Amazing Quest by Nick Montfort
This is a, 11-line Commodore 64 BASIC programme that spits out a variety of ‘locations’ and ‘actions’, and asks you to state whether or not you want to take that action. In fact, though, what you type doesn’t matter at all: the computer ignores the input and just calculates a random outcome. After a certain number of ‘successes’, you arrive back at your home planet. The prose is extremely sparse, the story close to non-existent. There is no reason to interact with this piece of software that only the most generous could call a ‘game’ or a ‘fiction’.
So… what’s going on? Is Nick Montfort just trolling us? Or are there some hidden depths? I fooled around with the Commodore 64 shell a bit to read the (rather obfuscated) source code. But as far as I can see, there aren’t any hidden secrets in the game. So perhaps we should look at the Introduction and Strategy Guide. These are clearly meant as a joke, exhorting us again and again to use our imagination, to ‘get into the right cultural mindset’, and so on. But really, what’s the point here? Is this a parody of Infocom’s advertising that the best graphics are in your imagination? It certainly doesn’t seem to be a pointed or poignant reflection on anything with any contemporary presence.
Perhaps I’m missing something. But in the end, it does seem like Montfort is just trolling us.