Moses - Old Testament Adventure 1

Today it would seem unbelievable, but in the mid-eighties there were games where religious doctrine didn't pose a problem. Moses: Old Testament Adventure 1 is exactly that kind of thing — on DOS, in color graphics mode that sometimes stares out as boringly as if waiting for a tax inspector's visit.

It's a story-driven adventure that takes you through Old Testament tales from Moses' perspective. You're not here chasing wealth or glory, but redemption for the people of Israel. It's a game that set out to educate as much as entertain, and therein lies its peculiar charm — today you'd call it edutainment, in the eighties it was simply something that existed.

Gameplay consists of walking through scenes, collecting items, and solving simple logic puzzles. Controls are text-based — you click on things in your inventory or type commands. There's no adrenaline here, no time pressure — it's more like reading a book with the difference that occasionally you have to experiment to figure out where to go next. The graphics are minimalist, colors can be counted on your fingers, animation is practically nonexistent. Sound? A simple melody that's more of a reminder that the computer is producing something than music you'd actually want to listen to.

In the context of the era, this wasn't money down the drain. Educational software had its audience, and games like this were sold in classrooms and to religious families who saw computers primarily as a tool. To the modern player, though, it comes across as a fascinating curiosity — a ticket from a time when digital interactivity meant something different.

It's only worth trying out of nostalgia or academic interest in how games were made for PC in the early days of DOS. These days you can run it without trouble in a browser via an emulator, but be aware you're going into a game, not an amusement park. It's text consumption with clicking, nothing more.