The Collection Chamber: SIMON THE SORCERER'S PUZZLE PACK

All the puzzling action you could want in one box! From the people who brought you the highly acclaimed "Simon the Sorcerer" adventures comes a brand new collection of puzzle games for Windows 95 or 98 featuring the original characters and a whole lot more. The only game collection in the world that requires skills in logical thinking, forward planning, manual dexterity and demon discipline.
Swampy Adventures - help the Swampling through 50 levels of puzzles as he attempts to rescue his children from the evil Sordid.
NoPatience - Four solitaire patience card games played with a unique Simon The Sorcerer themed deck.
Jumble - A new type of sliding-tile puzzle. Rearrange the pieces of a constantly changing animation!
Demon In My Pocket - Your very own virtual desktop demon to love, care for and boil in oil.
Windows themes - Unique Simon the Sorcerer, Swampling and Feeble Files themes to customise your computer (requires Microsoft Plus!)
Ranking system for competition between family and friends.

~ from the back of the UK box

In 1993, Simon the Sorcerer became one of the pinnacles of point-and-click adventures, and its sequel in 1995 only cemented its status. By 1998 fans were clamouring for a part 3. One was in the works, but unfortunate publisher issues meant they had to change course and start again. They demanded the series move away from 2D art - no matter how nice it was - and jump wholeheartedly into 3D. We wouldn't see this threequel until 2002 (and the less said about it the better), but I guess some of those original assets were repurposed for something else - Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack. Or Game Pack as it was in some places. Released in 1998, this modest collection of bite-size games aimed to replace Minesweeper as the timewaster of choice. The headline act in this pack, however, owes more of a debt to another desktop classic...

Swampy Adventures is a top-down puzzler that shares a lot of DNA with Chip's Challenge. It shoves the downtrodden goblin-like creator Swampy into a bunch of locations to play a complex game of Sokoban. You use the arrow keys to control him and he'll automatically nudge crates, flip switches or collect keys if you walk over them correctly. There's no narrative in the 50-odd levels that I can decipher (you need to read the manual for that), and the northern dialect that voices the creature is sparsely used. The unenthusiastic "hello" he peeps at the beginning of each level is funny at first, but soon becomes grating. It's the best mini-game of the collection, but the difficulty spikes are large, forcing you to use trial and error more often than not.

Next up is No Patience, a suite of four traditional solitaire card games decked out with Simon's fantasy art. Think Klondike, FreeCell and their ilk, but with character portraits and altered suits straight from the franchise. Each game is an adaptation of an existing one too. Patriarchs, Simplicity and Imaginary Thirteens keep their traditional name, while One Foundation is essential Golf. They plays much as you'd expect; drag cards, free up columns, and hope the randomness of it all doesn't cause your downfall. Having witches, wizards and goblins replace kings, queens and jacks is nice and all, but there is no real variation between suits. The only things that differ are their borders (yellow and blue replacing black and red) a sticker to show its suit (helmets, skulls, books and cups in place of hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades). It's becomes rather busy, making it easier to miss plays than if the standard style was used.

Then there's Jumble, a sliding tile puzzle. Rather than a static image, you have to piece together an animation by swapping two tiles at a time. The animations are nice, some of which have been directly taken from "the eagerly awaited game Simon the Sorcerer III". Alas, these animations would be scrapped over future game's troubled production, so this is the only place to get an idea of what could have been. That was enough to keep be playing in what is otherwise a basic jigsaw puzzle. It is also the only game of the four to feature music. One fully-produced rock song. On repeat. I turned it off after one listen.

Perhaps the oddest game in the Puzzle Pack isn't really a game at all. Demon In My Pocket (or D.I.M.P. for short) is a desktop virtual pet that could've been cause for a lawsuit from the makers of Tamagotchi had it not erred into parody. The aim is to nurture a recently hatched demon. You feed them, watch them grow, and occasionally torment them for giggles. Originally, the demon would sit in your system tray and occasionally demands attention, but modernising it through ScummVM lessens this feature. It's not really a game you play, but a game you ignore until it won't let you any more. It's all charmingly pointless, and absolutely a product of its era, but I can just imagine this desktop toy being installed on many an office computer in the late 90s.

So what do we make of Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack in the cold light of modern day? It's an all right time-waster with an eccentric grab-bag that never quite earns the inclusion of its intellectual property. I can imagine it was commissioned to drum up hype (and money) for the forthcoming third game in the series, only to backfire when it would be delayed for four years. The solitaire is pleasant but inessential, Swampy's Adventure is occasionally absorbing but mostly frustrating, and D.I.M.P. is just weird. The advertised Windows desktop themes are long since defunct on modern systems - something even ScummVM can't get around (and to be fair, why would you want them to). It's a product very much of its time that is best enjoyed in short bursts.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses ScummVM to allow the game to run on modern PCs. Manual included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 222 Mb. Install Size: 317 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

Download

SWAMPY'S ADVENTURE

NO PATIENCE

JUMBLE

D.I.M.P.

SWAMPY'S ADVENTURES