Calixto Island

Calixto Island is a video game in the adventure genre developed by Mark Data Products and published by Mark Data Products originally released in 1984. It is currently playable on DOS.

In the mid-1980s, a small company called Mark Data Products released 6 parser-based adventure games, similar to early Polarware and Scott Adams titles. Although the games are reasonably successful on Tandy's CoCo computer, the IBM PC versions did not achieve the same level of success.

Although the graphics are quite good for the time, the parser is rather primitive: only simple verb+noun constructions, such as GET HAT, are understood, and some verbs that are common in IF games, such as SEARCH, are not always recognized. Fortunately, the games compensate for the primitive parser with a well-written plot, amusing characters, and some clever puzzles. The plot of Calixto Island: 'A valuable museum treasure has been stolen; can you retrieve it? Calixto Island is a challenging puzzler with an occasional touch of humor. You'll visit a laboratory, a Mayan pyramid and meet the mad trader Jack, all in vivid color and exciting detail'.

Thanks to the generosity of Bob Withers, co-creator of these games, who has posted both the games and their source codes on his website for free download, you can now experience a forgotten past from the early days of adventure gaming. All are recommended, but if you want the best of the bunch, I recommend my favorites: Trekboer and Calixto Island.

It is possible that we have multiple downloads available when different versions exist.