A few years ago I subscribed to a computer games Magazine
and a regular feature in it was a showcase of a classic game from its origins to the present day
I know that this is not in the Description of this Magazine But With the Long running Series Of "Click and Point Room" puzzle games I want to take you back a long way back in Time to
1984 to a game called
Sabre-Wulf on the Spectrum As you can see from the
Screen shot It was a Basic
" Bash the Monster collect the treasure to accumulate enough to get off the level game (and Beat the Boss on the End)" in 256 "flip screens"
Then as was the case at that time Graphics developements were happening almost monthly No Betas The very end of 1984 in time for Xmas? Saw the Same Character in a New guise as Knightlore. But this was technically something radically different Instead of the 2D Flat graphics This was the First 3D Isometric Graphics adventure Game on the Market where objects could be pushed and Pulled and several other actions... and It was a proper logic puzzle
And It did sell well and Several More Sabrewulf Character games came out of this development... I had skipped the Spectrum and was on the Superior Commodore 64 at the time Played the same games which were converted to run on the 64 Rarely C64 games were ported to the Speccy(and they looked crude!) Note from Wikipedia quote :
Knight Lore from 1984 is considered to first define the genre of isometric adventure games But having said that and just before I upgraded to the Amiga in 1987 (I passed on Both the Knightlore & Sabre-Wulf series) They released a Strangely titled Game called
Heads over Heels with a Dog as the character "Heads" and he had a companion called "Heels"
Who could also do things yet needed Heads to do thing such as move an object or open a door
thus this was the first Co-operation game solve the Puzzle to move to the Next room and there were 300 rooms possible on the Bigger memory computers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_Over_Heels_(game)I brought it out of curiosity and was hooked!
And I don't want you to Miss out there is a Full and Updated game for free at
http://retrospec.sgn.net/games/hoh/index.html Playable on the XP (dated 2004) Nothing about Vista (Note the date!) Can try on the compatibility facility OK? There are several optimised version to try out on this link (Even a Linux version!)
And there's More, Come here...(Not even Half way!)
The genre grew into the Diablo type games(which became a
basic format MMO gamewhich a lot of online Game Players are familiar with
Meanwhile The PC was being opened up as a games machine and Many of the Amiga and Atari ST game porteds over smoothly and of course the code for the game was easier to compile on the PC and every month there'd be Coverdisks with little bits of graphics including Isometrics and the Newer frame 3D graphics Which needed a powerful computer to run (No bother with a Graphics card and a Few GB of RAM by 2005 or So and Those early transputer chips have evolved into todays Processors (and not counting Multi cores)
Those of you with long memories will remember
the 640K memory limit configuration? 
(I started with a 386)...Happy Memories? NOT! Out of Memory errors, BSODs...
But there were some hints of things to come
About 1999/2000 there was a demo released of this character who could walk about a room open doors and Pass into another Room in a 3D manner smoothly without the demo Crashing Could even fall through Holes! and it said it may be Made into a game later ? Good demo but Like everything else at the time I File it absently and tried something else...
The Internet was just starting to warm up at that time too, and these university experiments and MODs for Beat em up games Seemed to be the big thing(But not mine)
Wasn't till 1998 I ventured online.
Only known to "those in the Know" that Demo was padded out rewritten and being on the PC Beta Tested Online but I don't know why is was never released Commercially? Like Gmail was always Beta (and it was a University Development team)
By 2005 it did get a release as a Download on the Web ..Freeware And It looks nothing Like semi empty rooms before and It does have a story And those doors have become Warp holes/Portals to other rooms or loop back on yourself ... thats the Mystery and you have to carry objects through the Hole/portal to a destination or as far as possible.
from the wiki article
quote:
The plot involves the plight of a Princess "No-Knees," so named because she is unable to jump. Captured by a demon, the imprisoned princess discovers that the dungeon she is held in is actually a sentient creature (an elemental) named Wally. Using Wally's portal making ability, she sets out to escape and defeat the demon.
And like Head over Heels You have to work out the Puzzle in the room
The Web /Student community have added their own challenges onto this game and is still attracting a cult Following today
The name of this challenge is
Narbacular Drop A bit of a mouthful for a room challenge game!
Here are the Full details(Game play hints too)
Read this before venturing anywhere on the game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narbacular_DropDownload link
www.digipen.edu/fileadmin/website_data/gallery/game_websites/NarbacularDrop/A footnote in 2008 the team which created the Masterpiece above Built another Game and game play is much the same and now it has got a commercial release
and it is for sale at about 12 pounds($21) and If you want to order it the Title is now simple...
"Portal" (Steam ex ValveSoftware)
Finally they have not forgotten their fans, there is a Playable 11 level Demo of Portal at
Portal: First Slice on Steam Not bad going for a posting 3 linked theme downloads with 2 full length games
And something for the Future...?
This is where it originated. Do scroll down the page as there are more things to be discovered here (A long list in fact!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DigiPen 
