Have you ever completed a text adventure?

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Ralf
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by Ralf »

Speaking of menu driven games I recall there is also Spanish game called Aventura Espacial which seems to have some nice menu system:

Image

Due to my non existing Spanish language skill I am not able to play it but it seems quite friendly. It's a shame that more Spectrum games didn't use similar interface.
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by Wall_Axe »

R-Tape wrote: Thu Dec 21, 2017 7:56 am
Wall_Axe wrote: Tue Dec 19, 2017 11:44 pm tried one about a computer convention, couldnt get very far even though i really tried!
Which text adventure was that?
This one:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=6788
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R-Tape
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by R-Tape »

Wall_Axe wrote: Thu Dec 21, 2017 8:16 pm This one:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=6788
Cheers, funnily enough Gareth Pitchford's book is on my xmas reading list.
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Uto
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by Uto »

Ralf wrote: Thu Dec 21, 2017 3:42 pm Speaking of menu driven games I recall there is also Spanish game called Aventura Espacial which seems to have some nice menu system:

Image

Due to my non existing Spanish language skill I am not able to play it but it seems quite friendly. It's a shame that more Spectrum games didn't use similar interface.
In fact it was a complete failure as those menu options are words but it also included some kind of acronyms nobody could remember. Recently it got a classic parser style remake and original author said something in a retro fair in Spain like “thank you for fixing my game”.

Anyway it was a good idea (make it easier for player) but awfuly Implemented.
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by Wall_Axe »

ohh i'll probably read that sometime, even though i missed these adventures cos i was playing megadrive

the menu driven games look really awesome in the screenshots
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by Nomad »

The only text adventure I completed on the spectrum was The Hobbit. But I grinded that for the better part of 3 years. At that time I didn't know the strategy guide existed - If i had access to that back in the day it would have made things a whole bunch easer. But honestly today you can just use the game walk through online and avoid a lot of frustration. Plus the walkthrough is a lot more comprehensive than the strategy guide was.

That said I think a lot of the value of the text adventures was one could last you months/years and the satisfaction that you get from finally completing the game is just on a different level vs using a walkthrough.

For the PC I completed Seastalker (Infocom), Deadline (Infocom) and The Witness (Infocom). These took me 5 weeks for Seastalker (its one of the easiest of all the infocom games, to about 18 months for Deadline and 10-11 months for The Witness. Infidel (infocom) is one that I would like to complete when I get time.
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by Wall_Axe »

So do you think just going into the hobbit without a walkthru is too frustrating and obscure?
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by Nomad »

Wall_Axe wrote: Fri Dec 29, 2017 3:57 am So do you think just going into the hobbit without a walkthru is too frustrating and obscure?
Try it first without a walk through, when you hit the wall, then consult the hint book/strategy guide.

http://www.mocagh.org/tolkien/hobbit-hintbook.pdf

You get the help and hints, but if you want the straight answer they have encoded it in the guide so not to spoil it with casual reading. It is a nice book, and I wish I had this when I was playing as a kid it would have saved a lot of time.

If you still can't get over a problem then take a look at the walk through/the coded answers in the strategy guide.

Make a map, (or there are now some excellent maps of the hobbit on line but I think its better to make your own...) keep a note book for the game so you can record your strategy, ideas. That was a big part of the fun of doing those sort of games back in the day was mapping and working out how the thing worked.

Hobbit is a great game, it has its share of bugs and weirdness but it adds to the charm.

Looking back its a fairly small game world, but what they managed to put into it is stunning for the time. The programming skills that went into that were on another level for the time.

But part of the fun of playing text adventures is playing them how they were intended to be experienced - well, it is like a context thing. At the time the graphics were stunning, the way that the various NPCs would seemingly behave in a non-scripted way. So even if you had a system - you sometimes had situations where Gandalf or Thorin would do something totally mental/infuriating that borks the game.

Considering how much the game cost at launch people expected to spend a significant amount of time to get bang for the buck. With a walk through you can complete the whole game in one sitting. Part of the fun is figuring out how to overcome the puzzles on your jim jones.

What I am trying to say is if you want to play it as it was intended then don't use the walk through until your contemplating calling the Samaritans listening to U2 in a bathtub. There again, if you are limited for time to invest in a text adventure from the early 80s no harm from using the walk through.

Infocom games were much harsher and cryptic by comparison, there was no way I could have finished all but the easiest of them without the hint book.
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Mike Davies
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by Mike Davies »

Not many adventures made it as far as Pretoria back in the day. I remember playing a text adventure -- I thought it was Jack the Ripper or Dracula, it had Gothic type of font, where it (or maybe a specific part of it) -- started at a railway station, and you had to cross the bridge to the other platform to catch the correct train into London, otherwise the game ends, on a train going the wrong direction, with an encounter with a train conductor. -- Can someone tell me which adventure that was?

Sinclair User Megatape 13 introduced me to Escape, turns out to be by Tartan software (who had a 2-part type in listing for Adventure Builder System, as I recall, T.D.Frost). That's the first adventure I got stuck into and managed to solve on my own. Took me 2 or 3 days. It's silly word-play: shaking the calendar and the dates fall off, you pick them up and eat them. (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=6259)

Ah, and that Zenobi one-room text adventure "Behind Closed Doors" that appeared on Megatape 15. Only those two adventures I've completed by myself.

Recently, I spent a few hours toiling with the Atari ST version of Level 9's Lords of Time, and now I've successfully got a Gotek working, maybe I want to get stuck into Magnetic Scrolls' The Pawn.
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by Wall_Axe »

thanks nomad, i'll try that approach
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R-Tape
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by R-Tape »

Mike Davies wrote: Fri Dec 29, 2017 3:08 pm Not many adventures made it as far as Pretoria back in the day. I remember playing a text adventure -- I thought it was Jack the Ripper or Dracula, it had Gothic type of font, where it (or maybe a specific part of it) -- started at a railway station, and you had to cross the bridge to the other platform to catch the correct train into London, otherwise the game ends, on a train going the wrong direction, with an encounter with a train conductor. -- Can someone tell me which adventure that was?
Does anyone know this? It's bothering me more than it is Mike!
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stupidget
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by stupidget »

I seem to remember getting pretty close to completing The Hobbit. I killed the dragon, but, never managed to get back to the start.

I did finish Bored of The Rings but I think that was with some help from Crash magazine.

The only game I know finished without any guides (or brownies :lol: ) was Mansion Adventure on my Dragon 32. I remember my parents staying up until stupid o'clock in the morning trying to get off the first screen. You had to 'prise open door' with an iron bar you found. After that it was pretty easy.

This is a good site if you want to find any solutions:

http://www.solutionarchive.com/game/id% ... nsion.html
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R-Tape
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by R-Tape »

I was in the mood for a text adventure and picked one at random that looked interesting.

Beneath Folly by the aptly named 'The Fiend'. After an hour's play I managed to complete the first 3 bits but I couldn't step outside the Pentagram, which is where you start. As usual I gave in and looked at the solution.

The command I was looking for was:
Spoiler
THROW NOTHING
:roll:
In its defence it gives a veiled hint after about 30 commands "the answer is in your hands" but I'm not sure if I would ever have got it. Maybe after an entire weekend, but I wouldn't even have done that BITD (mainly because my Speccy would overheat).
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by Kweepa »

I looked over the solution there...
Spoiler
throw truth
!?

I've completed several Infocom adventures (among them Planetfall, Stationfall, Leather Goddesses of Phobos, Enchanter, Sorcerer, Nord and Bert, Trinity). Some of these were at college with a couple of friends sitting around the keyboard. Good times.
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R-Tape
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by R-Tape »

Ridiculous! There's plenty more like that too, 'think door' for example. Even Sinclair User described it as tricky so we can take as read that it's bleeding impossible.

I like the idea and presentation but I can't imagine enjoying it. If I did eventually guess one of these I don't know if I would be elated or annoyed.
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by Vampyre »

I was quite into text adventures back in the day and completed several. Off the top of my head:

Invincible Island
The Hobbit
Rigel's Revenge
Seabase Delta
The Price of Magik
Heavy on the Magick (despite the moving graphics, it is really a text adventure)
Scapeghost (probably my all-time fave - Level 9's swansong)
The Eye of Bain
Fish! (was probably the ST version, not the Speccy)

And a load of others, mostly Quilled budget adventures, that I can't remember at the moment.
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stupidget
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by stupidget »

I loved text adventures when I was kid and used to play them with my parents. Before our beloved Speccy we had a Dragon 32 and we completed a few adventures on that beige beauty.

These are the ones we'd completed on the Dragon:

Adventure 1 - Mansion - Dragon 32
Adventure 2 or 3 - Jerusalem
There was one we completed and all I remember was that the devil was in it!!

As my mother had been a typist for years she was great at typing in games. I remember we had a book of Adventure Type-ins some of which were just bizarre.

There was only one other kid by me who had a Dragon and he was a fat spoiled little barrel of a wanker and he copied some crappy game for me, but, recorded over all the games my mum had typed in. To say she was gutted is an understatement.

With regards to Speccy Adventures:

The Hobbit (with help from my folks again)
Terrors of Trantos. This was a great adventure where you had to split between to characters.
Seabase Delta

Rather disappointingly that's it!!! I used to spend ages playing adventure games and desperately wanted to complete more, such as LOTR, Shadows of Mordor, Se-Kaa of Assiah and Sherlock. If only we'd had the internet and The Tipshop back in the day :-)
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by g0blinish »

As I remember - Emerald Isle/Level 9 before I adopted for trdos.
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by ANDREWRYALS »

Finished over 200 in the day. I used to write to Mike Gerrard every month and he used to reply back!!!
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by WIWC »

I wanted very much to be a good adventurer. But I've never been one. Basically because I'm too stupid.

I surely completed Scott Douglas's Pirate Adventure a.k.a. Pirate's Cove.

Maybe one or two more.
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by Hank Scorpio »

Games I have completed, from what I can remember:
Hampstead
Subsunk
Seabase Delta
Ralf
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by Ralf »

I completed two Russian text games for Rzx Archive recently. You can check them there as recent additions:

- Svyatogor the Bogatyr and Karachun the Sorcerer
- Examination Investigation

They are, as I said, in Russian so you won't enjoy the story but still you can watch some nice graphics.
I didn't have any solution but somehow I was determined. Quite unsual in these days when finding a motivation for
anything Spectrum related is becoming harder and harder ;)

They were quite difficult. Eventually I used some debugging and code analysis to complete them. The first thing was to check all the action verbs and messages. Cheating? Rather making it a fair game ;)
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Re: Have you ever completed a text adventure?

Post by Wall_Axe »

hampstead was a weird one, I felt like it was made for adults and i was about 9..so the humour flew over my head.

I think the instructions hinted that you should wait outside of a restaurant to make it look like you own it, but at the time i didnt know what it meant.
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