Last Updated 5th May 2019
The BBC Games Archive - digital memories
Epic
Page 1 of 11
From Dave Johnson:
Epic was founded by myself (Dave Johnson) and Melvyn Wright after we had played several text adventures and been appalled at the number of mistakes (spelling, grammar) and the poor interpreter that most games had (eg you had to type GO NORTH or GET AXE).
We designed a radical Command line Interpreter which analysed a sentence and tried to make sense of it. You could enter sentences such as "Go to the north, pick up the axe and return" and it would work!! We also developed a very efficient compression method which allowed us to make the most of the Beeb & Electron's limited memory. We had I think the largest games around at the time.
We wrote 3 text adventures Castle Frankenstein (Melvyn), Quest for the Holy Grail (Dave), Kingdom of Klein (Melvyn). We then switched to graphic and text with Wheel of Fortune, finally producing a 2-cassette / disc massive graphic adventure, The Lost Crystal.
Then some fool invented the Amiga / Atari and no-one wanted BBC software anymore :-(
Please contact me if you have any additional information about the company or its games!
Castle Frankenstein
Released:
Author: Unknown
Play
Not one of the best Epic adventure games, this one has you trying to get to Castle Frankenstein, its not as detailed or interesting as Klein or Wheel Of Fortune, though it has the same distinctive style.
Kingdom Of Klein
Released:
Author: Unknown
Play
Adventure game with an extraordinary amount of detail for a Beeb game. You have to find the five solids and use them against witch, then return the Bottle Of Klein to the palace. It looks good in Mode 7, its detailed and atmospheric, this is definitely worth dusting down your beeb emulator for.
Quest For The Holy Grail
Released:
Author: Unknown
Play
Adventure game based on (I think) the Monty Python film of the same name? Its quite detailed for a BBC game, and pretty large. Worth a look but not one of the best around.
The Lost Crystal
Released:
Author: Unknown
Download
Play
This really is pretty impressive, a fully graphical adventure, all the text is in graphics mode, there are pictures for most of the locations and there is a fair level of description to boot! The task is to search out seven coloured crystals and find a way to combine them into the rainbow crystal, thus restoring peace to the world. The story is pretty hackneyed but it's definitely worth a play, the one downside being the time it takes for the game to redraw the pictures.
Wheel Of Fortune
Released:
Author: Unknown
Play
An entertaining Mode 7 text adventure with small pictures for every location. This is quite a well put together game, and appears to be number 4 in a series of games. It is well worth a play if you like adventure games with 'find the object' type plots, as in this one you have to find - guess what - the Wheel of Fortune!
News
