4 ms·

I have the same problem; I've been trying for over 25 years to find a game I vaguely remember from my childhood. It's unclear if what I'm looking for was ever f

by jiayo 4y ago

I have the same problem; I've been trying for over 25 years to find a game I vaguely remember from my childhood. It's unclear if what I'm looking for was ever formally published. To be honest as soon as I saw @textfiles tweet about this new search engine, I got irrationally excited thinking I might be able to find it here, but how do I describe this in a way anyone will understand? I'll give it a shot. In the late 80s, my dad bought an 8088 XT clone and "somehow" got some games. We had a bunch of the popular Sierra/AGI adventure games, Hugo's House of Horrors, etc. This game was in the same vein, but way way more primitive. It's a DOS game. I believe it would have been made between 1980 and 1988. I remember it as a text adventure, but with non-interactive full-screen graphics (e.g. appears like Sierra games, but you can't move the player, only issue text commands). I remember it as monochrome (bright white on dark black background) despite my computer supporting at least CGA. I remember the commands you type being entirely in uppercase (LOOK DOOR, PRESS BUTTON). I remember the protagonist waking up on an alien spaceship, and by far the strongest memory I remember is there being an elevator with up and down buttons you could press to go to different floors of the spaceship. I vaguely remember the game being called ALIEN (as in, I could type ALIEN to start it; so, ALIEN.COM maybe??) I don't expect to ever figure this out, and have mostly gaslit myself about this ever existing. I actually asked /r/tipofmytongue or some similar subreddit about 10 years ago to no avail. If anyone on hacker news has any clues to help with this I would be so grateful and would buy you a beverage. p.s. @nebula8804, my guess for your holy grail is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_(1997_video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_(1997_video_game)

anthk 4y ago
https://ifdb.org/search?searchbar=alien https://ifdb.org/search?searchbar=alien
1970-01-01 4y ago
Alien? https://oldgamesdownload.com/alien-dos/ https://oldgamesdownload.com/alien-dos/
Maursault 4y ago
I have the same problem trying to find a graphics adventure-style video game for 8-bit Apple called "Necromancer" that was not the game of the same title for 8-bit Atari and C64. Rather than a perspective view, graphics gave a bird's eye view. Ridiculously, I remember being impressed with the graphic representation of the necromancer's keep, which was just a little hollow square on the screen. Played it a lot in 1980, or possibly as late as 1982. I've only been looking for it for about 15 years. Seems to have disappeared because not even the expert 8-bit Apple folks can find it. It doesn't help that Google search has gotten a lot worse in the last 15 years. I've looked so hard at various times, just thinking about it now give me a headache.
- dredmorbius 4y ago
  Old computer magazines (many now available at the Internet Archive) might help you here --- look for advertisements or reviews.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
  Possibly it was not called Necromancer, but Wilderness Campaign? Game features a necromancer's castle: https://www.mobygames.com/game/apple2/wilderness-campaign https://www.mobygames.com/game/apple2/wilderness-campaign Or perhaps "The Eternal Dagger", which has a necromancer's cave: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/appleii/577550-the-eternal-dagger/map/3118-necromancers-cave https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/appleii/577550-the-eternal-dag...
mypalmike 4y ago
'Strange Odyssey" perhaps?
carl_dr 4y ago
I played a ZX Spectrum game called Alien Research Centre which fits this description : https://worldofspectrum.org/archive/software/text-adventures/alien-research-centre-zenobi-software https://worldofspectrum.org/archive/software/text-adventures... I can’t find any evidence it was a port of an earlier DOS game though.
nebula8804 4y ago
Thank you for the suggestion. This definitely gets closer to the visual design but the operation of the game was more like Myst. Ie. CGI generated pictures in the same style as Blade Runner that you would click to traverse through with occasional FMVs involving real humans (and randomly the game would crash) This helps narrow it down so much appreciated for the suggestion.
- anthk 4y ago
  Ask at the Scummvm forums: https://forums.scummvm.org/ https://forums.scummvm.org/ OFC they may know it because, doh, they are reimplementing engines since forever.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
Alien Fires 2199 AD[0] matches some of your description, however it doesn't seem to have a traditional adventure game text input, nor is it started with "alien". It does have an elevator though. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4jDansDpts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4jDansDpts

by jiayo 4y ago

anthk 4y ago

https://ifdb.org/search?searchbar=alien https://ifdb.org/search?searchbar=alien

1970-01-01 4y ago

Alien? https://oldgamesdownload.com/alien-dos/ https://oldgamesdownload.com/alien-dos/

Maursault 4y ago

I have the same problem trying to find a graphics adventure-style video game for 8-bit Apple called "Necromancer" that was not the game of the same title for 8-bit Atari and C64. Rather than a perspective view, graphics gave a bird's eye view. Ridiculously, I remember being impressed with the graphic representation of the necromancer's keep, which was just a little hollow square on the screen. Played it a lot in 1980, or possibly as late as 1982. I've only been looking for it for about 15 years. Seems to have disappeared because not even the expert 8-bit Apple folks can find it. It doesn't help that Google search has gotten a lot worse in the last 15 years. I've looked so hard at various times, just thinking about it now give me a headache.

dredmorbius 4y ago
Old computer magazines (many now available at the Internet Archive) might help you here --- look for advertisements or reviews.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
Possibly it was not called Necromancer, but Wilderness Campaign? Game features a necromancer's castle: https://www.mobygames.com/game/apple2/wilderness-campaign https://www.mobygames.com/game/apple2/wilderness-campaign Or perhaps "The Eternal Dagger", which has a necromancer's cave: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/appleii/577550-the-eternal-dagger/map/3118-necromancers-cave https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/appleii/577550-the-eternal-dag...

mypalmike 4y ago

'Strange Odyssey" perhaps?

carl_dr 4y ago

I played a ZX Spectrum game called Alien Research Centre which fits this description : https://worldofspectrum.org/archive/software/text-adventures/alien-research-centre-zenobi-software https://worldofspectrum.org/archive/software/text-adventures... I can’t find any evidence it was a port of an earlier DOS game though.

nebula8804 4y ago

Thank you for the suggestion. This definitely gets closer to the visual design but the operation of the game was more like Myst. Ie. CGI generated pictures in the same style as Blade Runner that you would click to traverse through with occasional FMVs involving real humans (and randomly the game would crash) This helps narrow it down so much appreciated for the suggestion.

anthk 4y ago
Ask at the Scummvm forums: https://forums.scummvm.org/ https://forums.scummvm.org/ OFC they may know it because, doh, they are reimplementing engines since forever.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago

Alien Fires 2199 AD[0] matches some of your description, however it doesn't seem to have a traditional adventure game text input, nor is it started with "alien". It does have an elevator though. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4jDansDpts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4jDansDpts