ALCHEMIST
29
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The mix of action skills with logical thinking ensured to adventure games a big popularity even from "Halls of the things". "The alchemist" is real holiday for eyes, chalinging game, one of the best. You must quickly combine increditents for a magic mixture to defeat a evil wizard. To do it, you must walk through a complex of the rooms, where everyone needs different strategy for risk avoiding. You can walk in human shape or change to majestic eagle and fly between ladders or over holes. There are many objects to discover and used in different opportunities.
ALIEN 8
10
:
The game is placed on a starship consisting of a big number of wonderfullyrendered 3D rooms. We control a nice little robot with the task to wake up the many frozen astronauts through the activation of the cryogenic chambers which are scattered through the ship. To finish the game, it is necessary to find some special objects that activate if placed in the energetic units of the cryogenic chambers. Furthermore, all these operations must be brought to an end before our, however rather long, time is over.
ALL OR NOTHING
3
:
Even if you are as old as me you probably won't have heard of this one. The crude graphics and mostly purple screen ensured that most gamers gave this a wide berth, which is a shame as it's an unrivalled classic in the espionage field. Sneaking around an enemy complexc, letting off bombs to distract guard dogs, stealing stuff from deaf guards' pockets, braking into locked warehouses to steal important documents, bribing the enemy with money looted from their fallen comrades' bodies, every devious trick you ever wanted to try was catered for in this enormously entertaining piece of software. too compelling for words and ever so naughty.
3D ANT ATTACK
9
14
:
There's a strong case for calling this the most beautiful game ever to grace the Speccy. The graphics were made up of simple blocks and the characters were unremarkable stick men and women. But the stunning architecture of Antescher, the lost city inhabited by huge ants that the player had to rescue their girl/boyfriend (no sexism here), was quite stunning. 'Atmospheric' is a much-overhyped term, especially in these Top 100 articles, ahem. But if ever a game deserved the accolade, it's this one. Completely unique and utterly wonderful, Ant Attack was one of those games that took the Spectrum a step further than it had ever been before.
ANTICS BIRDS AND BEES 2
47
:
There's no shortage of games which call on you to rescue someone or other. Most of them simply ask you to battle through a hostile scenario and reach your goal, at which point everything magically becomes alright. However, in Antics when Barnabee (the bee) reaches his kidnapped cousin Boris (the, er, bee), the story is only half-complete. Barnabee has to guide the weakened and slow-moving Boris all the way back to the start again and, if he goes too fast, poor Boris gets all confused and lost. The frantic rush to go slowly (if you see what I mean) against a tough time limit makes this just about the most heart-wrenching game in the whole world. Aw shucks.
ATIC ATAC
7
79
9
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In the early years buying Speccy games was a fraught business and gamesplayers had to suffer any number of pig-in-a-poke purchases. But there was an eternal light in the gloom - Ultimate. They took the speccy closer to its limits with every release and Atic Atac was only the first in a long line of true classics. The design is nothing out of the ordinary, but the care and attention lavished on every detail of this arcade adventure makes it a joy that anyone who calls themselves a games lover should own.
AVALON
91
:
In its time, Avalon was called 'the first adventure movie'. If that's true, it would have to be a David Lynch movie, because I haven't got a clue what's going on in it half the time. Still, you could well argue that this game was a direct ancestor of Fantasy World Dizzy and the like, with its mix of adventure, puzzle, and arcade skills calling for a real all-round effort to make any progress. This wasn't a game to pick up for a few minutes - Avalon drew you in and demanded all of your attention, and it usually got it.
BATMAN THE CAPED CRUSADE
9
:
This game actually consists of two distinct games: "A bird in the hand" and "A fate worst than death". The action takes place in the usual bat-cave, partly in the sewers of Gotham City, partly through the streets of the city itself and partly inside the buildings. Very original is the comics style of the game: every room is represented in its own frame and, proceeding from one to another, the previous ones remain shadowed onto the background. Our task is to prime a mechanism that will defeat all the enemies and to do so we must make use of the right objects at the right time.
BATMAN
10
:
In this little masterpiece we act as the famous paladin of justice with thetask to explore the huge bat-cave to find the lost bat-plane parts that someone has dismounted. In every room, reproduced in a wonderful way, we will find some problems to solve: it can be a matter of takng an item that can be useful, for example the bat-boot to jump higher, or simply passing through the strange creatures, most mechanical, that bar our way. It's not easy to find the right way in that vastness and is a good idea to make a map.
BACK TO SKOOL
19
:
Or the game that brought teenage romace back to the Spectrum. In the sequel to the brilliant Skool Daze, Microsphere added a school full of girls to the original formula of sneaky backhanded japery and unusual escapades with amphibians. This was obviously a good thing. They ended up with a game which provided many a Spectrum owner with some of the happiest days of their lives. The wondrful atmosphere in Skool Daze was just part of a recipe which also included incredibly devious puzzles, a whole cast of genuine characters and superb graphics. Add a combination of platform dexterity with beat-'em-up violence and strategic planning for a game with a feel of completeness that's never really been bettered. (But Stuart, you say that about everything. Ed)
BLINKEY SCARY SCHOOL
9
:
The main character of this videogame is a nice little ghost with big feet that smoothly moves inside a castle full of odd objects, like the rolls of toilet-paper, strange and dangerous characters, like the jumping spiders, and secret passages that lead us towards others enchanting places. The game is side viewed without scrolling and the rooms are very well painted, detailed and multicoloured.
BOBY BEARING
46
:
Or Spindizzy with balls. This absolutely beautiful game never achieved the success it deserved for reasons which are a complete mystery mto me. It's another Marble Madness lookalike, but whereas Spindizzy was all sharp angles and sudden edges, Bobby featured properly rolling balls, round tunnels, curved surfaces, and much faster-moving gameplay. Funnily enough, it also called on you to act the good shepherd and herd other characters around. If pushing a marble across a curved slope with another marble (while contending with moving blocks, nasty enemies and sudden gusts of wind) sounds a tricky proposition to you, then you're halfway to understanding what made this game so addictive. Viciously loveable.
CASTLE MASTER
10
:
This is the fifth game of the 3D Freescape system based series. We find ourself in a clearing surrounded by the mountains in the middle of which stands a sinister castle. Our task is to enter the castle, kill all the ghosts that we find in its rooms until we face the dreadful dragon, kill him and catch the fabulous treasure he keeps.
CASTLE MASTER 2: THE CRYPT
10
:
This is, unfortunately, the last videogame based on the 3D Freescape system and is practically the sequel of Castle Master. It is placed again in a castle, but this time the adventure starts inside of it, not outside. Again, the most amusing thing to do is to explore, where possible collecting all the keys we find along the path, because these are necessary to open the doors, including the starting room one. Oh, pay attention to not open the lid...
DARK SIDE
10
:
This is the second work that uses the fabulous Freescape system and is based once again in space and more precisely on the other planet Evath's moon called Tricuspid on which the Ketars have built a terrible laser generator that is capable to destroy the planet itself.Our task is to deactivate the net of energetic crystals that are slowly loading the letal weapon.nfortunately they auto-regenerate if not destroyed in the correct sequence that is first those connected at one other crystal only. Moreover the base when we are is quite a lot intricate and we must coolly explore it.
DEACTIVATORS
28
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Most puzzle games rely on their simplicity to be instantly graspable, but Deactivators glories in complexity. Computer games have taken some strange approaches to bomb disposal, but having robots roving around in strange gravitational fields throwing the things through windows to each other has to be the most ridiculous yet. It was all so tensely gripping that players were completely hypnotised. If you're after some seriously weirdo cyberpunk thrills, give Deactivators a try.
DRILLER
10
:
This is the first game realized with the Freescape technique, which is a 3D system that allows the three-dimensional perspective view of shadowed objects and the full interaction with them. The adventure is based on the moon Mitral of the planet Evath, an artificial moon shaped like a geometrical solid with 18 square faces and 8 triangular ones. The Ketars have filled the satellite of gas and it will explode if we don't quickly put on the right points some valves that will let the gas exit in a controlled way. But to do this we must enter the intricate alien base.
DUN DARACH
57
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It was hard to pick just one of Gargoyle's series of games (which also include Tir Na Nog, Marsport and Heavy on the Magick). But the overwhelming atmosphere of Dun Darach won out. A whole city was yours to explore, complete with bars, gambling houses, and all manner of shops where you could even get a job to make yourself a bit of cash. Dun Darach was one of the most involving games ever written, and if you haven't got one I strongly suggest you get one. Then cancel all appointments for a week, and discover it yourself.
EVERYONE IS WALLY
10
:
This is the third of the Wally's adventures. This time it is based in a pleasant small town that, to say the truth, looks a little sinister. In fact there are hidden secret passages that lead to very singular places inhabited by rather strange characters like the walking shark. Also the dark windows of the shops strike with some fear and their insides aren't inferior. The inhabitants of this little town wander around for their affairs and not all of them are friends.
FAIRLIGHT 1 A PRELUDE
10
:
In this wonderful tridimensional adventure we are prisoners inside a beautiful castle full of surprises. The tower's stairs, the trap-doors, the rooms full of furnishing objects, the hidden courtyards with the carnivorous plants, all make this game interesting and full of fashion. Our task is to find the way to open the main door of the castle and exit, maybe carrying with us as much trasures as possible. But beware of the sentinels and of the other strange characters which we can encounter.
FAIRLIGHT 2 A TRAIL OF DARKNESS
10
:
This is the sequel of the previous adventure restarting exactly where it finished: at the exit of the castle we just left. Now we must walk across the country keeping away from the wolves, then enter in a strange wooden complex, the pirates cove, till we arrive on their vessel to find out its hidden secrets. This program consists of two parts, the second of which is loaded at a certain stage of the game.
FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD
71
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Remember Frankie - the most controversial band of the 80s? Parents said they were the classic example of a Catholic education gone wrong, but didn't the kids just love 'em? Ocean stunned everyone, first by buying the license and then by resisting the temptation to cobble together a quick rip-off platform game. Instead they presented us with one of the most insidiously charming and bizarre games they'd ever released. Only a bug which prevents it from being completed properly keptthis one from the Top 20, but it's still a bona fide classic.
FANTAZY WORLD OF DIZZY
41
10
:
Of all the Dizzy games, I decided to put this one in the chart because of the character interaction, the well-balaned puzzles, the charming atmosphere, but mostly because of the broad Glaswegian accent on the speech sample at the beginning. (Are you trying to tell me you're Scottish Stuart? Ed). All the adventures of the world's cutest egg are great games, but this one mixes together the best attributes of each one to the best effect. It's also the game which finally made budget software (not to mention Codemasters themselves) respectable.
GREAT ESCAPE
23
10
:
And while we're on the subject of atmosphere, we'd better say a word or two about The Great Escape. Much-feted programming team Denton Designs had their finest moment with this mostly black and white colditz-style arcade adventure. It captured the POW camp feel perfectly with the aid of an innovative design. The automatic ability to wander around the camp simply obeying the rules and touching the controls only when you wanted to do something naughty was a stroke of genius. Even your score was calculated in medals! If your dad thinks computer games are a waste of time, show him this.
GUNFRIGHT
10
:
This is a wonderful 3D videogame, the fourth of the Ultimate's series, this one placed in a splendidly reproduced Far West with all the details of the little town and its wooden buildings. In this adventure, we act as the sheriff who has the task to capture all the dangerous villain that wander about the streets. To help us we have our pistol and the horses we found somewhere that allow us to move rapidly
HEARTLAND
10
:
The most amusing thing of this videogame is the way the nice protagonist of the adventure trips holds his hat. He has the not easy task to search the lost pages of a magic book scattered through various assorted worlds, all very well realized, connected by lifts. And all in the granted time is ticking away by an unmerciful sand glass. The skull that slowly forms while the end gets near is well made.
HEAD OVER HEELS
5
10
:
After knight Lore, there were a hundred isometric 3D arcade adventure puzzle games, but his is undeniably the peak of the genre. It's quite possible that this game represents the peak of the game designer's art full stop, it was monstrously cute and gorgeous-looking. Head Over Heels toyed with the player's emotions as he struggled to join up the two independent heroes, only to have the joy of success cruelly shattered by another problem which could only be solved by splitting them up again. Mind-wrenchingly devious but always tantalisingly solvable, this is so addictive it hurts.
HERBERT'S DUMMY RUN
10
:
This is the second of the Wally's adventures. As the previous, it take place in a huge mansion. Wally and his wife are missing and their little son Herbert has the difficult task to find them again. To do so he must walk around the home finding many useful objects that are essential to gain access to all the house's rooms. During his trip he will often meet some moving objects like vacuum cleaners, toys, musical notes and so on. The occasional contact with those objects will low his energy. As usual, the main features of this game are the big and colourful graphics and the nice representation of the house's interior.
HIJACK
72
:
Most of you should already know how good this strategy epic is, 'cos we gave it to you free on the covertape a couple of months back. Still it doesn't hurt to mention it for the benefit of any latecomers - this is a game which proves the spectrum is more than capable of holding its own when it comes to games of depth and intellegence. Suprisingly atmospheric, hijack was also one of the most original ideas in years. The fact that it didn't sell more is more an indict of game buyers than of the actual game. Take the padlock of your brain and give this a go. You'll be pleasantly shocked.
KNIGHT LORE
33
10
:
We're really getting into 'legend' territory now. Knight Lore pioneered the 3D isometric graphic style, later to be imitated into oblivion by a hundred lesser designers. It took Spectrum graphics into a whole new world, and up to a level which simply hadn't been believed possible, even by the machine's creators themselves. The game was (conveniently) brilliant too, and the traditional Ultimate polish gave the whole thing a shine which was almost blinding. Revolutionary.
NIGHT SHADE
10
:
Wonderful 3D medieval adventure in which we guide a brave warrior in his mission that consists to find and kill four rather sinister characters. The medieval buildings are very well reconstructed and the 3D scrolling is surprisingly smooth. Some minor creatures bother us during the search but we can kill them using those strange objects that wander around.
OLLY AND LISA 3
10
:
The main feature of this videogame is the care with which the landscapes are made. They are very well detailed and coloured and change a lot from one room to the other. The main character is a funny round puppet with big feet that has the task to find out the pieces of his car. The way he frentically moves when we leave him alone is very nice. Very well made are also the sound effects that constantly accompany our search.
PENTAGRAM
9
:
This is the last 3D adventure of the Ultimate series and is also the worst due to the kind of controls adopted, that of "turn and walk" type, while in the previous works it was possible to select the "directional" control. However the graphics look very good and the exploration of the fascinating world the game offers is already a noteworthy pleasure. Beware of touch of the hostile creatures and pay attention to utilize the friendly ones like transporters for otherwise inaccessible places. Look out for the secret passages.
POPEYE
73
:
The Spectrum's straining technology was stretched to critical mass by this incrediblr game. The truely gorgeous graphics, which were half the size of the screen and packed with non-clashing colour, stunned everyone who saw them. But they were only part of the appeal of a tricky arcade adventure with more imagination than most of its contemporaries put together. Don Priestly, the programmer, took this style further with his subsequent (and brilliant) Trap Door games, but Popeye was still the original and the best.
PYJAMARAMA
10
:
This is the first real adventure of the Wally Week series. Its main features are the big and neat sprites and the clean and colourful graphics. The object of the game is to guide our night-dressed friend around his mansion, that reveals itself full of trap-doors, secret passages and very peculiar rooms, in the search of the right objects that will allow to wake up Wally which is imprudently fell asleep without having set the alarm-clock and risking for this to be late at work.
RESCUE
44
:
A classic budget game, there isn't really anything outstanding about Rescue at all. The graphics are great but not outstanding, the sound is zappy but nothing remarkable, the number of rooms and so on isn't anything out of the ordinary, and the runaround-arcade-adventure-zapping-collecting-and-rescuing (obviously) game design has been seena thousand times before. So why do I love it so much? To tell you the truth I'm not entirely sure. Until I can put it into words, just trust me. I just know I'm right.
SABRE WULF
31
10
:
The exceptionally detailed and colourful jungle is what makes this videogame really special. The main character of this adventure is an explorer that has to found the four parts of a scroll hidden in the deep forest and in his search he will go through beautiful places and meet wild beasts of any kind. Beware of the exotic flowers that, if touched, have strange effects on our hero. There is one, for instance, that reverses its commands: hitting the right key he will go to the left and vice versa. But some of them have advantageous effects. We will have to make the right choice.
SCEPTRE OF BAGDAD
10
:
This is the last adventure based on Wally Week character (or someone very similar). It is placed in the fabulous oriental desert with some fascinating and colourful ambients reproductions. Again in this game our hero has to explore around searching the right objects that are needed to proceed in the adventure. There are a bunch of problems to face and secret passages to find out. Amusing is the "air line" that is nothing more than a flying carpet.
SENTINEL
7
10
:
In direct contrast to Rainbow Islands, The Sentinel is a sombre, slow-moving game of mental exertion and tactical acumen as the player struggles to reach the top of a complex 3D landscape while avoiding the deadly gaze of old Sentinel and his evil minions. how did you manage it? By absorbing energy from trees and converting it into boulders to stand on and raise yourself ever higher until you could absorb the big guy himself and move on to the next of 10,000 landscapes, of course. Twice as weird as it sounds and fifty times as fun, this is a game no-one with a brain should be without.
SHADOW OF THE BEAST
10
:
Another absolute masterpiece consisting of eleven beautifully realized different levels. A peculiarity: it is possible to freely move forward and backward between the various levels as it is not compulsory to follow them sequentially. The scenaries are of the "fantasy" style with clearing and mountains, deserts, subterranean sites, castles and very odd underwater places. The object of the game is to find the place where the terrible beast is hidden and destroy him. Even if monochrome, the level of detail and polishness of the backgrounds are something sensational.
SPINX JINX TOTAL ECLIPSE 2
10
:
Another Freescape system based adventure. It can be considered the sequel of Total Eclipse and is also placed inside a pyramid where our task is to put together the various pieces of a sphinx that are scattered around the unexplored undergrounds. And this must be completed before the foreseen eclipse takes place. You better make a map if you want to understand how things go.
SPY VS SPY
20
:
This must surely be theame which has ruined more beautiful friendships than any other. Spy Vs. Spy is, in its own right, a supremely entertaining, funny and playable game. But take on the two-player mode and you'd better be prepared to experience bitter rivalry, ecstatic triumph and crushing despair, all within the first 90 seconds. The traps which the witless Black Spy and White Spy incessantly blundered into were alternately hilarious or teeth-grindingly infuriating, depending which side you were on. The split-screen display meant you had no excuse for not spotting what your opponent was up to. All you could do was get back up and perpetrate some of the same slapstick violence in return.If both of you somehow forgot what the actual point of the game was in all the excitement, well so what? Get Spy Vs. Spy and electrocute a close friend today. They'll thank you for it later.
STAR QUAKE
17
:
And speaking of Ultimate... Programmer Steven Crow was never strong on originality, his games had a habit of looking very much like 'tributes' to earlier Ultimate classics. Nevertheless, his knack for writing superb software was undisputed. This hybrid of Underwurlde and Atic Atac was fast and frantic, with a target which was difficult but attainable. Brimming with playability and addictiveness (thanks largely to the attributes previously mentioned), Starquake was steve's finest hour. To this day many people maintain that it's th speccy arcade game's finest hour too. A classic in the truest sense of the word.
THREE WEEKS IN PARADISE
76
10
:
Everybody's fool, Wally Week, was one of the most unlikely computer gaming heroes ever. Pot-bellied and flat-capped, Wally and his sad family starred in a series of classic arcade adventures that probably more than anything led to hugely popular Dizzy series and imitators which seem to make up half of today's [1991] Speccy releases. Three Weeks In Paradise was the most accomplished of the lot and, if you want a perspective, imagine Treasure Island Dizzy's sexy older brother and you'll be halfway there.
TOTAL ECLIPSE
10
:
A wonderful 3D adventure, the third based on the Freescape system, placed inside a pyramid in which an ancient egyptian curse is conceiled that will make the planet explode when the imminent eclipse becomes complete.ur task is to reach the higher room of the pyramid and halt the deadly mechanism. But to do this we have to explore the very intricate maze of rooms and, above all, find out all the hidden ankhs that allow to enter the otherwise closed rooms.
WRIGGLER
75
:
There are of course, hundreds of games which ask you to swallow your biological pride and play a worm, but Wriggler is undoubtedly the No 1. Beautifully animated graphics, bright, lush colours, big scary beasties for enemies and classic arcade adventure gameplay made for a game which could have changed the public perception of hermaphrodite non-vertebrates forever, if only anyone had ever bought it. Wriggler had all this and heavy metal too. Why don't you ever get free soundtrack tapes with games any more?