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Philosopher's Quest

Topologika info 1979

Aka:
Brand X
Language:
English
Authors:
Jonathan Mestel, Peter D. Killworth info
Platforms:
Amstrad CPC info, Amstrad PCW info, Archimedes info, BBC/Electron info, PC info, Spectrum
Genres:
Fantasy, misc.
Entered by:
dave, Gunness, leenew, Starscream, Strident
Added:
10-05-2010
Edited:
03-07-2020

Synopsis

Plot

Welcome to the adventure Philosopher's Quest, an "intelligent" adventure where the player explores a strange land full of weird and unlikely things, some dangerous, some even magical.

In this new and authentic game the concept of the adventure is exploited to the full, and extended to include abstract thought as a means to progress and survival. However, wild speculation will get you nowhere, you have to use your wits! The objective is to find all the treasures and bring them back to where you began, but in the meantime you have to sift clues, weigh up risks, spot magic words and remember which way you came!

Notes

Originally written as Brand X and placed on the Phoenix mainframe at Cambridge University in 1979.

Commercially released years later, as Philosopher's Quest by Topologika.

Acornsoft released the game for the BBC, but due to memory limitations, quite a lot of the game was removed.

It has been claimed that some of this material was used for Castle of Riddles instead, but this has been disputed: "The two originals were Castle of Riddles and Countdown to Doom. The former feels very much like Philosopher’s Quest II, although it is a completely original effort and not, as is sometimes reported, derived à la Zork II and III from yet-unused sections of Philosopher’s Quest‘s mainframe source, Brand X."

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Images

Image
philosophers_quest_topologika.png Philosophers_Quest_1.png Philosophers_Quest_2.png

Rating

Average User Rating: 6 (1 rating)

Your Rating: —

User Comments

leenew (03-12-2014 00:05)

As with the other recent comments... This was also released for the BBC.
Image here: http://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=7919
Thank you.

Gunness (03-12-2014 14:50)

Hi,
as it says in the description, the BBC version has its own entry as it differed quite a lot from this version. Same with the other Beeb titles.

leenew (03-12-2014 21:30)

Hi Gunness,
Acornsoft released cut down versions of this, and the Doom Trilogy, but the full Topologika versions were also released for the beeb. The link above will take you to the images of all the full Topologika versions we have archived :-)
Lee.

Gunness (04-12-2014 09:26)

Jeez, the history of these games is really headache-inducing - I'll send you an email :)

Richard Bos (07-12-2014 15:41)

Fascinating. And, on checking this, it seems that my walkthroughs do work for all these disc versions, both for Doom and for PQ. Now I'll have to change them and re-upload... oh, life is though!

Well found. I wonder if we'll ever find the complete set of them. You don't happen to have a BBC version of Xerb lying about somewhere, do you? Or the source code for Hezarin?

leenew (08-12-2014 11:31)

Hi Richard,
No, I can't help you out with either Xerb or Hezarin.
I don't think Xerb made it to the beeb (although with these you never can be sure!).
Hezarin was released, and I am on the look-out for it.
I may have more news very soon regarding a couple more Topologika titles :-)
As for the source code, a promising contact we have been corresponding with seems to have gone quiet recently... :-( my fingers are always crossed though!

Lee.