Fun with some text-games

#1

I seem to have stumbled across some textual game links recently.

For one, here’s a 10-line Basic adventure for the ZX81, being ported to VIC20 and to the Zork Implementation Language…

And for another, some people on Mastodon have been enjoying a simultaneous play of Oregon Trail, the famous semi-graphical Apple II game (play online here). After which, FiXato posts this:

Those who have played and/or love the #OregonTrail, might also enjoy watching the #ClassicGamePostMortem about it as given by one of its creators, #DonRawitz, during the #GameDevelopersConference of #2017:

It discusses both the #boardGame and #mainframe origins (if my memory serves me well).

Myself, I haven’t played that particular text simulation. I don’t seem to have the patience for strategy. But I remember a game on Acorn’s Beeb: UK PM (which I perhaps confused with Great Britain Ltd).

And then, there’s the classic Hammurabi/Hamurabi, seen here in playable-online form for the PC, but seen very early on in David H. Ahl’s 1978 book BASIC Computer Games (aka 101 BASIC Computer Games).

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#2

I think I might be the only person in the world who hasn’t played Oregon Trail.

It’s funny though. There’s a local Improv Troupe that wrote a live action comedy play of it. I suppose I need to play the game before I see it, so I get the inside jokes.

#3

Here’s the “10 Line Adventure” port for the VIC 20 running on an emulated PET (you’ve still to type “RUN” to start the game, but you may want to try “LIST” as well):

https://www.masswerk.at/pet/?load=10LineAdventure.d64/10%20LINE%20ADV&asBasic=true

And here’s a load-and-run link, in case you wouldn’t be bothered to type “RUN” – but, why would you then want to try a text adventure at all? :slight_smile:
https://www.masswerk.at/pet/?run=10LineAdventure.d64/10%20LINE%20ADV&asBasic=true

(I posted this in a comment to Robin Harbron’s video, but, of course, it won’t show up because of the external link.)

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#4

I was hoping for some mention of the Eamon series, but I guess it was an American/Apple II thing. I must have had around 30 different adventures.

#5

I don’t recall playing it either.

Of course, this may be due to me being a kid in Malaysia in the 8-bit computing days, and not really seeing the relevance of the Oregon Trail to me. :slight_smile:

#6

May I join the Never-Went-Along-The-Oregon-Trail club? That, is, I eventually came across it on the Mac, and then I understood that it was a thing on the Mac because it had been a thing on the Apple II. I guess, the popularity of Oregon Trail is much connected to its ties to the US educational system (when, internationally, computers in schools were still rare).

That said, I’ve to confess, I’ve never hunted a Wumpus, as well…
(Oh no, the place is entirely infested by wumpuses – and it’s all my fault!)

#7

That’s a new one for me. Here’s a quick look:

Eamon, (AKA The Wonderful World of Eamon) was one of the earliest role-playing games available for the Apple II. It was also perhaps the first ever adventure game construction set.

I’ve never played Oregon Trail - perhaps almost no-one has - but I suspect I heard of it in the pages of BYTE, and picked up on the idea that it was culturally important. (If, in some versions, culturally insensitive.)

I come from the land of Beeb, where we had the likes of Philosopher’s Quest, Countdown to Doom. I see these were as late as 1987.

#8

Good thing I can list because I have no chance otherwise. I can now win. But I don’t know how to lose! (Edit: OK, now I can lose too!)