So I used to play this great Greek mythology RPG on the Apple IIgs when I was a wee tyke in school, but I can't remember its name, and it's driving me crazy! I'd given up all hope of finding it (or finding proof that it even existed) until I read someone else's post in this forum:
"It would have been sometime around 1988... I remember playing them on the Apple IIe computers at school... The second was a greek/roman mythology themed adventure game where you had to solve puzzles for the gods. The only one I clearly remember is trying to harness the pegasus. I vaguely remember something about the minotaur's maze as well."
From what I remember, it was a four or five-color game (black, white, purple, green, and maybe blue?); you were stuck in a labyrinth, and the ultimate goal was to find a golden harness to ride Pegasus to Mount Olympus. You went around talking to the gods, who would give you items that you could use to thwart the Minotaur if you ran into it later. The action interface looked kinda like Maniac Mansion, with all actions (TALK, USE, RUN, etc) listed at the bottom of the screen.
I'm starting to think that I've made this whole thing up! There's absolutely zip info about it on the 'Net. Has anyone else heard of it? Anyone know what it's called?
Probably not, but here's what comes to mind for me.
Age of Adventure.
Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves
Return of Heracles
Do they ring a bell? They were tileset like games. Think, Ultima, but not as nice. I recall all the commands liek TALK, ATTACK, etc... being at the bottom of the screen. Each game I believe was released separately early on, then bundled together in a package called Age of Adventure, by I beleive EA. I have these games for my Commodore 64 system.
Hope, I might have described the correct games for you.
John
From the given game description, I can think of several Greek mythology based Apple hi-res RPG/adventure games.
- "Ulyssses and the Golden Fleece" (1981): it's a Hi-res graphics/text adventure game with type-in action commands. It has basic colors and includes Golden fleece and the Pegasus part in it, however I believe the main monster was Cyclops, not the Minotaur
http://www.thelegacy.de/Museum/3313/
- "Theseus and the Minotaur" (1980): basically simple a 3-D view dungeon/maze game with Greek mythology monsters in it. No colors or Pegasus here (I think) but does have the Minotaur and the labyrinth.
http://www.if-legends.org/~yois/vault.php?id=225
- "The Elysian Fields and other Greek Myths" (1984): another Hi-res graphics/text adventure game with type-in commands. Here you go around "talking to the gods", acquiring magical items etc... however I'm not sure about the Pegasus or Minotaur part in this game (will have to check it out to see).
http://www.cclassic.szu.pl/files/Apple2/Screens/American_Eagle/Elysian_Fields.html
Hmm... could it be that your memory is playing tricks on you, like fragmented pieces of several different games played long time ago and reconstructed today into one single imaginary game !?
I have been looking for this game as well. The library computer I played it on only had a monochrome monitor, so I don't know about colors. It was essentially an illustrated text adventure (no tiles, just a large illustration on each screen). I do recall the minotaur's maze, the fleece, and the pegasus parts. As I recall, the basic plot was that you were a kid doing homework on mythology and fell asleep, and the adventure is your dream (I'm not 100% sure about that though).
When I encountered it, it was part of a series of game and program collections. I'm 90% certain the collection was published by microsoft. It came in volumes, and each volume included about 5 or 6 programs. There were multiple self-boot floppies in each volume, with one or more programs per disc (which often had to be flipped over in the middle of a game). Another game in the set was one where you had to mix different compounds to make stuff to solve puzzles (like rubberium and airius to make a balloon to distract an ogre with).
In elementary school, we had a few Apple IIes, and this game took up all my free time. I do remember the beginning of the game was you (as a student) falling asleep and you wake up in this maze. I also think I remember something about "you're listening to your Walkman and..." which totally takes me back. I've also had zero luck finding anything on this game...in fact, this page is the only useful page I've seen. It was the best game, though!!
Thanks to everyone who made suggestions! I looked at the games suggested and it doesn't look like this one is any of those, but it sure does narrow the field a lot!
It's definitely got that illustrated text-based game quality. I remember the game displaying this beautiful illustration of Pegasus flying to Mount Olympus once you fit him with the golden bridle. (And then Zeus quizzing you right afterwards. Haha, educational games...)
I do remember the student part now too! I'll keep looking out for this game, seems like there are more of us out there who remember it
I actually bought this game from an elementary school "Weekly Reader" order form (since it was sold as an educational game) and both me and my brother are pretty confident that the game was called "Myths of Olympus", because we used to confuse that title with "Battle of Olympus" on the NES. I look around for information about it a few times a year, but haven't been able to find ANYTHING about it. As a matter of fact, stumbling upon this site is the first time I was able to find anything about it at all. I do remember that Daedalus played sort of a mentor role when you first arrived in the labyrinth, and I have a vague recollection of what some of the gods and goddesses looked like in the game, but that's about it. I would love to be able to play this game again. If anybody can track it down, I would be eternally grateful.
Sorry for the necropost, but I just had a major breakthrough on this matter!
The set that included this game was no microSOFT, but microZINE, by scholastic. I found the name of the second game I had mentioned, it was "mission: mix-up", and I think I found the name of the mythology one (although no info is available online, so I can't be certain), it appears to be "the myths of olympus"
Glad you were able to find what you were looking for.
Dean
Wow! Persistence really does pay off...