Universe - Time Enough for Love

Written by MenhirMike

As I'm starting this session I notice a slight annoyance: There is no main menu with a quick load option. Universe originally came on 6 floppy disks (plus the save disk) and it only supported one floppy drive. So I need to boot from Disk 1, wait for it to load, insert Disk 2, wait until I'm back on the asteroid to begin the game, go into the disk menu to load, insert my save disk, load the game, and insert the disk I need to be on. Since the game does not support installation on a hard disk, this is mildly inconvenient. This is not a big deal in 2025 since I could play the MS-DOS version, speed up the emulator, use WHDLoad, or do what I did back in the 90s and download an HD Installer that some cracker group made. But I did want to mention it to be period accurate and to give the developers credit: Loading times are pretty decent and disk swapping during gameplay is manageable. Not counting swapping in and out the save game disk of course. Another much bigger annoyance: Pressing the Escape key opens a screen with Restart and Load Game options, but no way back out. So if I press escape in the middle of gameplay I’m stuck on that screen. Another commenter remarked that in the MS-DOS version, the game just dumps you to the DOS prompt. Talk about taking the Escape key a bit too literal.

Back to the plot. We’ve been invited into Silphinaa's home where we learn that Erdic is a very ancient language. There are multiple-choice dialogue options as well. If there is only one choice the game automatically picks it for us. We can ask her where we are, for directions to Ashby, or for a bite to eat. She tells us that the Imperial Prefectorate is clamping down on what used to be a humble asteroid cluster and demand more and more duties to be paid. Her father was taken away by imperial droids and she expects to be taken soon. And as with any good authoritarian regime, the neighbors are happy to sell out anyone for a few credits. Since we have no identification, the droids would also take me in (as I found out earlier when talking to the sentry droid led to a game over). Phew, good that Boris managed to find the one helpful person on this floating space rock!

Ashby-de-la-Zouch is a real place, near the Derbyshire and Staffordshire borders in Leicestershire, which are also real places.

Silphinaa tells us to make our way to the Wheelworld and seek out Malinaa to get safe accommodation. Boris (whose full name is Boris Verne) has another strange reaction and tells her that droids are approaching the door. She tells us to run upstairs, which starts our first timed life or death puzzle. The way upstairs is locked by a door that requires a five digit code. There is one obvious code in the manual, but this is not the time for it yet. Trying to talk to Silphinaa is also fruitless. I can’t find any clue to the code and die to the droids making their way in. There’s some actual game over artwork that is a bit more interesting than the usual death message.

Missed Classic 138: Winter Wonderland (1986)

Written by Michael

The holiday season is all about traditions.  I’m sure many of our readers have rituals involving putting up a tree, or a multi-generation dinner, or the exchange of gifts.  For my family, it’s gathering from all corners of the region to spend slightly too much time together, before we all tire of each other’s company.  But, of course, we enjoy it immensely.

The TAG family has a tradition as well, the yearly Christmas “Missed Classic” of questionable quality; the adventure game equivalent of an ugly Christmas sweater.  We are slightly messing with that tradition this year, because Joe wasn’t able to join us for this year’s installment, but I’m hoping I’ll be a passable substitute.

The title I chose is a bit longer than the ones Joe usually plays; heck, it’s a full-length title for the time, yet priced as a budget title at just £7.95 on cassette.  The title is 1986’s Winter Wonderland, a release from Incentive Software Ltd., a company from the United Kingdom with releases spread over nearly a decade. The game was created using their own home-grown Graphic Adventure Creator, an interpreter they sold and distributed.  Our title today was designed on an early, pre-release copy of the language by two designers, Simon Lipscomb and Tim Walsha.  

Goblins Quest 3 – Dragons, barbarians and incas

By Ilmari

Last time, I had just resuscitated Blount from the brink of death, caused by a wolf bite. Blount’s love interest, Wynnona, had left him a letter, telling that she had set out to search for Fourbalus, the person who had stolen the key to the maze. She had also left Blount a potion that would make him a giant.

Very effective

My next task

Pac-Man 2 - Hot Dogs & Cats Living Together

Written by Michael

Junior: I was late submitting my game review to TAG and now I’m sad

Welcome back, fellow chompers!  Let’s play some more of this game based on the two major food groups for teenagers in the 1980s, pizza and gumballs.

When last we left, we had just gotten a flower for Lucy, Pac-Junior's rather pale-faced girlfriend.  Now, it seems that Junior is sad.

Universe - Stranger in a Strange Land

Written by MenhirMike

Having landed on the asteroid and being given some sort of goal to get us going ("try and find a way out of this place"). Let's explore!

The interface is controlled with the left mouse button to walk somewhere and interact with stuff, while the right mouse button brings up a button bar at the bottom. There are icons for "Pick Up", "Options", "Use", "Look", "Talk", "Attack", and "Inventory". The "Options" item opens another menu with additional commands: "Insert", "Push/Pull", "Eat/Drink", "Wear", "Throw", "Combine", "Open/Close", "Jump", and "Info". The "Info" item opens a third menu with "Disk I/O", "Copyright Info", and "Scene Info".

Elegance or Nuisance? Time will tell.

This feels like an attempt to declutter the interface: Important stuff like Pick Up, Use, Look is directly there, while secondary commands are just a click away. But we’re also in the weird transitional phase in adventure gaming between a large amount of verbs and future games with essentially just Use and Look. It will be interesting to see how much the verbs under "Options" get used, because if you have a bunch of verbs you really need to use them in the game design. This has the potential to be also very clunky if most of the game requires an extra click to go through Options all the time.

Goblins Quest 3 – From heaven to hell

By Ilmari

I began the game in an empty flying ship, bombarded with stones, starting to slowly sink to the ground. The obvious goal was to get out of there alive.

Even if there’s a parachute lying around?

Pac-Man 2 - Riding the Midnight Train

Written by Michael

The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only.

Welcome back!  I’m going to admit to being a little less-than-eager to write this post.  See, the game is a lot more arcade and a lot less adventure than we originally hoped.  

But I’m a trooper.  I’ll get through this.

I don’t have the reflexes (or the patience) for arcade games like I did 30 years ago.  But I suppose that’s many of the people in this room right now, because those of us who still prefer adventures often prefer using our brain over our brawn.  It’s why, when the comments exploded on our coverage of Fate of Atlantis, the majority of us seem to prefer the “team” and “wits” paths over the “fists” choice.

Still, this is a fun game, and a lot less “arcade” than some other titles.  

Game 164: Universe (1994) - Introduction

Written by MenhirMike

British game developer Core Design is one of the more beloved Amiga developers, thanks to classics like Rick Dangerous, Chuck Rock, Banshee, or Bubba 'n' Stix. Of course, the one game that overshadows all of their other games combined is Tomb Raider, which also helped Sony’s PlayStation dominate the market even more than it already did (despite first releasing on Sega's ill-fated Saturn console).

But we're here to look at their adventure game output, and they are certainly not beloved for that. In fact, there are only two games to list: 1992's Curse of Enchantia (which was reviewed here by Alfred n’ the Fettuc and scored a whole 22 points) and today's topic, 1994's Universe. I almost thought that they had a saving grace because they also made Hook - but that's actually an action game on Genesis and not the adventure game, which was made by Ocean Software.

Game 163: Goblins Quest 3 (1994) – Introduction

 By Ilmari

Is Crash Bandicoot making a cameo?

It is again time for that inevitable question that necessarily raises its head…

…is this a Lemmings clone?

Game 161: Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures (1994) - Introduction

Written by Michael

This might be the most unlikely game I’ll review for the blog, and I’m the one who volunteered for it.  An adventure-ish sequel to one of the most important coin-op games of all time.  Yes, this was added to the blog with a CAP purchase during our year-ahead planning.  Will I regret this?

It’s important to start with the original, I suspect.  In 1979, a team of programmers at Namco aimed to design a game with universal appeal to both genders, since most of the games before then were based on “manly” pursuits like sports.  Simple concept for the game:  our generic character runs around the game board, eating as many dots as possible, avoiding being caught by ghosts.  Not really aimed at any specific gender or demographic, the only requirement was good reflexes.

Dragonsphere – Final Rating

Written by Vetinari

Our friend Douglas Kaufman put forth some very strong words in the design notes for Dragonsphere, saying that “we've got the best product” and “we like to think we have the competition beat in every category”.

“And I stand by what I said!” – Doug Kaufman, probably.

I cannot deny that this game is much better than the two previous MPS Labs adventures, but will it be enough for a high PISSED rating? Let's see with the breakdown categories below.

Alone in the Dark 2 - Final Rating

Written by Andy Panthro

I started this game knowing that the first one is a classic of the genre, and helped define what we would later call “survival horror”. A sequel, especially with quite a short development time, was always going to be a challenge. There was definitely more of an action focus this time, with a desire to make something a bit more exciting and cinematic than the first game.

I think it’s fair to say if you’ve played this, or read my posts, it doesn’t quite live up to either the expectations generated from the first game nor does it provide the action-packed experience that seemed to be the goal.

Unfortunately this is in part due to the nature of the game itself, the design of the game gives you quite limited movement options and doesn’t lend itself to quick movement or combat. There were too many sections of this game that became quite frustrating as you can become very easily stun-locked by enemies, as their attack cycles were too fast. As for attacking yourself, the fixed camera angles and tank controls mean aiming is a tricky procedure and it can often be difficult to get the right angle to attack.

At times this really does stretch the limits of what you might consider an “adventure game”, but there are items to use, puzzles to solve and places to search. Certainly as the series progresses, future games will continue to move towards action rather than adventure, and outside of the remit of this blog.

Dragonsphere – Won!

Written by Vetinari

Buckle up for the last part of this Dragonsphere playthrough, where we are going back into the castle of Gran Callahach to return to King Callash his soul.

As soon as we arrive, we are greeted by the captain of the Queen Mother's guards, who tries to arrest us under her boss's orders. Here we have another one of this game dialogue navigation puzzles, where we have to avoid answers which will anger the captain and instead try to sway her to our side.

Yeah, tell me about it.

The actual winner here is to offer something to her, because that turns out not to actually be a bribe, you know. In fact, the captain says cryptically “the only thing in the world I truly want, you cannot give me”.

Missed Classic: Dracula Hakushaku (ドラキュラ伯爵) - Lost (And Final Rating)

Written by Morpheus Kitami

Just what I've been doing for the past few months, getting chased by the Pope.

It's that time of year again where I play a horror game based off a movie and wonder why someone took something infamously horrific and turned it into something that is not. Well, kind of, since we've come back to Count Dracula, which so far has been far more horrific than any adaptation of Dracula I've ever heard of. Hopefully this time, we can put the good count to rest.

To recap since you've probably forgotten, Dracula has risen from the dead and has been spending time wandering around and remembering the old horrible things he's done in the past. Which is basically every sort of thing you'd hear on a black metal album except someone screaming Slayer while not wearing pants. More specifically, he saved a woman from being sacrificed for some reason. The woman is named Sistine, which is an odd name to have, because it means pertaining to Pope Sixtus. She apparently foresaw something which I glossed over, and Dracula is talking about a mysterious man he keeps seeing in his memories.

Incidentally, this time around I'm using automatic translations of the text, simply because I haven't got the motivation to translate massive amounts of what's probably the Japanese equivalent of Middle English. Yes, this is a terrible violation of all good principles, loses considerable nuance, but I don't think that's much of a loss at this point.

Discussion Point: Costumes

Written by The TAG Team

Halloween is nearly upon us, for those of us who celebrate it.  In many places, including the United States, it’s a holiday that celebrates people dressing up in disguises, and begging strangers for candy.

Because really, what could be better than free candy?

But the costume part isn’t just for children in autumn.  It’s also a puzzle source for adventure games!

So, in honor of the holiday, let’s talk about your favorite costumes donned by our game protagonists in order to solve a puzzle, trick a foe, and win the game.

For example, an early Sierra example might be Police Quest 1, where Detective Sonny Bonds goes undercover as a pimp named Whitey to infiltrate a drug ring.

Another early example, Zak McKracken, needed glasses to look like the aliens making us all dumber.  This is, of course, before the internet.  We now do it to ourselves.

In a recent game played for the blog, bookseller Gabriel Knight dressed as a priest to extract information from a voodoo practitioner, and then as a wild animal to crash a ritual.

And there are many others.  So, which ones are your favorites?

Alone in the Dark 2 - Won!

Written by Andy Panthro

Hey, can you teach us some magic?

We begin this section in control of Grace again, although not for long. With Carnby out of action, it’s time to get to work. Grace only has a couple of items available, and there’s nothing to be found in the captains room. There is a large statue of the captain next to a locked door though, and by putting the loa stick into the captain’s hands, the door opens.

Inside is the witch lady Elizabeth, who is busy keeping Carnby suspended in the air. There doesn’t seem to be anything to pick up in the room, so instead we remember the advice from an earlier book about voodoo (we picked this up as Carnby in the gunpowder room, if I didn’t already mention it) and wave our chicken leg at the veve (a ritual symbol) in order to break the spell. Not sure how much this really mirrors actual Haitian vodou practices, but it causes the witch lady to explode in another fun animated scene. 

Dragonsphere – Space Oddity

Written by Vetinari

First thing as I leave the Hightower mountains, I decide to travel to Slathan ni Pathan to get my shifter ring back. It's not such a good idea, because the two imbeciles who guard the access to the swampland have decided that since the new developments any shifter is fair play to be run through with their halberds.

Callahach's finest.

I try everything, telling them that I am a shifter that just wants to go home, that I am NOT a shifter, that I don't know anything at all, this exchange always ends with me getting shish-kebabbed by these two dumbasses.

Alone in the Dark 2 - Pirate Shenanigans

Written by Andy Panthro

Grace is of an age where the basement is too spooky.

I will fully admit to looking up the first of the steps I needed to take in this section. I had arrived back in the kitchen of the mansion as Grace, and all I had found was a key on the floor. If I tried to leave this room to get to the main door (or the stairs up or down) a pirate would come and catch me.

I tried ringing the bell again, assuming the key might be for something back at the ship, but you get a message saying you’re not done here. Good that it’s not letting me leave without getting whatever items I might require at least! A quick check of a hint and it turns out the key is for a cabinet in the kitchen. The trouble with this cabinet was, I had completely assumed it wasn’t able to be opened, because there was never a message when I tried to interact with it. Often a locked door or cabinet in this game will give you a message if you try and interact with it.

Anyway, the kitchen cabinet contains two items, an ice box and molasses. I tried using both, and grace dumps them out on the floor. I immediately assume I’m supposed to use these as traps, so I reload, and then pour the ice out on the floor. Next, I get the attention of the pirate and make him follow me into the kitchen, where he slips on the ice and dies! Score another one for Grace.

Donkey Island - Final Rating

Written by Michael

I sometimes get excited over the littlest things.

After Alex's post last week, anything I write this time is going to be a massive let-down.  I apologize in advance.  I'll try to do my best in his shadow.  

But after his slightly disappointing game, I have a dilemma.  Which is harder, rating a game like my last one, and worrying about how people will feel I was too generous, or a game like this one, and worry about being too harsh?

This game has a lot of charm and character to it.  For something that was intended mostly as a demonstration of concept, a test of a homemade game engine, you can tell that the authors enjoyed the source material.  Then again, who DOESN’T enjoy the Monkey Island games?  (Well, I’m sure there’s ONE person reading this blog right now that’s calling them overrated, but remember, we ARE an inclusive blog, tolerant of all opinions, even the wrong ones.)

Shall we begin?

Police Quest: Open Season - Final Rating

 by Alex

Is this really “THE MOST INTENSE MULTIMEDIA CD EVER!”? Remember when “multimedia” was an adjective that seemingly everything had slapped onto it? My friend Merriam-Webster.com (NO AI FOR ME!) defines “multimedia” as “using, involving, or encompassing several media” in its adjectival form. As a noun, M-W states that “multimedia” is “a technique (such as the combining of sound, video, and text) for expressing ideas (as in communication, entertainment, or art) in which several media are employed,” and also “something (such as software) using or facilitating such a technique.”

So, by this definition, isn’t a movie multimedia? Isn’t a Broadway musical? Weren’t radio plays? Weren’t plays by Euripides and Aristophanes? You’re telling me Oedipus Rex wasn’t a more INTENSE MULTIMEDIA experience than Police Quest: Open Season?

Ah, but by the box’s own definition, I am comparing apples to oranges, or what Aristotle might call in Posterior Analytics (which is NOT the analysis of the human butt; get your minds out of the gutter) a false syllogism. If all A is C, and there is no B in A, and we suppose that A is “a Greek tragedy” and C is “an intense multimedia experience” while B is “a compact disc,” we can see that calling, I don’t know, Lysistrata or The Frogs a more intense multimedia experience than Police Quest: Open Season is logically unsound. But the real Greek tragedy is me, a Greek, bastardizing the great Philosopher’s Posterior Analytics to make a butt joke about a thirty-year-old adventure game.

«Ντρέπομαι που είμαι πρόγονός σου, βρε μαλάκα.»

I mean, there are better ways to make butt jokes about or in adventure games:

So if the horse fart is A, the horse’s ass is C, I guess the bag is B, so we can say “All A is C . . .” Talk about Posterior ANALytics . . .

The amount of mileage I’ve gotten out of that screenshot is truly stunning.

Dragonsphere – Changes

Written by Vetinari

Welcome back to Dragonsphere! After a plot twist that my teenage self would have absolutely adored (and one year before The Usual Suspects as well), the game let us take back control of our now-unnamed protagonist in Sanwe's empty study, after the explosive defeat of the sorcerer.

He was more of a technomancer, anyway.

I scavenge among the debris and find many useful things inside Sanwe's former inner sanctum. I get a large black sphere from the ground, the only remains of the powerful circle of spheres which powered the sorcerer's magical abilities.

Donkey Island - Won!

Written by Michael

It feels that every game I play for this blog, there’s one gameplay post where I’m mad at the game for stupid design choices.  This is that post for this game.  Fortunately, it’s also the last post.

Last time we met, I had received a second scroll from the magician as a reward for bringing him the second of four ingredients for a spell.  

Mekka-Lekka-Hi, Mekka-Hiney-Ho

Looking at this scroll, I’m told it has power over magical trees.  I won’t bother using it in the cottage, because I know it will be the same situation as before -- I’ll waste the spell and have to restore, because I’ll be dead-ended.  So, I need a magical tree.  This one is probably obvious, the tree that’s colored differently than all the others.  I’ll head there, save the game, and then read the spell aloud.

State of the Blog - 2025 - and Ideas for the Future

Written by The TAG Team

Which way should we go?

The Adventurer’s Guild started nearly 13 years ago, lovingly inspired by another blog, the CRPG Addict.  Over the years, both blogs have been covering a loose timeline of games in their respective genres.

So when Chet, the chief bottlewasher at CRPG, started to have concerns over the pace of his blog lately, it made us take a look at ourselves as well.

We started the gaming year of 1993 over eight years ago, and haven’t really finished it.  Even though we’ve started a few games from 1994, it is unlikely that we will even start 1995 in the next decade, at the pace we’re playing.  For those of us who read Trickster’s review of The Secret of Monkey Island 11 years ago, wouldn’t it be nice to come full-circle and read the reviews of the Telltale episode games and the Ron Gilbert reboot from a couple of years ago?  At the current rate, we will never get there in our natural lifespans.

Some of us would like to see a broader selection of games.  It’s not helping that many of our past reviewers have had changes in their real-life situations that have interfered with their prior commitments to the blog.  We have been just as dissatisfied as the readers with the slow pace of posts over the last handful of months.

So, we have a few ideas.  None of these are set in stone, we want your feedback and other ideas.  Because we love this blog, and don’t want it to fail.  Right now, it’s having a little bit of trouble.

• One idea that has been suggested before is an emulation of the “BRIEF” at CRPG.  A single post for a game, where a reviewer installs the game, plays it for a little bit, researches past reviews of the games, and posts a comprehensive account.  No score issued, but the game gets the attention.  This would be great for some of the “lesser” titles that often get relegated to "Missed Classic" status, but also would be an option for some of the games on our playlist that no one is rushing to volunteer to play.

• Are there still readers out there who might be interested in writing these smaller, less comprehensive posts?

• This would also be great for some of the disregarded or borderline titles.  Someone paid CAPs to force someone to review MTVs Club Dead, for example, but no one wants to play it.  Given how little time some of our reviewers have, is this really a good use of their time?

• Chet also suggested limiting the number of games per year, and cycling back through the years later to catch up with the ones that are missed.  While it may be too late to do that for 1994, it’s a thought.  Cover most of the mainline games, but only some of the borderline/disregarded titles.  A lot of those titles have bogged down the blog over the years, in the opinions of some, and based on the comment activity on the posts, they are sometimes less favorably received.

• Should we make our review posts less detailed?  Most of our posts now are narrated walkthroughs, but that wasn’t always the case.  Back in the early days, Trickster left out a lot of details, and most games were finished in about two gameplay posts.

• Even the comments on Chet’s post brings up some interesting points.  We’re quoting a few because we’d like some feedback.  Are these valid thoughts about our own blog?

• “To be honest it has been a while since you played a game I found really interesting. Sure, it is sort of interesting what kind of rather unknown games are out there, but a lot of them are just not that interesting.”

• “I'd also suggest that it makes even more sense to focus on 'particularly notable, fun, or important'”

• “Being mechanical about covering every obscurity in order would just mean missing out on more recent obscurities in favor of older ones”

• Should we tighten the standards for the games we play?  We’ve sometimes become very loose, for example, with games without an English-language release.  Do people enjoy reading the entries where the entire game has to be translated for them?  

Maybe some of these ideas can help solve the problem of reviewers not having enough time to blog through enough games each year.  

Please, please comment below with any ideas or suggestions you have, or thoughts about the ideas above.

Alone in the Dark 2 - Saving Grace

 Written by Andy Panthro

So long as we don't have to redo that maze!

A potentially fun little swap here, we shift from the main protagonist of Edward Carnby to the young child Grace, who was the Hero of Halloween in Jack in the Dark. As before, Grace can’t attack or fight anything directly, so no more brute forcing things with a tommy gun. We take control with Grace having left the mansion, and hiding behind a statue.

Of course my first thought is, “what if I just leave?” and I try walking towards the front gate. Alas, there is a zombie there with a gun, and this results in a game over. This time, instead of Carnby being thrown into the sea, he is instead suspended by his feet above the pirates as they party on the deck of their ship. 

Donkey Island - An Ordinary Green Bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon

Written by Michael

It’s time for another visit to Donkey Island!  Last time, I had just met a talking orchid flower that I’m trying to convince to give me some of her scent, as an ingredient for a spell for a magician I met under false pretenses.  She offered to transfer some of her perfume to a leaf, if I brought her one.

No, I haven’t been ingesting any wild poppies before writing that sentence.

One or two things come to mind.

So, I start a mad dash around the island looking for a leaf.  I try to manipulate any tree I find, big or small.  I try the hand icon, the pick up icon, even try using my knife on the trees.

In doing that, I accidentally solved another puzzle.