Short for "Thackray/Seal Adventure Language". The central computer of Cambridge University, England, an IBM mainframe usually called "Phoenix" after its operating system, was one of those to receive "Advent" (a.k.a. "Colossal Cave") and "Zork" (a.k.a. "Dungeon") in the late 1970s. Two graduate students, Jon Thackray and David Seal, began a game called "Acheton" in 1978-9: with the aid of Jonathan Partington it expanded for another two years. Possibly the first game written outside America, by 1981 it seems likely that it was also the largest in the world (it has 403 locations). "Acheton" was written with a game assembler contemporary with Infocom's proprietory "ZIL": unlike ZIL, Seal and Thackray's game assembler was available for public use, the public in question being all users of Phoenix c. 1980-95.
Several of these games were ported to the Acorn BBC Micro and released by Acornsoft, these were later re-released in a larger size and for more platforms by Topologika.
See the if archive section for more information, particularly this overview of the games.
Title | Publisher | Year | Language | Documents |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cloak of Darkness | Roger Firth | 1999 | English | Solution, Map |
Spycatcher | Topologika | 1989 | English | Solution, Map, Clue sheet |
Xeno | Jonathan Mestel | 1989 | English | Solution, SLAG hints |
Sangraal | Jonathan R. Partington | 1987 | English | Solution, Map, Hints, SLAG hints |
Crobe | Jonathan R. Partington | 1986 | English | Solution, Map, SLAG hints |
Nidus | Adam Atkinson | 1986 | English | Solution, SLAG hints |
Fyleet | Jonathan R. Partington | 1985 | English | Solution, Map, SLAG hints |
Parc | John Rennie | 1983 | English | Solution, Map, SLAG hints |
Avon | Topologika | 1982 | English | Solution, Map, Clue sheet |
Hamil | Acornsoft , Topologika | 1982 | English | Solution, Map, Hints |
Murdac | Topologika | 1982 | English | Solution, Clue sheet |
Hezarin | Topologika | 1981 | English | Solution, Map, Clue sheet |
Quondam | Rod Underwood | 1980 | English | |
Philosopher's Quest | Topologika | 1979 | English | Solution, Map, Clue sheet |
Acheton | Acornsoft , Topologika | 1978 | English | Solution, Map, Clue sheet |
Xerb | Andrew Lipson | ? | English |