"Medea beckons for you to glance into the distant past of adventure games..."

Medea beckons for you... heed her call!

...Or so stated the box containing the floppy disk with Crypt of Medea on it. In a very early Mac adventure game (that was NOT text-based), the designers experimented with graphics alongside scrolling text and let the player interact with items, characters, etc. in the small window. It works, and was later the inspiration for games such as Ray Dugan's A Mess O' Trouble, which came out some 10 years after Crypt of Medea debuted. In some respects, Crypt of Medea pioneered the ''new'' style of text-based gaming, but failed to reach an audience upon its release. In the case of games such as Beer Run and Frantic Freddie, however, revolutionary games usually go unnoticed for a long time.

The story is fairly standard, ho-hum adventure movie material. You are Stephen, the son of a famous archaeologist and his beautiful wife. Being only 13 years of age, you are always forced to spend your time staying in their massive mansion and housesitting for them. Suddenly, one day, you recieve word of your parents' disappearance into a jungle in southeast Uruguay. Bosephus, the black servant, reveals that he was born in Uruguay and had much experience prowling around in the jungles there. Since you knew of your parents' intentions there, which was to find the legendary Crypt of Medea, who was the Goddess of Pandemonium. Fearing the worst, Bosephus teams up with you and the both of you go off in search of your parents.

The hero of CoM looks like a bumbling, yet eager hero, relying only on instinct and a map and compass to guide him through the jungle. Unfortunately, this setback is only there for story purposes, as you will quickly find that Stephen and Bosephus can tear through the jungle like nobody's business. Gameplay basically consists of walk, search, and shoot- the basis of most text-based games. For those of you who don't play overly ''Old-School'' types of games, when you enter an area, you can pick what direction you want to go in (North, East, South, West), whether you want to Search the area for useful items or Look for a general description of the area, or to Battle any creatures nearby. As you trek through Medea's jungle, you will do battle with lots of creatures ranging from weak Snakes at the beginning of your quest to more fierce foes such as Jaguars and Lions near Medea's crypt. During battles, Bosephus usually lends a hand, hitting animals with his machete while Stephen uses a rifle (Who cares if he's 13, he's a natural hunter!!).

Animal bodies can be used for different things such as food and clothing. In a strange twist, you and Bosephus get tired from walking through the jungle, and from time to time you need to stop and eat, choosing to feast on a ration from home or to cook the corpse of a freshly-killed animal. Thankfully, the corpses never spoil, but they add Weight to the party's load, and this makes Stephen and Bosephus tire out more easily. After the fatigue is high enough, the two of them need to sleep. Thankfully, you can't be attacked while you sleep, thanks to an Anti-Enemy aura that Bosephus sets up around the tents. Yup, it's nice to have a partner who dabbles in Voodoo... Of course, the story heats up considerably once Stephen and Bosephus reach the Crypt, and there are some resulting plot twists which culminate into a climactic showdown at the finale. If only game developers had this much depth in their games nowadays, text-based games would still be bought and not just found on abandonware sites and whatnot.

The graphics in CoM are servicable for an Apple II, and they do the job. A tree looks like a tree, a black manservant with a machete looks likewise, and a pissed-off puma about to rip your head off looks like a pissed-off puma about to rip your head off. Also, odd things that stick out really do stick out, such as an arrow drawn in the dirt that points in the direction of the temple or a piece of paper stuck between branches in a tree. Each unusual item is garishly colored, increasing the chances that you will see it considerably. There are no sounds save for BLEEPs and THUMPs that occur during actions.

Overall, Crypt of Medea is an outstanding game, and like Beer Run before it, age does not affect the overall quality of the game- in fact, some games get better with age, and Crypt of Medea is one of them. From the simplistic yet engrossing story to the deep gameplay, Crypt of Medea completely blows away most games of today. If it wasn't for the bland graphics and the sloppy sound effects, CoM would be a classic, for sure.

Final Score: 9

To see how people raised on 128-bit games would like more cerebral challenges, my Uber-1337 cousin was given some time to himself and Crypt of Medea. He was itching to get back to his NBA Live 2002 game, but he found Crypt of Medea to be a nice diversion until he stumbled upon the pack of cobras near the Voronax River- the first real challenging battle, and it's part of the story. Bosephus kept dying first, and the machete that he weilds is the most effective weapon against snakes, and only with his wildly inaccurate rifle left, he managed to take out one snake before they were upon him.

''dis gmae sUx0rz.'' He announced, leaving the Apple II and making a beeline for his X-Box.

w00tness Meter: 3

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/04/02, Updated 05/24/03