Want to play some nice classic game? Play Acheton, Text-based / Spreadsheet perspective game, from the famous developer Topologika Software, released in the year 1987, by clicking here.
Vintage fully text adventure, which was once called the - attention! - almost no competitor Zork'and, noting that his world externally (no matter how ambiguous it may sound in relation to such games) is similar to the Great Underground Empire, much larger in size. This, incidentally, is something true - that's just arguing with commercials, size doesn't always matter, so Zork many still remember, and Acheton, not raised in the series, does not remember almost none.
The plot worked out obscenities: we play, presumably for the stereotypical adventurer in a fantasy world, who decides to go into a huge maze of mines, the entrance to which is located in the deep woods near the abandoned farm. The scale is really impressive - hundreds of locations and hundreds of items, many mysteries and many dangers. The ultimate goal is to find treasures, not that kind of highest magical knowledge (if you believe the back cover of the game).
The name of the location in which you are, is always recorded in the special line at the very top of the screen. The interface is built for the manual entry of commands, consisting mainly of action verb (look, take, and so on) and a noun, but sometimes somewhat more advanced, including some nouns and any auxiliary parts of speech; the number of recognizable words and constructions more or less significant, and the game is familiar with the concept of synonyms for successful completion of an action choice, sometimes two or even three different verbs.
The level of development of the texts can be assessed as "above average", but you can even higher: they can hardly be called ornate (on the other hand - that can be very much detail to describe in the caves?), but they are quite informative. There are in-game help system is invoked by the Help command, but the tooltip is not to solve each puzzle. To view the contents of your inventory, use the command Inv. The world of mines of Aketon very dangerous and cruel - there are many traps and hostile creatures, as well as a great many variants of death sometimes has a very high probability of occurrence in the case of incorrect actions. In one of the reviews noted that the game can give a prize for the most unusual death in IF - if in one of the rooms to pick up an old coat, then he will crawl out of giant ferrets (!) and will eat your character alive.
The reasons for the unpopularity of the game can be very different, as well as the notion that the unpopularity of controversial. Yes, 1987, when Acheton ported the brainchild of IBM, there has already reigned his Majesty Zork, so it is a too similar game, but with virtually no humor or "interesting" could hardly have even a little to shake them firmly occupied the throne. However, on the same BBC Micro, this thing was recognized almost a masterpiece. However, this platform has been forgotten not less thoroughly, than the best text adventure on it.
By itself Acheton - within, of course, a niche of text adventure itself is quite interesting, atmospheric, even a little, but the original thing, which can make the imagination to bring forth images of readable texts and to keep the player at the screen, even without witty jokes or the storyline. If you are good at playing and IF you want to see the "other" Zork - it is worth a try.
Do you want to play Acheton online, in your browser? Now you can. Click here to play Acheton online.
Source: Archive.org, Mobygames.com
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