Mystery Fun House (video game)

Mystery Fun House is a text adventure game written by Scott Adams, "Adventure 7" in the series released by Adventure International.[1] The player explores a fun house explore to locate a set of secret plans, solving puzzles along the way.[2] Mystery Fun House was produced in only one week[3] and was among the less easy games in the series.[4]

Not to be confused with Mystery House.
Mystery Fun House
Developer(s)Adventure International
Publisher(s)Adventure International
Designer(s)Scott Adams
SeriesAdventure
Platform(s)Apple II, Atari 8-bit, PET, TRS-80, VIC-20, TI 99/4A, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Dragon 32/64
Release1979
Genre(s)Interactive fiction

A ZX Spectrum version was planned but never released.[5]

Gameplay

Gameplay involves moving from location to location, picking up any objects found there, and using them somewhere else to unlock puzzles. Commands took the form of verb and noun, e.g. "Take Wrench". Movement from location to location was limited to North, South, East, West, Up and Down.

The player of this game must navigate through a maze[6] and a shooting gallery, charm a mermaid,[7] and turn off a steam calliope that is so loud the player's instructions are misunderstood – a reference to the "Loud Room" in Zork I.[8] In one room is a trampoline that the player can enter, deposit items in, and then exit. The player can then carry the trampoline around, regardless of how much it is holding, thus extending one's carrying capacity indefinitely. Violent solutions to puzzles are discouraged by a gameplay feature which sees the player character ejected from the fun house by a bouncer whenever certain commands are typed.[8]

Reception

Electronic Games in 1981 warned against beginners to adventure games playing Mystery Fun House because of the difficulty, but stated that for others it "should provide a rousing good time".[9]

Legacy

Mystery Fun House was among a number of classic Scott Adams adventures made available for free download by non-profit gaming organisation Infinite Frontiers in 2003.[10] It was also included as part of magnussoft's C64 Classix compilation for Windows and Mac CD-ROM.[11]

References
  1. "Mystery Fun House". MobyGames. MobyGames. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  2. Scoleri III, Joseph. "Adventure 7: Mystery Fun House". allgame. All Media Guide. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  3. Francis, Garry (July–August 1985). "Behind the Scenes". New Atari User (16): 20. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  4. Francis, Garry (July–August 1984). "Scott Adams' Adventureland". New Atari User (10): 10. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  5. "Mystery Fun House". World of Spectrum. World of Spectrum. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  6. Griffin, Brad (March–April 1983). "Scott Adams Adventures 1–12". ANALOG Computing (10).
  7. Matthews, Ken (December 1984). "Scott Adams' Classic Adventures: Mystery Funhouse". Micro Adventurer. No. 14. London: Sunshine Publications. p. 19. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  8. "Scott Adams Text Adventure Games: Mystery Fun House". Malinche Entertainment. Malinche Entertainment Corp. Archived from the original on 2008-05-30. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  9. "Computer Playland". Electronic Games. January 1981. p. 61. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  10. Walkland, Nick (2003-06-12). "Classic Scott Adams Adventures for free". Computer and Video Games. Future Publishing. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  11. "C64 Classix". MobyGames. MobyGames. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
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