Level 9

Level 9 was/is one of the best known companies, hell even the yanks have heard of them! Basically they were THE best ever text adventure games company. They only did 15 games for the old 8-bit computers, but boy were these games masterpieces of computer games engineering. Whilst yanks had the PC, a 512k monster of a machine (well back then it was) we Brits had to make do with the Speccy and BBC. They managed to pack hundreds of words, and even up to 200 pictures into 32k! Even though it takes ages to load them on the beeb tapes (they did disk as well) they were brilliant, if you can experience them, then you should. The company was run by three brothers - Mike, Pete and Nick Austin, and they ruled the roost for Text adventures over here from 1984-1991, when the business folded due to the collapse of the Maxwell Empire. They had pulled out of the BBC/Acorn market before they died, releasing their last title Scapeghost on the BBC in late 1989/early 1990. Luckily for us Beeb owners they didn't produce anything that didn't appear on the Beeb.

During their time they also 'lent' their text compression techniques and lent a hand with some of Mosaic Publishings games, click here to see them.


Adventure Quest

Released: Unknown

Author: Unknown

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This is set in the same place as Colossal Adventure, but hundreds of years after. Your quest is to defeat the evil demon lord with a magic item. It is fairly standard, but excellently written.

Colossal Adventure

Released: Unknown

Author: Unknown

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This is a remake of the original 'Adventure' game except that there are more puzzles, and the ending is different. It was their first release.

Dungeon Adventure

Released: Unknown

Author: Unknown

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This is set immediately after Adventure Quest, you are a mercenary sent to loot his castle, this one is packed full of chewy puzzle goodness, it is extremely complexed.

Emerald Isle

Released: Unknown

Author: Unknown

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This was the first game they did with graphics for each location (at least on the BBC it was, on the Speccy all games had graphics, boo!) You are stranded on an island in the Bermuda Triangle, and have to get off of it.

Gnome Ranger

Released: Unknown

Author: Unknown

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Gnome Ranger II: Ingrid's Back

Released: Unknown

Author: Unknown

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Knight Orc

Released: Unknown

Author: Unknown

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The first game they wrote with their new adventuring engine - this one was for expanded BBC's only, you needed SWR at least to get it to run, and Shadow RAM for the graphics (which were very nice pictures actually). It was made on a very large grid style map, which spoiled it for some as it was somewhat more linear than the first 10 games, and not as well received.

Lancelot

Released: Unknown

Author: Unknown

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Game based on the Arthurian legend, this is very advanced and fills two disks as it uses pictures and text, its fairly good but again doesn't come near their best works, the early trilogy based games.

Lords Of Time

Released: Unknown

Author: Unknown

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This is a great game, it has one of the most advanced parsers they ever did, basically you have to fight through the 9 time zones which you can reach by way of a Grandfather clock (how surreal!) it has loads of puzzles, this one is my favourite.

Price Of Magik

Released: Unknown

Author: Unknown

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This was the last game of the three trilogies, you have to defeat a wicked sorcerer in his old mansion. This was a bit like a Role Playing Game, because some characters had 'hit points'. Again you learn spells, and have to use them in the correct places.

Red Moon

Released: Unknown

Author: Unknown

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You are sent to recover the moon rock crystal, you have to cast spells in this game, but before you can, you have to gain a focus for each one.

Return To Eden

Released: Unknown

Author: Unknown

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You (Kim Kimberly) find yourself stranded on the planet Eden, you have to battle through the wildlife in order to find the robot built city, which was meant to house your colony.

Scapeghost

Released: Unknown

Author: Unknown

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This game has quite a novel plot, you are a dead police officer, the game begins at your own funeral where you watch the poeple you worked with and loved carrying your coffin. Basically you have to find out who killed you, which is tougher than you think as ghosts cannot interact very well with the living! This one has pictures, but the text is based in mode 7, which is different to the other games.

Snowball

Released: Unknown

Author: Unknown

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This one is set aboard the gigantic star ship, terrorists have taken over, and you need to stop them. It is annoying though because it starts in a huge maze.

Worm In Paradise

Released: Unknown

Author: Unknown

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An unusual game, you have to fight against political corruption and against the 'system'. Not really the best thing they ever did, but worth a look.