![[Great Britain]](images/flags/uk_britn.gif) Automata UK Ltd
They used to be located at 27 Highland Road, Portsmouth,
Hampshire, England PO4 9DA: phone 01705 735242.
The rights to their games is currenlt owned by Interceptor Group.
Frogg Adventure
Type: Bitmap graphics
Written 1996 by Zeljko Juric.
Runs on:
Notes: Multiple choise.
Here be Tygers
Type: Text only
Written 1985 by Bob Franklin in The Quill.
Runs on:
Paradise in Microdot
Type: Character graphics
Written 1985 by Colin Jones in The Quill.
Runs on:
Xtroth - The Adventure
Type: Drawn graphics
Written 1985 by John Hughes.
Runs on:
Royal Adventures of a Common Frog
Type: Drawn graphics
Written 1985 by The Guild (Terry Braverman) in The Quill.
Runs on:
 Pimania
Type: Graphics
Written 1982 by Mel Croucher, Christian Penfold and Chris Edwards in Basic.
Runs on:
Notes: There was some kind of competition connected to this
game where you could win a sundial valued at £6000. The game
contained clues as you solved it that were clues to the
location you had to meet the authors, the day of the year and
the time. To say the least they were obscure and it took over
two years to be solved. The Automata people bought the sundial
back from the people who solved it in the end.
Comments: Not exactly an adventure as such, most odd game.
Crusoe
Type: Graphics
Written 1984 by Jon Smith in Machine code.
Runs on:
Comments: It was basically a split window game, with the upper portion of
the screen showing your current location on an island, the map
was a grid of squares and when you moved off the edge of the
screen you moved onto the next portion of the map. The bottom
few lines of the screen where for your input and the program's
responses.
You could pick up objects and manipulate using two word
commands... such as pick lock, etc. I think the objective is
to escape the island.
Jon Smith remembers: Crusoe was, I think, the first
attempt to combine player-control of an on-screen character,
who roamed around an adventure site you could actually see,
with traditional word-parsing instruction... you could talk to
the Crusoe character, ask his advice, tell him what to do, get
his comments, and then watch him do it (or die in the
attempt). I recall it had dozens of variables affecting his
life on his desert island, including weather conditions, food,
drink, wind strength, and a series of variously dangerous
animals. There was also a Man Friday and the animated bones of
a castaway with Treasure island links... not very
sophisticated by today's standards, but back in 1984 it seemed
pretty innovative and got ***** reviews in the mags. The
winning screen shows my phone number. Nobody has ever rung up,
so I imagine the game was never completed.
Here is a review of Crusoe
Groucho
Notes: Based on Groucho Marx.
Comments: As an adventure game it was very original, but the programming
left something to be desired.
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