Micro Poll on IFDB

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Hey all,

I recently found the BBC Micro archive of Text Adventures and I could use some help to separate the wheat from the chaff. ( Complete BBC Micro Games Archive)

I’ve put two games in myself already: Hibernated 1-This Place is Death as an example of a recent old-school game, and L: A Mathemagical Adventure as an example of an old old-school game (which I’m playing now).

There’s really an overwhelming number of games, so if you could point me to some that rise above average, that would be neat.

BBC Micro gems - an IFDB Poll

Edit: While I’m redirecting people to the BBC Micro archive, does anyone know if and how I could save a game I’m playing online on there? I’ve explored most of L by beginning again from the start and choosing a different direction. I can probably stitch everything I learned together and finish the game in one go from the map and the puzzle solutions I collected this way, but it would still be nice to know if I can save. SAVE and LOAD are provided but seem not to work when you get off the net. So if I’m not missing something, they’re only good for restore-puzzles.

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There are plenty of multi-platform games on the Beeb and Elk, but also quite a lot of interesting exclusives. I’d say play them using Beebem so you can save your states more easily.

Some ones to look out for include the Topologika games… :: CASA :: Games - Topologika (13 results) …many of which originated as early mainframe titles… so can be huge and really tricky…

… and Geoffrey Hans Larsens unique Quilled games… :: CASA :: Games - Larsoft (6 results) …some of which are exclusive to the Beeb…

But I’ll leave it to the Beeb experts to make specific recommendations,

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Thank you! Exactly the kind of recommendations I was aiming for.

I have a few Topologika games in my DosBox. I loved Avon (“SHAKE SPEAR”. I laughed). I’m kind of scared of Acheton and Murdac (and the rest of Topologika). I hear they’re very unforgiving.

I had never heard of G. H. Larsen. Will check it out.

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I see someone has vote for The Warlord, stating that it’s a “Doctor Who-ish adventure”… that’s because it’s just a reskin of the earlier officially licensed game Doctor Who and the Warlord.

(I wouldn’t recommend either, really, as being enjoyable. They’re very long, tedious trudges imo).

I keep meaning to put aside time to play Anthony Lee Moral’s two Quilled games… :: CASA :: Games - Anthony Lee Moral (2 results) …as they have interesting historical settings.

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On the “modern” front… although there are plenty of z-machine ports that you could experience identically on other platforms… there are some unique games… and the BBC community in general is very active over at stardot.org.uk - Index page

John Blythe, is a professional video game artist, which shows in his titles…

The Darkness of Ravenswood https://www.rucksackgames.co.uk/ravenwood
and his upgrade of the type-in
Micro Adventure https://www.rucksackgames.co.uk/microadv

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I just read the introductions to G. H. Larsen’s games on Casa and I like what I see. He seems to draw on Old-English mythology a lot.

I think I’ll put aside The Nine Dancers as my first pick.

And yes, I had already found Ravenwood. It looks very promising.

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Yeah, they’re not games that I’ve really put much time into but they are very notable for their interesting settings and the very striking cover art.

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For what it’s worth, my game Duck! Me? started life as a BBC exclusive before I rewrote it using PunyInform. There’s a thread on StarDot if anyone is interested.

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You can’t. As @8bitAG said, it’s best to download the disc-image and play it in the BeebEm emulator, using the emulator’s Save State feature to save your progress.

BeebEm is available for Windows. The Windows version will run on newer Macs under CrossOver (a WINE wrapper). (Older Macs have a native Mac version of BeebEm.) There’s also the B2 emulator for Mac (and Linux?). And the B-em emulator is available for multiple platforms.

EDIT:

If a game (like L – A Mathemagical Adventure) needs to write to disc, you’ll have to disable write-protection in the emulator. In BeebEm, go to the File menu, then Disc Options, and then uncheck the Write Protect 0 option. Then, to reboot the game, go to File → Run Disc… Or another way to reboot a disc is to press Shift-F12.

You can turn disc-drive noises off and thus speed the emulation up by going to the Sound menu and then Sound Effects and then uncheck Disc Drives.

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I just found a game called The Curious Case of the Missing Victorian.

Is this a case of “great title->major disappointment”? (I know I’ve fallen for that one once or twice…)

Or is the game as good as its title suggests?
In other words: a) “Must-play!”, b)“Check it out and make up your own mind.”, or c)“Don’t even bother clicking the link.”

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