what are the essential text adventure games?

[fishboneKiller]

ive always been kinda obsessed with point and click adventures, i got hooked with escape room flash games as a kid, went on to play amanita design's excellent catalog of modern day PnCs, and eventually gave myself a history lesson of the genre by playing stuff like Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, The Neverhood, Myst, and Sam & Max Hit the Road.

but recently, ive started to become more interested in its predecessor, the text adventure. i played a bit of Stories Untold, a sort of modern take on the idea, and i got pretty into it. i think there's something so fun about punching in each command key by key, carefully reading area descriptions to see what you can do, what items are around to pick up, and where you can go. i decided to check out the earliest examples of that type of game, Colossal Cave Adventure and Zork 1, and i'm wondering what other text adventures are out there that are worth checking out.

 

[dudesoft]

I've only played a handful, myself. Though I did love them; I needed walkthroughs. The Zork series in particular. Zork 1-3, Enchanter, Sorcerer, and finally Spellbreaker. The sequel series (Enchanter etc) can be so anal about what time exactly you use an item, that unless you have a trial and error handbook 10k pages long... good luck, god speed. Really cool experiences to explore those games though. Some of my most vivid gaming memories, and they're all in my imagination...

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

The Lurking Horror is a great read/play good atmosphere and varied puzzles.
Be mindful with your stamina(in game character) drink coke and eat snacks on the way to finish your report.

 

[fishboneKiller]

The Lurking Horror is a great read/play good atmosphere and varied puzzles.
Be mindful with your stamina(in game character) drink coke and eat snacks on the way to finish your report.

oh hell yes, this looks way more my speed. im not one for the semi-fantasy setting of zork, but after reading the first paragraph of the lurking horror im already into this. (plus, the apple ii version has retro achievements, which is pretty sweet)

 

[Num]

not the text adventure games youre thinking of but ill mention era games since they can bring for some deep and immersive experiences. a lot of the popular ones are based on other franchises like eratohok erafgok eraswr eramegaten but their appeal is less of being a fan fiction and more about being some of the more in depth and diverse rpg adventures youll have. eratohok for example is a conquest type game with thousands and thousands of random events and character events and a large degree of freedom from being able to customize your pubes down to the training aspect for how you choose to treat your units. theyre the type of games where you can genuinely write a story based on what happended during your own unique experience playing it. and that one was pretty character driven for a conquest type game. once had one of my units lose in battle get taken in as a slave bought by some millionaire who eventually locked her in a lair for her to become the lone cookie in the pack of hungry men they gave her tattooes and piercings until she lost the will to live and took her one-way ticket

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

oh hell yes, this looks way more my speed. im not one for the semi-fantasy setting of zork, but after reading the first paragraph of the lurking horror im already into this. (plus, the apple ii version has retro achievements, which is pretty sweet)

As I said, there is resource management in this one(similar to your usual survival horror).
You may be surprised by the use of sound in this one, most Old text adventures are silent.

 

[LiberoVulpesLiberoVulpes's icon]

Every single interactive fiction by Legend Entertainment is worth a try.

I would personally recommend The Spellcasting series (if you like the Leisure Suit Larry kind of raunchy humor).

 

[JPearsons]

Ace Attorney is great, a lot of good Japanese VN like Steins;gate.
for the obscurity and comedy factor im about to try this game, its published by Capcom similarly to AA, i remember wanting to try it out 10+ years ago since it looks AA-esque. Im seeing that they did fan translations of some of the Conan Detective games that caught my interest.
Another obscure gem is Psycho-Pass Mandatory Happiness, if you like the anime, the VN has a lot of great supplementary stories.
Idk if visual novels are to your liking, but the vibe is kinda similar to those old school text adventures. I love when VN have branching stories with different consequences too.

 

[Jeanfranc]

The hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy (1984)

 

[for.we.are.many]

How about Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels?