Developer Alan Pemberton has released The Secret of Baron Wood via itch io, an atmospheric text adventure that brings supernatural mystery to a massive lineup of classic 8-bit and 16-bit systems. Systems such as the Amiga, Amstrad, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum, and the modern ZX Spectrum NEXT are all featured that can play this game. Furthermore, The Secret of Baron Wood serves as an interactive supernatural short story. Players are tasked with journeying into the heart of a dense, shadowy forest to unearth a dark mystery that has remained hidden for over a hundred years.
Unlike sprawling, unforgiving adventures of the past, this title is deliberately crafted to be concise while also being designed to have a retro feel, harking back to the heyday of GO NORTH, LOOK and EXAMINE style of commands found in text adventures in the 1980s. Featuring logical, straightforward puzzles, the game is also designed to be completed in one sitting, offering the exact pacing and satisfaction of reading a spooky short story.
Game notes:
The game was written using the DAAD adventure writing system and compiled to the various formats using DAAD Ready (version A1). Images were initially created by AI (chiefly Google Image FX and then imagetocartoon.com). If you prefer not to play games made with the assistance of AI, then try the 128K Spectrum, Commodore 64 or Amstrad PCW versions, as they are text only. I was originally only going to make versions for ZX Next and QL, but since DAAD Ready offers all these options for other retro micros, it would have been rude not to use them. Hope you find your favourite amongst them. The locations are inspired by the woods next to the house where I grew up. However, the story and characters are all completely invented.
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I'm enjoying the Spectrum 128k version, and I'd almost forgotten how obtuse text adventures could be :D I think I'm making decent progress though.
ReplyDeleteWould be nice if there was an Amstrad CPC version using CPM as adventure games look so good in the CPC's Mode 2, like Infocom's Stationfall.
Author here... glad you are enjoying the game. Obtuse, moi? Maybe a little :-) I did try to make a CPC version a while ago, but it had text formatting problems. You could try the PCW one if you like an 80 column display. However, seeing your comment, I tried again with the latest version of DAAD Ready and it works fine for CPC now. So I've added that to the ever growing list. Could still add MSX and Plus4 if there's a desire for those.
ReplyDeleteLegend! Thanks for doing the Amstrad CPC. Would you per chance be able to add some form of a soundtrack or even just sounds like birds chirping in the woods etc. Would really add to the atmospherics in the game :D
DeleteThat isn't possible for any of the 8-bit targets with DAAD Ready, and these are my main focus. It should be theoretically possible with the Amiga & ST ones, but I don't have any plans to investigate that at the moment, I'm afraid.
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