Seabase delta - Wooosh! Beep!

Seabase delta

This was just a brilliant game. It was very atmospheric and I liked the underwater feeling and I loved the fact that it actually had sound effects. It was also one of the first interactive fiction typing games that actually had graphics that made it so immersively captivating, rather than just obligatory pretty pictures.

I really wanted to complete this game and even to this day, I still do and it's one of the few interactive fiction games where the parser is not too difficult, and the puzzles do seem logical compared to other games, which were absolutely nonsensical.

Gateway II: Homeworld - Floppy Version

This was another awesome interactive fiction game. The atmosphere was incredible. Built in maps and animated cut scenes with sound. It also had a graphical user interface, which I applaud their idea, but recently I absolutely deplored the use graphical interfaces because it makes things cluttered and I find the mouse a means to and end, rather than a pleasurable experience.

Anyhow, the graphical user interface boast features such as point and click for directions and objects and also interacting with characters is as simple as selecting the available questions, rather than guessing what sentences the programmers wrote in to the program.

There were two versions, the floppy version came on 4 disks while the CD-rom version had more cut scenes but it also had an official hint book enclosed!

Hobbit - Spectrum Version

This was one of the first games I saw someone play. I must admit, the times I did have a go I was struggling with the parser and always ended up inputing swear words just to see what inventive things it would come out with.

Still, this was a great interactive fiction games because it had graphics to go along with the text. Unfortunately, although it's retro feel does create a great atmosphere, my concentration level was in tuned with today's games and I didn't have enough patience to delve further into this game.

The idea of inputting commands was great at first but when things don't seem to improve or go anywhere, it started to get frustrating to the point that I needed a FAQ. But then with these games, once you see the FAQ, you see the whole game and then there wouldn't be any point in typing out all the instruction. Unless, you were keen to see the rather dated yet charming graphics.

Wishbringer - Interactive Fiction Fun

This was one of the first typing games (interactive fiction) that I played on an old Toshiba laptop. In short the game was about a magic stone which allows you to make wishes. It was great at first, but I kept getting lost and struggled with the parser. I ended up typing swear words just to illicit something from the game, and in the end I gave up.

Still, the game included other unique and interesting things like a book, a map, a useless envelope addressed to the shop in the game and a replica of the magic stone. The latter seems to be broken as I'm still playing gameboys.

It did get me interested in the genre and I especially liked the later games which included pictures or graphics and sometimes they included sound effects.