Remember adventure games?

[Ralif Redhammer]

I played quite a few text based adventure's, but right now can only remember the name of one: 'The Quest for the Golden Eggcup' on the Commodore 64. It perhaps was the only one I actually ever completed. It was a bit of a comical game: I remember that if you cursed, you got transported to a room without windows and sand on the floor. If you dug in the sand you found a note that claimed to have been written by God, and was a warning that you should not curse. If you dug a little deeper you found a latch that you could go through to get transported to the starting location of the game. If you cursed for a second time, you again got transported to the same room, but this time there was no note and no latch. All you could do was start over at that point. I liked the game a lot.

What I did not like so much in text based adventure's in general was the fact that the text based commands you could type were not always recognized by the game engine. For example, you could know what needed to be done to solve a puzzle, but could not find the magic word combination that the developers had come up with to solve it.

Only slightly exaggerating here, but it might have gone somewhat like this:

> You are in a large room, and in the middle stands a table. Upon the table stands a lamp.
$ get lamp
> You can't do that to a lamp
$ take lamp
> You can't do that to a lamp
$ pick up lamp
> You can't do that to a lamp
(slightly frustrated)
$ kick lamp.
> You kick the lamp, which falls over and sets the table, the room, and yourself on fire. You have died. Press 'N' to start over.


Side note: did anyone else here play online MUD's ?

Those textparser games could be rough. I remember getting so frustrated while playing Questprobe Featuring Spider-Man that I couldn't break down a door or go through a window because "Spider-Man is no vandal"

I do fondly remember Infocom's Enchanter, and how it came with all these hand-outs:

 

[Sossij]

Those textparser games could be rough. I remember getting so frustrated while playing Questprobe Featuring Spider-Man that I couldn't break down a door or go through a window because "Spider-Man is no vandal"

I do fondly remember Infocom's Enchanter, and how it came with all these hand-outs:
View attachment 439405

Man, I loved "feelies." I'm not saying every video game should come with in-universe maps and notebooks and magazines and stuff to help you feel immersed but also I am.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Remember trying to figure out how to make progress by calling a hint line? Or trying to track down a guide in a video game magazine?

 

[abazaba]

Those textparser games could be rough. I remember getting so frustrated while playing Questprobe Featuring Spider-Man that I couldn't break down a door or go through a window because "Spider-Man is no vandal"

I do fondly remember Infocom's Enchanter, and how it came with all these hand-outs:
View attachment 439405

Questprobe... That brings back memories of seeing ads in (computer game) magazines for "Questprobe featuring The Hulk". It sounded amazing (I was a big fan of the Hulk), but unfortunately never got to play it. Until now, I never realized it was a series, with also 'featuring Spider-Man' (like you mentioned) and 'featuring Human Torch and Thing' (according to wikipedia).

 

[Whisper-Kitten]

Remember trying to figure out how to make progress by calling a hint line? Or trying to track down a guide in a video game magazine?

So I blew about 100 dollars back when we got our first computer -IBM 486- on star trek the 25th anniversary edition. Mom was none to pleased with young Whisper-Kitten the day that she got the phone bill.

 

[Sossij]

Remember trying to figure out how to make progress by calling a hint line? Or trying to track down a guide in a video game magazine?

Or a fat paperback book with the solutions to the most popular games of the day.

Questprobe... That brings back memories of seeing ads in (computer game) magazines for "Questprobe featuring The Hulk". It sounded amazing (I was a big fan of the Hulk), but unfortunately never got to play it. Until now, I never realized it was a series, with also 'featuring Spider-Man' (like you mentioned) and 'featuring Human Torch and Thing' (according to wikipedia).

I never got far in either of those but I do remember you had to type in insane things to make yourself mad enough to to turn into the Hulk, like "bite lip" or "remember nightmare."

Also, Star Trek 25th Anniversary is legit good fun, as is the follow up, Judgement Rights.

 

[abazaba]

Remember trying to figure out how to make progress by calling a hint line? Or trying to track down a guide in a video game magazine?

I remember reading 'hints' for a specific (text based) adventure game (on the Atari 1040ST ? can't recall), when you could not solve the challenges yourself. The hint did not help though, I still could not solve the challenge. Something about where a wizard gave you an item at the start of the game, but according to the hint the wizard was supposed to give you two things.

 

[Reynard]

I miss the old copy protection tools, like the red cellophane to be able to read codes, or them asking for specific words from page-->paragraph-->sentence.

 

[Whisper-Kitten]

I miss the old copy protection tools, like the red cellophane to be able to read codes, or them asking for specific words from page-->paragraph-->sentence.

Earl Weaver's baseball had a wheel that you had to match things up to get the code on.

 

[Kannik]

What I did not like so much in text based adventure's in general was the fact that the text based commands you could type were not always recognized by the game engine. For example, you could know what needed to be done to solve a puzzle, but could not find the magic word combination that the developers had come up with to solve it.

Och, I remember the end of LSL2. I knew what I needed to do. I knew the inventory items. I knew how to solve the game. But I could not for the life of me type in the exact verbs and nouns to have the game do it. I ended up not finishing the game...

Side note: did anyone else here play online MUD's ?

Mostly MUCKs on my end, and almost the Battletech MUSE, but my university course load was way too high (alas).

I do fondly remember Infocom's Enchanter, and how it came with all these hand-outs:

Oh how I pine for the days of feelies! I still have many of them from back in the day. It's something I have brought to my gaming tables too, I love making and giving out feelies to the players. (Even if it's only to make super thematic and evocative custom character sheets.)