Questprobe featuring The Hulk Download (1984 Adventure Game)

1st in the Questprobe Marvel Comics series. Play Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk through this interactive fiction game with graphics. You awake as Banner, tied by ropes to your chair in a bunker in the desert; once you free yourself, collect all the gems to escape this hellhol

This is the first of the Questprobe adventure games and is set in the world of The Hulk. You play as Dr. Bruce Banner, and as you play the game, it quickly becomes apparent that your task is to collect gems and store them in the correct place. This is not as easy as it sounds, however, as you must overcome many tricky puzzles along the way. You must learn to make the most of Bruce Banner's brains and The Hulk's brawn. For example, you begin the game "tied hand and foot to a chair," with no clue as to how or why you are there. How will you escape from that chair? You can perform simple actions throughout the game, such as checking your inventory (press the "I" key) or checking your score (type "SCORE").

After you escape from the chair, you can explore the rest of The Hulk's world and meet interesting characters such as Ant-Man, Dr. Strange, and the mysterious Chief Examiner. Ultimately, your goal is to find the Biogem and store it in the correct place. I advise you to only pick up the Biogem after all the other gems have been stored correctly; otherwise, the Biogem will be destroyed before the game ends. Can you master Bruce's brains, control Hulk's brawn, and survive to the very end?

The Hulk is a graphical text adventure game that uses a simple text parser to control your character's actions. The screen consists of a large picture showing your location, with some text underneath describing things in more detail. You can type simple two-word commands, such as "READ SIGN" or "GET GEM." The game also understands simple commands, e.g. "N", "S", "E", "W", "EXAMINE," "LOOK," or "INV," etc. I must mention though, that I occasionally had to type in commands twice before they were accepted. It's a strange little bug, but it doesn't affect gameplay at all.

When you first start the game, you will see a Drive Selection Menu, asking where the game data is stored. Select "0: Programme and Data info all on same disk." At that point, the game starts properly. Like I said earlier, the game has some tricky puzzles, and if you make a mistake, you can easily "die." You don't really die as such, though; you end up in a high-gravity area. Simply go down the stairs (press D) to return to an earlier screen. Nevertheless, I advise you to save your game often. The Hulk has four game slots (A, B, C, and D) which can be overwritten freely.

I love the rich, colorful pictures used for this game. Everything, from Bruce Banner tied to a chair, to the Chief Examiner's office, to your inventory screen, is just wonderful and has excellent details. The alien ants are quite scary, and there are close-up views of some items. On the other hand, all three domes look very similar from the outside, which was a bit disappointing. The dome with ant holes is easy to identify, but the other two are indistinguishable until you actually enter one. A slight variety in the domes would have been nice, but you can't have everything.

Questprobe featuring The Hulk is a very promising start to the Questprobe series, and Scott Adams' notoriously tricky puzzles are very evident. I like that you must use the skills of both Bruce and The Hulk in order to progress. The simple text parser can be a little frustrating at times as you struggle to find the correct words to perform an action, but at the same time, it just adds to the challenge. The graphics are wonderfully detailed, almost as if I was reading a comic. If you are a fan of The Hulk, or if you like a good challenge, then you will enjoy this game.

The Hulk is a disappointing first instalment of the Questprobe series from Adventure International, which was produced in collaboration with Marvel Comics. Despite a 'Difficulty level: Moderate' tag on the box, the game is not only very easy, but easy in the most stupid way a game can get. The game starts with you, The Hulk's human alter ego Bruce Banner, tied to a chair. After an easy escape (well, at least easy for anyone who has read the comics), you learn that the goal if this game is to locate all the gems and find somewhere to store them. Yes-- this is another sad, superhero-turned-pointless-gem-hunter kind of game.

Although the game does try very hard to immerse you in The Hulk's world, nothing aside from the well-drawn graphics ever did the job. The worst offense is the parser, which you'd swear is dumber than a rock. It understands very little other than "LOOK," and puzzles are more boring than they are worth. The appearances of well-known bad guys such as the Chief Examiner and Ant-Man are wasted by poor writing and pointless dialogues. The game does try to help: typing HELP is supposed to give you clues, but most of the time you'll be greeted with annoying "SORRY I CAN'T DO THAT BUT ASK FOR A SCOTT ADAMS HINT BOOK AT YOUR FAVORITE STORE!" response. My biggest gripe with the game is the repetitiveness that sets in after you know your objective. As you move around collecting gems, each of the three domes becomes indistinguishable as they are represented by the same graphic! Worse, you must follow the same painstaking, pointless routine to leave each dome.

This is a very disappointing game, especially considering that Scott Adams' other games are quite good. A horrible waste of a good license-- steer clear by all means.

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

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