Silicon Dreams - Memories

The three games that formed the Silicon Dreams trilogy started with Snowball, which was Level 9's first non-fantasy related adventure when it was first released as a text only game way back in 1983. The lead character was deliberately given a sexless name (Kim) to encourage both male and female adventurers to buy the game. Odd then that the end credits apparently refer to 'Ms Kimberley' and the box copy refers to Kim as a 'he'!

The game had over 7000 locations, although this was a bit misleading as most were generated and colour-coded locations within a maze of corridors that made up part of the Snowball starship. Of course, inflation being was it is, by 1986 the 7000 locations boast had become 13 million if you believed the copy from the back of the Rainbird box!

When Return to Eden was originally published in 1984, it had the distinction of being Level 9's first ever 'illustrated' release. The pictures were available for almost all formats (memory permitting). The plot was inspired by a number of classic science fiction writers, including Piers Anthony, Harry Harrison, Brian Aldiss, and Isaac Asimov.

Late 1985 saw the original publication of the final part of the trilogy, in the shape of The Worm in Paradise. This game was full of subtle and not-so-subtle political and social references, and involved corruption and ultimately an alien invasion.

Silicon Dreams represented some of the best adventures that Level 9 ever produced. None of them were easy, but Snowball and The Worm in Paradise were notoriously tricky to solve. However, it represented very good value for money assuming that you had never played any of them before.

If adventure games weren't your thing, then no amount of lyrical waxing would persuade players to give this compilation a go. However, for anyone who liked adventures these were three classic games that would take a long time to map and finish.