What is your favourite text adventure?

[BillyHW]

I remember playing a few text adventures back in the day on the C64, but I was a bit too young to really be able to figure out what to do. I'd like to try a few good ones, so I would appreciate it if you could post your favourite games in this genre. (R-rated games okay too, if there are some interesting ones.)

[RodLightning]

Infocom Planetfall is/was my favorite, followed by the Zork series. I eagerly waited for the sequel to Planetfall: Stationfall. That one was pretty good, as sequels go, but I enjoyed the original more.

 

For a while there, I was playing text adventures on my 400 with it's membrane keyboard.

[karokoenig]

Infocom is always a good address to look for when it comes to great text adventures. Just remember that you will be in for some severe old-school punishment when you play the classic adventure games nowadays. Instant death traps without warnings, fights with the parser, dead ends without even knowing you're in them. As much as I am still fascinated by the old text adventure games and their storytelling, I find them hard to play today.

 

But enough of the grim warnings. I guess you're well aware of this anyway. Here is a great resource for anything text adventure related you could wish for:

 

http://www.solutionarchive.com/

 

The "Classic Adventure Solution Archive" (short: CASA) is a project by Jacob Gunness. I know this fine fellow since the late 90s now, and his site is still very active, collecting and preserving data. It has tons of solutions, maps, hints, comments about the various games, even full reviews and a forum where you can play together with other users, get tips etc. I'm sure you will find everything you need there.

[am1933]

Try either Return to Eden or Red Moon (both by Level 9), they are truly great games, Return to Eden is very taxing but still great to play.

[+cvga]

If you want a "starter" text adventure, try one of the Scott Adams adventures. They are short but fun. Mr. Adams is a great guy also!

[Keatah]

OO-TOPOS

[desiv]

My favorite is HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy.

 

But I started with Scot Adam's games. I agree, great starter games.

Also was a fan of Zork (tho never got into the sequels.. Not sure why.. Should do that..).

 

desiv

[carlsson]

I've tried most of the text adventures available for the C64, but never finished either. What makes Infocom and a few more stand out is the parser. As you know, most simple adventures combine one verb and one noun: "take key", "go west", "light torch", while Infocom's parsers are more complex and would let you "hit troll with axe" and other combinations that may make the game more like you're playing against a human game master.

 

There is also the question if you prefer games with or without illustrative graphics. Many of those already mentioned appear to me to be text only, which means they have more room for a good adventure but don't stimulate you visually as much.

 

That said, I believe some more games worth mentioning would be The Hobbit, possibly Twin Kingdom Valley, Valhalla and Eureka! although I don't know how adventure gamers received the latter game with its action elements inbetween the adventure parts.

 

As long as you stay away from things like Dallas Quest, you'd probably retain your sanity.

[VectorGamer]

I play LORD on various BBSes

[ClausB]

I was recently reminded of Wizard's Castle, written at New Dimensions in Computing, the East Lansing computer shop where I worked a couple years later. I remember playing it there on the Exidy Sorcerer.

 

http://derelllicht.com/winwiz.html

[dafivehole]

The first Zork and Cutthroats

[davidmt]

How about Enchanter from Infocom? It was the first game I bought for my Commodore 64.

I also have fond memories of Hitchhikers Guide, and got me into the book series as well. Heck, all of the Infocom games are great.