Mystery Fun House (video game)

Last updated
Mystery Fun House
177448-mystery-fun-house-trs-80-front-cover - Copy.jpg
Developer(s) Adventure International
Publisher(s) Adventure International
Designer(s) Scott Adams
Series Adventure
Platform(s) Apple II, Atari 8-bit, PET, TRS-80, VIC-20, TI-99/4A, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Dragon 32/64
Release1979
Genre(s) Interactive fiction

Mystery Fun House is a text adventure game written by Scott Adams, "Adventure 7" in the series released by Adventure International. [1] The player explores a fun house explore to locate a set of secret plans, solving puzzles along the way. [2] Mystery Fun House was produced in only one week [3] and was among the most difficult games in the series. [4]

Contents

A ZX Spectrum version was planned but never released. [5]

Gameplay

Gameplay involves moving from location to location, picking up any objects found there, and using them somewhere else to unlock puzzles. Commands took the form of verb and noun, e.g. "Take Wrench". Movement from location to location was limited to North, South, East, West, Up and Down.

The player of this game must navigate through a maze [6] and a shooting gallery, charm a mermaid, [7] and turn off a steam calliope that is so loud the player's instructions are misunderstood – a reference to the "Loud Room" in Zork I . [8] In one room is a trampoline that the player can enter, deposit items, and then exit. The player can then carry the trampoline around, regardless of how much it is holding, thus extending one's carrying capacity indefinitely. Violent solutions to puzzles are discouraged by a gameplay feature which sees the player character ejected from the fun house by a bouncer whenever certain commands are typed. [8]

Reception

Electronic Games in 1981 warned against beginners to adventure games playing Mystery Fun House because of the difficulty, but stated that for others it "should provide a rousing good time". [9]

Legacy

Mystery Fun House was among a number of classic Scott Adams adventures made available for free download by non-profit gaming organisation Infinite Frontiers in 2003. [10] It was also included as part of magnussoft's C64 Classix compilation for Windows and Mac CD-ROM. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puzzle video game</span> Video game genre

Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion. Many puzzle games involve a real-time element and require quick thinking, such as Tetris (1985) and Lemmings (1991).

Magnetic Scrolls was a British video game developer active between 1984 and 1990. A pioneer of audiovisually elaborate text adventure games, it was one of the two largest and most acclaimed interactive fiction developers of the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Adams (game designer)</span> American game designer

Scott Adams is an American entrepreneur, computer programmer, and video game designer. He co-founded, with ex-wife Alexis, Adventure International in 1979. The company developed and published video games for home computers. The cornerstone products of Adventure International in its early years were the Adventure series of text adventures written by Adams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Action-adventure game</span> Video game genre

An action-adventure game is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres.

<i>Cabbage Patch Kids: Adventures in the Park</i> 1984 action/platform video game

Cabbage Patch Kids: Adventures in the Park is a 1984 action/platform game based on the Cabbage Patch Kids franchise. It is the first and only game in the Cabbage Patch Kids Adventures series.

<i>Colossal Adventure</i> 1982 video game

Colossal Adventure is a text based adventure game published by Level 9 Computing in 1982. It was originally released for the Nascom.

<i>Mercenary</i> (video game) 1985 video game

Mercenary is a 3D action-adventure game written for the Atari 8-bit family and published by Novagen Software in 1985. It was converted to the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Amiga and Commodore 16/116/Plus/4 platforms. The game uses vector graphics renderings of vast, sparse environments and has open-ended gameplay. It was also released as Mercenary: Escape from Targ and Mercenary: A Flight Simulator Adventure.

<i>Moonmist</i> 1986 video game

Moonmist is an interactive fiction computer game written by Stu Galley and Jim Lawrence and published by Infocom in 1986. The game was released simultaneously for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, TRS-80, TI-99/4A, and Macintosh. It is Infocom's twenty-second game. Moonmist was re-released in Infocom's 1995 compilation The Mystery Collection, as well as the 1996 compilation Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces.

<i>Pirate Adventure</i> 1979 video game

Pirate Adventure is a text adventure program written by Scott Adams.

<i>Myth: History in the Making</i> 1989 video game

Myth: History in the Making is a 2D platform game developed and published by British publishing house System 3 for the Commodore 64, Amiga, Amiga CD32, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum. It was also released on the NES as Conan: The Mysteries of Time. It was officially announced for Atari ST and a preview version was available, but the full version was never released.

<i>Tutankham</i> 1982 video game

Tutankham is a 1982 arcade video game developed and released by Konami and released by Stern in North America. Named after the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, the game combines a maze shoot 'em up with light puzzle-solving elements. It debuted at the European ATE and IMA amusement shows in January 1982, before releasing worldwide in Summer 1982. The game was a critical and commercial success and was ported to home systems by Parker Brothers.

<i>Strange Odyssey</i> 1979 video game

Strange Odyssey is a text adventure written by Scott Adams and Neil Broome.

<i>Conan: The Mysteries of Time</i> 1991 video game

Conan is a side-scrolling action video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System released in 1991. It was developed and published by Mindscape. While it features the Conan the Barbarian character, it is a simple adaptation of a computer game called Myth: History in the Making, which was developed by System 3.

<i>Questprobe featuring The Hulk</i> 1984 video game

Questprobe featuring The Hulk is a 1984 graphic adventure video game developed and published by Adventure International in collaboration with Marvel Comics. It is the first entry in Questprobe, an intended series of graphic adventure games that only released three installments before the developer's bankruptcy. The game's narrative follows the Marvel superhero Hulk and his human alter-ego Bruce Banner, who must explore the mysterious lair of the Chief Examiner. The graphics and story outline were created by Marvel artists and writers. Critical reception was generally positive, with much of the praise going to the visuals. Reactions to the gameplay were mixed, especially upon the game's budget re-release, by which time it was considered dated.

<i>Knight Orc</i> 1987 video game

Knight Orc is a text adventure game, with limited graphics on some platforms, by Level 9 released in 1987. It comes with a short novella by Peter McBride explaining the background to the story.

An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media, such as literature and film, encompassing a wide variety of genres. Most adventure games are designed for a single player, since the emphasis on story and character makes multiplayer design difficult. Colossal Cave Adventure is identified as the first such adventure game, first released in 1976, while other notable adventure game series include Zork, King's Quest, Monkey Island, Syberia, and Myst.

<i>Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Osborne House</i> 2010 video game

Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Osborne House is an adventure video game for the Nintendo DS handheld game console by Frogwares. It is the first in the Sherlock Holmes series to be made specifically for the DS.

<i>Hugo II, Whodunit?</i> 1991 video game

Hugo II, Whodunit? is a parser-based adventure game designed by independent software developer David P. Gray and published as shareware by Gray Design Associates in 1991. It is the sequel to 1990's Hugo's House of Horrors, and it was followed by Hugo III, Jungle of Doom! in 1992.

<i>Capri</i> (series) Computer adventure game

A Quiet Weekend in Capri is an adventure game in the Capri series by Italian developers Silvio and Gey Savarese, consisting of a navigable slideshow of screens a la Myst.

<i>Santa Fe Mysteries: The Elk Moon Murder</i> 1996 video game

Santa Fe Mysteries: The Elk Moon Murder is a video game, the first in the Santa Fe Mysteries series, followed by Santa Fe Mysteries: Sacred Ground. In The Elk Moon Murder, a famous Native American artist named Anna Elk Moon is murdered in the American Southwest.

References

  1. "Mystery Fun House". MobyGames. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  2. Scoleri III, Joseph. "Adventure 7: Mystery Fun House". allgame. All Media Guide. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  3. Francis, Garry (July–August 1985). "Behind the Scenes". New Atari User (16): 20. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  4. Francis, Garry (July–August 1984). "Scott Adams' Adventureland". New Atari User (10): 10. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  5. "Mystery Fun House". World of Spectrum. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  6. Griffin, Brad (March–April 1983). "Scott Adams Adventures 1–12". ANALOG Computing (10).
  7. Matthews, Ken (December 1984). "Scott Adams' Classic Adventures: Mystery Funhouse". Micro Adventurer. No. 14. London: Sunshine Publications. p. 19. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  8. 1 2 "Scott Adams Text Adventure Games: Mystery Fun House". Malinche Entertainment. Malinche Entertainment Corp. Archived from the original on 2008-05-30. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  9. "Computer Playland". Electronic Games. January 1981. p. 61. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  10. Walkland, Nick (2003-06-12). "Classic Scott Adams Adventures for free". Computer and Video Games. Future Publishing. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  11. "C64 Classix". MobyGames. Retrieved 2008-07-22.