek character, you are trapped in an underground crypt filled with a variety of ghastly creatures and traps, and you must find your way out before you become just another nameless corpse - just like the ones you encounter all throughout the maze-like mausoleum. It's a Hi-Res adventure game with color graphics, using the simple two-word "verb noun" parser that was common in these types of games. In its heyday, it was panned for its graphic depictions of gratuitous violence, but seeing as such material has almost become a standard in today's games, one could argue that it was fairly ahead of its time. The PC version seems very rare. | ||
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| Cutthroats | Michael Berlyn & Jerry Wolper / Infocom | [top] | |
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This Infocom text adventure game takes place in and around the fictional Hardscrabble Island which was for centuries a thriving seaport, but the local fishing industry died out in the 1920s. Most of the area's remaining population are an assortment of hard-luck types and people of questionable ethics. The player's character is a skilled diver scraping to make ends meet. One night, an old shipmate named Hevlin barges in with a map indicating the locations of two previously undiscovered shipwrecks. Flashing between excitement and paranoia, Hevlin abruptly leaves, asking the player to safekeep the map. Naturally, the old sailor is murdered practically steps from the doorway. Someone obviously wants this map quite badly. As the player attempts to mount a perilous dive for sunken treasure, several characters offer their help. Some of them can be trusted and some can not. Failure to tell the difference between the two can result in an "untimely accident". The fifficulty of the game is medium. Cutthroats was the first Infocom game to be originally published in the famous "gray box" format. | ||
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| Dragonworld | Byron Preiss Video Productions / Trillium Corp. | [top] | |
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Dragonworld is a Telarium game that, true to the company's tradition, is based on a fantasy series of the same name. Your task is to journey to your friend Hawkwind to save the Last Dragon in the world from his kidnapper. As with Telarium's previous releases, the game's parser is quite adequate, and puzzles border on the easy side so there is little guess-the-verb problem. Another gameplay element that the game inherits from Telarium's previous efforts is some action elements, although they are much less frustrating than in, say, Amazon. After you find Hawkwind, the game becomes easier as you can ASK HAWKWIND ABOUT most things to get clues or outright solution to puzzles. All in all, Dragonworld is nothing more than a your typical fantasy adventure. If you like the setting or want an easy game, you might find it appealing. | ||
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| Earthly Delights | Datamost Inc. | [top] | |
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Earthly Delight opens with an intriguing premise: you woke up in the middle of the night to discover that a painting you recently inherited has been stolen. Already at this early stage, the game allows a wide variety of actions you can perform to end the first episode: if you are quick enough, you can catch the burglar in the act, and even fight with him. If he is gone by the time you reach the room, you can still discover clues that will lead to the next episode. Each episode opens in animated book style, with its own (PC speaker) music and well-written introduction. Although the game is "shallow" in a sense that the non-player characters are poorly developed and two-dimensional, the intriguing plot and many optional puzzles and alternate solutions more than make up for the deficiency. The game has one curious parser characteristic: you need to use "GO TO" command a lot to reach certain places, although you can only GO TO that place when you are near enough. Given the expansive and confusing layout of Paris, finding a place can quickly become the most time-consuming action in the game, and truly exasperating. Despite this quirk, Earthly Delight is definitely a cut above average game of its time and is well worth a play through. | ||
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| Enchanted Scepters [MAC] | Silicon Beach Software Inc. | [top] | |
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This is one of the few adventures created specifically for the Mac from the developer that later went on to make the Dark Castle series. The evil Hurks are amassing an army and only one ray of hope exists - Elron the wizard can repel the attack, but only if he possesses the four enchanted scepters, lost decades ago in the Great Wars. This, of course, is where you come in. Find the scepters and return alive. The game has over 200 scenes with interactive graphics - doors open, objects move, and so on. It also features what the publisher calls 'RealSound' - basically real digitized sound effects and not synthesized. Otherwise this is a standard text adventure game. It was the first game released that was made with the World Builder engine. | ||
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| High Stakes, Dick Francis' | Angelsoft / Mindscape | [top] | |
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Based on a bestselling book, High Stakes casts you as intrepid gambler Steven Scott who finds himself on countless misadventures one after another. The author of the book it is based on is Dick Francis, a former jockey, who became a best-selling author of crime/thriller novels, all set in a horse racing environment. The game is as "exciting" as interactive fiction can possibly get, with a lot of intense, real-time action sequences in which you must make split-second decisions (or typing, as it were) to save Dick's life. The action starts right away in the beginning scene, when you must escape from a truck. | ||
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| Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, The | Douglas Adams & Steve Meretzky / Infocom | [top] | |
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You are Arthur Dent, an Englishman with a bad hangover wearing a
dressing gown containing a much needed buffered analgesic and some fluff. Your house
has just been destroyed, followed shortly thereafter by your planet Earth (mostly
harmless). You’ve been rescued by your friend Ford Prefect, who’s not actually an
out-of-work actor. He has given you a book (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), a
towel, and is now telling you to put a fish in your ear. It must be a Thursday;
you’ve never quite gotten the hang of Thursdays.
The game is based on Adams’ BBC radio series, television series, and the series of
subsequent novelizations. It’s one of the classic Interactive Fiction games produced
by Infocom and next to the Zork series, one of the bestselling. Though divergent
from the source material, the main characters, locations, and concepts are here.
Unlike the book, death can come quickly if Arthur fails to observe his surroundings,
collect inventory, talk to people, and consult the Guide. DON’T PANIC!
It's generally considered to be the first interactive fiction game to intentionally
cheat players. Adding to its reputation for deviousness was "The Babel Fish
Dispenser", a wickedly complicated puzzle appearing very early in the game. Failure
to "solve" the Babel fish puzzle did not kill the player, but rendered the remainder
of the game unwinnable. Another fiendish puzzle involved the ten tools scattered
throughout the game's locations. It was later rereleased in a Solid Gold edition
which include Infocom’s “InvisiClues” hints as an in-game feature, the game engine
(“Z machine”) was updated to version 5 (which features a more versatile parser),
and most bugs squashed.
Also see: #Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Remake |
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| Holy Grail, The | Hayden Software | [top] | |
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This is a decent game from a company famous for oldie strategy games. The Holy Grail has a strong plot but very primitive parser compared to the likes of Infocom games. As the name implies, your task is to find the legendary holy grail. It's not a very long game, and most puzzles are simplistic. Recommended as a dose of nostalgia only. | ||
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| Inca | Hayden Software | [top] | |
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Given that it is one of the rarest commercial text adventures in existence, it is disappointing that Hayden Software's Inca is unfortunately not a very good game. It's a banal treasure hunt and even worse than Hayden's own Holy Grail. Collectors will enjoy keeping this one, if only for rarity value alone. You need Flopper to run the IMG disk image. | ||
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| King's Quest | Sierra On-Line | [top] | |
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This is one of the most important games in terms of impact on the adventure game
genre. It was the first adventure game where you directly controlled the main
character and defined the adventure genre for the next decade. You could walk
behind stuff! The story and the general design of the game was developed by
Roberta Williams and was a "take off" of a previous game titled The Wizard and
the Princess. In King's Quest, you play Sir Graham, a brave knight who is
sent on a quest to retrieve three treasures that were stolen by deception and
stealth: a shield that protects its bearer from invaders, a mirror that foretells
the future, and a treasure chest that is forever filled with gold. If Graham
takes these treasures back to the royal castle, then the ailing King Edward the
Benevolent will hand over the crown. During his travels, Graham will meet
characters that will either help or hinder him. You perform actions by entering
commands into the game, usually a verb/noun sequence. Some of the puzzles in the
game rely on fairy tales, and a good knowledge of them is needed to complete them.
Originally developed for IBM's PC Jr, the new machine (pronounced "PC Junior")
was going to be the ultimate home computer - it had 16-color graphics, three
channels of sound, a joystick port, and was allegedly compatible with the "real"
IBM PC which was a business machine and too expensive for home use. IBM wanted a next-generation game to go with it. Though the computer flopped, the game was
able to use this new technology and revolutionize adventure games and its
descendants would completely replace text adventures in a few years' time. It
was also the first Sierra Entertainment game to use the Adventure Game Interpreter
(AGI) engine. Initially a booter game, in 1987 a full re-release was done adding
support for the Enhanced Graphics Adaptor (EGA) and ran on DOS. The game sold
over 500,000 copies on all platforms, a huge amount considering how small the
computer market was compared to today.
Also see: #King's Quest: Quest For The Crown SCI Remake, #King's Quest VGA Fan Remake |
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| Micro Adventure No. 1: Space Attack | Parachute Press / Scholastic Inc. | [top] | |
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This is first in a series of type-in BASIC adventures for multiple systems. Secret agent Orion, computer whiz on ACT (Adventure Connection Team) has received an urgent message from an orbiting space station. Something has gone deadly wrong. The evil forces of BRUTE (the Bureau of Random Unlawful Terror and Evil) is bent on wrecking havoc. Joined by Colonel Helen Grace, world-class linguist Dr. Macron, astronomer Professor Lowell, and Astro Toys employee Tinker, the team has been sent to the orbiting US military station Rodeo I. There, the communications system on the station has malfunctioned, and an alien signal from deep space is rapidly approaching. Though the story, there are numerous interactive type-in programs that offer numerous outcomes. An appendix is included describing how to modify the BASIC program listings for greatest compatibility with many of the most popular home microcomputer BASICs, as well as describing what each program does and how it works. | ||
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| Micro Adventure No. 2: Jungle Quest | Parachute Press / Scholastic Inc. | [top] | |
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You are code-named Orion, an adolescent agent of ACT (the Adventure Connection Team), summoned straight out of the hallways of your high school by Max Huntington to participate in a mission taking you to the darkest jungles of Africa, to locate and defuse the limitless energies stored in an alien artifact there before sinister competing agents of BRUTE (the Bureau of Random Unlawful Terror and Evil) beat you to it. Other members of your team include an archaeologist ("Digger"), an environmental scientist ("Erda"), a nuclear engineer ("Celeste") and Olano, your guide. You, of course, are the computer expert, and your skills will be put to the test, typing in included BASIC programs to decrypt secret messages, weigh tolerances, plot courses through labyrinths and calculate necessary angles of deflection. The abilities of the whole team will be called for to overcome natural obstacles, untrusting natives, the sapping effects of the Devorim Force, BRUTE agents, a traitor in your midst, the perils and traps of the golden lost city containing the artifact, and the deadly artifact itself. Though the story shares the dynamic 2nd-person perspective ("You try to talk, but you cannot make a sound") of Choose-Your-Own-Adventures, the text (like most books) is a non-interactive fixed-rail trip of zero interactivity -- however, some of the type-in programs included offer numerous outcomes, moving into the "game" field what might otherwise be best categorized as an elaborate set-up for low-impact programming exercises. An appendix is included describing how to modify the BASIC program listings for greatest compatibility with 10 of the most popular home microcomputer BASICs, as well as describing what each program does and how it works. Hey! You got your education in my adventure. | ||
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| Mindshadow | Interplay / Activision | [top] | |
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Mindshadow was the first original game Interplay ever did, and remains today one of the most inventive interactive fiction titles. Based loosely on the old Robert Ludlum novels like The Bourne Identity, it focused on the main character losing his identity and trying to claim it back. It was a very unique game concept at the time and one of the clever aspects was that players would enter THINK NOUN and each time the player entered a word that related to the past, part of your memory came back. You actually won when you reclaimed your whole past. Another fun feature is the on-line hint function, which you can get by typing HELP CONDOR. The game was definitely an inspiration on games such as Amnesia and Deja Vu. The cartoonish illustrations contain vital information not mentioned in the text. Mindshadow is definitely a must-have not only because it was the granddaddy of all amnesiac games, but because it is a great game in its own right, although it is a tad too short and solutions to some puzzles are obscure. | ||
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| Mindwheel | Synapse Software / Broderbund | [top] | |
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Synapse's last game and also its most ambitious, Mindwheel unfortunately ends up as an ideal example of a great concept that is horrendously botched by frustrating puzzles that are not illogical, but are poorly integrated with the amazing storyline. Written by Robert Pinsky, one of the most acclaimed young poets in the 20th century, Mindwheel simply has one the best and most unique sci-fi plots you'll ever come across, with many layers and metaphors that will take repeat playing to appreciate. At its most basic level, the game is about telepathy: you will time-travel into the kaleidoscopic minds of four deceased geniuses. You will encounter the Cave Master, inspired father of the primary visions, retrieve the Wheel of Wisdom, civilization's one key to salvation, and witness some of the most crucial moments in history. Unfortunately, this wonderful premise is shattered by absurd puzzles that bear no relation to the game's larger plot. Most of the game's puzzles revolve around finding words to complete the various sonnets posed by different characters, and answering obscure riddles. The problem is that it is often almost impossible to know if you have found the right word, and why. Worse still, some words are written only in the manual/novella that comes with the game, with almost no clue to the effect. The parser is decent, although its range of synonyms are very limited (for example, in one case it will only understand LADY but not WOMAN). | ||
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| Murder On The Zinderneuf | Free Fall Associates / Electronic Arts | [top] | |
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This is a fun murder mystery game that can be played in one sitting. In a setting that would be familiar to fans of crime novels, a victim has been found aboard the luxury dirigible Zinderneuf. It's up to you, the only detective on board, to expose the murderer. The game combines traditional sleuthing techniques with boardgame-style rules. For example, a "motive clue" that suggests the killer's motive can only be found after an "ordinary clue" is found. Each room may contain no more than one ordinary clue (which is automatically picked up as you walk around the room). When you bump into suspects (i.e. the remaining passengers), you have the option to question, ignore, or accuse them of the murder. The game's most fun feature is when you question suspects: you can set the tone of the conversation (such as polite, seductive, forceful, or naive) to try to illicit the most revealing response from the suspect. These tones differ depending on which detective (out of 8) you choose to play as. You only have 12 hours in game time (roughly 36 minutes in real time) to find the culprit, so budgeting your time and ignoring false leads are essential. As soon as you make a valid accusation, or if your 12 hours is up, you will learn the identity of the killer as well as his or her motive. You will then be shown a rating based on the speed with which you solve the case, the amount of evidence found, and the number of false accusations. Overall, the fun interrogation mode, high replayability (the killer's identity and motive are randomized each time you play), and colorful characters make this a fun "quickie" adventure game for any sleuth who wants to sharpen his or her deductive skills before embarking on more difficult cases. | ||
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| Mystery Master: Felony! | BrainBank Inc. / Thunder Mountain | [top] | |
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There is a crime wave in the town of Huxley. As a mystery master, you need to help the police solve 12 different crimes that have taken place. Throughout each of the cases you can interrogate suspects, search for clues at various locations, or use police station resources to analyze clues. To win you need to find out who the criminal is within the given time limit, as well as collect enough evidence to convict him and send him to jail. Included with the game is a manual which contains the story for each of the 12 cases along with hundreds of clues. When the computer reveals clues from searches or questioning, it will give you a number which needs to be looked up in the manual for more information. To be successful, you will need to study the back story carefully and take notes as the plot unfolds. The game can be played by just one player, or up to four players can compete against each other to see who solves the case first. | ||
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| Quest, The | Polarware / Penguin Software, Inc. | [top] | |
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It seems there is a nasty dragon terrorizing the kingdom of Balema (oh my), and King Galt (yes, yes, I know - "Who is John Galt?") sends his trusty Champion, Gorn, to save the day (hmm, Gorn strikes a strong resemblance to a certain well-known Barbarian, methinks). And no, you don’t get to play the part of Gorn (sorry). Instead, The Quest introduced the notion of you playing the part of the King's Advisor that is sent along to be the “brains” to Gorn's “brawn.” Most graphic adventures of the time required you to tell yourself what to do by typing in two-word commands (i.e. “go left,” “cross bridge,” “read scroll”). It always seemed odd that you would type commands to yourself, but that was pretty much the norm. And for some reason, only the popular text adventures allowed you to enter multiple word, complete sentence commands. The Quest was the first graphic adventure (or one of the first), to incorporate multiple word, full sentence parsing. It was also the first to abandon the notion of you telling yourself what to do. That’s where Gorn comes in. You tell Gorn what to do. Gorn, being all brawn and no brain, is totally clueless every step of the way, and helplessly reliant upon your every word (at least until he meets the beautiful and sexy sorceress): “Hey, Gorn, let's go left.” “How about we cross over the bridge to the other side, Gorn, my man!” “No Gorn, you can't eat the scroll, you must read it.” (Jeez, where does the King find these people!) "Gorn, get out of the Sorceress' house, we have work to do." The Quest was one of the largest, most graphic-intense adventures of the day. It filled two sides of a disk with over 200, hi-res locations. The graphics was some of the best seen at the time, and in a few cases was just a mite too “graphic.” The artist, Joe Toler, was inspired by the work of Boris Vallejo, especially those deliciously voluptuous, barbarian females that Vallejo is a master of. Even though the publisher had the authors tone down some of the mature themes and images to make it more family-friendly, it was still the only game by this publisher to ever be reviewed in Playboy magazine. | ||
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| Questprobe Featuring The Hulk | Adventure International / Load'N'Go Software | [top] | |
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Ths 1st in the Questprobe Marvel Comics series unusally brought the comic license to the PC for the first time as graphic adventures from well respected adventure pioneer Scott Adams. Play Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk through this interactive fiction game with graphics. You awake as Banner, tied by ropes to your chair in a bunker in the desert; once you free yourself, collect all the gems to escape this hellhole. The appearances of well-known bad guys such as the Chief Examiner and Ant-Man are wasted by poor writing and pointless dialogues. The parser is not good and the game is too repetitive. | ||
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| Sea Quest / Sea Search | Bob Withers & Ron Krebs / Mark Data Products | [top] | |
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Get your shark repellant and scuba tanks ready. The underwater scenes in this adventure are unforgettable. You'll run into a pirate, a mermaid, and some hungry sharks in this colorful and unique treasure hunt. This is similar to early Polarware and Scott Adams titles. While these company's games were reasonably successful on Tandy's CoCo computer, the IBM PC versions did not achieve the same level of success. While the graphics are quite good at the time, the parser is quite primitive. The games make up for this with well-written plot, fun characters, and some clever puzzles. Bob Withers, co-creator of these games now offers them free and their source codes as well. | ||
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| Seastalker | Stu Galley & Jim Lawrence / Infocom | [top] | |
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One of Infocom's best introductory-level text adventures, Seastalker is a fun undersea adventure that will delight fans of Wishbringer and anyone new to the interactive fiction genre. Because it was designed primarily for children and those inexperienced with Infocom's interactive fiction, it tells a much lighter and less complicated story than that of Infidel, Infocom's previous Tale of Adventure. Due to this, Seastalker is very easy, and made even easier by the hints worked into the context of the game and the hint cards included. However, beyond the generally simplistic puzzles and somewhat linear design, Seastalker tells a good story about underwater exploration and sea monsters, with two or three somewhat interesting subplots and plot twists. | ||
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| Shenanigans | Bob Withers & Ron Krebs / Mark Data Products | [top] | |
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Countless legends tell of a magnificent Pot of Gold and enormous wealth hidden by leprechauns at the end of the rainbow. Many have attempted to find the marvelous treasure but success has eluded tham and it remains hidden to this day. Because you are a dedicated adventurer, eager to face danger and challenges for great rewards, you have determined to search for that fabled Pot of Gold and succeeded where others have failed. This is similar to early Polarware and Scott Adams titles. While these company's games were reasonably successful on Tandy's CoCo computer, the IBM PC versions did not achieve the same level of success. While the graphics are quite good at the time, the parser is quite primitive. The games make up for this with well-written plot, fun characters, and some clever puzzles. Bob Withers, co-creator of these games now offers them free and their source codes as well. | ||
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| Sorcerer | Steve Meretzky / Infocom | [top] | |
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Sorcerer is the second entry in the Enchanter Trilogy, a series set in the Zork universe, except casting you as a magic user than a clueless adventurer. In your late youth you left home to join the Guild of Enchanters. After years of schooling, you achieved the rank of Apprentice Enchanter. In fulfilment of an ancient prophecy, you were sent to find Krill, an evil warlock who had loosed a pestilence upon the land, and who threatened the very existence of the Circle of Enchanters. Only someone guileless and inexperienced in the ways of magic could slip into Krill's realm unnoticed. By defeating Krill, you earned a seat on the Circle of Enchanters, sitting at the right hand of your mentor, the leader of the Guild, Belboz the Necromancer. Several years have passed, and you have grown very close to Belboz as you studied under his tutelage, learning the ways of magic from one of the world's most learned practitioners. But lately, Belboz has seemed troubled, preoccupied, withdrawn ... small things only a friend would notice. You have even heard frightening noises coming from his chamber, and the cold shivers down your back. Could some evil spirit be at work here? You are sleepless from worry - Belboz is possibly the most powerful Enchanter in the kingdom. If his powers were used by the forces of darkness instead of the forces of light, who knows what would result? And now, unbeknownst to you, Belboz has vanished. | ||
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| Suspect | Dave Lebling / Infocom | [top] | |
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Infocom's third murder mystery game no longer puts you in the shoes of a police detective, but a nosy reporter who has been framed with the murder of Veronica Ashcroft, a famous superstar who has been murdered at her own halloween party. Similar to Deadline, you have only 12 hours to find the real killer. Compared to the first two mystery games, Deadline and The Witness, Suspect stacks up well against both of them, thanks to the complex storyline and many interesting characters. Similar to Deadline, you can replay the game many times and never reach the "optimal ending." Suspect suffers from one problem that plagues Deadline: you need to witness a few critical events at the right time and place, but some of these events seem to appear quite randomly, or without sufficient clues. Fortunately, the intriguing plot and solid writing helps replaying Suspect less of a chore than it would otherwise be. | ||
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| Tales of Mystery | Information Technology Design Associates / Scholastic | [top] | |
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An educational, almost text-based adventure game designed to improve reading and logical thinking skills in English-speaking children aged nine years and older, skillfully disguised as a real detective investigation. This is a collection of two separate stories, “Haunted House” and “Mystery at Pinecrest Manor”; on the Apple II and Commodore 64 it was released under the sign “A Mystery Double Feature” , and the edition for the IBM PC/XT/PCjr also has half recorded on each floppy side. The illustrations are in a gray-brown CGA palette, sometimes diluting purely text screens, look much worse than on the Apple II or Commodore 64 ; There is no musical design here, and meager sound effects performed by the PC Speaker are quite rare. In Haunted House, we decide to go to a notoriously haunted abandoned house in the area, in which - according to what we just dreamed - one of the protagonist's friends (or girlfriends) managed to get lost. In Mystery at Pinecrest Manor, we, together with a friend (quite possibly the same one), visit our archaeologist uncle in his mansion on an island: an elderly relative proudly shows us and several other guests his latest find - a priceless ancient Egyptian figurine, which the next morning mysteriously disappears. Both games are of “Choose your own adventure”: we read description of the current situation - press “enter” to continue or select one of the available behavior options. You can use a flashlight acquired in your inventory by... entering the “FLASH” command. Also, occasionally you may have the opportunity to travel relatively freely around the mansion, already with the protagonist’s figure on the screen in a top-down perspective - and with the UP, DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT commands to move it. The user manual officially advises to draw up a kind of “algorithm diagram” of everything that is happening during the game in order to track all the plot forks and, when playing again, try “alternative” paths for the development of events. In “Mystery at Pinecrest Manor” everything turns out to be somewhat larger-scale and interesting, but also less non-linear: here we really investigate the theft of a figurine, collecting evidence, studying the testimony of witnesses and identifying the culprit among several suspects in a style that is, albeit childishly miniature, but "hermetic detective". The story is divided into two parts: the first, optional for review, is an introduction with a minimum of interactivity. Here we are told how we received an invitation from our Uncle Ralph, how we met other guests, how we saw a priceless figurine - and how we learned about its disappearance the next morning. At the same time, the protagonist and his friend managed to do a lot of work behind the scenes: when the game itself begins, we already have a dossier on each of the six suspects (including Uncle Ralph), with his or her photograph and recordings of testimony, so all that remains is to study these materials (using the “F” key and the keyboard arrows) and go around all the rooms of the house in search of other evidence. After pressing “S”, you will need to manually enter the location of the stolen figurine and indicate in the group photo of the guests the person responsible for the theft - fortunately, in case of a mistake, we will not be punished, but will simply be sent back to the investigation. So, unfortunately, there will be no “alternative endings” in this case, unlike in “Haunted House”: the criminal is always the same. | ||
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| Tracer Sanction, The | Interplay / Activision | [top] | |
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As an interplanetary secret agent, you must roam the galaxy in your extremely fuel-conscious space ship (only 500 gallons to the nearest planet). Heaven knows what sort of engine your ship possesses, but as stars scroll past your cockpit you can hear what sounds like a very unhealthy motor-scooter in the background. There are some touches of dry humour, including an interminable queue of people that you can stand in for ever, never quite reaching the end. You'll also have some trouble with a certain crazed dwarf and some unstable stalactites. It's rather easier than Mindshadow and the atmosphere is rather less enthralling in outer space than it was on board ship. Both games however, are extremely attractive to look at and might be particularly suitable for first time adventurers who will no doubt appreciate the 'living tutorial'. What's encouraging about these games (and the disk Hobbit, of course) is that here we have adventures with really excellent graphics that make good use of text and can handle some quite complex inputs. | ||
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| Zork III: The Dungeon Master | Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Dave Lebling and Bruce Daniels / Infocom | [top] | |
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Zork III is somewhat less of a straightforward treasure hunt than previous installments. Instead, the player—in the role of the same "adventurer" played in Zork I and Zork II—must demonstrate worthiness to assume the role of the Dungeon Master. In the third game of the famous adventure game series Zork, you are once again a nameless adventurer, only this time you won't travel through a beautiful magical land, but are immediately cast into a deep dungeon. Like in a dream, you hear a mysterious voice telling you that you have passed all the tests but one. When conscience returns to you, you find yourself on the endless spiral of stairs, with only your trusty lantern near you... will you be able to survive the horrors of the Dungeon? | ||
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Adventure related
| BC's Quest for Tires | Sydney Development Corp. / Sierra On-Line Inc. | [top] | |
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Cute Chick is in trouble. She is being held captive by the dinosaur, and it is up to Thor to ride his trusty wheel to the rescue. There are many obstacles in the way which Thor will need to jump and duck, including rocks, trees, rivers, lava pits, cliffs, and of course Fat Broad. When you duck, the character bounces up and down, so don't duck too soon. BC's Quest For Tires is a side scrolling action game resembling Moon Patrol in some ways, featuring characters from the comic strip BC. | ||
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| Castle Wolfenstein | Muse Software | [top] | |
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Undoubtedly one of the best action games ever made, this s a revolutionary game that spawned a whole new genre. If the name sounds familiar to you, your hunch is correct: this is THE game that inspired id Software's blockbuster Wolfenstein 3D. Apparently they liked the game so much that id negotiated a deal to reuse the name 'Wolfenstein' for their game. It's such a veritable masterpiece that calling it "special" is a huge understatement. As its spiritual ancestor, the game's premise will be familiar to all Wolfenstein 3D: you are an allied soldier who's been taken prisoner by the Nazis. You must escape from their castle, avoiding or killing Nazi guards along the way. The action is viewed from an overhead perspective, with 2D graphics for the objects and characters (hence its nickname Wolfenstein 2D by Wolf 3D fans). While not Earth-shattering, the graphics are more than adequate, and never get in the way of the action. There are even different graphics to depict a dead guard, a dead guard with bullet-proof vest on, and a guard shot dead at his desk... talk about rigor mortis. You start out with a gun and one 10-bullet clip, given by a fellow prisoner. More bullets can be found by searching guards and breaking into supply boxes. There is a lot of great ideas in the game, many of which are rarely used even in today's crop of 3D-accelerated games. You can, for example, hold a Nazi guard at gunpoint to search him for supplies. You can also toss grenades at guards and watch the gory effect (or as gory as 2D, 4-color CGA palette can get). The grenades can burst through (concrete) walls, and it's a lot of fun to time it so that the grenade will hit the unsuspecting SS guard on the *other side* of the wall. Evil fun :) One thing that makes Castle Wolfenstein very replayable is the fact that the castle is randomly generated each time you play. If you are killed or captured, you can either attempt the same castle again, or play a new random one, which could very well be more impossible than the last. SS guards also tend to surprise you, thus adding to the adrenaline rush of escaping. With an emphasis on trying to avoid detection for as long as possible, Castle Wolfenstein and its sequel are considered by gamers to be prototypical stealth-based games — the first in a genre that wouldn't gain popularity until the late 1990s. Around 1985, an unauthorized parody called Castle Smurfenstein began circulating in the computer underground. It was a hacked version of the original Castle Wolfenstein; it used the same game engine, but replaced the graphics and sound assets with cartoon characters from The Smurfs TV series. | ||
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| Shamus | Synapse Software Corporation / IBM | [top] | |
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Infiltrate the lair of the elusive Shadow, shoot and sneak your way through his army of robotic minions, and hunt him down before he does the same to you. Starring in the titular role of Shamus, you will have to find your way through over 120 rooms in this cross between Berzerk's "robots in a maze" action and Adventure's exploration of a predefined game world. The elusive villain's henchmen will express their disapproval of your plans in rather strong terms, namely with showers of bullets. What's more, once they're dead they don't necessarily stay that way: each time a room is re-entered, a random selection of them will respawn. The Shadow has also arranged for electrified walls throughout his compound, so bumping into them will prove quite lethal. The labyrinth of chambers is divided into four levels, with multiple locked doors that'll have you wandering around in search of the right keys. If you tarry too long in the same room, a bulletproof Shadow (taking a page from Evil Otto's book) will drop by to discourage loitering. | ||
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| Sink The Fleet | Chuck Acree, Andrew Bartorillo / Acorn Software Products Inc. | [top] | |
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This is a strategy game which is a computerized version of the popular board game Battleship; In the game, two players take turns attempting to sink their opponents ships and the first player to do so wins. The game can be played by two human players or one player against the computer. Gameplay - it features a game board with a 10x10 grid. Each player has five ships, and the game starts with them placing each ship on the board (if there are two human players, the player whose turn it isn't will need to look away from the computer screen). The ships are an aircraft carrier, battleship, cruiser, destroyer, and submarine which take up 5, 4, 3, 3, and 2 spaces respectively. The ships can be placed in anywhere on the board in any direction (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal). After ships are placed, players take turns attempting to sink their opponents ships. On each turn coordinates are entered for the location to fire at. The computer will indicate for each shot if it is a hit or a miss. In order to sink a ship, each section of the ship must be hit. The first player to sink all of their opponents ships wins. Sink the Fleet includes three skill levels for the computer player and also allows games to be saved so they can be continued at a later time. | ||
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| Wizard of Id's WizType | Sydney Development Corp. / Sierra On-Line, Inc. | [top] | |
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The Wizard of Id's WizType is an edutainment title based on the comic strip created by artist Brant Parker and writer Johnny Hart. The title is designed to give keyboard novices lessons on how to improve their typing accuracy and speed. The game is broken into two sections: The first section pits players as the Wiz, matching wits against the Evil Spirit, an apparition that lives in the Wizard's vat. The Wizard must quickly type out the words that the Evil Spirit gives him in order to diminish the Spirit and win the round. Failure to spell words properly, or taking too long to spell results in the Evil Spirit morphing into a dragon, and singing the Wizard to a crisp. The second part of the game has the player trying to keep up with Bung the Jester. In this segment, players must type out a pre-written paragraph in order to keep pace with Bung, who is hopping along the words on a pogo stick. WizType has multiple skill levels to match different levels of typing ability, and increases in challenge as players progress through their lessons. | ||
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Kids
| Early Games for Young Children | Springboard Software Inc. | [top] | |
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A collection of educational mini-games for pre-school children, aimed at ages 2½-6 and designed to impart basic skills with letters, numbers and shapes. The exercises include counting, adding and subtracting colored blocks, matching on-screen letters and numbers with the keyboard, memorizing the alphabet, comparing shapes, and practicing basic color drawing. It has wonderful ideas around graphics / art, math / logic, pre-school / toddler, reading / writing. | ||
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| Ernie's Magic Shapes | CTW Software Group / CBS Software, Hi Tech Expressions | [top] | |
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With the wave of his magic wand, Ernie the Magician makes a shape float over his head. Another wave, and a second shape appears on a table nearby. The player now decides whether or not the two shapes match. If so, and the player agrees, Ernie nods and the two shapes float together before disappearing. If not, Ernie shakes his head "no", waves his wand, and a new shape appears on the table. It has six levels of play. At the lower levels, the player compares one shape to another or the colors of two similar shapes. Levels four and five require greater visual discrimination since the target object is made up of several shapes and each one has to be matched individually. At the highest level, there is a complex mixture of both shapes and colors. | ||
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| Learning with Leeper | Sierra On-Line Inc. | [top] | |
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In Lunar Leeper, one of Sierra's earlier arcade games, players had to rescue prisoners on a planet's surface while avoiding the "Leepers", who would leap into the air in an attempt to grab them, and one of the Leepers feature in this game. Similar to Learning with FuzzyWOMP, the player can select one of four games, by moving the Leeper to the icon and pressing the fire button to select it. Clockwise from the top, the first game encourages the player to select a series of bones that match the number of dogs on the left side. In the second, the player matches a series of items at the bottom of the screen (including letters, shapes, people, and three-letter words) with the one shown on a platform. In these first two games, the correct answer will flash if a wrong one is given. In the third game, players have to make their way through a maze while they are assisted by a caterpillar. The mazes are randomly generated. Finally, the fourth one has players paint a series of pictures ranging from a house and mountains to a human figure. | ||
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| Troll's Tale | Sierra On-Line | [top] | |
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An evil troll has hidden all of the treasures of Mark, The Dwarf King. There are 15 treasures hidden throughout the land that you need to help locate. If you locate a treasure, but the troll is on the screen at the time, you will need to come back and find a way to make him leave. Troll's Tale is an adventure game which requires minimal typing, using the spacebar to select from several possible actions which are listed on the screen and pressing enter to perform the selected action. | ||
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Role-Playing Games
| Caverns of Zoarre | Thomas Hanlin III | [top] | |
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Caverns of Zoarre is a dungeon crawl role-playing game similar to Telengard. You may choose to be either a fighter or a sorcerer as you explore the multi-leveled caverns for gold and treasures. Your view of the maze like caverns is top down, and only the area near you is visible. Throughout the caverns are many different types of enemies you'll encounter; you can try to bargain or run to get out of trouble, or fight and use spells to defeat enemies. You can also optionally enable real-time fighting instead of turn-based. As you explore and (hopefully) win battles, you'll earn experience points and increase your skills. Good luck on your quest! | ||
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| DND | Daniel Michael Lawrence / R.O. Software | [top] | |
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DND is the seminal mainframe classic originally created in 1976, which started computer role-playing games. The name of the game clearly comes from the Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) pen and paper role playing systems, and it uses D&D rules. Further inspired by Pedit5, the game itself is a classic dungeon crawl. It could be counted as a "rogue-like" but doesn't have random dungeons. DND lets you generate your character by randomly rolling attributes (Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, Dexterity and Charisma) and then select one of three classes (Cleric, Fighter or Magician, the first and last are able to cast spells). You then may visit the store where you can buy armour, weapons etc. -- of course, at the very beginning of the game you have no money to spend. Finally, you have a choice of five dungeons to enter, each one with several levels. The dungeons are depicted by a top-down text-graphics view. You only see the surrounding 3x3 squared of the current level. During exploring, you may encounter monsters which you battle in a very simplistic turn-based fight (you only have the options of Attacking and Evading). If you defeat the monster, you gain experience (sometimes resulting in upgrading a level), and some monsters also leave some treasure. Other treasures are randomly strewn in the dungeon, but beware! Some of them are protected by traps. Other sites you can get along are altars (where you can pray or spend money to get divine protection), books (which randomly change your attributes), fountains with random effects, wands which let you cast spells even as a fighter or Dragon's Lairs containing lot of loot, protected by a mighty dragons. There are also teleporters which may randomly zap you to some other part of the dungeon. The game offers no possibility to save your character - when you die, it is as if your character never existed. So make sure to leave the dungeon often to buy the best possible equipment. In 1988, Dungeons of the Necromancer's Domain, a ground-up rewrite of DND, was released. It was indeed "original" in that it wasn't simply a port, and used a new dungeon file format, new dungeons, and was heavily optimized and cleaned up from the original RO Software port. It was later made freeware including The Domain Master dungeon creating tool. | ||
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| Hack | Jay Fenlason, Andries Brouwer / Don Kneller | [top] | |
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This is the precursor to NetHack, both members of the family of text-based Rogue-like games. Like other roguelikes, Hack is the quintessential computer role-playing game (RPG): Choose a character class and venture forth into the dungeon to fight monsters and gain treasure. Like all descendants of Rogue, Hack is displayed from a top-down view, painted with text characters. The player ventures throughout the dungeon, visiting rooms connected by thin corridors. Gameplay is turn-based, with the turn beginning with the player's action (move, attack, eat, cast spell, etc.). Commands are mapped to various letters of the keyboard, including "i" for inventory, "e" for eat food, etc. with one exception: Attacking a monster involves running into it, so the "attack" function shares the same keys as movement. Hack is one of the first significant deviations from Rogue, notable by the rich interaction possible in the game world: Simple actions result in complex (yet logical) reactions. For example, it is not uncommon to throw a boomerang only to miss the target and have it return to hit the player; or kill a monster that has the ability to turn you to stone as an attack, then accidentally step on its carcass on the way out and turn to stone; or having a bolt of fire from a magic wand ricochet around the room, hit the player, and cause his magic scrolls to catch on fire; etc. In addition, monsters and objects have secondary, hidden properties; for example, killing and eating a leprechaun will result in the player randomly teleporting to different locations. | ||
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| ICON: Quest for the Ring | Macrocom, Inc. | [top] | |
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Beautiful maidens live in the river Rhine, protecting the gold that lies there. It is said that the owner of this gold will learn secrets of immense power. But in order to possess the gold, the person has to renounce love completely. Years have passed, and nobody dared make such a sacrifice. But finally, a dwarf named Alberich decided that power was worth more to him than love. He took control of the gold, and became a dark ruler of evil creatures. Will a hero ever rise, brave enough to stop the madness? Based on the popular Ring of the Nibelungen story (itself based on tales from the Norse mythology), ICON: Quest for the Ring is a "dungeon crawler" along the lines of Temple of Apshai, but with fully action-based combat, making it to one of the earliest action RPGs. The player navigates the hero through top-down environments heavily populated by hostile creatures. Standing near the enemy and pressing the attack button will make the protagonist swing the equipped melee weapon; ranged attacks require an additional directional key to execute. As the player progresses, defeating enemies on the way, the protagonist gains levels and becomes stronger. Various weapons and other items are scattered around the dungeons; the hero equips a weapon automatically when he finds it. | ||
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| Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord | Andrew Greenberg, Inc., Robert Woodhead, Inc. / Sir-tech Software, Inc. | [top] | |
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The Mad Overlord Trebor was once only power-mad, but went off the deep end after he acquired a magical amulet of immense power, only to have it stolen from him by his nemesis, the evil archmage Werdna. Werdna, not quite sure how to use the amulet properly, accidentally causes an earthquake which creates a ten-level dungeon beneath Trebor's castle. To avoid looking silly, Werdna declares the dungeon to be the new lair for him and his monster hordes. Trebor, not to be outdone, declares the labyrinth his new Proving Grounds where adventurers must prove themselves for membership in his elite honor guard, and incidentally retrieve his amulet in the process. The first Wizardry was one of the original dungeon-crawling role-playing games, and stands along with Ultima and Might & Magic as one of the defining staples of the genre. The player generates and control a party of up to six different adventurers, choosing from four races (humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes and hobbits), three alignments (good, neutral and evil), and four basic classes (fighter, priest, mage and thief). These can later evolve into elite classes (bishop: priest with mage spells; samurai: fighter with mage spells; lord: fighter with priest spells, and ninja: fighter with thief abilities) if they meet the necessary level requirements. After outfitting the party with basic weapons and armor, the player sends it into a 3D vector maze-like dungeon to fight monsters in turn-based combat and find treasure. The PC version of Wizardry went through several revisions from 1984 to 1987, incrementally fixing bugs and increasing compatiblity with PC clone hardware. Around 1988, Sirtech release a compilation package with several Wizardrys, and the entire graphics subsystem was redone to have redrawn PC-specific graphics (the first PC version used roughly-converted graphics from the original Apple version). See also: #Wizardry: Lylgamyn Saga [J] |
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| Zyll | IBM | [top] | |
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Although subtitled "A Text Adventure Game", Zyll is actually a revolutionary text-only RPG that introduces many concepts that have not since been seen together in one game. The basic plot: you have been transported to a distant land to recover the black orb and at least 4 treasures from Zyll, the evil sorcerer who destroyed your homeland. It's basically a MUD before MUDs existed, an all-text RPG (even going so far as to include three classes of character to choose from). It's real-time, it allows two people to play at once (cooperatively or competitively), and it's highly randomized for replay value: Objects and monsters are placed differently in every game. The screen is divided into ASCII-border windows, and play is driven by single keystrokes rather than a parser (a necessity for the two-player simultaneous option), but there are lots of long text descriptions. With three different types of characters to choose from (Warrior, Thief, and Wizard), high replayability, and some excellent fantasy writing, Zyll is a classic fantasy RPG. | ||
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Platformers
| Alley Cat | Synapse Software Corporation / IBM | [top] | |
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This is an action game consisting of several mini games tied together. You're a little black cat who wants to make love to a pretty lady cat that lives in an apartment complex. Play all kinds of cat-themed mini games in order to reach her and score as many points as you can while doing so. You start out in an alley and need to get inside the apartment by climbing on garbage cans and a fence. Next, jump on a clothesline and through several open windows while big dogs try to eat you and people throw garbage at you. Outside of the apartment complex you can score points by eating the mice that run across the clotheslines. Once you've jumped through a window you enter a room where you play a randomly assigned mini game. These mini games include: eating all the fish in a fish bowl, stealing milk from a bunch of bulldogs, pushing a birdcage from a table and eating the bird, catching mice inside a big cheese, pushing vases from a cabinet. To make things harder there's always a broom inside every room that tries to knock you around. You score points by completing the mini games within a certain time (the faster the better). After you've completed a mini game you're back in the alley. Make your way back inside the apartment complex and you get a chance to play the love-cat game: try to reach the lady cat on the top row of hearts while rival male cats and cupid's arrows knock you down. After you've mated, the difficulty gets cranked up a notch. A fan remake by Asetgames was release in 2006 as Alley Cat 2 with some enhanced graphics and new rooms. | ||
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| Bruce Lee | Datasoft, Inc. | [top] | |
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The late martial arts hero features in this platform game, with the aim of reaching a wizard in an underground lair, defeat of whom can offer him untold wealth. In each area you must collect the many strategically-placed lanterns before exiting through the newly-revealed passageway. Some rooms also have escalator-type sections to run along, and the standard (although slightly illogical in this context) ladders. On the way, you'll fight two enemies - a ninja and a green sumo warrior named Yamo. You can defeat them by punching, kicking, dropping on their heads or luring them into hazardous terrain, or even by making them accidentally hit each other. Even after they are killed, however, they keep coming back for more after a few seconds. Since they can move pretty intelligently (they even climb ladders), you should watch out for them. There are lots of hazards to avoid by either walking round or jumping - walls of electrical charge and exploding bushes for example. Say goodbye to ugly 4-color CGA palette of the PC original: a 2001 remake by Mark Rosten is far and away a superior version, retaining all the intuitive gameplay of Commodore 64 version as well as bright 16-color graphics. | ||
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| Championship Lode Runner | Brøderbund Software, Inc. | [top] | |
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A follow-up to the original Lode Runner, with identical gameplay. This package contained 50 of the most challenging levels ever designed, and was intended for expert players only. It did not include the level editor, you had to play through the levels in order, but a save-game option was provided (although you lost one life every time you restored). | ||
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| Congo Bongo | SEGA Corporation | [top] | |
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This is an arcade platform game similar in many ways to Donkey Kong, but with an isometric perspective. The player takes control of a safari hunter who is searching for an ape named Bongo, determined to punish him for setting the hunter's tent on fire. The game consists of four one-screen stages, each with an objective to jump on platforms and reach the top. Various animals will try to stop the protagonist: for example, in the first level a large gorilla throws coconuts at him. The hero has no offensive abilities and must jump or otherwise avoid enemy attacks. Stages may contain obstacles or hazardous spots that would kill off the main character. | ||
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| Hard Hat Mack | Michael Abbot and Matthew Alexander / Electronic Arts | [top] | |
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The Apple II version of this game published in 1983 was the first game published by Electronic Arts. It's similar to Nintendo's remarkably successful Donkey Kong game of the previous year, with more gameplay variety and faster action. The player guides a construction worker through a series of goals, making use of open paths, springboards, conveyor belts, and elevators, taking care not to run out of time. Assuming the role of the titular Hard Hat Mack, the player has three lives. Level One (building framework) - the goal is to replace four holes in the floor, and capture a moving jackhammer to secure the plates. At the same time, the player must avoid getting hit by bolts thrown from above, being tagged by a vandal and OSHA representative who circulate through the building, and falling off the edge of the building. Level Two (construction site) - the player guides Hard Hat Mack through a four-level construction site with the goal of collecting five lunchboxes. An OSHA representative blocks the final hurdle, requiring a carefully timed jump. Level Three (factory) - the player collects five boxes and drops each one into a processor. An OSHA representative moves back and forth near one of the boxes, requiring a very careful jump. At the completion of a round, the game cycles anew with faster gameplay. | ||
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| Janitor Joe | Kevin Bales | [top] | |
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This is an early PC action platform game. On an automated space station all of the robots have gone crazy, and Joe needs to escape! In order to escape, he needs to collect all of his keys which are located throughout the space station. You control Joe and need to climb and jump around the various platforms to reach all of the keys. On each screen there are several mad robots wandering about which should be avoided (or you lose a life). You also need to make sure you don't fall too great a distance or run out of oxygen! There are five different difficulty levels available, and also a special hidden room. | ||
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| Montezuma's Revenge | BCI Software / Parker Brothers | [top] | |
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You play as a treasure hunter named Panama Joe, whose goal is to find an ancient treasure hidden by Aztec warrior deep inside catacombs. But beware, the catacombs are a large maze inhabited by monsters. Bouncing and rolling skulls, dancing spiders, disappearing and re-appearing chains and tons of fire await you. You'll have to find many keys and unlock doors in order to reach your goal. Panama Joe can jump and climb ladders, but doesn't have much to offer in terms of combat. That's why the monsters in the game should be avoided: a collision with an enemy leads to a premature death. It's one of those early platform games that invent the whole new genre - in this case: treasure-hunting-puzzle-solving platform games. What makes Montezuma's Revenge so addictive is hard to describe - it's the combination of action, puzzle, devious level design, and innumerable additional touches. Black rooms, great sound effects, a large maze, disappearing platforms - it's a mother of a platform game, and a great one at that! Bad Mouse Digital Art made a free 3D remake with Blitz Basic engine for the 2006 Retro Remakes Competition which kept the spirit of the original game (and the level design is nearly the same as well), but created beautiful new graphics which combine 2D animation and 3D backgrounds. There is also an atmospheric soundtrack and five different difficulty levels (from "extremely easy" to "extremely hard"). | ||
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| Pitfall II: Lost Caverns | Activision Publishing | [top] | |
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You play Pitfall Harry searching for the Raj diamond, his niece Rhonda, and a variety of treasures somewhere in the Andes. Poisonous frogs, eels, scorpions, bats and other hazards get in the way. Pitfall II is the sequel to Pitfall, the original platform game which was a huge hit on the Atari but never made it to the PC until this game. Gameplay has remained pretty much the same, with each screen presenting a side view of obstacles to get past, and potentially treasures to collect. The landscape is more maze like, with a variety of paths and dead ends to search. Along the way there are checkpoints the player will encounter. When the player dies, Pitfall Harry will be sent back to the most recently crossed checkpoint. In 2004, a superb fanmade remake by Frank Abbing & David Crane was made that takes the original frantic jump 'n run action, but propels it to a whole new level by increasing the "adventure" part of "arcade adventure" by a considerable margin. | ||
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Casual Games
| 3-K Trivia | IBM | [top] | |
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This is a trivia game for up to six players. Each question round begins with a slot machine which randomly chooses three of the question categories (science, history, geography, nature, sports, show business and two mixed topics). Then the player (each participant is quizzed separately) chooses the category (provided that different ones appeared) and has to answer a trivia question by typing in the answer. Answering correctly awards a certain amount of points and the goal is to collect more than the other players. The specific amount is influenced by a number of factors, most importantly the spinning at the beginning of the round: when a category appears more than once, it is worth more points. There are also Joker cards which increase the stake. Points are deducted for using the help function (revealing a letter) or small differences (e.g. due to a typo) to the correct answer. When the result is tied after the last question was asked, the game continues one question at a time until one player wins. Options include setting the number of questions each player is asked (up to 25) and a 15 second time limit for answering. The game allows to add more questions. | ||
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| Archon: The Light and the Dark | Free Fall Associates / Electronic Arts, Inc. | [top] | |
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This is a strategic board game with some similarities to chess. Two sides, a light one and a dark one, consisting of 18 pieces each compete on a board divided into (9 by 9) squares. You win the game by having one of your units on each of the five powerpoint squares, by removing all opposing pieces from the board or by imprisoning the last remaining creature of the opposing side. However, you can't just remove a piece from the board by landing on it. When two pieces clash, the outcome is decided in the battle arena during one-on-one real-time combat. If the real-time combat takes place on a dark square, the dark monster gets a health bonus (longer life bar). On a light square the light side gains an advantage. There are also some squares whose color changes over time (from afternoon, to dusk, to night, to dawn etc.), which adds an extra layer of strategy to the game. Unlike chess the two sides are not identical. Both sides consist of mythological creatures. For example the light side has among others unicorns, valkyries and a djinni while the dark side features basilisks, banshees and manticores. The differences are not just cosmetic. Two special pieces are the light wizard & the dark sorceress, they can both cast magical spells like: imprison a unit on the board, shift the flow of time (change day/night cycle to your advantage), bring one unit back from the dead etc. The different pieces have their own movement restrictions regarding the number of squares they're allowed to travel on the board and whether or not they can jump over other units (like the knight in chess). Units also behave different in combat; some units are faster than others, some use melee attacks while others fire projectiles. Archon can be played with either one or two players. | ||
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| Boulder Dash | First Star Software, Inc. | [top] | |
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You are Rockford, and you have to dig through monster infested caves in search of diamonds. In each level you must collect a certain number of these diamonds, in order to open a portal to the next stage. Enemies can be squashed by falling boulders, which are released when the ground below them is removed or they are pushed onto empty ground, but be careful because these can also squash you. In later levels, difficulty is increased by many puzzle elements and shorter time limits. It was so popular on the home computer that it was ported to an arcade version (where usually the opposite happens). A free DOS fan remake was released in 1996 by Petr Simon and a Windows remake in 2005 by Marcin Liwak. | ||
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| Frogger II: ThreeeDeep! | Parker Brothers / SEGA Enterprises, Inc. | [top] | |
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The game is a sequel to the original Frogger from 1981, and features similar gameplay. You need to guide your frog to safety in three different locations. Starting out underwater, reach the top of the pond while avoiding dangerous alligators and fish (you can ride a turtle for safety!). Once on top of the pond, hop across logs, birds, and even a whale to the life preserver trailing behind a tugboat. In the third location you have to hop across a flock of birds to reach a cloud at the top of the screen. Each frog has a time limit to safely reach one of the homes on each of the three screens. You move on to the next level when a frog has safely reached each of the homes on all screens. | ||
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| Gremlins | Atari, Inc. / Atarisoft | [top] | |
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This is an action game based on the Steven Spielberg produced movie of the same name. The game takes place just after midnight when there are Gremlins and Mogwai running around Billy's living room. You control Billy from a 3rd person point of view. On each level, your goal is to catch all of the Mogwai and return them to their cage (located in the upper right corner of the screen) and to destroy all of the Gremlins with a sword. Each level has a time limit - at 6:00 am when the sun rises. You move on to the next level by completing your tasks or just surviving until 6:00, although more points are awarded for the former. You will also receive bonus points for each Mogwai returned to the cage. On many of the levels there will be various types of food lying about the screen. If a Mogwai eats any food, it will turn into a gremlin. There may also be puddles of water; if a Gremlin or Mogwai runs into the water, it will split into two. Some levels also contain a refrigerator or popcorn machine which will throw food out onto the screen, or a television which will distract the Gremlins. You also begin the game with a limited number of flash cubes; if you get into trouble, you can use these to temporarily stun all of the Gremlins and Mogwai. As the levels progress gameplay becomes faster and the Gremlins and Mogwai more numerous. | ||
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| Microsurgeon | Imagic | [top] | |
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You're a microsurgeon, and your patient is in critical condition. First you need to examine the patient's medical chart to find out what's wrong, and which conditions are the most critical. Now to save the patient, you control a robot probe which can be used to administer aspirin, antiseptic, or ultrasonics to clear up the problem. You should clear up the most critical conditions first, then move on to the less serious areas to ensure your patient survives. Your probe should navigate through the veins, arteries, and lymph; if you guide the probe outside these areas, it's movement will slow down and swarms of white blood cells will attack it, depleting the limited energy supply. There are 197 different patients you need to help, each with different ailments. | ||
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| New York Times Crossword Puzzles, The: Volume III | Evolving Technology Company Inc. / ShareData Inc., Softie Inc. | [top] | |
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Here is a selection of the famed weekday puzzles published by THE NEW YORK TIMES ready to challenge you on your personal computer... with all the tricks, traps and teasing puns you expect, plus. SPECIAL CLUES to help you solve them. Solve these puzzles just as they appeared in THE NEW YORK TIMES, enjoying personal competition with provocative and clever word-testers. Establish your expertise as a learned and accomplished crossword puzzle solver. Use the SPECIAL CLUES built into the computer program to help you over just the "hard spots" You'll build your vocabulary and enlarge your trivia knowledge in the process, and find you're becoming an expert on all crosswords you solve. Scan the pre-programmed answers and use our built-in "word checking" freely. You can progress from the beginner level to become a champion solver in no time at all. BEGINNER OR EXPERT... YOU'LL SOLVE THEM. You'll enjoy the challenge and subtle humor long associated with THE NEW YORK TIMES Crossword Puzzles. You can save your puzzle and return to it at any time. You can even erase your answer (or any part of it) and let family members or friends solve the puzzle their way. Simply turn on your machine and run the Computer Crosswords** program, and you'll be solving the finest crossword puzzles from THE NEW YORK TIMES. | ||
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| PC Pool Challenges | Hesware / IBM | [top] | |
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Play straight pool or 8 ball with up to 4 players in this incredibly customizable pool simulation. Players can be human or computer controlled. Nearly every aspect of pool is re-created in this game including speed, English, skill levels and more. The game also has a customize menu allowing you to change friction, rail bounce, collide accuracy and much, much more. | ||
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| Q*Bert | Parker Brothers | [top] | |
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This is a conversion of the popular arcade game. The goal is to change all of the tiles on a pyramid to the target color. To do this you guide Q*bert around the pyramid, and every tile he hops on will change color. On early levels, a single hop will change the tile to the desired color, but on later levels you may need to hop on a tile multiple times or even avoid hopping on a tile multiple times! Trying to stop Q*bert are many different creatures which wander around the board, including Coily the snake, Slick and Sam, and falling balls. On the edge of the board are floating discs; if Q*bert jumps on one of these discs when the snake is in pursuit, the snake will fall off the board while Q*bert is safely transported to the top. In 1997, a free fan-made remake called PC*Bert by JROK was released. In 2021, a free remake in Pico-8 was released by pahammond. | ||
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| Rollo and the Brush Brothers | Windmill Software | [top] | |
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This is similar to the arcade game Amidar where you play the role of "Rollo", where the aim of the game is to paint the entire section while evading the "Brush Brothers" in order to progress in the game. The "painting" process consists of you moving Rollo around the many "square-like" sections in the game (paint-the-lines). Successfully "painting" an entire section will automatically paint the entire square and thus adding points. Successfully painting all the squares will advance you to the next level. While painting these sections, you have to avoid the Brush Brothers. Physical contact with them will automatically kill one of your lives. Another entity in the game is the "eraser brush" which will erase any painted lines you've previously painted. This however, does not apply to squares you've successfully painted. Your paint supply however, does not last forever. Pick up cans of paint when you've run out of paint to continue your painting. Another "power-up" enables you to "kill" the Brush Brothers, allowing you to paint in peace until they regenerate again (indicated when the "power-up" song ends). Higher levels introduces more difficult challenges, among others but not limited to: Faster movement of the Brush Brothers, requiring more than 1 lap to successfully paint a square, limited paint cans, etc. | ||
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| Sargon III | Hayden Software Co. Inc. | [top] | |
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The Sargon series were the connoisseur's chess games at the time. This edition includes variable move times, ranging from 5 seconds to infinity. Moves can be undone and you can swap sides during the game. The search feature displays its calculations as you play, which can be useful to learn from. Special tactical situations, opening move sequences and checkmate practices can be loaded in for learning purposes. | ||
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| Styx | Windmill Software Inc. | [top] | |
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A variation on QIX: claim the playfield by building walls and closing off smaller regions. The chief obstacle is the colorful Styx, which (fittingly) resembles a bundle of sticks, and prowls about the screen in unpredictable swirls of motion. Unlike QIX, you can draw both straight and diagonal walls; another difference is the scoring, which depends on a cycling multiplier: time your conquests right, and you may even increase your bonus tenfold. The Styx cannot harm you as you travel along the border of your captured areas, but if it touches a wall as you build it, the wall goes down - along with you. Other ways to get yourself killed are standing still for too long (while building), and meeting the worm that crawls along the edges of your domain. Capturing at least 80% of the playfield will end the level - bonuses are awarded for more; higher levels feature faster action, more worms, multiple Styx (Stygii?), and generally nastier enemy behavior. | ||
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| Tapper | Bally Midway Manufacturing Co., Inc. / SEGA Enterprises, Inc. | [top] | |
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Tapper is a fun arcade game where you're a beer tapper (barman) and have to serve beer to demanding customers. It's a progenitor of food delivery time-management games. There are four customers, each has its own lane lengthier than the previous one, whom you have to keep at bay. If they reach the end of the lane without receiving their beer, you're a goner; if you miss one and accidentally spill beer needlessly you lose a life and should one of them throw you back the mug and you fail to catch it, you lose a life as well. Occasionally a bizarre icon will appear on one of the lines and, should you grab it, will invoke a "cabarette"-style show which will keep some of the customers occupied. You also collect tips and there is a challenge round in between each level. There are four settings for the game, each setting lasting for two to four levels: a western, sports, punk and space bars. | ||
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| Trivia 101 | Digital Learning Systems, Inc. / IBM | [top] | |
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In the same vein as TV and Cinema and 3k Trivia, IBM gives us another game show trivia game, this time with categories such as: The Bible, Famous Epitaphs, High Technology (for 1984...), Hollywood Horrors, Diet and Fitness, ...and about 100 more. | ||
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| TV and Cinema 101: Trivia from Talkies to Trekkies | Digital Learning Systems, Inc. / IBM | [top] | |
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This is one of a trilogy of trivia games developed by Digital Learning Systems and published by IBM in 1984. The games are all straightforward multiple-choice trivia games that allow up to 6 (in 3-K Trivia) or 14 (in TV and Cinema 101) players to compete, either individually or in teams. The questions range from easy to very hard. This one is clearly about TV and films. | ||
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