COMPLEX (c. 1988)

Complex was my second "Usborne engine" text adventure. I switched from the fantasy setting of Dungeon of Death to a sci-fi one, but my feeling about this game is that it's the sparsest of the five I made this way. Complex has too many empty rooms and too little going on overall. However, I did spruce up the display with inversed and flashing text to indicate the sci-fi-ness. It wasn't until the adventure I wrote after this one (Sword Of Evil) that I dispensed with the Scott-Adams-style display.

The plot of Complex, such as it exists in the introductory text, involves you going into space fortress The Complex in an attempt to kill bad guy and drug pusher Mekron. All my sci-fi stories around this time were about tough guys going into dangerous places to do dangerous things. I'd say this was half down to the videos I was growing up on (Escape From New York, Conan The Barbarian, Exterminators Of The Year 3000, Blade Runner) and the Fighting Fantasy books I was reading. Book 12 in the series, Space Assassin, was undoubtedly an inspiration for Complex.

DOWNLOADABLE DISK IMAGE

wade_clarke_5_adventures.zip (Contains wade_clarke_5_adventures.dsk)