This collection contains four complete, random event-driven text adventure
games that originally appeared in the excellent book, “Golden Flutes and
Great Escapes: How to Write Adventure Games for the Apple Computer,” by
Delton T. Horn (Copyright 1984, Dilithium Press).
As a coding excercise, I chose to translate these games from their original
Applesoft Basic format into the C language, in the hopes that such an
activity would teach me the essentials of parser-writing. This was before I
set foot on Internet and discovered TADS and Inform. When I did come across
these pre-written adventure-authoring systems, I scrapped the full-blown IF
parser I had been working on, and thus, also abandoned these games.
Recently, I rediscovered them, and thought some of you might enjoy taking a
look at them. There are four games altogether. Here’s a quick look at each
of them:
FLUTE.EXE — “The Golden Flute.” A fantasy adventure. You and your party of
eight adventurerous friends must search the countryside to find
the lair of the evil gremlin Terak and recover the magical
Golden Flute from him.
ESCAPE.EXE — “The Great Escape.” A maze game. You are lost in a 100-room
maze and must escape with as much gold as possible. A wide
variety of items and characters show up to help or hinder you.
TREASURE.EXE — “Treasure Hunt.” A search for buried pirate treasure. You
command your six-man crew to explore 10 islands to discover
the hidden riches.
MARS.EXE — “Mars.” Explore the mysterious planet Mars for treasures and
artifacts left behind by the ancient Martian civilizations.
Encounter six distinct types of monsters and a wide variety of
bizarre natural occurrances along the way.
Another thing that really makes Golden Flutes and Great Escapes! enjoyable for me is how it manages to stay interesting even after playing it multiple times. Many games feel repetitive after a while, but here, the experience still feels fresh because of the small details and different ways you can approach the gameplay. As you continue playing, you naturally start improving and understanding the mechanics better, which makes everything feel more rewarding. I also appreciate the balance the game maintains—it’s not too difficult, but it’s not too easy either. You can play it casually for a short break or spend longer sessions without getting bored. That flexibility is one of the biggest reasons why I keep coming back to Golden Flutes and Great Escapes!. Overall, it’s the kind of game that doesn’t just entertain you for a moment, but actually gives you a consistently enjoyable experience every time you play.
