Level 9 Computing, Ltd.

Adventure Quest

Adventure Quest

Microsoft MSX - Released - 1984

Text only version released in 1984, rereleased in 1986 with high res graphics. 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

Colossal Adventure

Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Released - 1982

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.

Colossal Adventure

Camputers Lynx - 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.
Gnome Ranger

Gnome Ranger

Commodore 64 - Released - 1987

Ingrid Bottomlow stands out from her family of gnomes - she's a gifted student, with a degree from the Institute of Gnome Economics. As a result, they exile her using a teleporting spell, leaving her lost in the forest. It is your job to keep her safe in this interactive fiction game. The game is split into three tasks, broadly relating to animal, vegetable and mineral in that order. The first involves defeating an evil witch, the second is the Riddle of the Shrinking Teapot, and the third involves precious stones. Commands such as FOLLOW, FIND and GO TO make travelling the game world much easier, and put an emphasis on object-manipulation and character interaction, rather than map-making. Instructions can be issued to other characters, with words like THEN, FIND and GIVE to join them. This co-operation is essential to solve many puzzles, and takes place in a world where characters have their own aims and motives. There are BRIEF and VERBOSE modes of text. A running joke in the game is that the screen display adds a 'g' to the start of all words beginning with n - 'gnorth' and 'gnugget' for example. Graphics are included in the disk versions of the game, except in the ports for Atari 8-bit and Apple II, which are text-only on every media.
Gnome Ranger

Gnome Ranger

Commodore Amiga - Released - 1987

Ingrid Bottomlow stands out from her family of gnomes - she's a gifted student, with a degree from the Institute of Gnome Economics. As a result, they exile her using a teleporting spell, leaving her lost in the forest. It is your job to keep her safe in this interactive fiction game. The game is split into three tasks, broadly relating to animal, vegetable and mineral in that order. The first involves defeating an evil witch, the second is the Riddle of the Shrinking Teapot, and the third involves precious stones. Commands such as FOLLOW, FIND and GO TO make travelling the game world much easier, and put an emphasis on object-manipulation and character interaction, rather than map-making. Instructions can be issued to other characters, with words like THEN, FIND and GIVE to join them. This co-operation is essential to solve many puzzles, and takes place in a world where characters have their own aims and motives. There are BRIEF and VERBOSE modes of text. A running joke in the game is that the screen display adds a 'g' to the start of all words beginning with n - 'gnorth' and 'gnugget' for example.
Gnome Ranger

Gnome Ranger

MS-DOS - Released - 1987

Ingrid Bottomlow stands out from her family of gnomes - she's a gifted student, with a degree from the Institute of Gnome Economics. As a result, they exile her using a teleporting spell, leaving her lost in the forest. It is your job to keep her safe in this interactive fiction game. The game is split into three tasks, broadly relating to animal, vegetable and mineral in that order. The first involves defeating an evil witch, the second is the Riddle of the Shrinking Teapot, and the third involves precious stones. Commands such as FOLLOW, FIND and GO TO make travelling the game world much easier, and put an emphasis on object-manipulation and character interaction, rather than map-making. Instructions can be issued to other characters, with words like THEN, FIND and GIVE to join them. This co-operation is essential to solve many puzzles, and takes place in a world where characters have their own aims and motives. There are BRIEF and VERBOSE modes of text. A running joke in the game is that the screen display adds a 'g' to the start of all words beginning with n - 'gnorth' and 'gnugget' for example. Graphics are included in the disk versions of the game, except in the ports for Atari 8-bit and Apple II, which are text-only on every media.
Ingrid's Back

Ingrid's Back

MS-DOS - Released - 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.
Ingrid's Back!

Ingrid's Back!

Atari ST - Released - 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.
Lords of Time

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

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.
Return to Eden

Return to Eden

Commodore 64 - Released - 1984

The command robots of Snowball have found the colonisable planet Eden, and already set about colonising this lush verdant planet. Not easy though - native plants and animals have adapted and fought back at the threat to their territory. A walled area now encloses the city, which is crumbling around you. When Snowball 9 reaches the planet, Commander Kim Kimberley is filmed apparently committing a murder. As Kim, you must escape from the 'justice' of crazed robot droids. Snowball 9's landing is made dangerous due to the robots malfunctioning. Return to Eden is an interactive fiction game which sets you as Kim, and challenges you to enter and survive within the robot city. Strange and surreal outcomes about - what do you get when you plant a brick? The world includes a bank, a theme park, the Corridors of Power, and a Starbike. Unlike its predecessor, it features graphics, with over 200 illustrative pictures featured. adds the ability to type while the screen is updating. Vocabulary is simplified - a new IT command refers to the last-mentioned object, and clothing can be WEAR'ed without being GET'ted first.
Scapeghost

Scapeghost

BBC Microcomputer System - Released - 1989

You were successful police officer Alan Chance, until you were killed during a raid on drug dealers, who managed to take a hostage in the process. People have assumed that you died as a result of your own mistakes. Now you have returned as a ghost, with psychic powers in place of your physical ones. Starting out at your own funeral, you must follow conversations to find clues. One early task is to find items which boost your physical abilities. You have help from other deceased beings, starting with pub owner Joe Danby. Scapeghost was Level 9's final adventure game, and it is in the same format as the existing ones, which makes for a text parser with additional graphics. Puzzles require instructions to be given to other characters. The game is split into 3 days, each of which can be played independently of each other - November Graveyard, Haunted House and Poltergeist.
Scapeghost

Scapeghost

Amstrad CPC - Released - 1989

You were successful police officer Alan Chance, until you were killed during a raid on drug dealers, who managed to take a hostage in the process. People have assumed that you died as a result of your own mistakes. Now you have returned as a ghost, with psychic powers in place of your physical ones. Starting out at your own funeral, you must follow conversations to find clues. One early task is to find items which boost your physical abilities. You have help from other deceased beings, starting with pub owner Joe Danby. Scapeghost was Level 9's final adventure game, and it is in the same format as the existing ones, which makes for a text parser with additional graphics. Puzzles require instructions to be given to other characters. The game is split into 3 days, each of which can be played independently of each other - November Graveyard, Haunted House and Poltergeist.
Scapeghost

Scapeghost

Commodore Amiga - Released - 1989

You were successful police officer Alan Chance, until you were killed during a raid on drug dealers, who managed to take a hostage in the process. People have assumed that you died as a result of your own mistakes. Now you have returned as a ghost, with psychic powers in place of your physical ones. Starting out at your own funeral, you must follow conversations to find clues. One early task is to find items which boost your physical abilities. You have help from other deceased beings, starting with pub owner Joe Danby. Scapeghost was Level 9's final adventure game, and it is in the same format as the existing ones, which makes for a text parser with additional graphics. Puzzles require instructions to be given to other characters. The game is split into 3 days, each of which can be played independently of each other - November Graveyard, Haunted House and Poltergeist.
Scapeghost

Scapeghost

Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Released - 1989

You were successful police officer Alan Chance, until you were killed during a raid on drug dealers, who managed to take a hostage in the process. People have assumed that you died as a result of your own mistakes. Now you have returned as a ghost, with psychic powers in place of your physical ones. Starting out at your own funeral, you must follow conversations to find clues. One early task is to find items which boost your physical abilities. You have help from other deceased beings, starting with pub owner Joe Danby. Scapeghost was Level 9's final adventure game, and it is in the same format as the existing ones, which makes for a text parser with additional graphics. Puzzles require instructions to be given to other characters. The game is split into 3 days, each of which can be played independently of each other - November Graveyard, Haunted House and Poltergeist.
Scapeghost

Scapeghost

Commodore 64 - Released - 1989

You were successful police officer Alan Chance, until you were killed during a raid on drug dealers, who managed to take a hostage in the process. People have assumed that you died as a result of your own mistakes. Now you have returned as a ghost, with psychic powers in place of your physical ones. Starting out at your own funeral, you must follow conversations to find clues. One early task is to find items which boost your physical abilities. You have help from other deceased beings, starting with pub owner Joe Danby. Scapeghost was Level 9's final adventure game, and it is in the same format as the existing ones, which makes for a text parser with additional graphics. Puzzles require instructions to be given to other characters. The game is split into 3 days, each of which can be played independently of each other - November Graveyard, Haunted House and Poltergeist.
Scapeghost

Scapeghost

MS-DOS - Released - 1991

You were successful police officer Alan Chance, until you were killed during a raid on drug dealers, who managed to take a hostage in the process. People have assumed that you died as a result of your own mistakes. Now you have returned as a ghost, with psychic powers in place of your physical ones. Starting out at your own funeral, you must follow conversations to find clues. One early task is to find items which boost your physical abilities. You have help from other deceased beings, starting with pub owner Joe Danby. Scapeghost was Level 9's final adventure game, and it is in the same format as the existing ones, which makes for a text parser with additional graphics. Puzzles require instructions to be given to other characters. The game is split into 3 days, each of which can be played independently of each other - November Graveyard, Haunted House and Poltergeist.
Snowball

Snowball

Commodore 64 - Released - 1983

Snowball 9 was sent to Colonize Eridani A, with robots sent to prepare the territory around 100 years before human beings arrive, but something went wrong en route. Commander Kim Kimberley became aware of this when she was abruptly awoken from hibernation. Snowball is an interactive fiction game, which uses compression techniques to provide 7000 rooms in computers of this size. Kim must go from her hibernation chamber to the ship controls, and then work them to guide the ship safely to Eridani. Commands like INVENTORY, EXAMINE, TAKE and USE are available. Objects include a drinks machine, a bed, green foam, Kevlar and a silver tray. Silicon Dreams is a remake of this title with Graphics and some other changes.
The Price of Magik

The Price of Magik

Microsoft MSX - Released - May 1, 1986

In the final instalment of the Time and Magik series of interactive fiction, the light from the Red Moon is under threat. It was captured and harnessed by the magicians of Baskalos, but its keeper Myglar has turned against them and is using it for himself. He must be defeated before the crystal is exhausted. The typing interface is typical of Level 9 games of the era. Time saving features include an ALL command can apply TAKE and EXAMINE to every object you can see, and the ability to type future commands while the screen is still scrolling. 18 spells are available, activated using 3-letter codes you will discover while exploring. These range from confusing or angering an enemy to healing yourself and detecting danger.
The Saga of Erik the Viking

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

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.
The Worm in Paradise

The Worm in Paradise

Microsoft MSX - 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 Worm in Paradise is set about 50 years after the events of the previous game in the trilogy, Return to Eden. 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.
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