Sherlock Holmes - The Riddle of the Crown Jewels

You'll find yourself lost in London sometime in the mid-eighties, troubled by just two things: where is Sherlock and how do I get out of here. A crime story about the theft of the Crown Jewels leads you in the footsteps of a detective who has decided to share his deductive abilities with you. Except I misunderstood it — you'll end up in his plans.

It's a text adventure with detective elements, where you struggle more with situation descriptions and your own logic than with any game engine principle. You play as Holmes's assistant, tasked with gathering evidence, taking notes, and using logic. The game throws you to various locations in the capital city — from castles through secret clubs to gangster hideouts. Graphics? As black as a corpse in the first room. Text and atmosphere are everything.

Controls are classic — typing commands, where every word and every mistake counts. Sometimes you know what to do, sometimes you're fumbling in the dark. The game won't approve much if you take the wrong direction. The logic of commands sometimes kicks your feet out from under you — not everything can be said as simply as you'd think. If you're lucky, you'll discover that the right path was stating things in the order the game expected, not the one you'd expect.

Today you'll only pick this up with nostalgia goggles on. It was an experimental game for a time when people believed computers could handle conversations and deduction without any graphical compromises. Sherlock Holmes and his logic no longer play the primary role — reading, patience, and the ability to adapt to the game's vocabulary do. The recipe was interesting, the execution cumbersome.

If you don't mind retro-pointers and want to experience one of the first games that tried to translate detective work into digital form, fire it up in an emulator. Without the proper mindset though, it'll be painful. The game doesn't entertain you, it transforms you — or spits you out.