Tag Archives: pioneering

Fish!, Atari ST

Fish! is the fifth and final Magnetic Scrolls text adventure, of their successful Rainbird period at least.

Please note: I do know that they did make a sixth, called Myth, although this was not made available commercially and was distributed only to fan club members on personalised floppy disks. It was also a ‘mini’ adventure, rather than a full game.

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Corruption, Atari ST

Corruption is a modern-day adventure thriller where you play a partner in a company that is embroiled in a series of crimes. You don’t know about them and are innocent, and must investigate your suspicions (and colleagues) carefully. And do it to a strict timetable, because Corruption must be played-out over the space of one full day.

The deeper you dig, the more dangerous your situation becomes.

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Jinxter, Atari ST

What can I say about Jinxster? It’s surreal. It’s short. It’s funny, at times. At other times it’s infuriatingly obscure. Which you come to expect from a Magnetic Scrolls text adventure, I guess…

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The Guild of Thieves, Atari ST

The second Magnetic Scrolls game – first released in 1987 – is called The Guild of Thieves, and is another text-based fantasy adventure, set in the same place as The Pawn (Kerovnia).

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The Pawn, Atari ST

The Pawn was the first Magnetic Scrolls game, and the one that set the company up, in terms of its extremely high standards.

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Parasol Stars, PC Engine

Taito released Parasol Stars for the PC Engine in 1991. It is the third game in the Bubble Bobble series and features Bubby and Bobby – the two human characters from Rainbow Islands – both armed with a multi-purpose parasol and the ability to chuck water around with them.

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Uridium, Atari ST

Andrew Braybrook‘s classic C64 shooter, Uridium, was given a 16-bit release courtesy of Joe Hellesen and Mindscape in 1986.

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Wanted: Monty Mole, ZX Spectrum

Back in 1984 in the UK there was an infamous, historic miner’s strike that lasted for over a year and caused hardship for many communities. Rather than sit and spectate, young Peter Harrap wrote a satirical platform game about a mining mole and published it, with all the profits going to help the struggling, striking miners. That game was Wanted: Monty Mole, and it launched Pete Harrap on his career making video games, and also the Monty Mole ‘franchise’. Although I can’t really call it a franchise because it wasn’t. It was simply a series of games.

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Mercenary: The Second City, Commodore 64

Not a sequel, but a ‘data disk’ add-on that you load through the original Mercenary. The Second City starts off pretty much the same as Mercenary – crashing on a planet (this time the other side of the one you explored in Mercenary, and also a different colour) and having to explore to get on and eventually escape.

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