Dungeon

Much thought went into that title!

Dungeon is a role-player released in 1993 by TC Basset for legends Budgie UK. It uses the Talespin adventure game creator engine which is something I've personally never encountered before. Upon loading, we are greeted by a creepy dude (with an obvious blood pressure problem) who has an incredible sense of humour. He warns us of the adventure ahead and offers the choice of character but, listen carefully and heed his warnings. No, seriously listen to him!

Ultimately we must battle the evil necromancer, Malik Abdul Aziz, and recover something called The Great Orb Of Thoth. Who thinks of these names? The dungeons are pretty simple but also infested with a wide range of hideous creatures so tread carefully. It wouldn't be right without monsters! Choose your character wisely but newcomers are best picking a Warrior or Fighter as they come readily equipped to tackle most beasts well. And who doesn't love a free weapon?

With that in mind, let's check out a couple of freaky screenshots of what you're likely to encounter...

No sooner had I begun and the first nasty creature is a blood-dripping zombie. YEAH!!

A couple of steps deeper into the dungeon and the mother-in-law appears. An old bat!

Then this weird dude appears from the darkness fancying a piece of me.

Monsters, battles and blood!

Yep, you are not alone down inside the dark corridors, so stay frosty and be ready for anything freaky that's waiting to jump out: decaying zombies, barbarians, venomous snakes, gnarly bats, and many more hideous creatures are all lurking in the shadows. Fighting is crudely entertaining and far more frequent than you initially realise.

The metallic chinks of your weapons are great but battles can also be fought magically using potions and victory ensures a deathly scream - before hearing their bodies crump to the ground. Each defeated enemy (even a bat) will reveal a hidden treasure chest filled with random goodies so collect your loot and leggit!! Those that cluck like cowardly chickens may wanna run away? Your choice but beware, there could be a price to pay...

There's nothing better than exploring a village and hey, check me out and my body...

The first dingy tunnel takes us into a medieval village.

It actually looks like a nice place. Might stay an enjoy a beer or two?

Mr Muscles is actually me. Yes, me!

Chat and try your luck

Exploration is never a bad idea, so take your time and turn over every stone. Why not chat with the locals, there are some interesting characters with superly silly personalities, even if conversations are a little shallow. Communication reveals more than you realise and perhaps you might earn a bob or two and make friends?

A tavern is a safe place to rest and recuperate. Just as with Lure Of The Temptress, they are the perfect place for a chat and why not order yourself a beer and enjoy a flutter whilst here? Perhaps I had too many beers, but I loved this experience which entertains constantly with a wicked sense of humour. Those, outside this great island of ours, might not fully appreciate it but we Brits always had a daft sense of humour. Well, I had a great laugh!

Fancy a beer? Of course, you do. It's a fact that no man can refuse beer so check out these images...

  
Being a normal guy, I head straight for the tavern which opens up a world of new options.

  
I gambled with these likely lads but didn't do very well... Wait a moment, is that a trapdoor I see?

Aesthetics

Graphically, we have a homebrew Dungeon Master wannabe. It's actually pretty good and I believe the funky images taken from Deltronics' Fantasy Graphic Disk are quite well-drawn and often humorous. However, I was gobsmacked when the zombie appeared to eat my brain because I think this is superb pixel art.

Sadly, there's no atmospheric background tune but at least the sound effects are all made from samples. These certainly help to enhance the game's humorous nature: footsteps, knocking doors, groans and the clang of metal, are all good. But it's the horrifying screams that are amazing and really makes me chuckle.

We always seem to meet the same type of monster down in a dungeon. Which is great stuff...

Abandon hope all ye who enter here as each step reveals something scary!

Or even a hideous ... erm ... Viking?

Beat all of them and then a giant snake appears. Will it ever end?

Sometimes emulation is better than real hardware!

I've never previously experienced the Talespin engine and, although I wasn't expecting commercial quality, it's obvious this creator had limits. The problem is an agonising wait between each and (almost) every action which is quite poor and spoils the experience. Oddly, installing it onto a hard drive didn't present much of a benefit.

Sadly, my 16MHz Mega STe didn't speed up the gameplay as I initially hoped. In fact, it made things slightly worse because a few screens suffered palette corruption and its sound effects didn't play correctly. So, (sigh) I find myself in new territory here, and thus advise using an emulator like Hatari - I sped up those waits by hitting CMD X.

Okay, one final screenshot and it's something no adventurer ever wants to see...

I should have spent more time in the tavern!! At least the great humour remains until the very end.

The CryptO'pinion?

I enjoyed finding something "new" and this was most certainly an interesting adventure with silly characters and lots of battles against unearthly creatures. Sadly, it's let down by the Talespin engine itself, which is very slow. However, if you can put up with that, then you have something different to enjoy one quiet night in. A most enjoyable adventure.

Grab yourself the download right now.

Hibernated 1 - This Place is Death

WooHoo a new Atari ST game!

Hibernated 1: This Place is Death is a sci-fi text adventure by Stefan Vogt and released for a variety of different platforms along with our beautiful Atari ST. We are Olivia Lund onboard the intergalactic spaceship, Polaris-7 who has awoken from stasis. The ship appears abandoned and has been caught by an alien tractor beam.

You know, text adventures aren't often my cuppa tea - the brain needs to be fed visual wonders before I wander off dazed... But, I have gotta say, I've really enjoyed myself with this rather splendid adventure which has a fantastic sense of humour. The parser is easy to use with a two-word command system using Examine, Get, Open, Search, Move, etc. There are also shortcuts: I for Inventory and R to re-describe the current location. Medium resolution is supported but oddly not monochrome... The docs advised making a map and that is a very good idea!!

Hibernated 1 is possibly the first of a new trilogy that can be downloaded and bought right now. Name your own price - which I think is a wonderful idea - thus play before you pay. Are any text adventurers lurking out there?

UPDATE: You can now purchase a physical boxed release! :-)

This adventure has a great personality with cheeky remarks using buckets of humour!

A droid is punching me and I try to examine it. What was I thinking? A nice response though!!

Yikes, what is on that computer? The last thing we need is to be quarantined for four weeks!

Kult

Let's play something a little different!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... No, wait, wrong game!! Okay, let me start again, many moons ago a good friend of mine [Greetings Tom!] surprised me with a gift sent all the way from the land of the Vikings. Inside was a beautifully preserved -sealed- copy of Kult, something I had never played before in my life. He was adamant that this was a true 16-bit classic and I even remember it receiving good reviews. Heck, Atari ST User magazine rated it a perfect ten!

You are Raven, a psionic mutant, who saw a bunch of other mutants destroy a village and now wants to fight back! That's the gist of this story for what is a most confusing adventure. It's got a tough learning curve and there are many cunning puzzles. This is a game like no other I have ever played but it's that learning curve that you need to master, especially the user interface. The graphics are creepy-cool and all sound effects are samples - I love the speech effects.

I fear this game has more to it than you first realise? You're probably wondering how my first game went...

I've been getting to grips with this game today but the hard drive version fails to work for me (I think it's my SD Card) so I went for the floppy version, linked below, by Zuul and this worked perfectly. Well, after a couple of hours, I am blown away by this incredible and captivating game. The user interface might first appear confusing and quite laboured but in fact, it's actually anything but because navigation is a breeze. I also love how the rooms are titled, which certainly helps me a bunch!

I'm currently getting to grips with the locations and examining everything I see in the rooms. Objects are often tripped-out and plain silly - I've just polished the eyeballs on a fountain to get it working, why I'm not exactly sure yet but I've done it. I have also chatted to some strange looking fellas, so I followed them and used the attack function. Won this battle but then his friends ate the corpse!

I laughably love using the brain to select various instructions, such as inspect, attack, and talk. What a strange yet oddly obvious way to make decisions!! I've also learned not to trust people, I walked into a dark room and somebody told me to follow them. Stupid that I am, I did just that and promptly fell through a trap into a water-filled pit. Here, I was eaten alive by some kind of monster! Great...

This game is different to anything I've played. I love how its storyline is deep and involving but never overwelming. I feel that I've only just scratched the surface of what will be a unique experience!

Grab this game while it's hot!

8BitChip has created a version to be installed on your hard disk which is just brilliant.

Various floppy disks feature Kult and I recommend Zuul #195 via Stonish.

Wasabim has recorded a brilliant youtube video.

Atari ST User scored Kult 10/10 - wow!! [AtariMania]

Lure Of The Temptress

An Adventure To Lose Yourself In

Every so often a game is released that breaks the mould and completely blows you away. Virgin Games released this point-and-click adventure back in 1992 and it's something quite remarkable. A game of great character, lore and charm. Interestingly, it was developed by David Sykes and Tony Warriner of Revolution Software and appears to be their only Atari ST game. I hate it when that happens as I cannot help but wonder what else they would have made...

The story begins with you waking up one day, only to find yourself locked away in a creepy dungeon. You are a nobody, a peasant, and are called Diermot. You were previously part of an attempt to free the village of Turnvale from Selena and her army of Orc lookalikes, called Skorls. Sadly, that campaign ended in tragedy and everyone was killed! Whilst the bloodshed reigned, you bumped your noggin and were knocked unconscious only to be easily captured.

Upon waking, you find yourself banged up in jail with a bad-tempered Skorl as your guard. Yikes!!

The intro is fascinating to watch. Like a 16-bit mini-movie!

I love the opening scenes which nicely introduce you to the world you're in.

As you begin to explore, you meet new people like this old chap idly relaxing...

It's Like Having A Second Life!

Lure Of The Temptress is something in which to become lost. Immerse yourself in this wonderfully crafted adventure taking place within a gorgeous Olde English setting. It's a point-and-click adventure controlled using the mouse: the left button guides your character around the screen and can also display status and object information. The right button is used to command and interact with characters and more. This system is well-designed, intuitive and easy to master.

Gameplay is experienced in real-time with the populous merrily going about their daily business while you go about yours. Having woken up in jail, your first task is to escape, so it's fortunate Skorl's aren't the brightest bulbs in the box. Ie, easily fooled. Throughout, your progress will be down to careful exploration, examination, and communication so pick up every object because you never know when you might need it. Talk to everyone and see what information they can reveal and sometimes somebody might ask you to do them a favour before divulging.

The world is populated by some of the most entertaining personalities and delightful characters that will certainly win your heart. Just start a chat with someone in a tavern, for example, a dialogue guaranteed to entertain! This charm and charisma are displayed early on as you rescue a fellow inmate called Ratpouch who immediately becomes a loyal friend. He is actually good company and will often try to help - when he's not in the pub that is! But watch out because he doesn't half get himself into trouble by saying the silliest of things to other characters. Such a mischievous guy and a best friend.

Let's take a look at a few more screenshots with subtle hints...

It's worth exploring everywhere and chatting with everybody... Even the half-naked man!

Or you could play dress-up and enjoy being a dude in a dress. Incognito is fun!

Relax. Have a beer and chill with your mate Ratpouch. Maybe you'll hear something interesting?

Looks And Audio

This adventure is one of the most visually stunning 16-bit games I have ever played. The artwork is an absolute joy and perfectly sets the mood for a wonderful medieval setting. The characters move with smooth animation and I love those added intricate details - like the bird which sits on the fence for a few moments before flying off. A delicate touch to the scene and impressive to witness during play. It's things like that which make you appreciate the atmosphere.

The sound effects are the only weakness but please don't misunderstand me - they are beautiful and made from high-quality sampled sounds. However, there are also some screens that don't have any background audio at all. I personally found that a little disappointing in comparison to the rest of this beautiful game.

I'm moaning about nothing there, aren't I? Well, let's take a look at one final screenshot that you will see a lot...

Oh no, it's game over for another fallen adventurer. They think it's all over? It is now!!

The CryptO'pinion?

Lure Of The Temptress is most certainly an impressive adventure and one you will adore getting to grips with. Hilarious, captivating and very addictive so my advice is to make time for this wonderful game. Make notes and talk to everyone. Yes, even those people who may resemble a street bum or a wacko in a pub knitting. Everyone has a tale to tell.

You never know what the game will throw at you next. Such a massive adventure with so many twists and turns cunningly interwoven into its storyline. Heck, you may even fall in love... I shall say no more about that! Personally, I would rank Lure Of The Temptress as one of the best adventures for the Atari ST and a pinch away from total perfection.

 - I found this cool image on the internet which maps the village.

 - 8BitChip has adapted a version for Ultrasatan/hard drive users.

 - No hard drive? Then instead check out Old Games Finder for the floppy version.

 - ST Format featured a superb walk-through [issue #67 / page 83].