Ben, Jason, and special guest Dave "Velociraptor" of This Week in Retro take on a double dose of robot-themed games. First up is Souls of Darkon by Andy Walker, published by Taskset and Bug-Byte for Amstrad CPC, Spectrum, and Commodore 64. The robot "Komputa" aids the player on their quest to combat a variety of dread evil forces.

For the main course we take on Epyx's text adventure adaptation of Isaac Asimov's novel The Robots of Dawn, written by Jon Leupp. The team note the substantial departure from the book's plotlines, the surplus of empty offices, and some inconsistencies between the Apple II and Commodore 64 versions.

Ben solves a decades-long gaming mystery, plus there's a cat and a mouse and only one of them survives to the end of the episode!

Souls of Darkon (MobyGames)

Souls of Darkon (MOCAGH)

The Robots of Dawn (MobyGames)

The Robots of Dawn (MOCAGH)

The Robots of Dawn (playable online, C64)

The Robots of Dawn (playable online, Apple)

The Robots of Dawn by Asimov (novel, Wikipedia)

Creator of games including Hadean Lands, Spider and Web, and Shade, as well as a long-time maintainer of Inform and participant in Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation (IFTF) leadership, Andrew "Zarf" Plotkin was also a teenager once. And back then he wrote Inhumane, as covered in Episode 27.

Jason and Nick welcome him to the program discuss the creation of Inhumane, the evolution of his work as a participant in the modern interactive fiction community, and the prospects for another "Infobom" title in that parody vein.

Zarfhome (personal homepage and contact info)

IFDB credits

IFTF

A Change in the Weather

Praser 5

Grimtooth's Traps

Episode image from The Book of Adventure Games II

All the way back in Episode 1 we promised to play Level 9's Knight Orc. Ben and Jason chip away at that obligation by playing... the first of three independent-load sections of the game. (We're working on it!) They do their best to navigate the aptly-named "KAOS" engine and assemble rope. (So much rope.)

But first, a clearout of news and listener mail, and a visit to the wry parody of Infidel, Andrew Plotkin's Inhumane. The game is loaded with death traps and unlicensed appearances by famous characters, including a cameo from the villain of Episode 20's Mask of the Sun.

Knight Orc (IFDB)

Knight Orc (playable online, BBC version)

Inhumane (IFDB)

Inhumane (playable online)

Retro Gaming Books collection

How to program a text adventure in C

Dog Star Adventure (IFDB)

Evertop PC

Mystery of Arkham Manor (Spectrum Computing)

Mystery of Markham Manor (IFDB)

Rick Hanson (IFDB)

Ben and Jason take on the text adventure distillations of two uniquely British phenomena.

First up is the "prolific musical innovator" genre with Number 9 Software's Beatle Quest, a psychedelic trip into lots and lots of Beatle song concepts and name-checking.

For the main course, the duo explore the "slobs in space" phenomenon through the storytelling of shareware highlight Jacaranda Jim by modern-day InfoSec celebrity Graham Cluely. It's one of Ben's all-time games, but can he convert his American collaborator?

Beatle Quest by Garry Marsh (IFDB)

Beatle Quest (playable online, ZX Spectrum)

Jacaranda Jim by Graham Cluely (IFDB)

Jacaranda Jim (play online or download)

Christopher Drum's Infocom Zork on Cosmopolitan

Graham Cluely's computer security news (YouTube)

Cover photo CC-BY 2.0 khakidoggy

Tim Gilberts is back for another rummage through the magazine rack, this time with Jason and Dave. We pull a corporate newsletter and three full-length issues, all from the 1982-1984 period.

We look at the first (and only?) newsletter put out by Spinnaker sub-brand Trillium (later Telarium), browse through the general-interest UK mag Personal Computer Games and compare it to a similar American counterpart, Computer Gaming World, before finishing up in the Sierra On-Line sponsored Softline, with none other than Tron on the cover.

Trillium Newsletter v1n1 (1984)

Personal Computer Games #6 (May 1984)

Computer Gaming World Mar/Apr 1983

Softline May 1982

Bill Bowman, CEO of Spinnaker Software (ANTIC Interview #278)

David Seuss, co-founder of Spinnaker Software (ANTIC Interview #305)

Telarium Corp (Mobygames)

Galactic Adventures (The CRPG Addict)

Patricia Mitchell, Thorn EMI (ANTIC Interview #302)

Chris James, Thorn EMI (ANTIC Interview #326)

Journey to the Planet Pincus (Renga in Blue)

Peter Golden, author of Sherlock Holmes: Another Bow and a key figure in Bantam Software's Living Literature series joins us for a conversation about his work in text adventures and subsequent work as a novelist.

PeterGolden.com

Bantam Software's Living Literature

For this roundup of Sherlock Holmes adventures from the 1980s, Ben and Jason call in an expert: Sherlockian playwright Christian Neuhaus, co-creator of You've Ruined a Perfectly Good Mystery. The trio of amateur sleuths take on the three major commercial releases in chronological order.

First up is Sherlock from Melbourne House, written in the same "Inglish" system that powered The Hobbit... and with many of the same strengths and liabilities. Written by Philip Mitchell, whose Australian take on 19th century London doesn't fool Ben for a second.

Next it's the smorgasbord of shipboard mayhem Sherlock Holmes: Another Bow. Author Peter Golden will join us on a future episode to talk about how this Bantam Software release came to be.

Finally we take on Infocom's final all-text creation, Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels by Bob Bates. Does it send the legendary series and unparalleled investigative team out on a triumphant note by putting the player in Watson's shoes?

Sherlock by Melbourne House (IFDB)

Sherlock (playable online, ZX Spectrum)

Sherlock Holmes: Another Bow (IFDB)

Sherlock Holmes: Another Bow (playable online, DOS)

Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels (IFDB)

Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels (playable online)

Peter Golden's fiction

POW! KABOOM! KWAH!

Dave and Jason explore two 1980s text adventures pulled from the world of comic books! (At the time, comics were just one of many forms of narrative expression and not the dominant storytelling platform as they are this century.)

First up it's Redhawk from Melbourne House, which experiments with text/graphics adventure presentation by building a three-panel comic on-screen based on player input. Can you, as mild-mannered news photographer Kevin Oliver and as flying, fighting superhero Redhawk save the city?

Then it's Questprobe: Spider-Man from Adventure International, from the short-lived Marvel Comics series which just predated the company's end. Amazing feats of wall-walking and strength await!

Finally, we play the work-in-progress of the unfinished Questprobe: X-Men, provided by Scott Adams himself from his archives.

Questprobe: Spider-Man (playable online, Apple II verson)

Questprobe: Spider-Man on IFDB

Redhawk (playable online, Amstrad CPC version)

Redhawk on IFDB