''Teenagent'' is a 1995

point-and-click Point and click are one of the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse or other pointing device (''click''). An example of point and click is in hypermedi ...

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

developed by

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

developer

Metropolis Software House Metropolis Software was a Polish video game developer founded in 1992 by high school friends Adrian Chmielarz and Grzegorz Miechowski. The studio gained success in Europe with their titles. By the end of 1997, Metropolis had expanded to included ...

. It was released for

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

and

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

. The player controls teenage boy Mark Hopper, who wants to be a secret agent. It was the first game to be released on

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

in Poland.

Plot

Gold is disappearing around Poland. The police agency wants to hire a random person to uncover the reason behind this disappearance - they choose teenage boy Mark Hopper.

Gameplay

The game has three sections: "The Three Tasks", where Mark must prove himself by performing three tasks for the captain of the guards; "The Village", where Mark must wander around a village and gain entry to the mansion owned by the villain causing the gold's disappearance; and "The Mansion", where Mark must put a stop to the villain's plans.

Development

''Metropolis Software's'' contemporaries had begun making games for 8-bit computers, which freed up the market for the company to pursue PC game development without competition. The development team planned for ''Teenagent'' to follow in the footsteps of ''

Tajemnica Statuetki ''Tajemnica Statuetki'' is a Polish-language adventure game developed and published by Metropolis Software House for DOS-based computers in 1993. While it was never released in English, it is known in the English-speaking world as ''The Mystery ...

''s success, being competitive not only in Poland but internationally. To avoid half-measures being taken, graphic designers, animators and testers were hired. The character Mark Hopper was played by developer

Adrian Chmielarz Adrian Chmielarz (born 1971 in Lubin) is a Polish video game designer, programmer, creative director, producer and writer specializing in adventure games and first-person shooters. Chmielarz has co-founded and led Metropolis Software, People Can ...

's younger brother. Game story was inspired by American action comedy film '' If Looks Could Kill'' (1991).

Release

When the game was originally released, "The Three Tasks" was

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...

, and the remaining two sections could be obtained by registering the game, but the game was later released as

freeware Freeware is software, often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the free ...

. ''Teenagent'' was later released on

Good Old Games GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt, based in Warsaw, Poland. GOG.com delivers DRM-free video games through ...

as the milestone 100th game on the site. It is one of thirteen free games available on the site.

Reception

''Teenagent'' won a Silver Award from U.K. magazine ''

PC Format ''PC Format'' was a computer magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future plc, and licensed to other publishers in countries around the world. In publication between 1991 and 2015, it was part of Future plc's ''Format'' series of magazines ...

''. The game's marketing slogan was: "The creators of ''

'' have been silent for over a year. See for yourself why". InnPoland attributes this marketing campaign, which attached its predecessor's quality stamp on the title, to ''Teenagent'' becoming a "breakthrough", while PB.pl thought this slogan "grabbed" the public. The title was considered a significant step forward in quality from its predecessor and stood on its shoulders in terms of its international reach.

Music

The game's music was composed by Polish artist Radek Szamrej, aka RST. In November 2010, video game music community

OverClocked ReMix OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-commercial organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs, both with new technology and software and by vari ...

released a free fan tribute album arranging the game's soundtrack.

References

External links

*
''Teenagent'' at Good Old Games

''Teenagent: The Root of All Evil'' free fan arrangement album at OverClocked ReMix

Review of ''Teenagent''
by Methat, serve
Revival of DOS Games
12.01.2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Teenagent (Computer Game) 1995 video games Adventure games Amiga games DOS games Freeware games Games commercially released with DOSBox Metropolis Software games Point-and-click adventure games ScummVM-supported games Shareware games Single-player video games Spy video games Video games developed in Poland