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Introduction
Although
the Micro User/Acorn Computing reviews - commonly by the Mad
Hatter (Rob Redrup) - frequently glowed with praise and even
excitement about Magnetic Scrolls games, the introduction to
the the Magnetic Scrolls Memorial online says we're talking
of something special:
"In
the mid 80's a small British team of programmers called Magnetic
Scrolls prepared to become the European answer to Infocom. After
releasing only seven games Magnetic Scrolls perished in the
fast growing multimedia age. Nevertheless their thrilling stories,
a trailblazing parser and excellent graphics made them a milestone
in adventure game history. May these pages help in having fond
memories of these jewels. "
The
parallels with the other famous British adventures games company
Level 9 are easy and one wonders whether one was inspired by
the other as their histories even overlapped: detailed, engrossing
stories; eye-catching packaging; powerful parsers; quality graphics;
taxing gameplay. Certainly, reviewers at the time of the original
release dates compared one with the other as both companies
were at the forefront of their field dominating the UK market
in what had become a specialised games area. Magnetic Scrolls
also drew further attention by the fact that one of the three
founders was a woman, Anita Sinclair, and whilst female programmers
have a long and proud heritage down the decades, few were found
in the games industry at the time of the company's inception
in 1983. The company's games were sold on both sides of the
Atlantic by British Telecom's Telecomsoft software label Rainbird
and impressed many in America where the predominant developer
at the perceived vanguard of interactive fiction was Infocom.
Although
only seven games were released by Magnetic Scrolls, with the
advent of the Magnetic Windows WIMP-like graphical user interface
accompanying their final game, Wonderland, it is debatable whether
a text adventure could be taken further, made more immersive
and interactive without becoming fully a "point-and-click"
game.
This
article takes a quick retrospective of the worlds that Magnetic
Scrolls created alongside their peers Level 9 but for RISC OS
computers rather than their 8-bit predecessors.
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