For those of you too young to remember, these were text adventures where you typed in a command for your character to do something. If the software didn't understand the command, you tried again. Sure, you were limited in the commands the software could understand, but in a way you had more choices than an adventure game of today where you are limited by the commands they give you. There are no 'Easter Egg' replies to discover with today's graphic games like you could find in these. And lemme tell you, some of these programmers actually had a sense of humor. Who knew?
I think the only one of these that I finished was Infidel which was set in a desert and required you to find some kind of treasure in an ancient tomb. However, Zork was maybe the best of the lot. The backstory and storytelling really gave the game a lot of atmosphere. Suspended was a game I never had but the concept was really interesting. From Wikipedia: "Suspended takes a novel approach in its game mechanics; rather than being free to move about and interact with the game world directly, the player's character spends the entire game in a state of suspended animation (hence the title) and can only interact by controlling the actions of a number of robot surrogates. Each robot has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, and describes the same rooms and objects in completely different terms based upon those specializations."
As a side note, Deadline was cool because with the purchase of your game, you received some evidence in the form of pills. Yes, they literally had pills in the game (as seen below in image). I never had the guts to eat them but I'm guessing they were made of sugar or something. Try including something like that in your game today and see how long you can go without a lawsuit being filed against your company because some kid choked on one.
I know you can play these online somewhere and if I somehow find the time to start playing computer games again, I'm gonna go back and finish Zork.
I think the only one of these that I finished was Infidel which was set in a desert and required you to find some kind of treasure in an ancient tomb. However, Zork was maybe the best of the lot. The backstory and storytelling really gave the game a lot of atmosphere. Suspended was a game I never had but the concept was really interesting. From Wikipedia: "Suspended takes a novel approach in its game mechanics; rather than being free to move about and interact with the game world directly, the player's character spends the entire game in a state of suspended animation (hence the title) and can only interact by controlling the actions of a number of robot surrogates. Each robot has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, and describes the same rooms and objects in completely different terms based upon those specializations."
As a side note, Deadline was cool because with the purchase of your game, you received some evidence in the form of pills. Yes, they literally had pills in the game (as seen below in image). I never had the guts to eat them but I'm guessing they were made of sugar or something. Try including something like that in your game today and see how long you can go without a lawsuit being filed against your company because some kid choked on one.
I know you can play these online somewhere and if I somehow find the time to start playing computer games again, I'm gonna go back and finish Zork.
