The Great Pyramid was written by John O’Hare who wrote three text adventures for the Commodore PET in 1980. I have now completed all three in the series:
- Cavern of Riches
- The Great Pyramid (which we’ll review together now)
- Haunted Mansion
All three of the games are stand alone titles and need not be played in any order. The Great Pyramid has you begin play in a desert and the opening puzzle reminds me of Scott Adam’s Pyramid of Doom. The initial problem of trying to get into the pyramid forced me to shut the game down in consternation and approach it with a fresh mind the following evening.
You’ll have to do some digging out in the desert in order to acquire items which you’ll need for your foray into the pyramid.
I must say that I enjoyed The Great Pyramid more than I did the other two titles in the series. If I had to rank them I would place The Great Pyramid at the top followed by Haunted Mansion and lastly Cavern of Riches.
The Great Pyramid is another treasure hunt however the game contained some interesting puzzles and original situations. Both Cavern of Riches and Haunted Mansion seemed more like snatch and grab experiences or walking simulators disguised as treasure hunts whereas I felt the Great Pyramid had more meat on it’s bones.
I particularly enjoyed having to deal with the animated armor, opening the vault, and discovering the secret passages. There is also a cobra that you have to deal with in “stereotypical egyptian fashion”. The object is to collect 12 treasures and then deposit them in the designated area for points.
The flashlight that you have only gives you a limited number of moves within the pyramid and it is your only light source. So you are consciously trying to economize your actions as you play. I was almost finished with the game and then my flashlight ran out and I had to begin the game again and become more efficient in my movements.
There was a disappointing glitch in my version of this game. When I deposited the 12 treasures in the designated area I was never awarded any points. No matter what I did my score always remained zero however I did completely finish the game.
You can play The Great Pyramid at this location with no problems other than that it does not score your treasures correctly however the complete game is there. If you have a passion for text adventures and have not played O’Hare’s The Great Pyramid I strongly suggest you do so. It was my favorite game of the three that he published and in my opinion his best work. I do not believe that John O’Hare went on to make another game so these three are the only ones that exist of his work.
I will now be jumping ahead to 1981 and I am going to tackle Wizardry I: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord.