Return of Heracles

The Return of Heracles is an adventure game for the Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64 and Apple II computers, originally written by Stuart Smith and published by Quality Software in 1983. Built on an engine that was a precursor to Adventure Construction Set, The Return of Heracles is set in the age of Greek myth and allows the player to assume the role of one or more heroes and attempt various quests.

The game has also been sold under the name The Return of Herakles; it was also bundled with another adventure game of Smith's, Ali-Baba and the Forty Thieves, in a compilation called Age of Adventure, published by Electronic Arts.

The game allows you to play any of the following heroes from Greek myth. You may play more than one hero at once, but since the game awards bonuses if you complete a quest in less than 200 turns, having multiple heroes in play at once makes it harder to earn such bonuses.

It is also possible to find other characters that will join the player's hero or group of heroes. The player gains three Spartes after killing the Serpent of Ares for example.

A few of the heroic characters have unique abilities or specifics, listed below:

The selected hero(es) are given twelve tasks to complete (many of which overlap with the Twelve Labors of Heracles). They may be done in any order, although if you visit the Oracle of Zeus twice without completing the task assigned during the first visit, Zeus will only assign a new task after seriously wounding your hero with a lightning bolt. After most quests, you gain some sort of tangible benefit for the hero who completes it.

Two of these quests require that another quest be completed first. You cannot attempt to solve the Riddle of the Sphinx until after you build the city of Thebes, and you cannot attempt to rescue Penelope until after you have rescued Helen.

While Greek myth speaks of a specific hero (or group of heroes) completing each of these quests, the game allows any hero to complete any quest.

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Wikipedia