Twin Kingdom Valley
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| Twin Kingdom Valley

You begin on a road and spy a cabin ahead. GO NORTH and you're inside, warming yourself by the flickering fire. You notice a brass key and a stone jug on a table. GET KEY you sensibly text – you're bound to find some door to UNLOCK later.

Best TAKE JUG too and wondering what you might FILL it with, you head SOUTH and WEST towards a disused quarry. Suddenly, you're confronted by a gorilla with a wooden club. Ah, if you only had a weapon you could HIT GORILLA WITH SWORD, so instead you quickly LIGHT LAMP and head down into the caves of the Forest King…

Get the idea?

Twin Kingdom Valley is a text adventure. Yes, it has pictures – wonderful miniaturised recreations of the graphics that graced the game when it first appeared on the BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Spectrum and numerous other 8-bit home computers back in the early 1980s – but at its heart, it relies on you the player tapping in instructions.

For those of a certain age, this should stir poignant memories of a long lost gaming genre. Yet it should also make young and old realise how perfectly suited this style of game is for mobile phones.

Trying to replicate Grand Theft Auto with a keypad is naïve (erm, arguably – Ed). Using texting to control your game is inspired. Here you can explore lush forests, traverse hostile deserts and plunder treasure-filled castles, making friends and battling foes on the way, all with a few thumb presses.

The developer has taken great care to make everything as painless and intuitive as possible. There's a superb predictive text system and an instant save game option, meaning any gap in your day becomes an opportunity to slip away and lose yourself in the Valley.

And you will get lost. Twin Kingdom Valley was a giant in its day and remains a stern challenge. There are over 200 locations, scores of marauding creatures and the taxing puzzles mean new adventurers may understandably feel daunted.

Persevere though and you'll discover a deep and sophisticated virtual world. This game pioneered the concept of virtual 'Non-Player Characters', and the cast of elves, witches, trolls and the like will move, fight and steal independently of your actions. As you wander and wonder (you will spend as much time thinking as you will typing), stumbling upon a battle in progress really gives you the sense of being part of a bigger picture – and one rendered in the most advanced of all graphics engines: your imagination.

Of course nostalgia is part of the appeal here. It's a lovingly crafted and amazingly accurate conversion, and for those who nervously crept along dark passageways on the school's BBC computers during wet break-times, this is like stepping back into your childhood.

(Apparently, when original programmer Trevor Hall was shown the mobile version as a work-in-progress, he was so impressed that he enthusiastically got involved with the project and contributed new locations, puzzles and updated graphics, as well as moderating the forums found on the game's website.)

For those unfamiliar to the joys (and occasional frustrations) of text adventures, be aware that they require patience, brainwork and an inquiring mind. Indeed, Twin Kingdom Valley is a remarkable achievement in its own right, but its greatest triumph may be to introduce a whole new audience to a particularly rich and largely forgotten realm of video gaming.

So sling your trusty hold-all over your shoulder, drink deep of the magical waters, and let your eyes be opened to an ancient quest, beautifully reborn.

Twin Kingdom Valley

For players with an open mind and fertile imagination, Twin Kingdom Valley offers a whole world in your handset
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