Enchanter Text Game by Infocom
Do any of you remember that old text game from Infocom called Enchanter? I took a trip down game memory lane recently and definately remember Enchanter as being one of the classic PC games of the time, and certainly a ground breaker for me.
Enchanter came out in 1983 originally and was available for PC, Commodore, and others. Very similar to most of the other Infocom games of the time, such as the popular Zork, Enchanter came on a 5.25 inch floppy disk. Yes, the real floppies that most of us remember as the floppies before the 3.5 inch ones that are now recently deceased as well.
One thing i distinctly remember and often despised about Enchanter was the hunger system. Quite possibly the first time something like this was ever introduced in a game, the hunger system could be a bane if you took too long during your quest. Luckily there was a convenient loaf of bread in a shack right next to the starting area, and you could fill up a jug in the stream very close by as well.
One of the worst problems with text games, especially up right until about the very end of text game popularity, like the later Zorks, was trying to figure out the correct verbs and wording to use to accomplish the task. I was so young it really didnt annoy me that much, and Enchanter was pretty good comparitively in that department. As I grew older, i had much less patience for hunting for the correct words.
I was quite young when I played the game and it took me a very long time to actually solve the game. Towards the end was the worst, and I had to save and reload countless times. Much of the difficultly involved trying to figure out which spell to use at any given time. There was a speed spell that you could cast on yourself to solve a puzzle, but you would die doing it. Casting it on a friendly turtle with armor allowed you to accomplish the same task, but wouldnt kill you in the process.
All in all Enchanter was a great game for its time, certainly one of the best of the text games during the mid 80’s, the golden age of text games. There are versions available online still if you are a die hard fan of text games. Check it out!