Interplay Productions

Battle Chess

Battle Chess

Commodore 64 - Released - October 1, 1988

With Battle Chess, Interplay wanted to make chess accessible for a broader audience and they did that with a fair amount of success. The addition of the fighting-scenes makes this a very funny chess game, which will appeal to many. Without the animation, there’s still a pretty good chess-game here, with some good options and quite a lot of difficulty-levels

Dragon Wars

Dragon Wars

Commodore 64 - Released - 1989

Dragon Wars takes place in the magical land of Dilmun, an island of salvation perverted into a world of horror by Namtar (as you might expect - the bad guy). The player starts with a party of four in the city of Purgatory, equipped with nothing more than.. well - nothing. Worst of all your magic users won't help you out, either, because magic has been banned (to correct this unpleasing situation is one of your main objectives). Other main targets are surviving, getting out of Purgatory and toppling Namtar (maybe getting some decent clothing, one or two shiny swords and the like on your way out). Gameplay instantly reminds of the Bard's Tale series. Step-by-step first person 3D, opponents materialize out of the air. The combat system is turn based. Unlike its (spiritual?) predecessors the game features a full-blown skill system, auto-mapping and many places to actually use all these abilities. Reasonable distribution of your skill points is rather critical.

Ice Palace (K-Tel)

Commodore 64 - Released - 1984

The game is divided into three separate stages, each of which features a different style of gameplay. Stage one involves a conveyor belt dropping blocks of ice on to the play-field. The position of the blocks is random, so the player has to avoid the falling blocks whilst using them as a set of steps to reach the other penguin. Pieces of fruit will occasionally fall from the conveyor and these can be collected for bonus points, but you mustn't stand on a block of ice for too long as it will melt, potentially leaving you in a hole that you cannot escape from. You're able to make two super-jumps by pushing up on the joystick, which can get you out of sticky situations, but they must be used sparingly. Stage two sees our love-lorn penguin atop a tower of ice that is just below a platform where the other penguin awaits. To build up the tower, the player must pick up an ice block from either end of the platform and drop it on a truck before it reaches the central column; this is a game all about quick reactions and timing. To complicate matters, fires appear from either side of the screen and these will melt existing blocks in the tower if they are not put out in time. These can be extinguished by dropping ice on them, but you run the risk of missing a truck by doing this. The third and final stage requires you to build a flight of stairs out of ice in order to reach your mate. It took me a while to figure this out, but pressing 'up' on the joystick will assemble a block of ice one square ahead of your position, whilst pushing 'down' will remove it. Fires descend from the roof of the cavern and will melt all blocks of ice it touches, hampering your efforts. The fires can be extinguished by building an ice block on top of the space that the fire currently occupies, but you have to be quick. Just to make matters worse, a levitating snowman located to the left of the screen fires snowballs in your general direction. You can choose to avoid these either by getting out of the way, or by constructing blocks of ice behind you to act as a shield. The game features eight increasing levels of difficulty, which basically makes everything faster. In particular, the speed makes the second stage the toughest since the fires and trucks move so quickly that it becomes almost impossible to time the dropping of the ice blocks correctly. Once you reach the eighth level, the game simply loops and there doesn't appear to be an ending.

Mindshadow

Mindshadow

Apple II - August 24, 1984

Mindshadow is a 1984 adventure game released on various platforms including Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Macintosh, PC Booter, ZX Spectrum. The game was developed by Interplay Productions and published by Activision. The player finds themself on a beach with no memory of his identity. The island is a self-contained area with beaches, rocky cliffs, a hut and a quicksand area, which serves as a maze for the player to reach another location of the game. The character's main objective is to gather objects necessary to assemble a bonfire as a signal for any passing ships.

Neuromancer

Neuromancer

Apple IIGS - Released - 1988

Neuromancer is an adventure video game developed by Interplay Productions and published by Mediagenic (a brand name that Activision was also known by). It was released in 1988 for the Amiga, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Commodore 64, and DOS. It was loosely based on William Gibson's 1984 novel of the same name and set within both the fictional "real world" and the extensively realized and detailed world of cyberspace. It is also noted for having a soundtrack based on the Devo song "Some Things Never Change" from their album "Total Devo". The gaming rights at the time were owned by Timothy Leary, who brought the project to Interplay to develop.

Neuromancer

Neuromancer

Commodore 64 - Released - 1988

Based on the cyberpunk novel by William Gibson. In a grimy future, you play Case, a cyberspace cowboy who finds himself broke in Chiba City. Find yourself a laptop and the right software for it so you can hack into databases around the city to regain your access to cyberspace. Buy and upgrade brain implant chips to augment your computer skills, and sell your body parts to afford new technologies. When you get to cyberspace, you'll take on the nasty AIs that guard the most important databases. Within all this information is the bizarre secret of this world of inbred corporations.

Star Trek: 25th Anniversary

Star Trek: 25th Anniversary

ScummVM - Released - 1992

Star Trek: 25th Anniversary is an adventure video game developed and published by Interplay Productions in 1992, based on the Star Trek universe. The game chronicles various missions of James T. Kirk and his crew of the USS Enterprise. Its 1993 sequel, Star Trek: Judgment Rites, continues and concludes this two-game series, which together may be seen as the final two years of the USS Enterprise's five-year mission. The player takes on the role of Captain James T. Kirk on board the USS Enterprise, a Starfleet vessel as seen in the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Original Series. It is split into two main modes, a main bridge view, and a third-person mode whenever an away team is transported to a planet or space station. During several combat sequences the player controls the Enterprise in battle against enemies in space; originally required, Interplay later offered a patch making them optional. The controls on the bridge are split across the crew, with Montgomery Scott allowing access to the shield and power controls, Pavel Chekov controlling navigation, and Hikaru Sulu controlling the orbit of the ship, for example. The away team always consists of Kirk, Spock and Leonard McCoy, as well as one of eight different redshirts, many of whom can die during the mission. The player interacts with these modes using a point and click interface via the mouse.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Windows - September 12, 1997

Getting into Starfleet involves passing a knowledge exam, and also demonstrating your space combat and command skills. It is this side of the Academy which features in this game. You play aspiring captain David Forester, backed by a wealthy and friendly crew: Sturek, M'Giia, Robin Brady and Corin. The action is similar in style to TIE Fighter, with the action viewed form your cockpit and full flight dynamics in action. Missions include taking on Klingons and Romulans, and dealing with a Vanguard rebellion from within. Before every mission, the briefing is given to you in a lecture style where you can find out what to expect, and reduce the number or surprises. William Shatner and Walter Koenig reprise their Star Trek characters for these.

Tales of the Unknown: Volume 1: The Bard's Tale

Tales of the Unknown: Volume 1: The Bard's Tale

Atari ST - Released - 1987

Tales of the Unknown: Volume I, better known by its subtitle "The Bard's Tale", is a fantasy role-playing video game created by Interplay Productions in 1985 and distributed by Electronic Arts. It was designed and programmed by Michael Cranford. Based loosely on traditional Dungeons & Dragons gameplay and inspired by the Wizardry computer games, The Bard's Tale was noteworthy for its unprecedented 3D graphics and partly animated character portraits. The Bard was also an innovation: "The Bard was author Michael Cranford's contribution to the genre, a character who casts spells by singing one of six tunes." It was originally released for the Apple II, and was also ported to the Commodore 64, Apple IIgs, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, DOS, Apple Macintosh, and NES platforms.

Tales of the Unknown: Volume I: The Bard's Tale

Tales of the Unknown: Volume I: The Bard's Tale

Apple II - Released - 1985

Tales of the Unknown: Volume I, better known by its subtitle "The Bard's Tale", is a fantasy role-playing video game created by Interplay Productions in 1985 and distributed by Electronic Arts. It was designed and programmed by Michael Cranford. Based loosely on traditional Dungeons & Dragons gameplay and inspired by the Wizardry computer games, The Bard's Tale was noteworthy for its unprecedented 3D graphics and partly animated character portraits. The Bard was also an innovation: "The Bard was author Michael Cranford's contribution to the genre, a character who casts spells by singing one of six tunes." It was originally released for the Apple II, and was also ported to the Commodore 64, Apple IIgs, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, DOS, Apple Macintosh, and NES platforms.

Tass Times in Tonetown

Apple II - 1986

Tass Times in Tonetown is a 1986 adventure-themed computer game by Activision for multiple computer platforms. It was written by veteran Infocom designer Michael Berlyn and his long-time collaborator Muffy McClung Berlyn, and programmed by Rebecca Heineman of Interplay Productions, in cooperation with Brainwave Creations.

Tass Times in Tonetown

Tass Times in Tonetown

Apple IIGS - Released - 1986

Tass Times in Tonetown is a 1986 adventure-themed computer game by Activision for multiple computer platforms. It was written by veteran Infocom designer Michael Berlyn and his long-time collaborator Muffy McClung Berlyn, and programmed by Rebecca Heineman of Interplay Productions, in cooperation with Brainwave Creations.

Tass Times in Tonetown

Tass Times in Tonetown

Atari ST - Released - 1986

Your grandfather has invented a device which makes real everything he can see in his dream. All the strange places and creatures he can dream about really exist in an alternate reality. One of those creatures, named Franklin Snarl, traveled through the device to our reality and kidnapped Gramps, teleporting him into the crazy world of Tonetown. He hopes that Gramps will always remain asleep, which assures Snarl's own existence! Now it's up to you, the hero of the game to travel to the alternate dimension of Tonetown and to rescue your grandfather. You interact with the environment by either typing in commands, or choosing one of the action icons available as interface. The game, therefore, combines text-based interaction with the more modern "point and click" approach.

The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight

The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight

Apple IIGS - Released - 1988

The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight is a fantasy role-playing video game created by Interplay Productions in 1986. It is the first sequel to The Bard's Tale, and the last game of the series that was designed and programmed by Michael Cranford. The game features Dungeons & Dragons-style characters and follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, The Bard's Tale, also created by Michael Cranford. The Bard's Tale II takes place on a larger scale with an explorable wilderness, six cities, and multiple dungeons which give this game its dungeon crawl character. The game has new features such as casinos and banks, and introduces a new magic user called an Archmage, among other changes from the first game in the series.

The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate

The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate

MS-DOS - Released - 1990

The warriors who have destroyed the evil wizard Mangar receive a letter while celebrating their victory. The letter informs them of a terrible disaster: Mangar's master, the Mad God Tarjan, has unleashed his wrath upon the town of Skara Brae, completely destroying in. The heroes visit a refugee camp nearby and embark on a quest to defeat Tarjan. Thief of Fate is the third installment in the Bard's Tale series, and a sequel to The Destiny Knight. It is similar to its predecessors, being a first-person fantasy role-playing game in which the player explores maze-like pseudo-3D towns, dungeons, and wilderness areas. Two new character classes have been added: Geomancer and Chronomancer. There are more dungeons than in the previous games, and this installment also adds an auto-mapping feature. The game's world is divided into separate realms accessed by using time warps, each with its own theme and setting - including, among others, famous locations from Earth's history such as ancient Rome or Berlin during World War II.

The Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown

The Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown

Apple IIGS - Released - 1987

Tales of the Unknown: Volume I, better known by its subtitle The Bard's Tale, is a fantasy role-playing video game created by Interplay Productions in 1985 and distributed by Electronic Arts. It was designed and programmed by Michael Cranford. Based loosely on traditional Dungeons & Dragons gameplay and inspired by the Wizardry computer games, The Bard's Tale was noteworthy for its unprecedented 3D graphics and partly animated character portraits. The Bard was also an innovation: "The Bard was author Michael Cranford's contribution to the genre, a character who casts spells by singing one of six tunes."

The Tracer Sanction

The Tracer Sanction

Apple II - Released - September 13, 1984

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 -- at least if you go the way I did. A 'living tutorial' helps new adventurers get into the swing of things.

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