tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7274560874062585311.post6891155332257112808..comments2024-03-28T06:43:37.598-07:00Comments on Gaming After 40: Adventure of the Week: Galaxias (1986)StillGaminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366215127642090500noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7274560874062585311.post-72694652470356202432012-03-15T19:57:33.160-07:002012-03-15T19:57:33.160-07:00Oops. A quick bit of Googling reveals that althou...Oops. A quick bit of Googling reveals that although Galaxias was released after Fergus & Delta 4 were famous for comedy games, it had actually been written much earlier. Either it wasn't released sooner because it wasn't good enough, or maybe it was but just sank without trace the first time round.Pippa's Ghosthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14915365391240691792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7274560874062585311.post-18571134907331477652012-03-15T15:09:55.899-07:002012-03-15T15:09:55.899-07:00Glad to see I've stumbled into a productive ve...Glad to see I've stumbled into a productive vein of adventuring here! I have an actual cassette copy of "Bored of the Rings" for the Speccy around here somewhere, though I haven't played it, and I believe I played a bit of the Atari ST version of "Snowball" via Firebird's three-game compilation (though I recall it being rather buggy.) I didn't mind mapping Galaxias out -- exploration is one of the things I enjoy about adventures -- but it did seem like the objectives were vague and lost amid the landscape. At any rate, looks like Delta 4 and Level 9 have some worthwhile games to offer.StillGaminghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18366215127642090500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7274560874062585311.post-82614965389353223212012-03-15T11:31:01.482-07:002012-03-15T11:31:01.482-07:00Fergus McNeil and Delta 4 were best known for come...Fergus McNeil and Delta 4 were best known for comedy adventures (including a completely unauthorised adaptation of "Bored of the Rings".) In those games, you could wander around the mostly empty map, enjoying all the jokes in the location descriptions. That made up for the lack of puzzles.<br /><br />When Galaxias came out, McNeil and Delta 4 were trying to switch to more serious adventures, though they obviously hadn't yet worked out what to include instead of jokes!<br /><br />OTOH there was a school of British sci-fi adventuring that did like big empty maps to explore. Level Nine's "Snowball" infamously begins with the player lost in a maze of over 1,000 rooms (no, that's not a typo!) which has to be navigated before the main adventure begins on the other side. I wonder if Fergus was trying to follow in this tradition.<br /><br />(In fact, Snowball's main game is very, very good, when you finally get out of the maze. It might be worth you doing an AOTW about it sometime.)<br />________<br /><br />P.S. I was the Anonymous who commented on your "Adventure A: Planet of Death" review.Pippa's Ghosthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14915365391240691792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7274560874062585311.post-82208956170287674982012-03-14T13:20:35.512-07:002012-03-14T13:20:35.512-07:00Fergus' adventure-game zenith would come a cou...Fergus' adventure-game zenith would come a couple of years later, with 1988's Mindfighter, published by Activision.Rowan Lipkovitshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08691096685515251681noreply@blogger.com