| The Years |
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1962-1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 |
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(Melbourne House - 1982) One of the earliest and most enduring of Spectrum titles. The Hobbit was used as a benchmark for Spectrum adventures. Unlike earlier games it accepted long and complex sentences making the task of adventuring about Middle Earth far more pleasurable than battling with inferior games' vocabularies. The Hobbit offered atmospheric, well rendered locations and tricky problems to overcome. Despite accusations of being bug-ridden, it remains an undisputed classic and is probably responsible for introducing more people to adventuring than any other game.
(Beyond - 1984) The name of Mike Singleton was little known in the industry prior to the release of LOM. After dabbling with a Commodore Pet in the early 1980s, he moved onto the ZX81 and wrote Games Pack 1, released by Sinclair as one of the first commercial programs for the computer. Around this time he was also involved in play-by-mail gaming and it was this interest that put him in touch with Computer & Video Games magazine, who wanted him to start a PBM game for them. When C&VG decided to set up a software company called Beyond, it was Singleton they turned to again. The game he eventually came up with was Lords of Midnight, and it changed the face of adventuring forever. Forget about poking around some text-only dungeon, here you could view the world through the most sumptuous graphics yet seen, and explore a total of 3904 locations. You were able to look in any of eight compass directions, giving a total of 31,232 views of the beautifully drawn Land of Midnight. The game is far from being solely about visuals though. It is an absorbing and compelling adventure, placing you in control of multiple characters on a quest to defeat the evil witchking, Doomdark. Lords of Midnight was undoubtedly the first 'epic' game to be released on the Spectrum.
(Ram Jam Corp - 1984) Unlike most adventures, Valkyrie 17 came with no instruction booklet revealing the plot to you. Instead you received some sinister-looking Nazi blueprints and a series of increasingly frantic answerphone messages on side 2 of the tape, which ends with a gunshot and a pained voice gasping "the Red Kipper flies at midnight". Following this cryptic opener, you must get to the bottom of a dastardly Nazi plot involving the development of a deadly secret weapon. There's nothing nasty about the game though; in fact it's very funny, especially when confronted by stupid commands.
(Beyond - 1985) Lords of Midnight was a hard act to follow, but its sequel did it in style. The look is much the same as the original, but the gameplay, storyline and atmosphere are even better. It's bigger too with 6000 locations and 48,000 different views. And it's tougher, with a more complex series of tasks to undertake and varied series of characters to interact with. The game starts where LOM left off, with the Ice Crown destroyed and Doomdark killed. But disaster has struck! Doomdark's daughter, Shareth, kidnaps Morkin in revenge and locks him away in her fortress. As Luxor, Morkin's father, you must rescue your son and destroy Shareth. Not as easy as it sounds. The game as a whole is far more sophisticated than LOM and a challenge for even the most hardened adventurer.
(Automata - 1982) Well what can you say about this one? Original? Certainly. It offered a prize of a £6000 sundial for the first person to complete it. The solution to the game would reveal a place, a time and person to meet to claim your prize. It took over two years to solve and Automata eventually bought the afore mention timepiece back from the lucky winner! Without this incentive, it's still an entertaining adventure. Forget what you know about conventional games of the genre, because this is something completely different. Prepare to have your powers of lateral thinking tested to their limit. It was the game that launched Piman and industry guru Mel Croucher to fame.
No type of game prospered then waned quite as dramatically during the Spectrum's golden age as the adventure. The programming skills involved in producing them were more easily attainable than those required to write an arcade title, so examples appeared in abundance. The release of applications such as The Quill intensified the output, peaking in around 1985, when close to 100 adventures were released onto the market. That may not sound like much, but it's probably more than the combined total of the previous three years. By the end of 1987, however, the text adventure looked like a tired format and more than any other genre, it had fallen from favour. Thanks to my love of adventures and the vast number of titles to choose from, this section is somewhat larger than planned. All my waffle isn't helping either, so on with my choice of the most worthy adventures from the years 1982 to 1986.
Back in 1984 a previously little-known company called Gilsoft released a program called The Quill, a superb adventure writing application that enabled every budding programmer to write fast machine code adventure games. To prove what an effective system it was, they launched a range of games of their own. Africa Gardens was arguably the best of the bunch. You come across the imposing form of the Africa Garden's Hotel on a dismal night. Walking inside you are chillingly told that 'Mr Robinson hopes that you may be amongst his many guests who feel they can never leave.' There are countless rooms and gardens to explore as you struggle to find a way out. The locations are wonderfully described, resulting in a game that positively drips with unease. Black Crystal (Carnell - 1983) A veritable monster of a game which I only scratched the surface of when I played it. There is a vast map to explore, blighted by evil monsters for you to do battle with. Apparently the original came with a hefty set of instructions which provided vital background information. Perhaps this is why I fared so poorly. Frustrating, but thoroughly addictive. The Boggit (CRL - 1986) In a hole in the Shire, which is a particularly retarded area of Muddle Earth, there lived a Boggit called Bimbo Faggins. If there was one thing he was determined about, it was that he would never get caught up in one of those silly adventure games. Then he saw Grandalf the meddling old conjuror come walking down the garden path. So begins this hilarious parody of The Hobbit. It's not just laughs though, because lurking beneath the stupidity is the body of an excellent adventure. Buffer Micro Adventure (Buffer Micro - 1983) Buffer Micro was a well-known computer shop in South London at a time when dedicated computer shops were few and far between. Such was their stature, that they even released a few games of their own. I don't recall Boots ever doing that! In an act of flagrant self-promotion, this is actually an adventure set inside the Buffer Micro shop. You have decided to see how the shop works, then discover that you've lost your credit card and the staff won't let you leave until you buy something. It doesn't sound up to much, but this is actually extemely playable and full of good humour. Castle Blackstar (SCR - 1984) A classic 'collect the treasure' text-only adventure. You have been bid to enter the titular castle by the Goddess Artemis to collect goodies and locate her power orb (oo-er). There are a plethora of rooms to fuddle through, solving some tricky problems as you go. There's a smattering of good humour and the locations are generally well described. Thanks to its intelligence and complexity, this is a most satisfying adventure. Circus (Digital Fantasia - 1984) At one point it seemed as though Brian Howarth was responsible for half of the adventures on the market. Thankfully, he was a master of the genre and nearly all of his games could be relied upon for good entertainment. Circus finds your car conking out on a remote road. You begin to walk and stumble across a circus tent blaring with the noise of elephants, lions and clowns - until you wander inside and it falls dark and silent. Spooky stuff, with some baffling puzzles to struggle with. Colditz (Phipps Associates - 1984) Nasty Nazis have you locked up in their inescapable castle prison and armed with your wits and cunning it's down to you to find your way to freedom. Eagle-eyed guards are on the prowl, so watch your step. There's plenty of tip-toeing around rooms and crawling through tunnels to be done, but you can't just slip out on your own - there's an distinguished scientist to release too. The graphics are rudimentary, but this doesn't affect the atmosphere badly. It's still a perplexing and nerve-jangling adventure. Classic Adventure (Melbourne House - 1984) Also released as Adventure 1 by Abersoft and Colossal Caves by CP Software. This is a version of Crowther and Wood's original Adventure, following the same pattern of caverns and monsters. Not overly difficult but good fun. Colossal Adventure (Level 9 - 1983) A superior treasure collecting adventure from the masters of the form. Again, this game owes a great deal to Crowther and Wood's Adventure, being set in a series of tunnels and caverns. The roaming creatures are particularly abundant though and there'll be a heap of dead bodies by the time you reach the end. A text-only adventure with a huge playing area to explore, this was the first part of Level 9's Middle Earth trilogy that also included Adventure Quest and Dungeon Adventure. Denis Through the Drinking Glass (Applications - 1984) You are cast as Denis Thatcher in this witty and absorbing game. Poor old Denis just wants to get out of Downing Street and head down the pub, but in his way is the formidable Maggie. To make matters worse, if Denis doesn't have a drink within 10 moves it's game over! The locations are all written in rhyme and there are many humorous comments on the world of politics. This is an extremely original and engaging adventure.
A text adventure with graphics that plonks you onto a lush island in the Bermuda triangle. There are strange goings-on, odd letters cut into the landscape or hanging in mid-air and all manner of mysterious people to interact with. As ever with Level 9 adventures, the locations are vividly rendered, with the additional bonus of graphics in this case. The vocabulary is huge and you'll rarely find yourself having to rephrase your commands. An attractive and captivating game, but one that some Level 9 purists consider to be a little too mundane. Espionage Island - Adventure 'D' (Artic - 1982) No collection would be complete without at least one example of Artic's early range of adventures, lettered A to F. While on a straightforward reconnaissance mission over an enemy island, your plane is hit and begins to plummet. Looking around, you see a parachute. You must find your way safely to the ground, inflitrate the enemy complex, snatch vital information and reach your aircraft carrier. As with most Artic adventures, this is well-written, atmospheric and dashed with good humour. Eureka (Domark - 1985) This game caused a huge hullaballoo when it was launched because of the £25,000 prize that it offered to the first person to finish it. The story goes that a talisman found on the Moon has shattered and the parts scattered through time. As you've probably guessed, your job is to travel through the time zones and gather the fragments. This involves meeting your prehistoric ancestors, rapping with the boys at Camelot and exploring ancient Rome. At the start of each zone there is an arcade sequence to complete - a factor which caused many an adventure critic to go purple with horror - but these segments do at least affect the attributes of your character, so they have some relevance. A tired old concept, but the promise of that hefty cash prize kept people playing it for months. Eye of Bain - Adventure 'F' (Artic - 1983) The last of the classic series of Artic adventures; they produced others after this, but they were not designated by a letter. This game begins with you tied to a post in a shack looking for some way to escape the natives who have shackled you there. Like most Artic adventures it's a fairly no frills affair with some basic graphic locations and almost terse descriptions. However, it asks questions of any adventurer, as you stumble through a world of angry natives, killer bees and bloodthirsty pirates. Fantasia Diamond (Hewson - 1984) A top notch adventure from Hewson, a company not normally associated with them. The diamond of the title has been nabbed and locked away in an impenetrable fortress. Boris, the master spy, has already tried to steal it back and is now rotting in the castle's dungeons. That leaves it to you to find a way in, grab the diamond, release Boris and escape with everything intact. What makes this game so special is that it includes some great interactive characters who carry on with their own business, regardless of what you do. The graphics are neat and effective, the vocabulary is user-friendly and there are some nice touches, such as the way the amount you can carry is determined by your strength. The Final Mission (Incentive - 1984) The final part of the Ket Trilogy. Having finished the previous installment with a nasty whack on the head, you awake in a prison cell, disorientated and dispirited. Naturally, your first job is to escape. Perhaps that chair against the wall will help? Once out, you explore the eerie expanses of the temple, while unseen monsters shuffle and scrape about you. If you can find your way safely through the maze of passages and tunnels, you might succeed in your final mission and kill Vran the sorcerer himself. This is a worthy finale to a great series of games. Fire and Ice (Electric Software - 1984) This game stands out of the crowd for having possibly the worst magazine advert ever, but one that wonderfully encapsulates the amateurish state of the software industry at the time. Fortunately the monkey with a pencil in its teeth that drew the ad was not responsible for the game, which is actually not bad at all. Unlike other adventures, you don't risk your own hide, but guide a loyal servant on a treacherous mission to rid the world of those pesky elements of the title - Fire and Ice. A surprisingly well-written adventure that features some nice humour from your reluctant servant. Fourth Protocol (Hutchinson - 1985) Based on the spy novel by Frederick Forsyth, this adventure puts you in the shoes of British agent John Preston (thrilling name) with a mission to prevent those eternal blighters, the Ruskies, from letting off a nuclear bomb in Britain. There are three stages to the game: Nato Documents, The Bomb and The SAS Assault. You'll find plenty of reports to gather, codes to decipher and plots to foil and it's all run from a natty icon-driven interface. Some might say that this is more of a strategy than an adventure, but there are enough riddles to solve to class it as the latter. A crisply presented and extremely playable spy romp. Golden Apple - Adventure 'E' (Artic - 1983) Possibly the largest of Artic's range of adventures. You must collect 13 objects which are scattered across a vast number of locations, including a ship, a volcanic island and a huge mansion. It's text-only, but the locations are all well rendered, making it atmospheric. As ever with these games, the problems range from head-smackingly obvious to brain-achingly prosaic. Very enjoyable. Golden Baton (Digital Fantasia - 1984) Another epic from the pen of Brian Howarth. A text-with-graphics adventure that plunges you into a fantasy world full of horrific nasties that stand in the way of your mission to recover the golden baton of the title. A highly accomplished and playable adventure that was followed by three (count 'em) sequels: Arrow of Death (Parts 1 & 2) and The Wizard of Akryz. Greedy Gulch (Phipps Associates - 1983) One of the earliest adventure I played and one that I still hold dear. It is set in the old West (America, not Somerset) and your job is to track down a fortune in an abandoned mine. There are ghostly goings on that add to the atmosphere and puzzles a-plenty, although none of them are especially demanding. Gremlins (Adventure International - 1985) I can't say that I was ever a big fan of the later Adventure International titles. Perhaps it was because they were American, or maybe I didn't like the strange un-Spectrum-like feel that they had. Nonetheless, they were highly competent games from the company that championed adventures in the early 80s. This spin-off, from the film of the same name, is blessed with terrific graphics, some of which are animated and update to show the results of your actions. It sticks quite faithfully to the movie, with you struggling to save a small American town that is being terrorised by those vicious little critters. Not especially difficult, but with good old Brian Howarth at the helm, you know that it's going to offer plenty of thrills and spills along the way.
While adventure fans eagerly awaited the release of Sherlock - Melbourne House's first major release since The Hobbit - they produced another game which is often overlooked when considering popular adventures of the Spectrum era. In Hampstead, you find yourself in your grotty London flat watching TV and cursing your wretched standing in life. Your aim is to put your squallid ways behind you and progress up the social ladder, picking up a big car, a posh house and a nice wife along the way. A refreshing change if you're tired of killing dragons and a game with curiously 1980s values. The Helm (Firebird - 1985) The Helm is a clever piece of headwear that bestows immortality on its wearer, and the evil Lich is looking to get his hands on all the pieces. As a brave and noble adventurer you must track down the parts of the helm, including the one that Lich himself keeps in his castle, and save the world from certain doom. Quite a silly game, but one chock full of posers that will keep you coming back for more. ID (CRL - 1986) Mel Croucher was the co-founder of Automata, the company who introduced us to the Pi Man. He was also a firm believer that computer gaming shouldn't just be about blasting aliens or following trends, but should be a medium that constantly strives for fresh ideas - even if some of them appeared to be rather obtuse. First his company gave us Deus Ex Machina, a high concept game that asked the player to nurture a new life by spinning its DNA and listening to psychedelic music. Far out. It won a hatful of praise and awards but no one bought it. This was a shame because it was a brave effort at forging new avenues in computer entertainment. On to IDthough, written by Croucher a year after leaving Automata. The game turns your computer into a frightened personality. Your task is to converse with it, learn its secrets and gain its trust. In order to progress you need to discover certain key words that enable you to move to the next level. Although the game can become quite repetitive if you fail to strike the right note with the computer entity, it is a highly imaginative and original piece of programming. Inca Curse - Adventure 'B' (Artic - 1982) It's those Artic boys again, this time with a game set in a lost Inca temple. It's a standard treasure-collector, but with enough twists and turns to keep most adventurers happy. Invincible Island (Richard Shepherd - 1983) I was not overjoyed by most of the Richard Shepherd adventures (any of their games for that matter), but this is an intriguing effort that has you hunting for the 'seven parchments of Xaro' on a treacherous island. The game features colourful graphics and some interesting obstacles, some of which are actually quite tricky. Another famous standard of the early adventure scene. Diverting and surprisingly tough. Kentilla (Micromega - 1986) The sequel to Velnor's Lair from Crash's Derek Brewster. Predictably the magazine praised it through the roof, while equally predictably, other magazines gave it a hard time. Actually, this is a challenging adventure written by a man who knew a thing or two about them. It's only real let down is that it's too clever at times. I found it ball-bustingly difficult in some areas, although its interface is easy to use and the presentation is smart and pleasing. With the addition of graphics (Velnor's had none) there is sometimes a shortage of vivid description and the atmosphere suffers for it. If you're a hard core adventurer though and fancy a real test, try this out. Legend of Apache Gold (Incentive - 1986) This was a game that won an award for the best game produced using Incentive's Graphic Adventure Creator (GAC). It's theme is tired enough - search for booty in the Wild West - but this is a lively and engaging adventure with a heap of locations to explore and a treasure chest full of puzzles to master. Lords of Time (Level 9 - 1984) Simply one of the best adventure games ever written. Text only, but that doesn't make a jot of difference. An old grandfather clock in your living room gives you access to numerous time zones, where you must find nine special objects for mixing in a cauldron, which itself has to be located. Zooming about in time, you'll find yourself exploring the prehistory of man one minute and searching the stars the next. If you liked Dr Who, you'll love this. Outstanding. The Long Way Home (Magnetic Magazines - 1983/4) 16/48 was a tape-based magazine that ran between 1983 and 1984. As well as some editorial, it featured handy programming routines and a variety of games. One of its best loved titles was a serialised adventure game called The Long Way Home, which is set in the year 4816, a time when people skip from place to place using matter transporters. As you step into a trans-mat unit one evening expecting to appear in your home, things go horribly wrong and you materialise on a strange spaceship. So begins the long and arduous quest to find your way home. Considering that they were part of a cheap compilation tape, these games were surprisingly good, if rather limited on the vocabulary front. Even if they wouldn't win any awards, I know that there are many people out there who still hold these games dear. Mad Martha (Mikrogen - 1982) Here's a game which many loathed, others loved, but is definitely worth another visit. You play hen-pecked hubby Henry whose task it is to steal some money from his horrific axe-wielding wife Martha, escape from the house and enjoy a night on the town. The game is interspersed with simple arcade sequences that irritated many adventure purists and proved too basic to woo arcade fans into the word games of the adventure world. If you can put your prejudices aside, however, it is a thoroughly enjoyable and amusing game which spawned an equally entertaining sequel.
You awake on a desert island with no memory. That's all the information you have at the start of the game. Then begin your efforts to escape the island and discover who you are and how you came to be left for dead. Your quest takes you across the ocean, to Britain and eventually to Luxembourg of all places. A little tip: you can't finish the game without using the THINK command. This is a well-written and intriguing adventure that sucks you in with its superb graphics and captivating plotline. Highly recommended. Mindbender (Gilsoft - 1984) Part of Gilsoft's 'Gold Range' of games that they released alongside their Quill adventure writing system. This is an engrossing and perplexing game that starts by dropping you into an ordinary office with no explanation of what you are supposed to do. After rooting about for a few moves you are informed that you are under the control of the Mindbender Machine, a mind-control device that had been snatched by a bunch of no good revolutionaries bent on taking over the world. By some fluke of fate, you appear to be immune to the Mindbender's power, which makes you a problem for the nasty insurgents. Having been flung into their underground prison, you must find a way to escape and smash the cursed Minderbender into so many tangled components. Good luck. The Mountains of Ket (Incentive - 1983) You do what? Type instructions in and solve problems? I was sceptical, but intrigued when a friend lent me Mountains of Ket. It turned out to be the game that would hook me on adventures for years. You are framed for murder and given a simple choice: accept a mission to find the entrance to the Mountains of Ket or die. The adventure starts on the edge of a village overlooked by the mountains. The locations are described to you by Edgar, an assassin bug sent with you to ensure that you don't do a runner. Starting with just a few coins and your trusty sword you must equip yourself with enough kit and information to locate and enter the Mountains. Once inside, there are all manner of monsters and puzzles to contend with. The game includes a role-playing-game-style combat system, the first to appear in computer adventures. It's humorous, atmospheric, clever and not too difficult. Two equally good sequels followed. The Oracles Cave (Doric - 1984) An unaccountably popular game at the time which I only ever saw available through mail order. It's a graphical adventure in which you move your character around a series of randomly generated caves. Other actions are controlled via a small selection of commands chosen from a menu. There are treasures to collect and monsters to slay, but I found it somewhat monotonous. It's listed here though, because I remember it having quite a following back in the day. Out of the Shadows (Mizar - 1984) Many games attempted to bring the role playing games of the Dungeons & Dragons ilk to the home computer, but most of them were merely conventional adventures with an added gimmick - or just plain abysmal. Mizar got it right though with Out of the Shadows. It created an enormous fantasy world to explore, presented to the player though a combination of graphics and text. As your mission progresses, you will find yourselves becoming involved in all the classic features of fantasy gaming: collecting equipment and treasure, fighting monsters and watching your various attributes change. There is so much to this game that I can do it very little justice in one paragraph. Suffice to say it's the nearest thing toD&D the Spectrum ever offered. Just play it.
This legendary adventure finally reached the Spectrum after impressing people on the QL and Atari ST. There are no snazzy graphics here, just sumptuous text descriptions, a heap of other characters to interact with and some devilishly tricky problems. The plot is that you find yourself miraculously dumped in the mystical land of Kerovnia, with nothing but a strange armband in terms of equipment. Somehow you must find your way back to your world. A lavish atmosphere and a highly intelligent parser make this a way above average adventure. Planet of Death - Adventure 'A' (Artic - 1982) The game that got the legendary series of Artic adventures rolling. You are marooned on a strange alien world, searching desperately for your spaceship. It's an oddly eerie game with the customary Artic mixture of simple and bewildering quandaries to ponder. Quann Tulla (8th Day - 1985) This was part of a range of budget Quilled games from 8th Day Software to appear in the mid-80s. Its setting is certainly a well-trodden path: the crippled spaceship, but despite this unpromising premise, it turns out to be a jaunty affair with a mountain of locations, each of which is described with care. As well as searching the starship Quan Tilla, you also have to explore a distant planet during later stages of the game. Secret plans need to be retrieved, a traitor put to death and a crippled ship destroyed. More than enough to be getting on with. Red Hawk (Melbourne House - 1986) A real curiosity this one. The game is presented in a bizarre comic strip fashion that actually works surprisingly well. You are an every day Joe with a secret alter ego: Redhawk. Just cry, "Kwah!" and you transform into a caped crusader ready to do battle with some villainous scum. The game was popular enough to spawn an sequel. Red Moon (Level 9 - 1985) Rescue the moon crystal of Baskalos and save your kingdom from slipping into barbarism. Another sublime tale of magik and mayhem from the adventure kings. The game is slick, fast-moving with strikingly depicted locations, spells to be cast and an innovative combat system. As ever, playing it is never a battle against the game's vocabulary as is often the case with inferior adventures. Another classy effort from Level 9. Part of a mini series of games, that also included The Price of Magik. Return to Eden (Level 9 - 1985) Mind-achingly tough, this second installment of the astonishing Silicon Dreams trilogy is still a country mile better than the majority of adventures. Unlike its prequel, Snowball, this game includes location graphics to accompany the lucid descriptions. Having saved the Snowball, Kim Kimberly is charged with sabotage and sentenced to death (gratitude eh?). Forced to flee to the planet of Eden, Kim lies low in the jungle. Unfortunately the flora and fauna of this planet prove as deadly as any firing squad. Your job is to guide Kim to the robot city to the east of the jungle in one piece - a task that I found nigh on impossible. Runestone (Games Workshop - 1985) Runestone is an adventure which uses graphics startlingly similar to those found in Lords of Midnight, but relies on traditional text input to control it. You take charge of three characters as you set out on a mission to destroy Kordomir the Dark One and capture the Runestone of Zaphir. The expansive playing area is home to countless vile orcs who need hacking down to size. In fact, you might want to forget about your mission altogether and just wander about the playing area wreaking havoc. That's the beauty of this game you see, it's non-linear, which means the game world feels every bit as real as the Land of Midnight did. It's worth noting that the game was re-released a year later with new-look graphics under the Firebird label. Sherlock (Melbourne House - 1984) After a two year wait for another game from the team who brought us The Hobbit, Melbourne House finally released Sherlock, based on the exploits of the famous fiddle-playing Victorian detective. As you'd expect, there's a crime to be solved, and it takes you around London and into the wilds of Leatherhead. The geography is a bit rum, but it was written by an Aussie, so I suppose exceptions should be made. The game allows you to construct complex sentences and interact with independent characters, asking quite detailed questions of them. The graphics are similar to The Hobbit although they are smaller and much sparser. This is a bold adventure, that attempts a great deal and achieves a great deal. Although a few niggles remain, they are not sufficient to detract from this being a serious piece of software. Ship of Doom - Adventure 'C' (Artic - 1982) Our friends at Artic again. An amusing, compelling and frustrating adventure that begins with your ship being sucked into an alien vessel while you're out cruising the spaceways one day. You learn that the darstadly aliens are planning to enslave mankind and replace our brains with microchips. The devils! You must find your way to the main computer and deactivate it. Great fun. Smuggler's Cove (Quicksilva - 1983) One of the mot famous early adventures and, for a couple of years, a permanent resident on the shelves of every computer section in the land. As it happens this is not the best game of its type. In fact, it's far from it. There's a paucity of locations, unfathomable obstacles to overcome and an incredible 65 objects to collect. I can only assume that you must have an enormous sack at your disposal! Neat graphics and very fast though. Snowball (Level 9 - 1984) Part one of the Silicon Dreams trilogy. This game boasts over 7,000 locations, but in truth there are only around 200 original locations with the rest made up of similar-looking locations in different 'passenger discs' that are identified by colour-coding. You awake aboard the starship Snowball and something is badly amiss. You must reach the control room and deactivate the engines, avoiding the lethal hazards littered along the way. There's so much more to this game though; so many complexities and intricacies that I can't hope to do justice to here. It's never a case of just encountering a problem, having the right item and hey presto, it's on to the next one. The key objects are always gathered following a series of sub-plots that in turn started as problems of their own. You get the picture. Outstanding. Subsunk (Firebird - 1985) You play the part of a reporter whose routine story on board a nuclear submarine turns horribly pear-shaped when it is captured by an enemy power who kidnap the crew and scuttle the vessel. You are stranded aboard and your only way to reach safety is to send a distress message to base. This is not going to be a simple matter of getting on your mobile though. An excellent, witty adventure with interesting graphics and good variety of problems to contend with.
After more than a year of rumoured launch dates and a plethora of press releases about its incredible features, Swords and Sorcery final made it into the shops. It was a role playing game, viewed in a first-person 3D perspective. For those fascinated by statistics, the program contains 86 monsters, 635 locations, an 800 word dictionary, almost 2,000 objects and in excess of four million ways to be insulted. This is all commonplace nowadays with the likes of the Ultima series, but in 1986, it was an astounding achievement and makes Swords & Sorcery an important part of Spectrum history. System 15000 (Graig Communications - 1984) Ever fancy yourself as a sweaty hacker, ferreting away inside the computer systems of governments and corporations? Well, with this game you can enjoy the experience without Special Branch banging on your door. A friend of yours has sent you details of a computer fraud that has taken place between two companies to the tune of £1.5m. Your job is to break into the system of the wrong-doing firm and put that money back where it belongs. This is a surprisingly original and authentic gaming experience. Highly recommended. Temple of Vran (Incentive - 1984) Part two of the Ket Trilogy sees you emerging from the dank gloom of the mountains and beginning the next stage of your quest - to enter sorcerer Vran's secret temple. As with the rest of the series, this is an enormously enjoyable game that sets problems for adventurers of all standards to sink their teeth into. There is a jovial atmosphere that makes it a pleasure to play and the action moves along at a brisk pace. The combat system remains and has been tweaked to allow you to choose the weapon you wish to fight with. A personal favourite. Ten Little Indians (Digital Fantasia - 1984) My my, 1984 was a busy year for Brian Howarth. This is a text and graphics adventure that involves recovering ten indian figurines, one of which is cast in solid gold and worth a small fortune. As you come across the nine fakes, they lead you closer to the gold. The game is set primarily in a mansion and there are countless ways for you to meet a grisly death. Sort of a text-version of Jet Set Willy then. Terrormolinos (Melbourne House - 1985) The boys who brought you Hampstead strike back with this cracking game that celebrates the horrors of the package holiday. After some racing against the clock to be in time for your flight, the action switches to sunny Spain. Once abroad, your aim is to take ten photos of suitable sights and events during your stay. Your snaps are then displayed to you in seaside postcard style and really add to the humour that pervades the game. In the early stages you'll probably have to restart the game a few times over in order to streamline your moves and catch the plane, but its not a particularly tough game, meaning that it flits along at a tidy pace. A distinctive and amusing piece of entertainment that never lets you forget that it's an accomplished adventure. Tir Na Nog (Gargoyle - 1984) This is not an adventure in the usual understanding of the word. You control the hero Cuchulainn in his quest through the Celtic afterworld, Tir Na Nog. His world is displayed in glorious sideways-scrolling graphics and your character is controlled in the manner of an arcade game. This said, the nature of the game is far more adventure than arcade and there are plenty of puzzles to solve in your search for the fragments of the Seal of Calum. Along the way, there are enough people in your way to involve a certain amount of combat, but as you are already in the afterworld, you cannot die, but just return the beginning. Your playing enviroment is vast, detailed and chock full of atmosphere making Tir Na Nog a strikingly original and complex adventure. This style of game saw Gargolye produce a sequel Dun Darach, and a futuristic variant called Marsport, all of which are excellent games. Twin Kingdom Valley (Bug Byte - 1984) This was an early adventure that first made a name for itself on the BBC Micro and Commodore 64. There were grumbles that the Speccy would not be able to cope with all of its graphics, but in the end out of 180 locations, 150 were illustrated. Your task is to explore the forests, caverns and paths of the valley, collecting treasure. Along the way you will encounter a variety of other characters for you to interact with, some of whom are far from helpful. A strong fantasy adventure in the traditional mould, which also made use of the Currah Microspeech unit. Perhaps only the random behaviour of some of the other characters spoils it a little. Urban Upstart (Richard Shepherd - 1984) Before hitting the big time with futuristic epic Tau Ceti, Pete Cooke produced adventures for persistently mediocre software house, Richard Shepherd Software. This was his second effort, following Invincible Island, and it is a whimsical take on the despondency of life in a British town of the early 80s. As you trawl through the litter-strewn streets, searching for a way out, you'll find appalling examples of urban decay: marauding football hooligans, knife-wielding muggers, fascist coppers and run-down hospitals. There are graphics at every location and the game is inventive enough, even if it lacks a little sophistication. One of the adventuring mainstays of the time though. Valhalla (Legend - 1984) Sometimes it's difficult to tell whether something is a flawed masterpiece or just plain rubbish. I think in the case of Valhalla the idea behind it exceeded the programming capabilities of the time. Having said that, it is a brave effort to use techniques seen in later games like Tir Na Nog and The Witch's Cauldron. It features animated graphics and dozens of different interactive characters who happily carry on with their own lives, regardless of your actions. There is a huge world to explore and six different missions to complete, but you come away with the feeling that it is more an experiment in programming than a game with a particularly strong storyline or set of objectives. Velnor's Lair (Quicksilva - 1983) A legendary early adventure by Derek Brewster of Crash fame. You start by choosing whether to be a wizard, a warrior or a priest and then delve into a cruel world of monsters and mayhem. A highly competent, well-written adventure that plagued the adventure tips columns of many a magazine for years. The Very Big Cave Adventure (CRL - 1986) This is the best of the releases from the curiously named St. Bride's School software team, who specialised in spoof adventures. This is a very good parody of not just the original Adventure, but of adventure games as a whole. There's an amusing poke at the suspensions of belief that many inferior games expect you to make, and some wry word play on the location names that crop up in Adventure. The humour is extremely silly and you'd be excused for worrying that the game would suffer as a consequence, but this is a highly polished title that responds with the usual Quill speed and will prove entertaining to adventurers of all standards.
This is a great game and one that I'm sure many adventurers have never even heard of. If you're one of the lucky ones who has already played this, then pat yourself on the back and move along. If not, then pull your chair closer and read more. As you're probably aware, Mikrogen were not famed for their adventures, but in The Witch's Cauldron they manage to combine their famous arcade graphics with a top notch adventure. The cauldron of the title is where you must mix a concoction to return you to your normal human state, having been transformed into a frog by the evil Witch Hazel. The top half of the screen depicts you and your surroundings and as you issue commands via the traditional text input you can watch them carried out in arcade fashion. It's not all gloss though - beneath the flashy visuals is a challenging game that any adventurer will enjoy. The Worm in Paradise (Level 9 - 1986) The adventure is dead they say. Long live Level 9's peerless monument to the genre, an achievement of breathtaking scope and vision that has no equal. This final installment of the astonishing Silicon Dreams trilogy is set in the distant future. Man has expanded throughout the galaxy, populating over a hundred worlds, but why have so many nearby planets proved to be habitable? Is it mankind's divine destiny to spread amongst the stars, or have we been sown by a cosmic farmer who will soon return to harvest his crop? This is Level 9 at the teetering summit of their abilities. The storyline is in the tradition of the grandest science fiction novels; their technical accomplishment is lavishly demonstrated at every turn; their understanding of what elevates a game from merely excellent to truly phenomenal guarantees its place amongst the exalted echelons of the Spectrum's all-time greats. Level 9 Adventures (1983-1986) You might have noticed but there is plenty of mention given to Level 9 software in this section. This is because they consistently produced the highest quality adventures of the era; games that were beautifully crafted, vast and utterly spellbinding. The company initially comprised of three brothers: Mike, Nick and Pete Austin. They had been thrilled by the mainframe adventures they had played and were keen to reproduce them for 8-bit computers. Using clever programming tricks they managed to squeeze huge games (containing more than 7,000 locations on some occasions) into the Spectrum. Almost immediately they were hailed as the kings of the adventure scene. By the mid-80s they began to diversify, delving into licenses with The Diary of Adrian Mole and The Archers and releasing games for the new 16-bit computers. By the end of the decade though, even die-hard fans of Level 9 agreed that their games were missing some of the old magik (sorry, couldn't resist). Come the 1990s, the text-based adventure was a dying genre and correspondingly their fanbase was diminishing fast. They decided to move into graphical strategy style products, but this venture failed and in 1991 Level 9 called it a day. Their releases between 1983 and 1986 were as follows: Colossal Adventure | Adventure Quest | Lords of Time | Emerald Isle | Dungeon Adventure | Snowball | Return to Eden | Red Moon | Erik the Viking | The Worm in Paradise | The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole | The Archers | The Price of Magik For more information go to the Level 9 Memorial site. For further information on just about every adventure ever written, visit Han Petersen's Adventureland site. Home |
