More Capsule Reviews

Just a few brief comments on some games that were labeled as “mysteries”:

1980, “Time Traveler,” Apple II

It’s understandable why someone making a text adventure in 1980 would want to put a treasure hunt front and center. All the most successful and influential games had them–Colossal Cave, Zork, Adventureland. Those games are iconic. Treasure hunts aren’t so bad, but it’s insufficient to be of much interest on its own. This particular game has a time travel theme. It boasts that players can travel to 14 different moments in time, but each era is much like the last with only the names changed and nearly every other detail with untouched, generic text. There are more bland treasure hunts to come and I’ll be brief with them.

1981, “Grungy Towers,” Commodore

Another Clue-like game where the story is different each time and deduction and process of elimination is key. Again, I get why people make games like this. If anything, games were even more expensive in this era than they are now, and a game you can only play once is less appealing. Clue, or more properly Cluedo, has been bemusing gamers since the forties. An officially licensed Clue game wouldn’t appear until 1989. The market was wide open. Much like the above, games like this aren’t really the point of this blog, but I want to give the category a full accounting.

1981, “Russki Duck,” Apple II

The cover art for this one makes it look way more fun than it actually is. You’re apparently a CIA agent trying to recover a duck-shaped McGuffin. I was hoping for more of a “Howard the Duck” situation. Anyway, this is an action game, the story isn’t the point. Hopefully the graphics also weren’t the point, because they’re painfully primitive. Can’t recommend it.

1981, “The Secret of Flagstone Manor,” TRS-80

You’d be forgiven for thinking this was another installment in Scott Adams’ trademark series of adventures because it looks and behaves exactly like a Scott Adams game. (Blogger Renga in Blue clarifies that the code itself is not copied directly, just the look.) I can’t say as I recommend any Scott Adams game for players in 2024, but when it’s 1981 and you’re starving, a crust of bread looks like a feast. Even that only takes you so far–after you’ve played something from Infocom a Scott Adams game looks pathetic in comparison. Even after Infocom, there was room for innovation. Text adventures produced by amateurs in this day and age are expected to have a depth of implementation and quality-of-life features that were out of reach in the era of the commercial text game. Five minutes into this game I was brutally killed by a seemingly inanimate suit of armor when I tried to take its ax. It’s situations like these where I’m glad that dying counts as the end of a playthrough and I can move on with my life.