Blogging through 1982 "The Hobbit" game

[vivdunstan]

Good read for Tolkien and retro computer gaming fans: Jason Dyer's "All the Adventures" blog plays through The Hobbit 1982 text adventure / interactive fiction game from Melbourne House.

Comments

[igenlode]

I remember that one! I could never get anywhere with it (or, to be fair, any of the other interactive fiction games of that era -- I had hoped that having some knowledge of the original story might have helped in this case, but it really didn't...)

We were playing the original ZX Spectrum version that didn't, so far as I remember, have the pretty pictures, and as I couldn't get more than a few 'rooms' in any direction it was not a very rewarding activity -- play time was less than the tape loading time :-p Still, the game was second-hand and only cost a few pence, so I just wrote it off to experience.

[vivdunstan]

Glad it brought back memories!

I played it on my C64, and remember getting stuck in the Mirkwood section. So quite far in, but I definitely didn't solve it.

Did your copy of the game come with a copy of the book too? Mine did, though I already had one, having first read it many years previously!

I still write new interactive fiction games myself - there's a very thriving amateur community, since the 1990s especially. It's a bit shocking for old timers when new folks come along who're born in the 2000s! While some of us can remember the days of 8-bit IF games, or even earlier.

[igenlode]

I don't think there was a book included, but since we already had my father's old copy in the house there wouldn't have been any need for one anyway, and it would have gone out to the next jumble sale :-)
But I think the game came in a job-lot and had probably lost its original packaging at an earlier stage.