Tag Archives: exploration

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin, Intellivision

An early, proto RPG based on the TSR AD&D universe, released for the Intellivision in 1983. It’s actually a sequel to the previous Intellivision AD&D game: Cloudy Mountain.

Treasure of Tarmin is one of my all-time favourite Intellivision games; it’s like an early prototype version of Dungeon Master, with crude graphics and minimal sound. That said: playing Treasure of Tarmin is a great experience if you learn how to play it properly. Reading the manual helps. As does configuring the controls correctly.

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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain, Intellivision

This early, prototype RPG was initially released in 1982 under the title of “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” and was later re-named as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain to distinguish it from its sequel, Treasure of Tarmin.

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Esper Dream, Famicom Disk System

Esper Dream is a superb real-time, combat-based Role-Playing Game for the Famicom Disk System. It was developed by Konami and released in Japan in 1987.

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Elite, BBC Micro

The classic Elite originated on the BBC MicroDavid Braben and Ian Bell‘s classic space combat/trading game was first released by Acornsoft in 1984.

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The Dig, PC

When film-maker Steven Spielberg wanted to make a video game he went to George Lucas and his company LucasArts for help making it, and the end result was The Dig.

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Master of Magic, Commodore 64

Master of Magic is an archaic Role-Playing Game that is a throwback to the earliest days of home computing – except that it was released in 1985.

The game was programmed by Richard Darling (of Codemasters fame) with graphics by James Wilson. It was published at a budget price (£2.99) by Mastertronic on their M.A.D. label.

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Mercenary, Atari 8-bit

The Atari 8-Bit version of the classic Mercenary is the original, published by Novagen in 1985.

From the opening sequence onwards you know that you are in for a special ride with Mercenary, and exploring the wireframe world of Targ (the name of the planet you’re trapped on) is a video-gaming joy – especially with the easy-to-use controls.

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Spindizzy, Atari 8-bit

Paul Shirley‘s classic isometric puzzle/adventure game, Spindizzy, originated on the Commodore 64, but is also quite excellent on the Atari 800.

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Battlecruiser 3000AD, PC

A controversial release from Gametek in 1996, this complex space sim is notorious for having a long and troubled development history.

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