235:, written by Rob Steggles, was released in 1985, on a wide range of 8-bit and 16-bit platforms, to considerable acclaim. One of the game's biggest selling points, besides the advanced text parser, engrossing story and exquisite packaging, were the high resolution illustrations that accompanied many of the game's locations. Although decidedly antiquated by today's standards, at the time they were considered state-of-the-art. The
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was released in 1989 through
Official Secrets, an adventure gaming club set up by Tony Rainbird after he (and Magnetic Scrolls) parted ways with Telecomsoft. Now based in Hertfordshire, Magnetic Scrolls produced this mini-adventure as a freebie that would be given away to those who signed up to join
443:
In May 2017 the Strand games initiative emerged. Strand Games was started by Hugh Steers — co-founder and core developer of
Magnetic Scrolls — and Stefan Meier of the Magnetic Scrolls Memorial fanpage. It is supported by several members of the original Magnetic Scrolls team, including
275:
abandoned the traditional puzzle-solving, treasure-hunting gameplay of many text adventure games, requiring the player to progress by conversing with characters, collecting evidence and working against the clock in order to beat the game. The game came packaged with a cassette tape containing a
444:
Anita
Sinclair, Ken Gordon, Rob Steggles and Servan Keondjian. The non-profit initiative aims both to preserve the original works of Magnetic Scrolls and to remaster the games for modern devices. With the public appearance of the initiative a first beta version of the remastered classic
455:
of their classics from tapes to remaster and re-release them. After the successful recovery of the original source code in a remarkable process, which involved baking the original backup tapes at low temperature in a kitchen oven, the initiative started to remaster
313:
in 1990. Magnetic
Scrolls had devised a brand new interface, christened Magnetic Windows, to take advantage of the Amiga and Atari ST's advanced capabilities. Incorporating auto-mapping, icons, help functions and separate, resizable windows for graphics and text,
322:, was a deliberate attempt to push the text adventure in a new, hi-tech direction. However, by the time the new interface was ready the traditional text-based genre had already begun to die out as gamers craved more visually elaborate gaming experiences.
271:(1988), Magnetic Scrolls decided to experiment with the boundaries of interactive fiction. Once again written by Rob Steggles, with the help of Hugh Steers, the game was a contemporary thriller that explored corporate corruption and greed.
118:
in its text adventure games, which set it apart from other companies in the genre. The company's games were known for their complex puzzles, intricate storylines, and immersive gameplay. Games developed by
Magnetic Scrolls include
337:. This project was never finished. A playable draft of an early part of the game, along with the personal and commercial circumstances behind its ill-fated development, came briefly to public attention twenty years later.
423:
John Molloy moved to
Florida, US, working on web-based applications, and died in 2018 following an illness. Phil South lives in South Wales, UK, and after many years working Disney Channel UK's web presence worked at the
219:
in 1985, Infocom's titles were something of a rarity in the UK, only usually available as expensive imports. Magnetic
Scrolls immediately took advantage of this considerable gap in the UK market with their first release,
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Official
Secrets. The gaming club didn't last long, however, and was quickly assimilated into Tony Rainbird's new Special Reserve company, specialising in mail order computer hardware and software.
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285:, a more light-hearted, surreal adventure game, where the player assumed the role of a dimension-jumping goldfish. Written by John Molloy, Pete Kemp, Phil South and edited by Rob Steggles,
192:, owned by Scott and Lexis Adams, had been an early competitor of Infocom, but they went out of business long before Infocom had hit their stride. Their only other serious competitor was
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During the mid-1980s, the text adventure market was thriving, although only a very few developers exclusively specialised in the genre. The undisputed giants of the genre were
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series of audio conversations. The player would be prompted to play them at specific points during the story, adding an extra layer of depth to the game.
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also produced a number of text adventures that were critical and commercial hits but were never a serious rival to Level 9. Until they were acquired by
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from the original source code. In
December 2017 the remastered and enhanced game was published. This was followed by a similarly revived edition of
377:
to lukewarm reviews, but MicroProse did not capitalise on the
Magnetic Scrolls name beyond that. In the late 1990s, Ken Gordon registered the
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that took advantage of the Magnetic Windows engine. A second collection, containing their remaining games, was planned but never completed.
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Formed by Anita Sinclair, Ken Gordon and Hugh Steers in 1984, London-based Magnetic Scrolls initially dabbled with development on the
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396:. In January 1995 another Magnetic Scrolls programmer, Steve Lacey joined RenderMorphics and in February of the same year
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As a consequence of the dying text adventure market, Magnetic Scrolls ceased publishing in 1992. They were acquired by
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for 7 years. He now works as a freelance writer and blogger and in 2022 published a novel under a pseudonym.
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An Open Source implementation of the virtual machine so that the games can be played on modern Computers.
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Infocom's dominance of the text adventure market ensured they had very few rivals in the United States.
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Game Development with Ren'Py: Introduction to Visual Novel Games Using Ren'Py, TyranoBuilder, and Twine
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665:(November 1992). "Three Runs, Two Hits, One Error: Virgin Software's Magnetic Scrolls Collection".
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Two programmers from Magnetic Scrolls, Doug Rabson and Servan Keondjian later formed the company
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players, winning a number of domestic competitions, and winning a gold medal in China.
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had been in development at Magnetic Scrolls for some time and was finally released by
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later that year. A number of Magnetic Scrolls' staff went on to help develop a 3D
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would prove to be the last of Magnetic Scrolls' traditional commercial releases.
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In 1987, Magnetic Scrolls released two new games. Steggles returned to write
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developer active between 1984 and 1990. A pioneer of audiovisually elaborate
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645:"Milliways: Infocom's Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
623:"Natural Language Generation and Narrative Variation in Interactive Fiction"
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Proceedings of the Computational Aesthetics Workshop, AAAI, Boston, MA
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home computer before deciding to take advantage of the emerging
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849:(walkthroughs, game information, interpreters, manuals, tools)
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In 1988, Magnetic Scrolls began to collaborate with Infocom,
408:, which they co-founded with Hugh Steers. Lacey remained at
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Magnetic Scrolls section of The Interactive Fiction Archive
248:, a traditional treasure hunt, while Georgina Sinclair and
682:"Google engineer Steve Lacey victim of Kirkland car wreck"
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was released. The official release followed in June 2017.
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gaming platforms. Having secured a publication deal with
761:"Magnetic Scrolls Original Games Source Code Recovered!"
400:
acquired the company. Reality Lab became the basis for
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developers of the 1980s, and one of the "Big Two" with
431:
Anita Sinclair is now one of the UK's most successful
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which produced the highly acclaimed 3D Graphics API
318:, written by David Bishop and based on the works of
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games, it was one of the largest and most acclaimed
785:"The Guild of Thieves by Magnetic Scrolls Restored"
451:In June 2017 Strand games worked on recovering the
73:
65:
53:
45:
35:
1004:Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom
860:(a Crash magazine interview with Magnetic Scrolls)
258:. Both games met with similar critical acclaim as
239:version of the game did not include graphics.
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8:
669:. Vol. 1, no. 100. pp. 64–65.
420:. In 2011, he was killed in a car accident.
110:was one of the first game developers to use
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878:dMagnetic - A Magnetic Scrolls Interpreter
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1014:Software companies of the United Kingdom
999:Video game companies established in 1984
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809:"Jinxter by Magnetic Scrolls Revived"
342:The Magnetic Scrolls Collection Vol 1
340:In 1991, Virgin Interactive released
279:Released towards the end of 1988 was
7:
335:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
160:, a British software label owned by
864:Interview with Anita Sinclair, 1989
381:domain, which now redirects to the
416:. In October 2006, Lacey moved to
404:. Rabson and Keondjian are now at
252:wrote the contemporary fantasy of
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853:The Magnetic Scrolls Chronicles
588:Narrative Skills for Videogames
531:The Magnetic Scrolls Collection
412:as the graphics engine lead on
18:The Magnetic Scrolls Collection
426:Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
199:During the early to mid-1980s
1:
741:Wawro, Alex (June 28, 2017).
680:Bishop, Todd (25 July 2011).
344:, containing new versions of
700:"John Molloy's Twitter feed"
643:Baio, Andy (17 April 2008).
373:, which was released on the
27:British video game developer
842:Magnetic Scrolls Fact Sheet
714:"Phil South's Twitter feed"
540:The Legacy: Realm of Terror
370:The Legacy: Realm of Terror
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535:(1991, Virgin Interactive)
526:(1990, Virgin Interactive)
414:Microsoft Flight Simulator
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265:For their next release,
179:Cambridge, Massachusetts
586:Bateman, Chris (2021).
561:Ciesla, Robert (2019).
365:role-playing video game
207:text adventure market.
190:Adventure International
858:Message in a Microchip
302:Later years and demise
667:Computer Gaming World
592:Bloomsbury Publishing
935:The Guild of Thieves
483:The Guild of Thieves
458:The Guild of Thieves
346:The Guild of Thieves
245:The Guild of Thieves
125:The Guild of Thieves
104:according to some.
41:video game developer
1009:Interactive fiction
379:magneticscrolls.com
311:Virgin Mastertronic
98:interactive fiction
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543:(1992, MicroProse)
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201:Level 9 Computing
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16:(Redirected from
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394:Reality Lab
237:ZX Spectrum
183:text parser
177:, based in
162:Telecomsoft
146:Sinclair QL
61:Hugh Steers
993:Categories
977:The Legacy
970:Wonderland
949:Corruption
818:2019-07-16
794:2017-12-23
770:2017-12-23
565:. Apress.
548:References
523:Wonderland
499:Corruption
361:MicroProse
350:Corruption
316:Wonderland
307:Wonderland
273:Corruption
268:Corruption
217:Activision
90:video game
59:Ken Gordon
914:Games by
464:in 2019.
410:Microsoft
398:Microsoft
385:website.
367:entitled
140:Formation
116:animation
928:The Pawn
686:GeekWire
649:waxy.org
621:(2006).
475:The Pawn
446:The Pawn
402:Direct3D
260:The Pawn
233:The Pawn
222:The Pawn
167:The Pawn
158:Rainbird
150:Atari ST
121:The Pawn
112:graphics
39:Software
36:Industry
942:Jinxter
491:Jinxter
462:Jinxter
255:Jinxter
209:Delta 4
175:Infocom
135:History
129:Jinxter
102:Infocom
66:Defunct
54:Founder
46:Founded
873:Curlie
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569:
433:bridge
418:Google
127:, and
78:London
956:Fish!
626:(PDF)
533:Vol 1
507:Fish!
354:Fish!
287:Fish!
282:Fish!
154:Amiga
963:Myth
596:ISBN
567:ISBN
515:Myth
352:and
329:and
294:Myth
211:and
152:and
114:and
69:1992
49:1984
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213:CRL
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