Four Minutes to Midnight is a post-apocalyptic text adventure with a twist. The game takes place in the United States in the not so distant future and the premise is that there has been an outbreak of a deadly bacteria strain. The twist is that the player can in a true RPG fashion, gather a party of adventurers in an otherwise classic text adventure to help along with the quest at hand. Different members can have different skills that help with the problems the player encounters. The objective is to lead your party of five survivors across the devastated United States to sanctuary.
Take on the role of Gilbert 'Grumpy' Gumphrey, veteren store detective, in this ZX Spectrum game from 1985. Perform various tasks, from rescuing children, to putting out fires, to getting the boss a nice cup of tea, but be careful - fail to manage your time correctly and you could get the sack!
A text adventure that was later re-released with some added graphics.
The game was created using Gilsoft's Quill. You tell the game what you want to do by typing instructions via keyboard and the parser is based on verb / noun input.
Marsport is the first (and ultimately only) game in an unfinished trilogy set in the 25th century. Humanity is at war with the Sept alien race, and they are now in a position to invade Earth, as they have the plans for their protective sphere. You play John Marsh, a soldier turned leader who must go to Mars and locate the original plans.
Marsport uses the same game system as Tir Na Nog and Dun Darach, although a 3D effect is incorporated into the graphics. A single path is displayed on screen at a time, and the view is rotated at junctions. The Warriors and Warlords must be shot down using weaponry, making this Gargoyle's most action-driven adventure up to this point.
The Marsport is split into ten distinct sections with their own functions, such as Stores, Administration and Computers. There are robots to interact with, for gaining information or objects. Pairs of objects can be combined to manufacture new ones. A central computer locks out many sections until it can be found and disabled. You will have to shoot
Astroclone was published in 1984 by Hewson Consultants. Its working title was Seiclone, but was changed to avoid confusion with Vortex Software's similar-sounding Cyclone.[11] The game combines shoot 'em up sections with arcade adventure elements that Turner had developed with Avalon (1984) and Dragontorc (1985).[11]
Despite the same title, cover artwork and publisher the ZX Spectrum version is a different game than the ones released for the VIC-20 and Commodore 16/Plus4 .
The game differs from its predecessor by an increase in the size of the play area (including a neighbouring girls' school) and a number of gameplay changes.
The girls' school incorporates its own new characters including undistinguished girls with hockey sticks, Hayley (girlfriend of the main character Eric) and Miss Take (the headmistress). Only at break time and lunch times are the girls allowed to mingle with the boys, in the central grassy playground, separated at other times by a high gate. The opening and closing of the gate is controlled by the school caretaker Albert, a new character to the game. It is also possible for Eric to sneak over the gate into the girls' school during lesson times, either using the bicycle (after completing the challenge of finding its lock's combination and then performing a tricky manoeuvre on it), by watering the flower beside the gate and then jumping on it, or by kissing Hayley through the gate. When the girls and boys are allowed to mingle and when Eric gains access to the