Last Updated 5th May 2019
The BBC Games Archive - digital memories
Level 9
Level 9 was/is one of the best known companies, hell even the yanks have heard of them! Basically they were THE best ever text adventure games company. They only did 15 games for the old 8-bit computers, but boy were these games masterpieces of computer games engineering. Whilst yanks had the PC, a 512k monster of a machine (well back then it was) we Brits had to make do with the Speccy and BBC. They managed to pack hundreds of words, and even up to 200 pictures into 32k! Even though it takes ages to load them on the beeb tapes (they did disk as well) they were brilliant, if you can experience them, then you should. The company was run by three brothers - Mike, Pete and Nick Austin, and they ruled the roost for Text adventures over here from 1984-1991, when the business folded due to the collapse of the Maxwell Empire. They had pulled out of the BBC/Acorn market before they died, releasing their last title Scapeghost on the BBC in late 1989/early 1990. Luckily for us Beeb owners they didn't produce anything that didn't appear on the Beeb.
During their time they also 'lent' their text compression techniques and lent a hand with some of Mosaic Publishings games, click here to see them.
Please contact me if you have any additional information about the company or its games!
Red Moon
Released:
Author: Unknown
Play
You are sent to recover the moon rock crystal, you have to cast spells in this game, but before you can, you have to gain a focus for each one.
Return To Eden
Released:
Author: Unknown
Play
You (Kim Kimberly) find yourself stranded on the planet Eden, you have to battle through the wildlife in order to find the robot built city, which was meant to house your colony.
Scapeghost
Released:
Author: Unknown
Download
Play
This game has quite a novel plot, you are a dead police officer, the game begins at your own funeral where you watch the poeple you worked with and loved carrying your coffin. Basically you have to find out who killed you, which is tougher than you think as ghosts cannot interact very well with the living! This one has pictures, but the text is based in mode 7, which is different to the other games.
Snowball
Released:
Author: Unknown
Play
This one is set aboard the gigantic star ship, terrorists have taken over, and you need to stop them. It is annoying though because it starts in a huge maze.
Worm In Paradise
Released:
Author: Unknown
Play
An unusual game, you have to fight against political corruption and against the 'system'. Not really the best thing they ever did, but worth a look.
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