The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes description

One of the rare games about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes – in fact, the next incarnation of the free Board games somewhat unusual genre of "221b Baker St." Jay Moriarty, already released in the 1980-ies as a PC, and other platforms. Behind the guise of Mycroft Systems lies the American Michael Bailey, known as the Creator of the game "8088 Othello" – it was the name of his BBS, which he developed technology BBS Door that allows you to play word games remotely using the modem.

However, this time to investigate all the crimes we'll be in splendid isolation (except for virtual Watson – and no more material inspector Lestrade, who's now in the somewhat unusual role of antagonist, preventing Holmes); and the lack of graphics (but also sound, music, and even dice to determine the duration of the turn) makes "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" is not so similar to the brainchild of Datasoft. As in that game, first of all, we are invited to choose one from the list of available cases: in the full game their 18, and fifteen were written by Michael Bailey, and three – Jim Viconia (after all, the open architecture was the BBS project for the benefit). Ten hours from 13.00 of the same day when there was described at the beginning of each investigation for a crime, we must establish three things: as a rule, the identity of the attacker, the murder weapon (or method of theft, etc.) and, of course, a motive.

Evidence will need to find in various London locations, of which there are fourteen, not counting the actual house at 221b Baker Street, where we must return when you decide that you already have all the necessary information; however, if this return will happen after 23.00, then captured by the police, another suspect is already executed (here it is, the simplicity of manners), which means for us a loss. The problem is that all the attractions to visit does not succeed: if you walk, sooner or later Sherlock and invariably accompanying Watson will start to get tired, and the path to each destination will take away more precious time. You can use a cab or even a ferry crossing the Thames in one direction – that from the very beginning, we have released 25 pounds, but this amount is, of course, when spending tends permanently to decrease.

The list of available actions is invoked via the HELP command: for example, a CASE will allow to review the record of the case; a very useful command MAP – to plan further action and try to build an optimal path; STATUS asked Watson to look at his watch and the contents of the purse; well, the journey will happen after entering the FERRY, CAB or GOTO – in the latter two cases you will need to add the name of the desired destination (for a detailed description of all available locations is displayed by another useful command CURRENTLY).

Anywhere – and absolutely regardless of where and how was the crime itself, we usually expect one of three types of clues-clues: first, that the testimony of respondents witness, which may or may not be relevant to the investigation (for example, that the day before the murder the deceased was seen in the company of a foreign wife); secondly, it is a true fact, reported by the informant, in awareness of which cannot be questioned ("the Killer was a man"); third, it is a mysterious encrypted message from an anonymous well-wisher, but still divided into several fragments that need to be assembled in different locations, simultaneously solving their contents in the manner of riddles ("Motive, part 2 of 4: the sound of the clock").

In the worst cases, the path to a particular restaurant, we ordered: the post will be a policeman, delivered personally, Lestrade, so as not to allow Holmes to poke your long nose where it don't belong. Fortunately, for this case we have special passes, secretly issued by the us rival Lestrade, inspector Gregson: in the beginning of each game in our pocket there are two such documents that you can use the PASS command, and will supply of passes is exhausted, you can always go to Scotland Yard for the new (not forgetting, of course, that every extra step will cost a lot of precious minutes). In case of successful opening of the case, we will receive a certain amount of points – but, the truth is, this feature "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", directed at her online-the passage and the competition for a place in the table, the best detectives with other visitors BBS, currently, are unlikely to remain relevant as this interesting team as PAGE, provided in the game for... an emergency call system operator.

In 1993, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"were translated by David Malmberg engine BBS Door Adventure Game Toolkit from Softworks, the company that was distributing a new version of the game called "The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes" – as a kind of advertising that your software to create computer games. Updated draft Mycroft Systems got a real graphics CGA-Intro (alas, borrowed from "Sherlock Holmes in "AnotherBow""), and a fully redesigned interface: despite the fact that graphical map of London, even a little bit lost in presentable, screen got top status line, which has become much easier to follow the fleeing time, and the bottom panel of the interface, not allowing to enter commands and names of locations manually and select them from the list.

In conclusion, we can say that "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" deserves attention even due to the presence of a full-fledged graphic embodiment of "221b Baker St.", served as obvious inspiration for this BBS text adventure, which is remarkable not only for its uniqueness, but also a significant rarity.

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Source: Archive.org, Mobygames.com