Level 9 Computing

For the TV series named Level 9, see Level 9 (TV series)

Level 9 was a British computer text adventure game company which produced some of the most advanced games of the 1980s. Founded in 1981 by Mike Austin, Nicholas Austin and Pete Austin, the company produced about 20 games for BBC Micro, Nascom, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Oric, Atari, Lynx 48k, RML 380Z, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Amiga, Apple II, Memotech MTX, and Enterprise until the commercial declining market of the text adventure genre forced their closure in June 1991.

Level 9's first program was an extension to Nascom BASIC called Extension Basic. The first game, also for the Nascom, was called Fantasy and was similar to Valhalla, but with no graphics. Other products from that era were Missile Defence, Bomber and Space Invasion — all for the Nascom. The tapes were duplicated and sent out by mail order by the brothers based on orders generated by the classified advertisements they ran in the Computing Today magazine. They were based at Hughenden Road, High Wycombe, Bucks. HP13 5PG before moving to the West Country.

A-code

Level 9 devised their own interpretation language, A-code, around 1979. It was very memory efficient, mainly due to the advanced text compression routines which could compress texts to about 50%. The game data, which were identical for all platforms, were incorporated into the executable file for specific machines, together with the interpreter part. A-code underwent a couple of revisions: there are three distinct versions in all, plus a couple of extensions which form new A-code versions of their own.

(Level 9 A-code should not be confused with the A-code language developed by Dave Platt in 1979 for the purpose of writing the highly popular 550 points extension of the original Adventure game.)

Andrew Deeley, who worked for Level 9 on Software Development, recalls how the use of the A-Code interpreter enabled L9 to produce hundreds of cross platform versions of their entire catalogue in the space of 18 months, "with so many 8 bit computers on the markets and the introduction of Macs, Amigas [sic] and Atari STs, developing for cross platform versions of a game was becoming prohibitive in cost back in the late 80s / early 90s. Level 9 were able to hold their own as a small developer because they were able to optimise cross platform production of their games".

The first game to use this system was Colossal Adventure, a faithful conversion of Adventure by Will Crowther and Don Woods, yet with 70 extra locations to the end game. This game was followed up by two sequels, Adventure Quest and Dungeon Adventure, both of which featured the Demon Lord Agaliarept. The three titles became known as the Middle-earth trilogy, with a reference in the instructions to Dungeon Adventure to the city of Minas Tirith, which features in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. When enhanced versions of the three games were published by Rainbird Software, the reference to Middle-earth was quietly deleted; the series became known as Jewels of Darkness; and Minas Tirith became Valaii.

Snowball was the first adventure in the Silicon Dreams trilogy, followed by Return to Eden and The Worm in Paradise. Red Moon and its sequel The Price of Magik were bundled together with Lords of Time by Mandarin Software to create yet another trilogy: Time and Magik.

List of games

• Colossal Adventure (1983)
• Adventure Quest (1983)
• Dungeon Adventure (1983)
• Snowball (1983)
• Lords of Time (1983)
• Return to Eden (1984)
• Emerald Isle (1985)
• Red Moon (1985)
• The Worm in Paradise (1985)
• The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ (for Mosaic Publishing, 1985)
• The Archers (for Mosaic, 1985)
• The Saga of Erik the Viking (for Mosaic, 1985)
• The Price of Magik (1986)
• Jewels of Darkness trilogy (for Rainbird Software, 1986) (also known as the Middle-Earth Trilogy)
  • Colossal Adventure
  • Adventure Quest
  • Dungeon Adventure
• Silicon Dreams trilogy (for Rainbird, 1986)
  • Snowball
  • Return to Eden
  • The Worm in Paradise
• Knight Orc (for Rainbird Software, 1987)
• The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (for Virgin Games, 1987)
• Gnome Ranger (1987)
• Time and Magik trilogy (for Mandarin Software, 1988)
  • Lords of Time
  • Red Moon
  • The Price of Magik
• Lancelot (for Mandarin, 1988)
• Ingrid's Back: Gnome Ranger 2 (for Mandarin, 1988)
• Scapeghost (1989)
• The Legend of Billy the Kid (for Ocean Software, 1990; never released)
• Champion of the Raj (1991)
• It Came from the Desert (PC port for Cinemaware, 1991)

External links

• Level 9 Memorial
• Level 9 Computing at the Open Directory Project
• Level 9 Fact Sheet
• Level 9 - Past Masters of the adventure game by Richard Hewison
• "On the level" by Chris Bourne
• Level 9 Computing at World of Spectrum
• Let's Tell a Story Together (A History of Interactive Fiction) by Jimmy Maher