Dare to Dream (1993)
Genres:Adventure
Themes:Fantasy
Game modes:Single player
Story:An adventure game about a boy who gets trapped in his own dreamworld. Developed by Cliff Bleszinski and was his first game for Epic.
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Dare to Dream is a three part point and click adventure game, designed and created by Cliff Blezinski and published by Epic Megagames through shareware format in 1993. Cliff's second game (after Palace of Deceit: The Dragon's Plight - another fairly simple point and click adventure, which itself was remake of his text adventure - Palace of Deceit: The Secret of Castle Lockemoer on MS-DOS), it is a charming if fairly simple journey through the dreamscapes of a ten year old boy, as he meets strange characters and solves various puzzles to seek out answers to his comprehension of the world around him while episode by episode the tone shifts to be ever darker.
Now, the episodic nature of Dare to Dream actually led to retail releases of the individual episodes in big box format. I actually own Episode 3 in it's big box format which I purchased when I was much younger, playing through with barely a thought to the Episodes that preceded it. It was only years later when i went looking for the earlier episodes that I discovered pictures of the box for Episode 2, and played through it, then tracking down and playing through Episode 1.
Overall while simplistic in puzzles and plot, with it's Microsoft paint style of graphics, the trilogy is still a weird but enjoyable and charming journey through an early example of point and click adventure games on PC.
While both versions of Palace of Deceit have been released as freeware, Dare to Dream (to my knowledge) has not, but both games are still trapped on the long defunct 16-bit Windows 3.1 operating system, an operating system only really usable by installing it on DOSBox or PC-em these days. While not having a particularly large list of games, Windows 3.1 imprisons a few real gems from gaming's past (Dare to Dream, Castle of the Winds, Operation Inner Space etc.)
If GOG could truly dig out the treasures from the Windows 3.1 prison, every game saved would be boon for the preservation of these long lost Good Old Games.
This game was one of several "Epic Megagames" sharewares that really triggered the imagination - way before it was well known for Unreal Engine and Fortnite (and the Epic Store).
The artstyle looked hand drawn using lines in MSPaint, and I loved it. Plus the entire GUI was basically just MS Windows 3.1 buttons and windows.
The first adventure game I ever played right after I got my first PC in 1996.
Tyler Norris has lost his father and is dealing with the pain the only way he knows how: by going into his dreams and destroying the nightmare at the source.
The graphics are laughable by today's standards, but in the early 90s it was all computers were capable of. It represents a transition period between text-based and graphical adventure games. The sparse graphics are supplemented by written description.
I remember playing all three episodes of this when I was a kid. It freaked me out. The first episode is short and weird. The second is complex and happy. The third, however, is downright creepy.
The puzzles are largely inventory-based, but there aren't any "hidden" objects. Everything you need is out in the open; you just have to pick it up. There are some great "leaps of logic" puzzles, like the fishtail in the keyhole. Then there is the dream logic insight in episode 2's daisy puzzle. I'm very proud to have figured it out, and I did it before there was an internet to search for walkthroughs.
I blame this game for making me fall in love with the adventure game. It led me to Myst, among many others.
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