On my latest roamings through the vast landscape that is the Interactive Fiction DataBase, I came across a 1988 game by J.D. McDonald simply called World. The editorial reviews and some other sources on the net all seem to agree that it is rather good. I’m a sucker for the stranded-on-an-alien-planet genre, so that’s a big plus.
However, all sources also agree that this is a true behemoth of a game. Playtimes vary, but I’ve seen people claim taking 3 to 6 years before finishing it. Even with the occasional sandwich and potty break in between, this seems quite long.
Can anyone tell me a bit more about this game, specifically if the quality makes it worth getting invested in it?
Wow. I feel like I should have heard of this (if for no other reason than there’s an Amiga build of it, from exactly the time I would have wanted to be aware of that sort of thing) but it feels like news.
It does look intriguing. And there’s a map and a (narrative) walkthrough out there, plus the source code which is hardly obvious but is at least a resource.
I guess my question to you is, how do you feel about games with this sort of thing lurking in their source?
1101 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1102 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1103 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1104 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1105 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1106 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1107 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1108 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1109 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1110 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1111 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1112 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1113 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1114 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1115 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1116 You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Just from the editorial reviews on IFDB, one from SPAG in '95 and the other undated (I think), I’d go for it. Neither of them really harp on the length, SPAG says difficulty is below average and also offers some other touchstones.
I don’t doubt some people took years, but the environment for playing and solving adventures in 1988 was way less hospitable than today’s, and still far more like the earliest days than the 1990s. I’ve said it before on this forum, but it took my family years to complete Wizard & The Princess on our own in the early 80s. Now Jason Dyer completes a game of that vintage almost every week in his blog.