Searching for 'UK Atari Computer Owners Club' adventures

Games for Spectrum, C64, Amstrad, Amiga, Apple ][ and the rest of the 8-bit and 16-bit platforms. Pleas for help, puzzles, bug reports etc.

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Garry
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Searching for 'UK Atari Computer Owners Club' adventures

#1 Post by Garry » Sun Jun 09, 2019 4:29 pm

In the early 1980s (probably 1981), The UK Atari Computer Owners Club started producing a newsletter called (surprise, surprise) The UK Atari Computer Owners Club. In issue 2, they started issuing software from their own software library based on contributions from members. This included two adventures.

In issue 3, the newsletter became a professionally-printed magazine. In issue 6, they started an adventure column. In issue 8, the magazine's name was changed to Monitor and included their first type-in adventure 'Nightmare Reflections' (Steve Hillen). This issue also had the instructions for 'Moonbase Plato' (author unknown), but the adventure itself was only available by sending a blank cassette or disk and payment of £4.95.

In issue 9, they introduced full-colour covers. In issue 12, they had their second type-in adventure 'Simple Adventure' (Steve Hillen).

The last issue was issue 21. By the time they wound up, they had about 14 adventures in their library.

The rights to the magazine and the library were acquired by Page 6 and the following games can be downloaded from their web site at http://www.page6.org/ukacoc/library/lib-adventure.htm:
  • Outpost (Anthony Ball)
  • Spectre of Castle Doomrock (Scott Smith)
  • Stoneville Manor (Nigel Haslock, but actually an uncredited port of the Apple II game by Randy Jensen)
  • The Folly of Ezrhar'd Kkhann! (Alex Kells)
Unfortunately, the full library was not made available to Page 6, as the masters had been lost. The following games have not yet been found:
  • Berg (Steve Hillen)
  • City of the Dwarfs (Adrian Cox)
  • Demon (Adrian Cox, but possibly the same as 'Demon Adventure' published by Page 6)
  • Diamond 1 & 2 (Scott Smith)
  • Idol Island (J P Crackett)
  • Lost in Time (M Maestranzi)
  • Mini Adventure (Steve Hillen)
  • Moonbase Plato (author unknown)
  • Simple Adventure (Alex Kells)
  • The Citadel (Steve Tullett)
  • The Valley (Steve Calkin)
If you have any of the lost games in the second list, can you please let me know here or via a PM so that we can get these games preserved.

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