[Mark Eaton]

Some 25 years ago I loved playing text adventure games. There was something about them that got lost as the years went by.

For me it was the ability to actually stop and think about what I wanted to do. It wasn't a matter of just pressing buttons on a console, but I had to consider how to solve problems intelligently.

I enjoyed them so much that I started writing my own text adventure games on an Amstrad CPC464 using Basic and later my dad followed suit with some great games of his own.

A couple of years ago dad showed me some websites that proved people are still playing these games, which surprised me being in the age of 3D graphics.

I don't spend much recreational time on a computer these days, I'd rather use a smartphone or a tablet due to their convenience.

And that got me thinking.

I searched the Android market and I struggled to find even a handful of text adventure games. So, like some 25 years ago, I wrote one for Android: Moonbase 3.

My dad originally wrote this for the Amstrad CPC6128 back in 1991 and he sold a number in England at that time.

Hopefully now that it is on Android you might want to give it a try yourself.

There's a demo version which is about 20% of the full game but has all the features like:

Different font sizes
Text to speech so that the game can read the text aloud
Speech input to issue your commands
Gestures. You can use an arrowhead to indicate north or south, and swipe to indicate east or west
And, of course, classing text input
It's link is: https://market.android.com/details?id=Moonbase3.demo

If you enjoy that try the full version: https://market.android.com/details?i...base3.Complete

Based on how these games go I'll consider creating more of these old classics.

Let me know what you think.

[Stonez]

I'll give it a look mate. Hope it's successful for you.

[Mark Eaton]

Thanks Stonez. It's targeted to those who love those retro games of 20+ years ago so I'm not quitting my day job :-)

Let me know what you think and feel free to offer suggestions.

[Monolith]

I'm not fond of playing anything text based on smaller phones. Do you know if it is compatible with tablet devices? Anyways, using the mic is a really cool feature.

[Mark Eaton]

Hi Monolith

Yes it is designed for Android tablets as well. I suggest you try the demo first to see if it works well for you.