( A 1982 Cambridge mainframe game later released by Topologika.
Avon - Details (tads.org))
"Once more into the breach, dear friend?"
That is the tempting question the game asks you after you’ve typed QUIT. Many times I responded YES to just try and avoid that last nasty trap one more time.
Avon was originally written in 1982 in Cambridge University as a mainframe game. It was later released by the Topologika company. After reading some background information, I get the impression that the good folks at Topologika have shaved and polished off a lot of the splinters and rough edges of the original.
While it is still possible to die, you only do so when you have actually made a wrong move or choice. There are lots of unhinted traps where you die on entry. In these instances you are asked “Now you probably wish you didn’t do that, don’t you?”, giving you the chance to continue the game from that location. You do lose the opportunity to “solve” the trap and get the points this way.
I put “solve” between quotation marks because there are very few actual puzzles in Avon . There are many unannounced death-traps, a lot of riddles where you get only one chance and you must have found a clue beforehand (no lucky guesses!) and a few easy mazes. A few playthroughs are needed to locate the traps and the clues and passwords, and only then can one hope to put them in the right order and solve the game.
I know that if I were to read a game described as above, I’d probably run away. Fortunately I had almost no information on it when going in. Avon is actually a really fun game. The generous helping of Shakespeare quotes (often in inappropriate contexts) are funny, the parser and narrator are friendly and polite, descriptions are over the top in a good way…
Two more things to persuade you to play: a) at one point you get an ass’s head on your neck, and b) this game contains one of the dumbest and funniest puns in any IF I have ever played.
Unfair, sure, but fun!