Games published by Manaccom Pty Ltd.
Select a publisher to browse its games.
We provide a complete list of games published by this publisher.
Baron Baldric: A Grave Adventure
The character Baron Baldric is quite well known among Apogee fans for his appearance in Mystic Towers, but the Baron had previously appeared in this side-scrolling game. It is considered very rare as the registered version was only sold in the Australian territory.
The story of Baron Baldric: A Grave Adventure takes place under the castle of Pedabouch. You have to search for the family treasures in the tomb: the story goes that, centuries ago, Baron Baldric's ancestor, Baron Lazarus Pedabouche, studied an evil wolf magic and became a cruel tyrant: fortunately, when he took over Rosie, a local milkmaid, he was stoned to death by his own subjects. Rosie also died, and was condemned to haunt the entire castle until the former baron was killed.
The game somewhat resembles Impossible Mission 2 and the earlier Montezuma's Revenge by many elements that take the game away from the action genre. You have to find flints to light the lamps when they go out, and eat regularly to survive the maze.
Heaven's Dawn
One of the most obscure point & click adventure games ever made, Heaven's Dawn is a medium game created by Taiwanese developer Art 9 Entertainment, translated into English and marketed in Australia by Manaccom.
It is another 'clueless human gets sucked into a strange alternate reality' type game, but it is not as interesting as Accolade's Altered Destiny. The player plays a tourist who finds himself listening to an old beggar telling him about God's curse on humanity. Apparently, God is angry at humans for 'creating sins' and has ordered 5 deities to curse mankind. Next thing you know, you find yourself sucked into this strange fantasy land, with the beggar's necklace in hand. Naturally, you must find out where everyone has gone, save the world from God's wrath and find your way back home. All in a day's work.
The gameplay will be familiar to all fans of LucasArts/Sierra adventures. Scroll the screen with the mouse cursor and click on interesting objects to read their description or pick them up. Right-clicking brings up the inventory screen, where you can click on objects to use them in the game world. One annoyance of the game is that it offers no description of the objects in the inventory, though fortunately most of the objects are not entirely strange, and most of the puzzles are easy. Speaking of puzzles, most are variants of the traditional find-the-key-to-unlock-the-door puzzle, and while there are a few magical artifacts you can use, you won't be stumped for very long in this game, except for some annoying pixel hunting.
Despite nice VGA graphics and a good 'traditional' point & click adventure feel, Heaven's Dawn has nothing to elevate it from mediocrity. The writing and plot are banal, and the puzzles lack interest. The game doesn't have the sense of humor of Monkey Island, the quirky but clever puzzles of Discworld, or the intriguing plot twists of Dragonsphere to keep you interested.
If you're a fan of adventure games, you'll probably play this one anyway regardless ;) But don't expect to find another forgotten classic. Heaven's Dawn isn't so bad that it deserves to remain in obscurity, but it's not good enough to promote either. Too bad.
Kingdom at War
At first glance, Kingdoms at War looks like another fantasy/medieval strategy game in the same vein as Warlords or Dominus. But if you spend some time with it, you will discover a lot of little details that remind of Interplay's classic Castle and Cinemaware's Defender of the Crown. The plot is simple: unite the various city-states under your banner by fighting against the other five Kings. The game offers six scenarios plus a custom scenario, and is modem playable, though only two players can compete (although the turn-based hot-seat mode supports up to 8 human players). The gameplay will be familiar to strategy veterans: set taxes, hire troops, attack opposing armies, spy on enemies, improve a city's defense, etc. An innovative and fun feature is the wide variety of medieval-style tournaments you can hold, mainly to recruit the best warriors in your land, but also to increase the happiness of the people. Each type of tournament attracts different types of warriors; for example, if you hold an arena tournament, many different pit fighters will appear on your doorstep, as well as orcs, ogres, barbarians or even giants. The game's AI is a bit too predictable, but not bad. Overall, Kingdoms at War is an enjoyable fantasy strategy game that manages to be different enough from other games to be refreshing and interesting. It's a fun, unpretentious little game that can surprise you with solid gameplay and smooth gameplay. In my opinion, it's a top-notch game.
