Digital Fantasia

Brian Howarth is a British video game designer and computer programmer.
He wrote many interactive fiction computer games in the early 1980s in a series called Mysterious Adventures.
He was born in Blackpool in 1953.

After leaving school he worked as a telephone engineer until 1981.
Howarth was initially inspired to write computer moderated adventures by the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, and the UK television show The Adventure Game.
He first adventures were written on the TRS-80, taking his cues from the works of Scott Adams.
After becoming frustrated with the BASIC programming language, he learnt machine language to create his first adventure, The Golden Baton, which was published by Molimerx in 1981.
Following this success, Molimerx encouraged Howarth to produce two more titles, The Time Machine and Arrow of Death.

In 1982 Howarth finished developing his own interpreter, based on Scott Adams' Adventureland source code published in Byte magazine.
This used a database format which would speed up development of new adventures.
He ported his games from the original TRS-80 format to the BBC Micro under his own label, Digital Fantasia,
as Molimerx were not planning to support other platforms.
Digital Fantasia operated a mail order service and software shop, staffed by family and friends.

The Mysterious Adventures titles were later ported to the Acorn Electron, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 16 and, with added graphics, to the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum and released by Channel 8 Software and later Paxman Promotions.

Howarth also created games based on the film Gremlins and the TV shows Robin of Sherwood and Super Gran in 1985.

After working on the arcade game Theme Park Mystery and SSI's Heroes of the Lance Howarth relocated to the USA in July 1990 after securing a position with the publisher Cinemaware.
The company went out of business in 1991 but Howarth continued working on console titles for a company set up by Cinemaware co-founder Bob Jacobs.
More recently Howarth has worked on creating applications for tablets and iPhones.


Status: No longer producing software. Software no longer available direct from publisher.

ACORN ELECTRON

Escape From Pulsar Seven (1983)(Cassette)
Perseus And Andromeda (1983)(Cassette)
Ten Little Indians (1983)(Cassette)
The Time Machine (1983)(Cassette)
The Wizard Of Akyrz (1983)(Cassette)

BBC MODEL B

Arrow Of Death Part 1(Cassette)
Circus(Cassette)
Escape From Pulsar Seven (1983)(Cassette)
Feasibility Experiment(Cassette)
Perseus And Andromeda(Cassette)
Ten Little Indians(Cassette)
The Golden Baton(Cassette)
The Time Machine(Cassette)
The Wizard Akyrz (Cassette)
Waxworks(Cassette)

COMMODORE VIC 20

Arrow Of Death Part 1 (1984)(Cassette)
Arrow Of Death Part 2 (1984)(Cassette)

CP/M

Personal Basic (Cassette)


SPECTRUM 48K

Arrow Of Death Part 1 (Cassette) For The Spectrum 48K
Arrow Of Death Part 1 (1984)(Cassette)
Arrow Of Death Part 2 (Cassette) For The Spectrum 48K
Arrow Of Death Part 2 (1984)(Cassette)
Circus (1983)(Cassette)
Escape From Pulsar Seven (1985)(Cassette)
Feasibility Experiment (1984)(Cassette)
Feudal Overlord (1984)(Cassette)
Perseus and Andromeda (1984)(Cassette)
Ten Little Indians (1984)(Cassette)
The Golden Baton (1984)(Cassette)
The Time Machine (1983)(Cassette)
The Wizard Of Akyrz (1983)(Cassette)
The Wizard Of Akyrz (1983)(Cassette)
Waxworks (1983)(Cassette)

SPECTRUM 48K/128K

After The Fire (Cassette)
Midwinter (Cassette)

C64

Phase Four


Games developed by Digital Fantasia but not published by them:

After the Fire Channel 8 Software info, Digital Fantasia info ? English
Arrow of Death part 1 Adventure Soft UK info, Channel 8 Software info, Digital Fantasia info, Molimerx info 1981 English Solution, Map, Hints
Arrow of Death part 2 Adventure Soft UK info, Channel 8 Software info, Digital Fantasia info, Molimerx info 1982 English Solution, Map
Beyond the Infinite Channel 8 Software info, Digital Fantasia info 1984 English
Circus Channel 8 Software info, Digital Fantasia info, Molimerx info 1982 English Solution, Map, Hints
Escape From Pulsar 7 Channel 8 Software info, Digital Fantasia info, Molimerx info 1982 English Solution, Map, Hints
Feasibility Experiment Channel 8 Software info, Digital Fantasia info, Molimerx info 1983 English Solution, Map, Hints
Golden Baton, The Channel 8 Software info, Digital Fantasia info, Molimerx info 1981 English Solution, Map, Hints
Midwinter Channel 8 Software info, Digital Fantasia info ? English
Perseus & Andromeda Channel 8 Software info, Digital Fantasia info, Molimerx info 1983 English Solution, Map
Ten Little Indians Channel 8 Software info, Digital Fantasia info, Molimerx info 1983 English Solution, Map, Hints
Time Machine, The Channel 8 Software info, Digital Fantasia info, Molimerx info 1981 English Solution, Map, Hints
Waxworks Channel 8 Software info, Digital Fantasia info, Molimerx info 1983 English Solution, Map
Wizard of Akyrz, The Channel 8 Software info, Digital Fantasia info, Molimerx info 1983 English Solution, Map, Hints