I’ve bought two games for the BBC Micro, a system for which I have no other games yet in my collection. I never owned a BBC Micro, or even used one. I maybe once saw one before, but I don’t remember exactly.
I’m always on the lookout for interesting boxed (text) adventure games, and these two, Acheton and Philosopher’s Quest, fit the bill. The box art and the condition the games were in, were an important part of the purchase. I love the understated design of these games, and I hope I can find more of them. It seems, these games are not in such high demand as releases from Infocom, Magnetic Scrolls or Legend.
Now, I find myself wanting to play them on the BBC. I don’t have one of those, but I do have fpga solutions. The MiSTer needs some attention, because I need to update it, for the WiFi adapter to work, but the case I put it in, doesn’t allow me to easily get to the sd-card, which is a pain. Maybe I should get an extension cable, or something.
Another solution is the Turbo Chameleon. I downloaded the necessary files, but I can’t get it to work yet. Too bad. I’ll try some more at a later date.
If you do manage to get them running Acheton and Philosopher’s Quest should keep you busy for some time; they are two of the toughest text adventures ever written. The latter is a cut down version of the original mainframe game Brand X written by Peter Killworth in 1979 and the full version was later ported to the BBC B by Topologika.
I haven’t taken the time to try to get them running again. I should try it on the MiSTer, which is up and running again, although I still cannot use the wifi on it. I should get another adapter. Thanks for your comment and warning about the difficulty. I’m sure I’ll have to open the envelope with hints and answers that Acheton comes with.