h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There are at least a half dozen games where you can throw an axe, weapon, or other object into a body of water and receive gold and silver versions of the item in addition to getting the original back. The phenomenon seems to have been started by the Zelda franchise.

Why? Well, there's a Greek story, you see.

A poor wood cutter accidentally dropped his axe into an endlessly deep lake. Knowing he was doomed without his tool of trade, he dropped to his knees and began to cry. The god Mercury rose from the lake and asked the wood cutter what was wrong.

After hearing the story, Mercury dove down into the lake to help. He came up with a golden axe and asked the wood cutter if it was his. The honest wood cutter said no. Mercury dove down again. After retrieving a silver axe, he received the same answer. Finally he came back with the wood cutter's plain old axe, which the man tearfully and greatfully claimed. Mercury was touched by the man's honesty and his story, so he gave him the golden and silver axes in addition to the original.

When the wood cutter's friend heard the miraculous story, he decided to try it out for himself. He purposefully dropped an axe into the lake and began crying crocodile tears. Sure enough, Mercury emerged with a golden axe and asked the man if it was his. The friend reached for the golden axe and proclaimed it to be his own. This angered Mercury, who had kept an eye on the original wood cutter and now knew well the difference to men between a plain old axe and a golden one. Mercury disappeared with a disapproving frown. The friend's axe was never retrieved.

Tomb Raider has skirted around some of the Greek myths - bulls and minotaurs feature in Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (along with loads about Egyptian myths too).

There is, also, the crazy new game from the "Age of Empires" line. It is called, predictably, "Age of Empires: Age of Mythology." I've heard it is good, but the price has restricted me from acquiring this newest member of the "Empires" series. (I spent all my "computer game" funds on The Age of Kings )

the game Zeus: Master of Olympus also includes quite a few Greek heroes and monsters although the game emphasis is on city-building

Does anyone remember Myth on the Amiga produced by the Bitmap Brothers, it was quite entertaining enough, it was some sort of platform game I think it was based on Greek mythlogy though my memory of the main chartacter had a very strong look of a Roman gladiator so I'm having a few doubts. Also I think Populous carried some heavy references to the Greek Pantheon as well as the pantheons of the other ancient civilisations. They're both worth checking out if you have the facilities at your disposal. Finally in case anyone is interested Age of Mythology mentioned above is also available as a Board Game which is rated very highly by a friend of mine.

The other one on the C64 was "powerplay", using humans, minotaurs and satyrs as it players, kind of like chess, but not.

The Fianl Fantasy series has a Summon/GF called Alexander, though what a giant steam driven robot has to do with the former Greecian ruler, i don't know.

You also tend to get alot of vehicles/space ships named after greek heros and monsters in a large number of Sci-fi games. eg. 'Titan Mechs' in any game featuring giant robots.

- Age of Mythology
- The Settlers (1,2,3,.....)
- Ceaser like games.
- Age of empires
- Atlantis
-............

And all the games where Minotaurs, elfs and Greekly gods are concerned make the rest of the list.

Greek Myth is one of the oldest to be and oldest to persist. Because of that they are what they mean: Myths They call for our imagination, they provoke our I-Whant-to-be-a-hero-wish and so they will always be an inspiration for video games.

Zeus, and especially Poseidon. Great games. Gods can be good or bad, depending on which senario you're playing. They can help you by granting you food, wine, help building temples, slaying monsters, or hinder you by luring your people away, turning them to stone, killing them and knocking down your buildings. Love it!

it's just age of mythology, no empires in it. It's a separate game, and based around mythology, Greek, Norse, and Egyptian.
It's fun.

there was an adventure game released on playstation 1 called "Herc's Adventures".
it came out about the same time as disney's Hercules, and was made by Lucas arts (star wars and all that.)

Herc's Adventures was very different from disney's wussy version. It had a very comical art style, but in fact payed very close attention to a lot of the Greek Myths. There were three playable characters- Herc (or Hercules, the strongest of the three, he actually LOOKED like the hero should have, big shoulders, bushy beard,wearing his lion skin armour andcarrying a big club.)Then there was Jason (A very young Jason, wearing a green tunic, like Link, with a small sword and a sling shot.)and finally, Atalanta (the huntress, she was the fastest of the heroes, had blonde hair, blue tunic, and carried a bow and arrows.)

It was a game for 1-2 players, and your quest was to rescue Persephone, who had been imprisoned in the Underworld by Hades, who sent a bunch of monsters and his every growing army of skeletons to stop you from trying to save Greece from an endless winter.

Other gods included Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Athena and Dionysus- each of these gods sent you on a task to slay a monster or bring back an item. The bosses include Minotaur, Talos, Medusa, Hydra and Cerberus, plus many other creatures like Cyclopes, Stymphalian birds, Lamia snake women, Tree Nymphs, Sea Nymphs, Amazons, Pan, Cassandra, Harpies and Hags.

You could use all kinds of weapons like spears, tridents, bombs, lightning bolts, flame spears, medusa's head, pandora's box...
It got a bit silly in places (Aliens trying to take over Egypt), but it was still fun to play, the graphics visually appealing with jumpy music and brilliant voice acting.

Recommended if you'd like a comedy version of Zelda.