Play: 9/10 Even though it's brutal and hard it somehow also is much more in control and the rng is more enjoyable than the other early text adventures I've played so far. I love how it's the Colossal Cave formula (was getting a bit tired of Adams' attempts at experimentation after the first few of his Adventures), but with much more variety and meaningful enemies/weapons involved (well, kinda... heh). Almost rpg-esque. I love the use of the slab room. I also like that some of the treasures are actually useful in the game. I enjoyed the gameplay of going to the sea, both swimming and sailing. I loved the timing that rather than relying on rng, relies on precision and lack of typos. I mean lets be honest, it gets a bit annoying with the black/white flag ship feature. Anyway, this was the first text adventure I had to use the save feature for, mostly because of how long it is since everything was enjoyable, just no time to redo a good hour+'s time each attempt. The gameplay wound up so addictive, so fun, so rpg-like, such an adventure, so varied, exciting, surprises you. Sure, still some petty gameplay factors with when timing happens but exciting, challenging, and addictive. In many ways, it felt more like I was solving a 2000s turn-based rpg battle than a late 70s text adventure. I had so many other scribbled notes ha, like: I usually hate execution of "desert need to drink" aspects (e.g. runescape/OSRS), but this one is well-done. Like many aspects of the game, once you learn how they work (e.g., in another situation, you need to be in location already to build the fire in time for the white flag ship, so abuse those save/restore states to get through it!).

Hot tip: turn off lamp whenever getting or dropping items!!

Feel: 10/10 Wow, just so impressed. I love the ghost ship lord of the rings esque. This is just so fun to use a guide to (even tho i needed to save a lot, lets be honest) and just push through the length, the challenge, and the frustrations. It may be frustrating, but so rewarding. I loved the orbs... this is just everything I like in a fantasy game. The clock maze gave me chills. I can honestly say, as someone who started from essentially ground zero of personal computer and console gaming, this is the one for text adventures. Sure, so incredibly frustrating, as text adventures are wont to be, but unlike most other text adventures (go play a few and return here), you will see in this game it's almost always just that you had to do something differently. I liked the Wizard's Lawn setting, omg and the Wizard's Library setting (Kingdom Hearts vibes), loved the zooge teleportation that reminds me of bunyon etc from hm was that Cottage/stuga? where you could teleport your treasures to the treasure room. I loved the different settings a la the desert, icey area, etc. reminds me of upcoming games like Mario and JRPGs. I love how many different ways you could complete this. It sure is gigantic, especially for its time. And in a rare text adventure case, the treasures sort of make sense like the rod with the wizard, the rug in the desert etc. I LOVELOVE that there's a mink coat lol, reminds me of the Charlie Rules the World episode of It's Always Sunny (the one they all get addicted to an MMORPG). I love that we use the serpent to kill the roc babies etc. Some other scribbled notes I had: Some very complex puzzles like getting the diamond to appear outside with the magic word--thank god for guides! I got so into this game that now I'm over here racing myself for fastest time, though it's time to move on in my chronology.. Just an amazing game. To sum: I love turn-based with time restraint on turns--so I can walk away as needed, focus on favorite parts of songs without worrying about game, etc. The fact I pushed through multiple days and finished it shows how much I enjoyed what I've been nervous about: the increasing length of games as I proceed in my chronology. In other words, my readjusting to the RPGs that are coming, longer and harder, and other super long games, I'm nervous about my chronology plan, cuz there's too many (and I do enjoy in-depth games like this, gah!). Finally, many homages to Colossal Cave, of course. Respect.

Attachment: 10/10 Yep, I WILL be replaying this. An instant favorite like klonoa. Insanely difficult and in many ways frustrating (abuse the save function), this game kept pushing me to even start from scratch for instance when my lamp completely ran out of fuel near the end. The hall of mirrors even grew on me, just a brilliant game. "So drink gin" lol ;) I allegedly have the original phoenix version in zcode form but this seems so insanely ahead of its time and more early 80s... One last crazed scribbled note I had, ha: "substance not corporeal body of the game acheton because i havent researched about how it fit so much in one program!!! ohhhh wait i need more info cuz some sources seem to say this is 1983? i assume they must have had some iteration of it at in 79 is why its here? oh welp wound up doing the research and got it: first at cambridge university computer in 78 actually, even more impressive. i love that its called phoenix mainframe and thats the version i played (the original version, but only thanks to a zcode infocom interpreter)." Play this game if you've ever enjoyed an early text adventure -- this is the one for that genre!