Adventure Quest

Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Released - 1983

The sequel to Colossal Adventure is an interactive fiction game with a VERB NOUN interface. The fantasy setting takes a clear influence from Lord of the Rings. After centuries of harmony, Middle Earth has hit problems due to a cataclysmic sequence of events - a crop failure leading to animals turning violent, and then an attack from a mysterious enemy to the north. The evil Demon Lord Alagiarept is discovered to be responsible, and as such the Wizards are given a week to beat him, before Middle Earth must surrender. You play a rookie magician with Meditation, Mysticism and Moneymaking skills. While the main war goes on, you attempt a much bolder mission - locate the four Stones-of-the-Elements and the Medallion of Life to enter Alagiarept's Dark Tower and kill him. Your quest will take you through Beaches, Moors and Rocky Outcrops, as well as more specific locations such as the Pillar in the Desert, the Cave of the Sun-Dial and the Mills of God. Wolves, skeletal hands, sharks and octopuses must be dealt with.

Colossal Adventure

Commodore 64 - Released - 1983

Colossal Adventure takes its cue from the very earliest mainframe text adventures. Our hero must rescue the elves and find fifteen pieces of treasure. There are many dark areas, so lights and batteries are at a premium. Be careful of vicious dwarves, who can be killed using axes. You can carry up to four objects at a time; the useful ones include a newspaper, keys and sandwiches. The vocabulary includes saying spell names, DROPping items to stay within the carrying limit (and for other specific reasons), CATCHing a bird, and standard directions plus IN and OUT.

Dungeon Adventure

Commodore 64 - Released - 1983

Dungeon Adventure concludes Level 9's Middle Earth lineage of fantasy interactive fiction games (later reprogrammed with graphics in Jewels of Darkness). The player is searching for magical treasures within the Demon Lord's fortress, after his defeat in Adventure Quest. There are over 200 specific locations, including rooms within the tower and outdoor locations to navigate en route. Objects range from a coffin and a giant belt to nasty images and a packing case; also watch out for Orcs, Dwarves and other creatures. The parser's vocabulary contains all the standard terms - EXAMINE, TAKE, OPEN and FILL for example.

Ingrid's Back!

Commodore 64 - Released - January 1, 1988

Ingrid is Ingrid Bottomlow, the intellectual-but-clumsy gnome we met in Gnome Ranger. Her beloved home village Little Moaning is earmarked for a yuppie-friendly transformation by Jasper Quickbuck of Ridley's Manor. Ingrid has three cunning plans to stop him - producing a petition with everybody's signature, finding a more orthodox prevention method, and finally infiltrating Ridley's Manor itself by pretending to be a maid, and then finding proof that he's a dodgy geezer who should be locked up. These three quests can be played in any order, although they logically follow on from each other. She is accompanied by Flopsy the dog in the first 2 parts, and her cousin Daisy in the third. Ingrid's Back! uses the same game system as the original, and other contemporary Level 9 titles such as Knight Orc . Giving instructions to other characters (including Flopsy) and jumping around the map using GO TO and FOLLOW commands. A living and breathing world of people travelling, trading and relaxing underpins it all, and plays a part in most puzzles. The disk versions of the game contain graphics, the exception being the ports for Apple II and Atari 8-bit, which are text-only.

Knight Orc

BBC Microcomputer System - Unreleased - 1987

Knight Orc is a text adventure with graphics. The protagonist, Gringleguts the Orc, swears revenge on all humankind for the treatment of his race. The game flows in real time; each person and creature goes on about their daily lives and follows their schedule. So, if the protagonist revisits an area and finds a person that was previously there gone, it may mean that the person in question is in another location. The player's decisions and timing play a key role to the game's outcome. The BBC Micro version was never officially released even though it was completed, however around late February of 2021 a scener named Dave Moore (known by the name Arcadian) discovered a copy of the game existed, which was found at the Centre of Computer History.

Lords of Time

Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Released - 1983

Doctor Who references are obvious in this adventure - you play a time travelling hero, who faces a group of Time Lords as they attempt to rewrite human history. To do this, you must collect nine objects which have an hourglass symbol on, from nine different time zones. You will encounter tigers and an Ice Queen in the Ice Age, a guard and a frog in the middle ages, a Cyberman in the future, and more mundane tasks in the present day. To enter different time zones, go into the grandfather clock in your home (the starting location) and activate one of the nine cogs. Lords of Time is played by typing commands to guide your character, moving in compass directions and with standard commands such as OPEN DOOR, GET GLASS and EXAMINE CAR. Objects you will encounter include keys, an emerald and a petrol can.

Red Moon

Commodore 64 - Released - 1985

The second game in the Time and Magik trilogy by Level 9 Computing. Red Moon Crystal, a powerful source of Magik, has been stolen and must be recovered to save the country of Baskalos from destruction. The game won the award for best adventure game of the year in Crash magazine, and the game was voted best adventure game of the year at the Golden Joystick Awards.

The Saga of Erik the Viking

Commodore 64 - Released - 1985

In this text adventure, you play the role of Erik the Viking. Upon returning home, you find your farm abandoned; your family has been kidnapped. You gather the things you need for a journey, and go rescue them. This game combines text adventure with graphics. The graphics illustrate the places you go, and are drawn on the screen as you watch. The display doesn't load a photo. Rather, a pen races around the screen, drawing the pictures in. While the picture is being drawn, the screen flickers. Although the pictures slow the game down a bit, they are done in a style reminiscent of Viking-age farms. In one scene, you are placed in the center of a longhouse, and they show the depression in the floor, just as can be seen in books.

The Worm in Paradise

Commodore 64 - Released - 1985

Eden has been successfully colonised, by creating several domed cities. Society is rigidly functioning, unemployment, crime and poverty all non-existent. The economy functions on fines rather than taxes, making for a plethora of petty rules and no penal punishment. Robot employees make everything run cheaply. Body part reselling allows hospitals to turn a profit. Robots can even control human reproduction. The end result is a society in which humans have no useful role. Who would live in a 'paradise' like this? The Worm In Paradise is the culmination of the Silicon Dreams series of interactive fiction. The game relies on strict timing and a day/night cycle (using a decimal clock with 10 100-minute hours) – return to your home before darkness falls, and don't expect robots to help with tasks which will not be finished in the day. Vital buildings can be located using colour-coded co-ordinates, but these change every time you load the game, so be careful to write them down.