Crypt of Medea

Crypt of Medea
Developer(s)	Sir-Tech
Publisher(s)	Sir-Tech
Designer(s)	Arthur Britto Allan Lamb
Platform(s)	Apple II
Release	NA: 1984[1]
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Crypt of Medea is an adventure video game written by Arthur Britto and Allan Lamb. It was published for the Apple II by Sir-Tech in 1984. Crypt of Medea makes use of graphics, but the game is still controlled through the use of text commands in the traditional style of interactive fiction games.

The game begins with the player trapped inside Medea's crypt, and the goal is to find a way out. To do so, the player must make use of a variety of items and avoid falling victim to a number of enemies and traps.

After falling unconscious during a late night drive, the unnamed protagonist wakes up in an unfamiliar tomb.^[2] This tomb is the crypt of Medea, and it is filled with hostile creatures and deadly traps. The protagonist is forced to explore the crypt in hopes of escaping.

Very little plot is made available to the player during the course of the game. No information is given about how the player ended up in Medea's tomb, and no background information is ever given about Medea. In fact, the protagonist does not ever encounter Medea during the course of the game, and the only mention of her is through an inscription that she wrote.^[3]

The game's environment is divided into a series of distinct sections. Each section is represented with a picture and a text description. Objects or creatures that the player can interact with will be visible in the picture and described in the text description. The player can move from one section to another by moving in one of the cardinal directions or occasionally through other actions (such as going up a staircase, going down a hole, or swinging across a ravine).

One of the primary gameplay mechanics in Crypt of Medea is the use of items. Items can be found in many locations throughout the crypt, and the player can carry a limited number of these items at any given time. Often one or more items are the key to solving a puzzle or defeating an enemy that blocks the player's progress. Since the player can only hold a few items at once, inventory management is often a crucial factor to the player's survival.

At the time of its release, Crypt of Medea was considered a fairly graphic and adult game due to its detailed descriptions of violent deaths. Kim Schuette, author of The Book of Adventure Games, described Crypt of Medea as "a humorless and gruesome game, full of blood, gore, and little else."^[4] The cover of the game even describes Crypt of Medea as "an adventure game for the very mature and strong of heart."

Computer Gaming World described Crypt of Medea as "an example of a mature and excellent product" and an "excellently designed game." The magazine praised the game for its controls and for having a level of challenge that is enjoyable for both novice and expert players.^[2] St.Game described the game as "something of an Addams Family on disk. It is macabre and witty and stupid and inventive and repetitious and altogether kooky". The magazine criticized the game's typos and poor parser, but stated that it was "full of funny surprises", and recommended it to "beginning adventurers in the family".^[5]

• Casus Belli #20 (April 1984)^[6]

• MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.^[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".^[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.^[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.^[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.^[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.^[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.^[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.^[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.^[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.^[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).^[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,^[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.^[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.^[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.^[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.^[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.^[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.^[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.^[17]

• IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

Wikidata has the property: NO LABEL (P1933) (see uses)

• No URL found. Please specify a URL here or add one to Wikidata.

Template:Atari

0.00 (0 votes) Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MobyGames. Read more

• CryptOfMedea2001 - Contains a working version of Crypt of Medea and a text version of the hint sheet that comes packaged with the game.

0.00 (0 votes) Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypt of Medea. Read more