Developed by Beam Software and published by Melbourne House in 1986, The Lord of the Rings is a text adventure game made by essentially the same team who created the classic Spectrum text adventure, The Hobbit.
Was it the first official Lord of the Rings game ever made? Possibly. There were definitely many unofficial Lord of the Rings rip-off games on the market before this, but this is arguably the first properly-licensed Lord of the Rings game for home computers.
Rather than produce another platform game, Ocean Software chose to make a graphical adventure for their third Hunchback game. Which was an unusual choice.
Hunchback: The Adventure again features Quasimodo trying to rescue Esmeralda, this time from the evil Cardinal of Notre Dame. It’s a three-part game, requiring the same number of loads. In part one Quasimodo must escape from Notre Dame itself, and from the Cardinal’s many guards who are trying to stop him. In part two he must make his way under the city of Paris until he reaches the Cardinal’s mansion. And finally, in part three, he must challenge the Cardinal and escape with Esmeralda in tow.
Written by Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler, The Hobbit is a legendary text adventure, with graphics, that was published by Melbourne House in 1982.
Valhalla was a game that was heavily marketed as an “epic” adventure with limitless possibilities back in 1983 when it was first released. It was portrayed by its publisher, Legend, as something of a ‘killer app’ on the Spectrum, and they even tagged it with a “MoviSoft” logo to make it seem “cinematic” – MoviSoft was the name of the game’s engine.
Ocean‘s Island of Death is a game I remember seeing back in 1984 (because of the striking Bob Wakelin cover art), but have never played – until now.
And I’m quite surprised by how good it is…
Kentilla is a text adventure – with graphics – released on the ZX Spectrum by Micromega in 1984. It was written by the prolific (back then) Derek Brewster.
Velnor’s Lair was Derek Brewster‘s first commercial text adventure, and – as text adventures go – it is an excellent one.
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.
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.
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…
The King of Grabs 