Download Questprobe Featuring The Hulk

This is the first of the Questprobe adventure games and is set in the world of The Hulk. You play as Dr. Bruce Banner, and as you play the game, it quickly becomes apparent that your task is to collect gems and store them in the correct place. This is not as easy as it sounds, however, as you must overcome many tricky puzzles along the way. You must learn to make the most of Bruce Banner's brains and The Hulk's brawn. For example, you begin the game "tied hand and foot to a chair," with no clue as to how or why you are there. How will you escape from that chair? You can perform simple actions throughout the game, such as checking your inventory (press the "I" key) or checking your score (type "SCORE").

After you escape from the chair, you can explore the rest of The Hulk's world and meet interesting characters such as Ant-Man, Dr. Strange, and the mysterious Chief Examiner. Ultimately, your goal is to find the Biogem and store it in the correct place. I advise you to only pick up the Biogem after all the other gems have been stored correctly; otherwise, the Biogem will be destroyed before the game ends. Can you master Bruce's brains, control Hulk's brawn, and survive to the very end?

The Hulk is a graphical text adventure game that uses a simple text parser to control your character’s actions. The screen consists of a large picture showing your location, with some text underneath describing things in more detail. You can type simple two-word commands, such as "READ SIGN" or "GET GEM." The game also understands simple commands, e.g. "N", "S", "E", "W", "EXAMINE," "LOOK," or "INV," etc. I must mention though, that I occasionally had to type in commands twice before they were accepted. It's a strange little bug, but it doesn't affect gameplay at all.

When you first start the game, you will see a Drive Selection Menu, asking where the game data is stored. Select "0: Programme and Data info all on same disk." At that point, the game starts properly. Like I said earlier, the game has some tricky puzzles, and if you make a mistake, you can easily "die." You don't really die as such, though; you end up in a high-gravity area. Simply go down the stairs (press D) to return to an earlier screen. Nevertheless, I advise you to save your game often. The Hulk has four game slots (A, B, C, and D) which can be overwritten freely.

I love the rich, colorful pictures used for this game. Everything, from Bruce Banner tied to a chair, to the Chief Examiner's office, to your inventory screen, is just wonderful and has excellent details. The alien ants are quite scary, and there are close-up views of some items. On the other hand, all three domes look very similar from the outside, which was a bit disappointing. The dome with ant holes is easy to identify, but the other two are indistinguishable until you actually enter one. A slight variety in the domes would have been nice, but you can't have everything.

Questprobe featuring The Hulk is a very promising start to the Questprobe series, and Scott Adams' notoriously tricky puzzles are very evident. I like that you must use the skills of both Bruce and The Hulk in order to progress. The simple text parser can be a little frustrating at times as you struggle to find the correct words to perform an action, but at the same time, it just adds to the challenge. The graphics are wonderfully detailed, almost as if I was reading a comic. If you are a fan of The Hulk, or if you like a good challenge, then you will enjoy this game.

You need DOSBox to play this game. Use the HULK batch file to start the game with graphics as well as text, or use START.EXE if you just want text. I highly recommend the graphics, since the pictures are a visual treat.

Part of the Questprobe Series