Mystery Fun House (video game)

Mystery Fun House
Developer(s)	Adventure International
Publisher(s)	Adventure International
Designer(s)	Scott Adams
Platform(s)	Apple II Plus, Commodore PET, TRS-80, Vic 20, TI 99/4a, Atari 400, Atari 800, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Dragon 32/64
Release date(s)	1981
Genre(s)	text adventure
Media/distribution	Cartridge, floppy disc
System requirements 3.5kb

Mystery Fun House was a text-based adventure program written by Scott Adams, "Adventure 7" in the series released by Adventure International.^[1] The game setting was a fun house that the player had to explore in order 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]

Description

Published by Adventure International, this text-based adventure game was one of many from Scott Adams.^[5]

Gameplay involved 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^[5] and a shooting gallery, charm a mermaid,^[6] 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.^[7] 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.^[7]

Releases

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.^[8] It was also included as part of magnussoft's C64 Classix compilation for Windows and Mac CD-ROM.^[9]

Planned as a Sinclair Spectrum release.^[10]

References

1. ^ "Mystery Fun House". MobyGames. MobyGames. http://www.mobygames.com/game/mystery-fun-house. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
2. ^ Scoleri III, Joseph. "Adventure 7: Mystery Fun House". allgame. All Media Guide. http://www.allgame.com/cg/agg.dll?p=agg&sql=1:23022. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
3. ^ Francis, Garry (July/August 1985). "Behind the Scenes". New Atari User (16): 20. http://www.page6.org/archive/issue_16/page_20.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
4. ^ Francis, Garry (July/August 1984). "Scott Adams' Adventureland". New Atari User (10): 10. http://www.page6.org/archive/issue_10/page_10.htm. Retrieved NA1. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Griffin, Brad (March/April 1983). "Scott Adams Adventures 1–12". A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing (10). http://www.cyberroach.com/analog/an10/default.htm. 
6. ^ Matthews, Ken (December 1984). "Scott Adams' Classic Adventures: Mystery Funhouse". Micro Adventurer (London: Sunshine Publications) (14): 19. 
7. ^ ^{a b} "Scott Adams Text Adventure Games: Mystery Fun House". Malinche Entertainment. Malinche Entertainment Corp.. http://www.malinche.net/scottadamstextadventuregames.html. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
8. ^ Walkland, Nick (2003-06-12). "Classic Scott Adams Adventures for free". Computer and Video Games (Future Publishing). http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=92409. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
9. ^ "C64 Classix". MobyGames. MobyGames. http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64-classix. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
10. ^ "Mystery Fun House". World of Spectrum. World of spectrum. http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0009988. Retrieved 2008-12-13. 

External links

• Mystery Fun House at World of Spectrum