Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Set

The Good
Very advanced for its time. Though the graphics and sound are simple, there is a lot of room for customization. It also has a neat "create random adventure" feature that is good for folks with limited patience. Once an adventure is created, you can create a "stand-alone" executable to give out to your friends.

The Bad
In order to do a good job, you really have to take some time with this one. But that's to be expected, I suppose.

The Bottom Line
One of the better "construction sets" out there. Worth a look if you're a fan of the top-down RPGs.

The Good
The ability to create your own roleplaying game, with an intuitive toolset. Although the resources were limited, the package itself was so ahead of its time that the possibilities seemed limitless. "Rivers of Light" showed that anyone could make an immersive game with a meaningful storyline. "Lands of Adventuria" showed how you could maximize each and every resource to create stories in any genre. The ability to create and customize items, spells, and characters put the tools of imagination at your control. For many people, "Adventure Construction Set" was the first product that allowed people to explore the possibility of actually creating the kind of game they wanted to play.

The Bad
It is hard to criticize the game. It maximized what you could get out of a Commodore while laboring under the obvious imitations. It was truly revolutionary.

The Bottom Line
If you have ever used RPG Maker in any of its iterations, here is the granddaddy of all those programs.

The Good
The best parts about the ACS were the flexibility of the construction tools. You could build just about any game you wanted within the limits of the game engine design.

I also liked the option to create random adventures, which produced some interesting quests for my character after he finished "Rivers of Light", the bundled adventure.

The Bad
More animation and better sound effects would have improved the game a lot.

Missile combat was somwhat awkward too.

The Bottom Line
A good construction set for top-down view adventure game with few limitations for its time.