Roguecraft DX (2026)
In early February 2026, a deluxe version of the Amiga game Roguecraft was released, roughly a year and a half after the original. Roguecraft is a retro-inspired, accessible and smooth dungeon role-playing game focused on fighting monsters and collecting gold. The game’s graphics and soundscape made a strong impression on me — even more so in the DX version than in the original release. I am pleased to have new commercial-quality software to play on my A500 Mini. In this blog post I discuss both versions, as they are largely similar, while the improvements introduced in DX will naturally become clear.
Deja Vu Collector's Edition (2020)
While browsing the Adventure Games category on Big Fish Games, I came across a hidden-object adventure that looked somewhat different from the usual mainstream fare — Deja Vu. First I noticed the retro-realistic visual style, and then the promise of a journey through the remnants of the former Soviet Union. On Steam, the game’s description is downright confrontational: the mainstream hidden-object scene is dragged through the mud while promising a “different” experience. In practice, the gameplay does not deviate from the usual formula — the familiar hidden-object and puzzle sequences are embedded within an adventure-style narrative and inventory tasks. Yet the setting carves out its own thematic space: places frozen somewhere in the 1980s, unfashionable people, and systemic corruption. I couldn’t help thinking of Adam Wolfe, another atypical hidden-object title I have reviewed earlier on Samooja. Deja Vu does not reach the same level, but it remains a curious title worth a look.
The Forest Quartet (2022)
In the spirit of All Saints’ Day, I played the Danish indie title The Forest Quartet. The player controls the ghost of Nina, a deceased singer and saxophonist. After her death, her former bandmates struggle with mental health issues and a lack of creative drive. Nina must bring strength, light, and cooling to their lives so the memorial concert can take place. She appears as an ethereal human figure who can also transform into a swarm of butterflies. The Forest Quartet received the Independent Games Festival award for Excellence in Audio in 2023. It is a short and seemingly modest game, yet one that has been appreciated. I found it had potential and hope that its creator, Mads Vadsholt, continues creating puzzle-adventure games in the future.
Enclosure 3-D (2022)
Following in the wake of Leisure Suit Larry, I was reminded of the 2004 graphical text adventure Enclosure, which uses the same Sierra AGI engine as the original Larry 1. In 2022, Enclosure received an update where the pixels were turned into voxels — resulting in a kind of retro 3D. The change isn’t dramatic but clearly noticeable. The graphics seem to lift off the screen, less flat than before; to my eyes, the characters now look more like LEGO figures than pixel sprites. Enclosure is a lovingly made fan project, available for free. What originally drew me to it was the premise: a pair of fraudulent mediums invited to a haunted Arctic station.
The Procession to Calvary (2020)
The 2020 point-and-click adventure The Procession to Calvary follows in the footsteps of Joe Richardson’s previous game, Four Last Things. It takes place in the same, or at least a similar, world collaged and composed from Renaissance paintings. However, both the protagonist and the driving force have changed. This time, the player controls a female warrior who uses a religious war as an excuse for her own bloodlust, while Christianity is subjected to cruel, carnivalesque satire. The Procession to Calvary is a journey to the dark side of Christianity and its obscure outskirts.
The Longing (2020)
Released in 2020, The Longing is an idle game built around slowness, patience, and deliberate waiting. The king of the underground has fallen into a sleep that will last 400 days, and his servant, Shade, is left alone to pass the time with no obvious purpose. The game arrived at a fitting moment, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and many players found points of contact with their own situation. Shade lives as if in quarantine. He has no access to the surface world — or does he? The player’s task is to explore the vast cave system and uncover its secrets. I have nothing against The Longing, but little to argue strongly in its favour either. It is nevertheless a memorable experience, quite simply because its slowness places it in a category of its own.
Antiquarium (2023)
Released in mid-September 2023, the hidden object game Antiquarium combines an old-school game structure with AI-assisted visuals in an intriguing way. The player takes a job in an antique shop, where the work consists not only of serving customers but also of searching for lost — or rather scattered — decorative objects, accompanied by assorted words of wisdom attached to them. There are six different task types, which always repeat in the same fixed sequence. The visuals also repeat themselves quite heavily — or perhaps it would be more accurate to say they vary versions of the same motifs — but in a curiously compelling way. The vagueness produced by AI felt to me fantastical and suitably challenging.
The A500 Mini (2022)
The miniature Amiga 500 replica that came out earlier this year finally answered my long-standing desire to play old Amiga games again. There are of course emulators for modern computers, but I have always found them hopelessly difficult to use. The A500 Mini, on the other hand, promised plug and play. I received mine in July and, after a couple of months of use, I feel confident enough to give my own assessment and a few tips for anyone considering buying the console. I will save the actual Amiga game recommendations for another time.
Chinatown Detective Agency (2022)
Released in April this year, Chinatown Detective Agency is a puzzle adventure set in near-future Singapore. You zip around the city by metro and occasionally fly abroad. The player character, the young Amira Dharma, is a former Interpol officer turned private detective. Her work consists largely of research and various puzzles that extend beyond the game into the internet. Even though Amira’s reality and the cases she solves, ranging from murders to corruption, tell a bleak story, the game is still warm-hearted, as Amira finds her own support group. Chinatown Detective Agency has its weaknesses and imperfections, but my play experience was smooth, and I liked the core idea a great deal.
The Excavation of Hob's Barrow (2022)
Released in late September, The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow returned me to the comfort of old-school point-and-click adventures. It is the seventh adventure by the small studio Cloak and Dagger Games, and it is published by a true genre icon, Wadjet Eye Games. That partnership ensures excellent voice acting, and the characters left a favourable impression more broadly. Built on ancient belief and folklore, the story is a horror piece set in 19th-century northern England. A young archaeologist arrives in a small remote village to investigate an ancient barrow and is met with conflicting attitudes. Who is who, and who can be trusted? The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow does not settle for a happy ending; instead, it leaves the player wounded, alone with their troubled thoughts.