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No new postsRecommendations for Text Adventures?
Hi everybody.
I’ve been coming to AG for years now when trying to figure out which adventures are worth buying, but I’ve only recently signed up to the forums.
I’m wondering if any of you have any good recommendations for text adventures?
I was born in the late ‘80s and the most text based stuff I ever played was the first King’s/Space quest games. I’m thinking about trying out some of the older text-only adventures but I don’t really know where to start. I’m thinking maybe one of the Zork games?
Any and all suggestions are appreciated 
Reception: Certainly sir, what name shall I make the reservation for?
Gnome: How about you guess my name and if you get it wrong I eat for free?
Reception: Is it Ifnkovhgroghprm?
Ifnkovhgroghprm: Blasted internet walkthroughs!
We played a couple of text adventures as a kind of “community playthrough” here. The four I played as well were pretty good. See “Text Adventure Tangos” for the threads.
Plundered Hearts - Romantic pirate game. Solid.
Spider and Web - Futuristic spy game. Has a *very* clever twist.
Violet - One-room puzzle game. Funny antics.
Anchorhead - Cosmic horror game. As Lovecraftian as you can find.
All good text adventures and good recommendations, imo. Spider and Web in particular for me.
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
I recommend Thaumistry: In Charm’s Way. It is very user friendly with a good hint system, but it’s also very funny.
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” -Bill Watterson
Also another good relatively recent one: hadean lands.
Also another good relatively recent one: hadean lands.
Probably not the best place to start if his only experience with a parser is through Space Quest and King’s Quest.
Not to mention he’s looking for older titles (80s).
Infocom ranks their games based on difficulty: Introductory, Standard, Advanced, Expert.
Although Zork is ranked “Standard” it can be unforgiving. I would recommend starting with Wishbringer (“Introductory”) which is very Zorkian in style, then maybe moving on to Enchanter (“Standard”) if you feel you are ready for more of a challenge. If not, Moonmist and Seastalker are other “Introductory” level games you could try.
Personally I could never get into the Zork games at all. It’s kind of like the King’s Quest of text games. Lots of puzzles, not much in the way of plot or characters.
I had the Infocom collection growing up, and tried all of them. Here’s the ones I enjoyed the most.
Suspect - a murder mystery that takes place during a big costume party with tons of guests and rooms and a real time clock
Deadline - a smaller scale murder mystery that’s quite a bit easier
The Lurking Horror
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - though you’ll get a lot more out of it if you’ve read the books. And even if you have, some of the puzzles are damn near impossible. But it’s cool to be able to interact with that world to any degree.
Legend Entertainment early games
Eric The unready is the easier one but Gateway 1 and 2 is also acessible. Timequest is also great.
Thank you everyone for your ideas.
There are a lot of good recommendations here so that should set me up for a lot of reading going forward.
Ideally I want to start closer to the roots of history so I’ll probably go with Oscar’s Wishbringer/Enchanter ideas for now (and because I read a lot of fantasy)
I might even give the old Zorks a go but I have heard that they can be quite frustrating - which I don’t altogether mind.
Once I get through a few of the classics i’ll probably graduate to “Spider and Web” and “Thaumistry: In Charm’s Way” before I start tackling the other ones. “Eric the Unready” and “Hadean Lands” also look interesting, and I’ve read all of Douglas Adams Hitchikers books so that’s a good idea too.
Thanks a bunch
I’ve had some difficulty getting info about good text adventures online, I think I did the right thing by consulting you guys
Reception: Certainly sir, what name shall I make the reservation for?
Gnome: How about you guess my name and if you get it wrong I eat for free?
Reception: Is it Ifnkovhgroghprm?
Ifnkovhgroghprm: Blasted internet walkthroughs!
If you really want to care about historical value, then you have to play Adventure, the game that gave the genre its name. It’s eerie how much of the gameplay conventions it set out still exist to this day.
(It’s also a compendium of everything that can suck about adventure games and that took decades to be finally eradicated: mazes, dead-ends, time limits, dubious logic, etc.)
Thanks Kurufinwe.
I’ve definitely considered playing it and can really only begin to imagine its significance to the history of gaming. As you say though (and I have heard this before), it seems to have a lot of issues. Of course it was those issues that others learnt from, and that helped to develop the text adventure genre.
But you’re right, and I probably will end up giving it a go after some exposure to less migraine inducing classics.
Reception: Certainly sir, what name shall I make the reservation for?
Gnome: How about you guess my name and if you get it wrong I eat for free?
Reception: Is it Ifnkovhgroghprm?
Ifnkovhgroghprm: Blasted internet walkthroughs!
How about a free one? Check: https://www.rulerofkings.com
Curses!
9:05
Lost Pig
The Art of Misdirection (brilliant horror story)
Bronze
I recommend Thaumistry: In Charm’s Way. It is very user friendly with a good hint system, but it’s also very funny.
I recommend this one too. There’s a free one called The Dreamhold that’s a good tutorial game too. I also think Lost Pig is a good free beginner game.
I know the post was asking for classic games but some of those didn’t seem to do the best job teaching new mechanics and could be unfair which is why I’m maybe a little hesitant to recommend something older even though the writing in the Infocom games are fantastic.
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