Mystery of the Indus Valley
(Alternative Software, 1988)
You are a member of the London Archaeological Society and have been sent to the Indus Valleys of South America, to retrieve two long-lost treasures – the Scytheran tablet, and Alexandrite’s starstone. This is a text adventure created using GAC, and it’s rather basic. The graphics are nothing special, and the prose and descriptions of each location are not what you’d call verbose or atmospheric. Most of the objects lying around have no use, and it’s easy to work out what to do with the useful objects. In short, it’s a text adventure for newcomers to the genre, although there seems to be a bug which means that it cannot be completed – as far as I know, anyway...
Mystery of the Nile
(Firebird/Zigurat, 1987)
Abu-Sahl has stolen the immensely valuable Jewel of Luxor, and a trio of characters – Janet Dwight, Nevada Smith and Al-Hasan – set out to recover the jewel. At the start of the game, Al-Hasan and Nevada are being held prisoner, so you control Janet, who must rescue them. However, before you can do so, you must kill all the enemies on each screen using bombs. Soon, things become more hectic, as you can switch between the three characters – although the characters you don’t control will quickly wander about the screen and get themselves killed! This makes the game quite frustrating. The difficulty level is also very unforgiving; make even the tiniest mistake and you are punished for it. Well, this is actually a Spanish game that was originally released as El Misterio del Nilo, and you know how difficult most Spanish games are!
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Metr81.
You’re a young wizard who made a mistake in a magical formula and scattered all the spells and phials of his master, the Great Wizard. So you have to visit many parallel worlds to get them back from evil forces. Never mind the storyline, Mystical is a shoot-’em-up – and a very good one. The graphics are gorgeous, the animation is smooth (though a bit sluggish at times) and the tune during the intro sequence is great. But it’s a shame there are no sound effects in the rest of the game (lack of memory, perhaps?). Every time you collect a spell or a potion, you obtain a new power. There are many different characters and spells, which prevents boredom because the game is otherwise rather repetitive. With a greater variety in the design of the levels (and with sound effects!), Mystical could have been one of the very best CPC games. Incidentally, the cartridge version is exactly the same as the normal CPC version!
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Axelino.
Myth: History in the Making
(System 3, 1989)
The Earth is once again being threatened by the gods, and you are the only person with the ability to stop them. You must travel through four time zones, starting in the fiery depths of hell, then moving on to Greece, Scandinavia and Egypt, where you confront the Egyptian god Dameron and must kill him to prevent him from taking over the Earth in your own time. You must also collect five teleportation globes on each level to be able to leave it. It may be a far-fetched plot, but it’s a fantastic game! Ignore the rather Spectrum-like graphics (which are actually still fairly good), and the fact that there’s no music – this game is an absolute classic.