64 ADVENTURES
MURDER ON THE MISSISSIPPI
The game's classic status was marred by many bugs, but fortunately the bugs are not serious enough to spoil the game. It was based on the original book by J.R. Tolkien so the storyline and characters are superb.
A strong and compelling storyline, some excellent graphics, and a very good parser, make this a thoroughly enjoyable adventure. The characters throughout the game are a delight. It really does shine as a disk adventure classic.
It has the most atmospheric musical score of any 64 adventure game ever made, truly brilliant.
The storyline is based on dracula so is superb - can you kill the count and save the maiden!
The only thing that lets this game down is the parser, its quite poor and considering this is from the company that did the parser for the Hobbit, it should of been much better.
Nevertheless, this is a classic 64 adventure that should be experienced by every 64 adventurer!
The parser is the usual verb noun design and therefore rather simplistic, but still some of these adventures are real gems.
Some of the adventures in the collection are Circus, Ten Little Indians, Time Machine, Escape from Pulsar 7 and The Feasibility Experiment.
Circus in particular is one of the better titles, its good fun and has a reasonable storyline.
The game utilises the 64' s graphics well for an adventure, you move around scrolling corridors to check out new rooms in the asylum. No need to type a direction just use the cursor keys to move around.
Impressive and compelling this adventure isn't easy. In this Asylum sometimes the cure is worse than the illness...
The parser is one of the worst I've ever seen, its extremely difficult to play in places, and that's another thing places, where are they! There are very few locations and some locations are actually re-played!
Very disappointing, the best bit is at the beginning when you type bite lip...
A good adventure which received favourable reviews when released. Based on the Robin Hood legend, the storyline is of course excellent.
The game features the usual Howarth parser so nothing special here, but this is one of his best adventures, although Gremlins is arguably the best, see below.
The parser is quite good, and the text is descriptive enough, certainly better than some other adventures around at that time.
A good, solid storyline provides an interesting and absorbing adventure.
That's the basic storyline of this adventure. It makes for an intriguing and above average adventure.
The parser is the usual and simplistic verb noun, but as in most cases is perfectly adequate.
Remember: Your reputation is widespread and the "bad guys" can recognise you...
Its written entirely in basic and utilises the 64 character graphics superbly. The parser is very limited but it does the job and well.
You play Inspector Pincher of the yard and your objective is to find the murderer before he or she kills again!
An excellent "grandfather clock chimes" sound, for each 15 minutes that passes, helps create the atmosphere. Great fun!
Based on the hit film Gremlins, it follows the film script as much as it can, and yes you can microwave the gremlin...
The game utilises some simple animation in places, like the Gremlin in the bedroom at the start of the game.
Not the easiest of adventures to play due to the weak parser (as with all Howarth adventures), but its great fun and as its based on the film, you already know the answers to the puzzles...
The introduction picture is excellent, but unfortunately there are no other in game graphics, it is a text only adventure. Which is very disappointing considering that the main screen is so good and also that the company specialised in a superb graphics package called Panorama... strange they didn't make use of their talent (pun intended) in this game!
Its hard, but its a reasonable text adventure the wild west storyline obviously makes it interesting to play, the occasional shoot out etc. The sad thing about this game, is it could of been amazing if it was developed properly - a huge, missed opportunity! No wonder the company went under so soon!
The games in this collection are the Mystery of Munroe Manor, The Secret of Bastow Manor, Murder on the Waterfront, Nuclear Wargames and The Search for King Solomons Mines.
The Mystery of Munroe Manor, is one of the best 64 tape adventures ever made, it was a ground breaking adventure in many ways, it utilized the 64's sprite graphics to good effect (the ghosts in the graveyard), sound effects and music at relevant points in the game, a strong storyline and some very atmospheric moments (the mummy's footsteps), a superb introduction (the shadowy figure at the window). A classic.
The Search for King
Solomons Mines - a dying adventurer tells a story of a jungle with 7 foot
tall natives and treasure fit for a King. You take it upon yourself to find out the truth!
You start your quest at Trader Jims Outpost on the Zambezi River - June 1903. Your
survival in the jungle depends on taking the right equipment, fortunately Trader Jim has
everything you need, but do you know what you need...
The other adventures in the pack are good, but don't have the same quality of
sound, graphics and atmosphere as Munroe Manor and King Solomons Mines. Nuclear War games
comes close in the initial atmosphere department with its clever introduction., but really
they are all left in the shade by Munroe Manor - which is by far the best.
A classic tape adventure, re-released a few times, and appeared on other 8-bit computers.
One advantage with playing this game on an Emulator is that you can speed up the screen graphics considerably, removing any annoying delay while the screens are drawn.
There are various cases that you can try to solve and the atmosphere thats generated by the design of the game - the surveillance cameras for observing the characters in the game is great. This could of been just an average detective game, but the quality of design and overall graphics lifts it into another league. Great fun!
You start off in a secret room that you discovered below your house - a misty mirror will guide your way...
This game was only recently emailed to me, I never saw or heard of it before - thanks to whoever modified this game to run with the emulators.
The game came with a well written book called "a tale of Kerovnia" and gave the game a great storyline.
The Pawn received rave reviews and in many cases it was highly overrated - the game can be quite hard and rather frustrating to play, its not a bad game, but certainly not the best.
One of the main attractions of the game is its use of graphics which in many cases beautifully depict the locations in the game.
With some well written in game text, an impressive parser and superb graphics this was a good adventure in its day, and the use of graphics really made some of the Infocom games look very dated.
A crazy but original storyline which has you're character in a place called Tone Town, trying to find his grandpa! Zany characters throughout, and for the first time ever in a Interplay adventure, music is used in some areas of the game.
The graphics are great, the use of music adds even more atmosphere to the game, and the parser is excellent. A classic.
The storyline is the usual simplistic find the murderer type, but works well and the characters you interrogate throughout the game are varied and amusing.
Well drawn backgrounds and appropriate screen scrolling add to the realism that the adventure creates. The main characters are reasonably animated and certainly look the part. Appropriate music also plays when you enter a characters room.
The game is entertaining and can get quite involved at times with various puzzles to solve along the way. One of the best murder, mystery games to appear on the 64.
The parser's weak but functional, the best graphics are the introduction sequence above, the other in-game graphics are nothing special. There is a rendition of the famous Dallas theme tune, but considering the power of the SID chip it should of been a lot better!
Worth playing but very disappointing considering the show its based on.
The graphics though out the game are good and the music is adequate, including a reasonable rendition of the Perry Mason theme tune from the television show. The parser is superb, its geared to allow for complex sentence input, and is really impressive, it makes the game far more realistic than a lot of other adventures. There are certain investigative procedures that you should follow and Paul Drake your trusted assistant is on hand to do some errands for you.
An excellent game, underrated in its day, and its yet another classic from the Spinnaker software company.
This game will only run with the PC64 emulator, and you must turn off the national keyboard driver and joysticks from the PC64 menu options. When the boot screen appears with the "space bar" message. You must press it within one second!
The quality of text is superb and the random nature of the game means that every game you play will be different. You can play the game from various stages of life, including Infancy and Adolescence. The situations you are presented with can be serious and hillarious! This is the sort of game that really shines when played with more than one person.
The game is huge and packed with text information, considering the limitations of the 64's memory/disk drive for a game of this type, it is really impressive how much depth there actually is to the game. The game moves along at a good pace and disk access is fast and does not spoil the game. It was highly rated in its day and received a gold medal award in ZZap 64. A true classic that has never been beaten.
The game was developed by Magnetic Scrolls, the same company behind The Pawn. It features the same sophisticated parser to other Magnetic Scrolls adventures (very similar to Infocom's) and so allows complex input.
The storyline is good and the in game graphics are well drawn for a 64. Although the storyline is not as strong as The Pawn, its still a better game and comparable to an average Infocom game.
This is the definitive Scott Adams collection, comprising of the following games: (Text versions) - Adventure Land, Pirate Adventure, Mission Impossible, Voodoo Castle, The Count, Strange Odyssey, Mystery Fun House, Pyramid of Doom, Ghost Town, Savage Island Part 1, Savage Island Part 2, The Golden Voyage. (Graphic versions) - Adventure Land, Pirate Adventure, Secret Mission, Voodoo Castle, The Sorceror of Claymorgue Castle.
NOTE: The graphic versions will only work with the PC 64 Emulator.
All the games are above average adventures, with the usual Level 9 parser. The adventures play quite well, with Return to Eden probably the better of the three.
The storylines of the three games are good and the text descriptions are interesting enough.
The graphics are average, nothing special but like in most adventure games they do help to create the games atmosphere.
All the games are above average adventures, with the usual Level 9 parser. The adventures play quite well, with Colossal Adventure probably the better of the three.
The storylines of the three games are good and the text descriptions are interesting enough.
The graphics are average, nothing special but like in most adventure games they do help to create the games atmosphere.
There are19 text adventures in this collection: Adventure in Time & Space, Blackpool Tower, Convention Blues, The Dare, Great Aussie Adventure, Harboro, Land of the Giants, Land of the Purple Sea, Lost in the Amazon, Million Dollar Great Jewel Heist, Misty Island, R.J's Ultimatium, Revenge of the Vampire, Shadows of the Night, St. Jives, Survival, Trouble at Bridgeton, Westbury Mystery and the Yellow Peril.
If you are a fan of text adventures or Quill based adventures, then this collection is well worth checking out.
The Complete Infocom Collection now ONLINE
Compiled by Dimitris Kiminas for Commodore Zone