Interview and article with CD-i Zelda maker

[NeoZeedeater]

http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.c...i/zeldacdi.htm

This is a good read. I had no idea these were from the same guy that made games like Below the Root.

[bbobb]

Interesting, but I'm not so sure about the defense of the game.

My memories are vague, but I remember the controls being pretty horrible, rendering the games fairly unplayable.

[ChaoofNee]

Actually, I had played them briefly. They were rather nice looking, but the CDi remote and pad were awful and the games really did suck. Poo collision detection. Bah.

[bVork]

I'd just like to say that Below the Root (and pretty much everything else under the Telarium/Trillium/Windham Classics labels) is stellar. It's interesting to see what happened to the people that made Spinnaker a rival to both Infocom and Lucasfilm Games. Kind of depressing, really...

[Finch]

it makes me want to play old Telarium games. All i ever really played was Windham Classics' Alice in Wonderland, but that game took me away from the NES in the late 80's.
There was an old Toy Liquidators in probably '92 or so that was jetting all the Apple II games. I had a choice between Below the Root and Star Trek:The Prometheon Prophecy. Thinking my mom would have a reason to play the Apple, i chose Star Trek. It wasn't awful, but for a kid who grew up on graphics, it was too thick of a text adventure to get very far in.
/nostalgic

bVork, anyone, what else did you play from Telarium? I'd like to try some of them, but Below the Root is the only one i've heard of. (i remember a part in Alice in Wonderland going on about Below the Root)

[bVork]

I highly recommend Shadow Keep - it's a mix of first-person RPG and text adventure. It's also really and stupidly rare. Nobody out there seems to have been able to unearth anything except an Apple II version.

Alice in Wonderland was another good game in the same style as Below the Root. I don't really recommend the other three games under the Windham Classics label (Treasure Island, Swiss Family Robinson, Wizard of Oz). They're decent text adventures, but nothing really special or worth playing unless you're a fan of the genre (or of the stories themselves).

The more "adult" line of games, the ones under the Telarium label, are almost all great. Perry Mason: The Case of the Mandarin Murder is probably the best of the lot, thanks to the way proper court procedures are integrated into the gameplay. Nine Princes in Amber has some really amazing character interaction for a text adventure, so it comes next on my list. The Scoop is the only EGA game that Telarium released (unless somebody unearths the semi-mythical PC version of Shadow Keep and finds out it uses EGA too) and uses the same type of interface as Below the Root. It has an unfair time limit that makes it frustrating sometimes, but the gameplay is really interesting - you often end up tracking NPC schedules and locations in order to overhear conversations and find out more. Rendezvous with Rama, Dragonworld, and Amazon are all very good games as well. I don't like Fahrenheit 451 all that much. It takes a few too many liberties with the story. In addition, adaptations of that story into other mediums have always struck me as amusing considering the original message of it.

Most of these games came out on Apple II and C64, with a smattering of PC and Atari ST ports. The graphics were all made with the Apple II in mind, so I suggest that or the C64 version of any given title, depending on whether you think the C64's slightly crisper graphics are worth the longer load times.

I really should write an NZE-style article on the company... I love their games and the sheer balls in taking on Infocom's dominance (and, unlike many of the text adventure companies that sprung up, mostly producing good titles).

[Korly]

The biggest problem is control, in that you only have 4 direction and 2 action buttons (less options than even a NES pad). Jumping is done by pushing up, which takes time to master, though a winged helmet later on enables bigger jumps and makes things easier. This doesn't stop the game from being enjoyable, but you need to learn its subtler nuances to make movement easy. Sword attacks are done via button 1. Accessing the inventory meanwhile is done by ducking and pushing button 2, the same button assigned for using special items. This genuinely can be annoying, since it means you can't use items such as bombs or anything else while ducking. Still, not a major problem once you're aware of it.

Some people complain it's impossible to avoid enemy projectiles without getting hit, resulting in repeated deaths. Not so! If you had read the booklet, you'd know that Link or Zelda's shield only become active if you stand still. That's right. Do nothing, and all those enemy axes, rocks and spears will simply bounce off. Once I started doing this, I found it possible to traverse stages without taking any damage - you must resist the temptation to constantly move.

Another complaint is the flying enemies, which people claim harass you relentlessly. Not so! If you stand still and continuously kill them (resulting in a lot of useful rupees), they will eventually stop. Between twenty to thirty need to be killed, but once done there are no flying enemies until you change stages. Furthermore, you can buy loaves of bread which will distract them, and you can also later acquire a bell which allows you to freeze them in mid-air (making them ripe for a quick, easy killing).

Apologetic much?

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

I've owned both games a few times over the years.
They suck and are unplayable. Both the character animation ( I won't get into the cinemas) and the control reaction time are shit. With obstacles like those what motivation would you have to stick with the game?

[NeoZeedeater]

I really should write an NZE-style article on the company...

Do it. I never got into most of their games but I'm going to give them another try. At least today if I get really stuck, I have the internet to help me. That has made going back to old adventure games more enjoyable for me.

[Geen]

Interesting read, but it really sounds like this guy is trying to sell these games to the readers by forgiving things that normally would be deemed game breaking. The biggest example is him definding up being used to jump by blaming the hardware instead of blaming the game designers. No reason that something, like, up and attack couldn't have been used for special items and, like, down and jump or both buttons held down for a second couldn't have been used for bringing up the menu (Like Super Paper Mario).