Very old computer games from the ole aol floppy disk days

When I got my first computer (before the internet but after all the real geeks got theirs) there were these freeware or maybe donationware games that you’d get on floppies for no reason. I think they may have been made by Solo (try searching for that on Google) or something close to that. I remember the mouse on hay bails, a castle with countless rooms, a balloon rescue thingy. . …
There was also a secret agent game I got from a friend on a floppy. The graphics were better than the mouse-on-bails game. You played a secret agent who went from room to room getting keys and such. The game may very well have been called Secret agent (try searching for that on Google).

Is this ringing a bell with any of you old timers?

Elevator Action?

Do you remember what system this was on?

Spy vs. Spy?

These were all DOS games. For PCs.

Sounds familiar to me–I played this, or something like it, on the Apple IIc. It looked like it was set in a hotel, and there was lots of perfect-arc slow jumps over bad guys. I don’t remember if there was any shooting you could do in the game, mostly it was just a jump around and time movements kind of game. With elevators, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t elevator action. Each screen represented a separate room, I think: not a side-scroller, since it didn’t scroll. Is that what you’re talking about?

Lock and chase?

That’s got to be Impossible Mission. “Stay a while, stay forever.”

Your OP rang a bell about a spy finding keys but that game was never released for the IBM/clone market.

That’s what I was thinking as well.

Archive.org recently put a crapload of old DOS games up on their site with in-browser emulation. They don’t have Impossible Mission as best I can tell, but they do have Impossible Mission II. Check it out!

But, if you value your ears, turn off the sound. Javascript is still horribly inconsistent with generated sound.

I was thinking the spy game might be Covert Action, from 1990.

Two days of googling Castle games DOS and Balloon Game DOS, Balloon Challenge turned up. Soleau Software is the company I was thinking of.

The other game isn’t Impossible Mission. It was actually called Secret agent. The lesson we should take away from this is: Change up your google search terms by adding more and more specific identifiers.

This thread has shown me that only I remember these games. How 'bout the next generation of these games? Secret agent lead me directly to Hocus Pocus. Does anyone remember that game?

P.S., the capital ‘a’ does not work on my keyboard allavasudden. Weird.

I think your secret agent may have been Liesure Suit Larry. It was an R (today would be PG) rated game and I wasted a lot of time laughing at his ridiculous predicaments. Now one I’ve been looking for. When AOL had Slingo, there was another game that was a Match something or other. It was matching words and trivia like synomyms in vocabulary or people with something in common - great trivia game and I’d love to play it again. Does that ring any bells with anyone?

The “secret agent” might also have been Hostages.

It would help if we knew exactly which year you started. The earliest “castle with countless rooms” that I remember was “Castle Adventure”. ASCII characters were used for enemies, items, and walls.

I’d think that if she were talking about Leisure Suit Larry then the description would be… a bit… more descriptive! I don’t remember keys per se unless you mean items. And wouldn’t be PG - don’t remember many kids movies using condoms or blow up dolls.

How about “Shamus”?

Post #14, guys, for the secret agent game. It was called “Secret Agent.”