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4th Dimension Adventure Game CD

Matthew Thompson

4th Dimension Adventure Games Collection.

This latest collection of 4th Dimension games sees 10 adventure themed games brought together on one CD, and as games collections goes this is a pretty good one as there are some classic RISC OS games included. The compilation line up is as follows :

• The Time Machine
• White Magic 1 + 2
• The Wimp Game
• Enter The Realm
• Haunted House
• Pandora's Box
• Demon's Lair
• Cataclysm
• Darkwood

Installation

As with the previous 4th Dimension compilation CDs, the installation is easy - load the !Install program and you will see the following window appear.

Select which games you want to install to the hard disc. Then drag the Joystick icon to the required filer window where you want to put the games, the file path will be added into the installation window. Then click OK and the installation will begin which takes a couple of minutes, and that's it!

Cataclysm

Cataclysm is different from the many games I've played over the years, it is not like any other game really (apart from a few clones which appeared later on). Despite it looking very basic and not very appealing it is a great little game. The object of the game is to guide the water from the top of the screen into the collecting vessel at the bottom of the screen, you do this by guiding the water down the screen using blocks, pressure valves and filters.

The way the game works is as follows - the water enters the screen and will gradually fill up the tanks at the top. This water will go nowhere until you remove the grey bungs that are holding the water in place. Remove one of these and the water will flood out everywhere, so before you do this you need to plan your route below so that when you do remove the bungs the water will flow through the level and into the collecting vessel at the bottom of the screen.

You do not have to collect all the water on each level, as it is never ending, what you do have to do is collect a certain amount which is indicated by a bar on the bottom left hand side of the screen. When this bar reaches it's limit the level is cleared and you can move onto the next one.

You have a number of building blocks which you use to guide the water around the levels. There are also the pressure valves, these will hold the water above for you, whilst you arrange the blocks, you can even use yourself as an extra block if you need to. There will come a point when the pressure valve cannot take anymore and the water will begin to come through, you will know when this is happening as you will hear the valves beginning to give way.

The game is reasonably easy to get into, and the first few levels are quite straight forward and let you get used to how the game plays, before introducing more difficult levels. These make the guidance of the water much more difficult by the introduction of a number of monsters. Some of these are harmless and generally get in the way but others are nasty and can kill you on contact. Another breed of monster will also fire at you, luckily you have your gun so you can zap any irritants.

On later levels it's not just water that comes out of the pipes, but acid as well. This is dealt with in the same way but you must avoid contact with it. Other features which will appear throughout the game include remote control doors, dissolving blocks, and drip valves to name but a few.

The graphics of Cataclysm, as you can see from the screenshots, are nothing spectacular, but the really do suit the game well, there isn't much variation between levels with the graphics, although each level does have it's own colour scheme, of which there are over forty.

There is a good title tune and some sampled water noises, but after that it's pretty much minimal in-game sounds. When you place a block, or one of the pressure values gives way to the water you get a few other noises and that's about it really.

To conclude this is an excellent game. It is an original idea and it is both addictive and challenging with a good level of increasing difficulty. There isn't much variation really in the levels, but I didn't find that to be a problem. It's definitely recommended, especially to those who like a bit of a thinking game rather just blasting aliens.

Darkwood

This game was originally released by Eclipse, so not really sure why it is included on a 4th Dimension games compilation. But who cares as the inclusion of this game adds more weight to this collection as it is a truly great RISC OS game.

Darkwood was written by Tom Cooper and was one of the last games he wrote, if not the last. for RISC OS machines and he certainly left on a high. The original release of Darkwood came on 8 floppy discs so a hard disc was recommended, although I think it would run from floppy.

Upon loading Darkwood it will install itself on the icon bar, and from here you can select sound options, and what type of monitor you are using. When all is done, click on the icon and the title page will appear, click on start, or continue, to resume a saved game, and away we go!

The game is set in a village which goes by the name of Ecklespit. You are a wizard who lives there and must remove a curse which has been put on the village. The game starts in the wizards house and you then leave his house to venture out into the surrounding landscape.

There is a large playing area to explore, which is bright and colourful. In general the graphics look pretty good and do a good job, but unfortunately they can look a bit blocky at times. This doesn't detract from the game which is great fun to play. As you guide your wizard around the landscape he meets various characters who he can have a conversation with. These conversations can be sensible and help you quest or, if you want, you can be deliberately stupid and annoy the villagers. Although this is not advisable if you intend to complete the game, but you can generate some interesting conversations!

The landscape is made up of various buildings which you can enter and search for items, speak with people and find clues to help you with your quest. Locations in the landscape include the village, island, mineshaft and abbey to name but a few. In addition to the characters that you can talk to around the landscape, there are also a number of enemies who if you come into contact with will drain your energy. There are also a number of weather effects, and stay out of the water as it means instant death!!

The game is controlled with direction keys in rooms inside buildings, but outside the landscape shifts round rather than the character moving around, I find this process a bit annoying, you get used to it after a while but to start with it is a bit irritating.

Darkwood has a great in-game tune with I really like but some might find it a bit annoying after a while. If this is the case then it can be switched off easily enough. The sound effects in the game are quite basic, noises for jumping and a sort of pitter-patter of the wizards feet as you move about, but they do the job and they go well with the in game music.

One of the things I particularly like about Darkwood is the element of humour in the game, particularly evident with you have conversations with people, some of the things that come up in conversation can be quite funny, well it amused me anyway!!

Overall I really liked Darkwood. It is pretty much the usual affair of collecting and using items as are many adventure games, but the interaction with the in-game characters adds a new element to the game and it works really well. A welcome feature is a save game option which is needed as you will never finish it in one go.

One thing worth mentioning is that there have been some clashes running this game on RISC OS 4/StrongARM machines, the game will run, but has been known to freeze at various points in the game, particularly in the mining area, however this is newer tweaked version so it may be all OK now. But I recommend that you save your current position frequently.

I have never managed to complete Darkwood, and would certainly like to one day. Does anyone have a complete solution of how to complete the game? Or know of one online? I have looked before but never had much success, if anyone does please drop me an email at iyonix@riscos.org.

Darkwood is a great game with good music, colourful graphics, good humour and it is fun to play and easy to get into. You can see plenty of the game before you have to start solving puzzles properly to progress further. Definitely one of the stars of this compilation.

Demon's Lair

This is an isometric 3D graphical adventure, and unfortunately it isn't up to much. I didn't reckon much to it back in 1993, and still don't, although to be fair I've seen worse games than this.

It was originally released as a full price stand alone release. It was, in my view, overpriced and was not worth £25.00, however being on this compilation is probably the best place for it.

The game involves you playing the part of Bob, who must go out and explore the surrounding landscapes and must seek out the Demon who rules the land and then find a way of destroying him for good, before he can return home.

Upon loading the game will display the title page and then return to the desktop, the game has now installed on the icon bar. Clicking the mouse menu button on gives a number of configuration options and also the save game option which you will definitely need if you are going to try and complete it.

Demon's Lair is your usual type of adventure game, explore areas, collect and pick up items then use them to solve puzzles to get further into the game, there are many and varied locations to explore in the game.

One thing I don't particularly like about Demon's Lair is the control system, instead of the usual directional keys, we have a strange way of doing things. There are three rotate keys, and then a run forward key, so you have to rotate Bob to the direction you want to go and then hold down the forward key. Why anyone thought this was a better way of controlling the main character I don't know as it seems a bit of a bizarre way of doing things. In addition to the directional movement keys there are the pick up/drop/use objects, this is done in the normal way, P for pick up item for example.

If you can get used to the unusual control system then you can then get into the game and you can cover a lot of ground before you reach a dead end and have to begin solving puzzles to get any further.

You get two lives to complete the game, each life has an energy bar which goes down with contact with enemies, or falling a long distance, eating food will replenish your energy level.

The graphics of Demon's Lair are another thing which let it down. They are pretty basic and not very spectacular as you can see from the screenshots, the blurb on the box of the game claims that this a game for all the family - which it is, maybe, but it really doesn't excuse the quality of the graphics. Perhaps a graphics artist should have been brought in. The sound effects aren't really much better either, apart from a title page tune, there are the odd in game noises but that is about it.

Overall Demon's Lair is not the worst game ever, but is the weakest one on this compilation. What with the poor graphics, awkward control system and the fact that the game really isn't that exciting to play either, there wasn't really anything about it top inspire me to want to keep playing it.

Enter The Realm

This is another classic 4D game, and it's one that I particularly enjoyed playing a lot when I first bought it. Enter the Realm is a fast sideways scrolling arcade game, and according to the blurb in the manual was the first game for RISCS OS computers featuring true parallax scrolling. Whether this was actually correct I don't know, but it doesn't half look good!.

The object of Enter the Realm is to reach the end of each level, of which there are many, and then leave it through the exit. Along the way you will encounter many enemies both on the ground and in the air, all of which need to be destroyed. There are also a number of land obstacles including bombs, spikes and snowballs. Again these can be disposed of by shooting at them, or you can jump over them instead. You can also avoid enemies by crouching down and let them fly overhead. Some of the snowballs are quite tricky to destroy and it proves to be much easier to simply crouch down and let them fly by overhead.

All creatures and obstacles which are destroyed will leave behind bonuses, some just add to your score, but others can be very useful and add more power to your weapon. Make sure you collect any hearts that appear as these will top up your energy levels, however they don't increase the number of lives you have. I'm not actually sure if you can obtain extra lives. I seem to recall that reaching a certain score will generate extra lives. Whatever you do don't pick up the skull as this will do the opposite to the hearts and drain your energy levels.

You start the game with 2 spare lives, each life has an energy bar which when it runs out means you lose a life. Beware as this energy bar level can drop really quickly sometimes if you run into a large pack of badies. Luckily there are bombs you can pick up which will clear all the enemies on the screen in one go. You can also pick up temporary invulnerability shields and a freeze potion which will temporarily freeze anything on the screen which will give you a chance to dispose of everything a bit more easily.

The sound and graphics in Enter the Realm clearly put it in on another level compared to many other RISC OS games. A lot of time and effort has been taken to make this game look excellent and the graphics really make this game stand out as you can see from the screenshots below :

Both the foreground and backgrounds look excellent and a real attention to detail is evident. There many different landscapes, and each level has a whole new feel to it, through snowy landscapes, woodlands, caves and built up areas. At certain points along the levels you can enter buildings, or doorways and entrances, these lead to other smaller sublevels and also provide clues and help in completing your quest.

Another great feature is the weather effects, with include snowstorms, thunder and lightning and rain. All of these add to the games visual appeal. As for the sound effects, well there is some music in the title sequences and a sort of tune which plays when describing the story behind the level you are about to start. This tune starts quietly and gets louder and louder and sounds good too. The in game sound include sampled speech which tells you to "Get Ready" and then announces "Game Over" when the you die, there are weather noises and other effects which do their job well.

Despite all the positives about this game, there is one criticism and that is the difficultly level. It's not the easiest of games to play, and whilst it is not impossible to get through the first couple of levels in a short space of time, it does seem really easy to get killed and lose energy really quickly, in some games I seemed to be losing lives without even realising it!

So a bit of practice and skill is needed to master the art of staying alive. You should be able to complete the earlier levels without losing lives as you will need them on the later levels.

Enter the Realm is an entertaining and addictive arcade game which should not be missed, even if it is just to see the quality graphics. It's definitely recommended to anyone who enjoys and decent arcade game, just a shame it's a bit too easy to die! .

Haunted House

This was the second desktop graphic adventure from 4th Dimension, following on from The Wimp Game (see below). The objective of the game is to collect up all the antiques and valuables that are in an empty (and supposedly haunted) house and put them in the back of your van, sounds easy but there are many obstacles and puzzles that stand in your way of reaching 100% and completing the game.

Upon loading the game installs itself nicely on the icon bar. Clicking on the door knocker will start the game, and the game window will appear. When you start the game you are outside the gate to the garden of the house. From here you can only go back one screen to your van, so the only way forward is through the gate - but how? A quick look at the papers and rubbish on the pavement reveals the gate combination code, put it in the right order and the gate will now open and you can now begin your adventure.

Haunted House is a fully compliant RISC OS application, from the application icon on the icon bar you can select a number of options. You can save your game position by dragging the ghostly icon to a filer window - it is recommended to save often, as it is all too easy to do something wrong, lose an item, or break an antique. Any of these actions could ruin the game and you would have to start again, so save regularly.

There are about 25 rooms in total, each background is scanned and they are of good quality, they are not just static pictures as you can take and put objects into them. They often have animated parts such as the opening of doors and the removing wooden beams from the front door. All the in game characters and items are all high quality scans as well, so there are no poor quality graphics in this game. As for the sound effects they are very good as well, theres no music but plenty of in game noises, the gramophone, toilet flushing, birds singing and ghosts that tell you to "Go Away" to name but a few.

When you correctly solve a puzzle you will hear a fan-fare noise and the percentage under the game icon on the icon bar will go up. If you smash an antique or drop an item out of the game window, which means you've lost if for good, then you will hear a sample of what sounds like John Major's voice saying "Oh Dear" (which would have been topical at the time of the games release).

The game is very easy to play. You move the mouse pointer around and then use the mouse buttons to carry out a function, the Select button lets you pick up and carry movable objects to your rucksack or around the game window area, it also is used to perform in game actions such as door opening. By clicking on the menu mouse button you can get descriptions of the items on the floor which will appear in the information bar underneath the main game window.

On the left hand side of the game window are four blue arrows, these indicate the ways you can go. If they are grey then theres nothing that way, sometimes by unlocking doors, or opening gates this will turn a grey arrow to blue making a new room available to explore.

Your rucksack can only hold six items at a time, and can get quite full quickly carrying about all these antiques so when you have a load, you go back to your van open the door and stick them in the there, careful not to drop them as they will smash. Any broken antiques mean you cannot reach 100% completion. There are many other items and objects to help you get through the game, some are not so helpful either - is the red herring really useful ?, or is it just a red herring ?

The puzzles in Haunted House range start of easy with things like getting rid of wooden beams with woodworm and putting the door knocker on the front door. Later on they get more difficult, the cellar under the house is a nightmare to figure out and this took me ages, I had to get the helpsheet in the end, but even with that it is still quite tricky.

I played Haunted House a lot when It was first released, and kept at it until I finished it (with a little bit of help later on). I found it a really fun game to play, different from other games, the puzzle level does get a bit hard later on with the problem of getting lost in the cellar, especially in the dark! Apart from that most puzzles are not that difficult, overall an excellent game and well worth playing, and yes it is definitely a haunted house, plenty of ghosts and strange goings on but I leave you with one question is a Holed Out disc really a collectable and valuable antique?

(We have included a full copy of Haunted House with this issue of RISCWorld so you can play it yourself - ED).

Pandora's Box

Here is another classic RISC OS game, which shows that there were plenty of high quality home grown games released, not just 16 bit conversions. Pandora's Box is a 3D arcade adventure, which takes place over 200 screens which means this is no 5 minute game, and it certainly isn't.

The game involves guiding a sorcerer by the name of Merlin around a mythical landscape. His task is to gather the four amulets which will form a seal to close Pandora's Box as some evil beings have removed them and let a number of evil beasts free. So it is down to you to rid this land of all evil goings on.

The control of Merlin is easy enough, you use the directional keys (which can be redefined) and there are keys to pick up and drop items, of which you can hold up to eight at a time. It is these items which will help you on your quest to find the four amulets. Some items are easy to find, they are just there on the ground, but others may only be obtained by solving other puzzles or by trading with other characters to obtain them.

There are many items which can be picked up in the game and they include weaponry such as daggers, keys to open locks, and special buying items. These are items which you collect and then can sell to traders to obtain something useful that you need. Being a sorcerer can also collect items and mix them into spells, but his can be only done at special cauldrons.

Merlin only has one life, which is represented by a large energy bar, when this disappears then you will die and the game will be over. Energy is lost by touching creatures and also objects and parts of landscapes can zap your energy, which can be replenished along the way.

Playing the game is straight forward, you can wander around from screen to screen wherever you fancy going until you reach a blockade or hazard or something else blocking your way. This will more than likely involve a certain item to be found to remove the obstruction and allow you to continue on your quest. The game does indeed involve a lot of wandering around to pick up items, then doubling back on yourself to go and use the new item. Thankfully there is a save game option available so you can save your current position and go back to where you got to last time. This is a very welcome feature and one which is worth using regularly as there is nothing more frustrating that having to go back and do the same thing again after you've just done it, but died in the attempt.

The visuals of Pandora's Box are superb, this is another game where a lot of time and effort has been made to create a game which looks excellent. These graphics are well over 10 years old and still look good now, both landscapes and characters are all well drawn and building interiors are all well detailed, with flickering torches, coupled with the rain effects outside there is real attention to detail here.

There is plenty of variety in the different types of screens throughout the landscape. There are many buildings which you can go inside and explore which include a tavern, church and houses. There are markets to buy things in, woodland areas, rivers in which you will board a boat, all these keep the game varied and interesting.

It is only really the sound that can be criticised , apart from the playing of a tune when the title page is displayed, there is very little audio in the entire game, there are some in-game sound effects but not a great deal. This doesn't spoil the game, just could have been better really.

I always liked Pandora's Box ,and managed to get quite a way into it before I had to give in and use the solution in one of the magazines to help me on the way. Otherwise I would have never have finished it.

Overall this is another superb arcade adventure and as with most of the games on this collection it is well worth playing and highly recommended. If you liked playing Pandora's Box then you might want to check out the follow up game, Carnage Inc, which is the same style, but this time set in the future. It should be still available somewhere, but will hopefully be appearing on a future 4D compilation.

The Time Machine

The Time Machine is a sort of sequel to Haunted House. It is another desktop graphic adventure and it uses the same game interface as before, and behaves in exactly the same way, but it is a totally new adventure.

As with Haunted House the game installs on the icon bar, this time as a small blue portaloo, which is blatantly supposed to be the Tardis, but obviously due to copyright, it's a portaloo. Clicking on the game icon brings up the game window.

This time instead of collecting antiques from a spooky old house, you embark on adventure through time and space in a blue box - and no this isn't a Doctor Who game although it clearly is inspired by it. You start the game out on the road in the countryside which according to the game scenario is just down the road from the auction rooms where you took all those antiques (I wonder how much the Holed Out disc went for?). You then get the urge to visit the toilet! and as luck would have it you just happen to find a portaloo on the roadside - but of course it's not any old normal portaloo !

The first task in this game is to get into the portaloo itself, which if you click on it will result in a voice saying "What Is The Password" this is not actually a question, it is telling you the answer - 'What' is indeed the password! After that enter the numerical equivalent of the roman numeral on the door and a "Well Done" voice will sound, the door is now open and you can go in. Now thee adventure begins. It is worth mentioning that there are a few useful items which you need to collect from the surrounding area of the portaloo before you disappear down various timelines.

The game works in exactly the same way as with Haunted House, it is fully RISC OS compliant, the save game option works the same way, as does your rucksack and the method of clicking on the blue arrows to move around the screens. The backgrounds are scanned pictures again but don't have quite the same impact that the Haunted House backgrounds do. The areas outside the portaloo are proper digitised pictures of photographs instead of drawn backgrounds.

The sound effects consist of digitised voices, music samples and other effects including the Tardis noise, when you solve a puzzle you will hear a "Well Done" voice and the percentage completion meter will rise. I seem to remember there being an entertaining sampled music puzzle very near the end of the game I think the time period was during the 1960s.

On your travels you will visit a number of planets such as Earth and Mars. You must perform tasks here which will affect the game later on, so if you get something wrong in the past then the future won't happen as it should do and it will mess the whole game up !

I bought the Time Machine on the back of being a big fan of Haunted House and up to a point it was a good follow on. The only problem really is that I found a lot of the puzzles were far more difficult to solve than the Haunted House ones. There is another cellar type puzzle again out in a desert, and it took me much longer to get anywhere in the game. It wasn't until I got a solution in Archimedes World that I actually got much further into the game and to be honest probably never would have finished it without help. Overall a good game and worth playing, particularly if you liked Haunted House or enjoy a challenging puzzle solving exercise. However don't be surprised if you get stuck, but if you do you're in luck as a typed up solution is included on the disc.

The Wimp Game

This was one of the early RISC OS games and was the first commercial game (I think) that operated just in the desktop. This game installs itself onto the icon bar, although the menu doesn't offer much in the way of options, there is no save option or anything, just click on the icon to start. The introduction screen will appear accompanied by a reasonable quality Maestro tune (reasonable is about as good as it gets with Maestro - I've never been a fan of it I'm afraid!) anyway click on 'Play' and away we go.

You will now be in a room in the dark, the first task is to switch the lights on (which is to the left of the door if you can't see it) now you have to open the door to get through to the next room. A number of tasks need to be completed in order to do this, without giving too much away the vase of flowers, the phone pad and the box next to flowers have something to do with it.

You can easily lose items, for example, if you try and unlock a door but have the key on the wrong part of the screen it will disappear and you will lose it and have to start again. You can also kill yourself by touching things that would normally harm you in a real household - try clicking on the fan in the first room when it is moving !!! .

The game takes place in what seems to be a sort of house and your objective is to move through each room solving the puzzles within to gain access to the next room. The overall objective of the game is a different but interesting idea, your aim is to become the owner of the best Acorn computer available and at the time that this game was written it was an R200 workstation!

You start off as an Acorn Atom owner and along the way to your R200 workstation, you become the owner of an Electron, BBC Micro, BBC Master and A3000. There are no Risc PC's here, so it gives you an idea of how old the game is! You can click the mouse menu button over the main game screen at anytime during the game and highlight the 'Status' option to show you which Acorn machine you currently own.

Control of the game is by the mouse, which involves pointing and clicking on items and artifacts in the room. Some of these are needed to complete the room, some of them aren't aren't needed at all and are simply red herrings.

The graphics of each room are well drawn, bright and colourful. The objects in the rooms look like what they are supposed to and it all works well. Sound is quite minimal in the game, apart from the introductory music theres not much noise, but various objects in the rooms make noises such as the fan, a musical keyboard and a kettle boiling.

I found the game a bit difficult initially but eventually figured out the first room after a few hints. The second room was quite easy and logical to complete, I did complete a few more rooms, but never have completed it all and only got as far as being a BBC Micro owner.

It's not a bad game and is certainly worth playing. Even with some hints you still have to make sure you position items in the correct place so even if you know exactly what to do it still might not happen. It's definitely a game for someone who likes puzzles and a challenge!

White Magic 1 + 2

This was one of the second games (I think) that 4th Dimension released. This game came first on the BBC and then later was ported to the RISC OS range of computers. White Magic is clearly a game inspired by the arcade classic Gauntlet which never made an appearance on any of the Acorn machines. This game is nowhere near as good although it does try hard to be like Gauntlet.

White Magic is a maze type game which is viewed from above. The objective of the game is to complete all of the 32 levels. The ultimate aim is to do this without using the jump level option. In order to complete a level you must collect all of the treasure and then find the key to the exit before the time runs out.

On your way to the exit you have to collect keys to open other doors. There are also many other items to discover such as potions, time pills, shields, extra ammo and swords to name but a few. Some of these items are useful and will help you in your quest others may not be so useful.

There are also plenty of traps and enemies out there waiting to harm the unsuspecting adventurer! Enemies include ghosts, spectres, guards and trolls, but they are easy enough to dispose of with your weapon. However beware of mass gangs of enemies as they will zap your energy very quickly indeed, so you will need to use some magic to get rid of them all in one go!

There are four characters in the game. They are Kaldor the Leprechaun, Moriana the Warrior, Cheysul the Titan and Mandrake the Enchanter, each of these characters have their own strengths and weaknesses plus special powers. You can switch between characters during the game so that you can use that particular characters special strengths to solve a particular puzzle, such as climbing over a log or cutting down vines. If any of the characters energy level reaches zero then the game is over, so you will need to spread the energy top-ups about.

The graphics of White Magic are reasonably good they still look OK now and don't look too dated, all the characters and objects are well defined and you can tell what is supposed to be what. As for the sounds as with many of the early RISC OS games there isn't much to hear, just various in game noises.

The game is quite easy to get into. I managed to get through quite a few levels without to much hassle as long as you can avoid getting killed you stand a good chance of succeeding!

Also included here is White Magic 2 which is basically more of the same. The gameplay, sounds and graphics stay as they were, but the levels are all new, so if you liked White Magic then you'll certainly like these extra new levels.

Overall this is a reasonable version of Gauntlet for RISC OS machines, and it was good that someone took the time to write a look-a-like version. It's alright but not really that exciting to be honest and as much as I like Gauntlet this never really appealed that much, might just be me, but definitely one to try and see if you like it.

Compatibility

All of the games on this disc should work without any problems on a real RiscPC with Select, and a VirtualRiscPC with Select as well, as I have tried them on both systems and they seem to run fine.

As expected not many of these games run on the Iyonix, although Aemulor Pro brings some of them to life, I can confirm that The Wimp Game, White Magic and Enter The Realm all worked on the Iyonix with Aemulor Pro, unfortunately none of the others would work, despite the Aemulor compatibility website saying Demon's Lair worked I couldn't get it running.

I thought that Haunted House & Time Machine might work as they are desktop games and don't need any outside desktop modes, but it wasn't to be unless anyone knows different, if you do then please let me know.

Overall

This compilation comes highly recommended. Over half the titles are classic RISC OS games, and are still worth playing now, Pandora's Box, Enter The Realm, Cataclysm, Darkwood are all excellent games, as are the desktop graphic adventures Wimp Game, Haunted House and Time Machine. White Magic is OK but nothing spectacular, and Demon's Lair is the weakest game in this compilation.

This is a quality collection of games. If you have missed these the first time round then this compilation is a bargain considering how much they all cost individually. Even if you used to own these games on their original release this compilation is worth getting as they are all new updated versions which will now work without problems on later hardware including RISC OS 4, StrongARM, Select and Adjust. Even the Iyonix can now run some of them under Aemulor Pro. Also the copy protection has been removed and the games are now fully hard disc compliant.

Please Note

There were a few problems with early versions of this CD particularly with Pandora's Box, Enter The Realm and Darkwood. There are patches available from the APDL website to fix these problem, so if any of the games do not work on your machine, then check as you may find the solution to the problem there.

Matthew Thompson