Germany got a jump start on computing early. The earliest “real computer”, arguably, was via Konrad Zuse with his Z3 in 1941; fortunately for Zuse’s modern reputation, it failed to drum up much enthusiasm with the Nazis, and while it got used for some minor aeronautical calculations, the monster application of the war — codebreaking — was left to the Allies.
The Z3, from the Computer History Museum.
After the Nazis were defeated, post-war restrictions meant aviation and nuclear research were banned. So, while Zuse met Turing in 1947 and later founded a company (Zuse KG) and IBM had a presence (their German spinoff Dehomag was redubbed IBM Deutschland GmbH in 1949) it still took a while for computing in Germany to really be established. (I’m referring now to West Germany; East Germany went to the Soviets and has its own story.)
In 1955 the Allied occupation ended and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council) was founded. Computers quickly started to occupy universities, with half of them having mainframes by 1960. Local private companies started to face off against IBM. Siemens got on board early (1954, before restrictions were lifted) and went after big industry. The radio and television company Telefunken (parent company AEG) made a mark with the TR-440, dominating the university market, but AEG’s lack of enthusiasm eventually led to their large computing operations being sold to Siemens; Siemens kept up with the industrial-scale computers, while AEG focused more on mid-range business operations. A few more companies like Triumph-Adler focused on office settings.
Ludwig Zagler posing with his chess program written with Siegfried Jahn for the TR-440: Daja (1974). It could only be run at night. Picture from Der Spiegel, April 1976.
Missing from all this is home computing. Referring to a May 1980 issue of Mikro + Kleincomputer, the Schweizer Computer Club had access to Apple, Pet, Sorcerer, Superbrain, and TRS-80: none of those are from German companies. The big locals were still focused on business and industry; Triumph-Adler, which started to try their hand at the personal market with their Alphatronic, was never a consumer hit. (According to one author, they originally tried to “sell them like typewriters” in batches.)
Alphatronic PC from late 83-early 84, via eBay.
The foreign companies of the Trinity, then, were the dominant force in 1980, although in a different order than the US: Commodore PET, Apple II, TRS-80. Commodore would eventually creep up to be dominant all the way to Amiga, but for the time of our story there was still a pitched battle. TRS-80 had a brief moment in the sun not in its original form imported from the US, but as a cheaper clone via a company from Hong Kong.
…
Hannover Messe was an “export fair” which had been running since 1947; in 1970 the fair added the Center for Office and Information Technology (Hall 1) which included computing devices.
In 1980, Fred Trommeschläger was at Hall 1. He had previously sold electronics (interrupted in the mid-70s by a foray into aviation), but he pivoted from electronics to computers when they became more profitable, forming Trommeschläger Computer GmbH. He sold imports of TRS-80s (via the Tandy headquarters in Belgium) but tried to undercut his competition on price. He was tipped off that there was a cheaper TRS-80 alternative showing. The machine was being sold was the Video Genie by EACA, a Hong Kong-based company that had been founded in 1970 by mechanical engineer Eric Chung (previously of Fairchild, the same company that eventually released the first home console that uses cartridges).
Trommeschläger sent his employees scouting, found the machine at the fair, and got an invite to a sales meeting. Negotiations happened in Holland with multiple companies vying for rights, and Trommeschläger managed to impress the representatives from Hong Kong — landing an exclusive deal — by arriving in his own plane (remember, he briefly had went into aviation!)
Sales blew up, with volume going by by a factor of five from 1980 to 1982. Volume went up in 1983 as well, but there was a catch: EACA imploded. Eric Chung was reported fleeing with a briefcase containing 10 million USD. One issue was simply Tandy themselves, which had brought up a lawsuit in 1981 for infringement; it was settled out of court, but it must have represented a significant financial hit. Additionally, while the Video Genie was a success EACA had also gone into other products like radios that were a failure, and then also decided to compound that with speculation on property (!).
This left Trommeschläger’s company in trouble, as they had already done more hiring and had already announced future product based on the EACA’s upcoming computers (now vaporware). They tried to adapt a different computer (the Ferranti PC) and re-dub it with the now-known-in-Germany Genie name, but it wasn’t enough, and his company went down in 1984.
The reason why all this is important is that it meant the Video Genie name became more well-known in Germany than the original TRS-80; while the US had magazines like 80 Micro supporting the TRS-80, Germany had Genie Data. Also, one of the copies of today’s selection (Das Geheimnisvolle Haus, The Mysterious House) is in a directory titled genie1.
I found this game while looking for another game, Geheim-agent XP-05, the existence of which had been sleuthed out by commenter Rob; it was thought to be lost. I dug around the far corners of the Internet and managed to find the secret agent game in a public German archive by checking every disk. XP-05 was on disk 5. From disk 7 I found this:
ELEPHANT is the CLOAD game Elephant Graveyard by John R. Olsen.
I had a copy of HAUS.BAS already, but variations can differ, so I opened the source code and hit paydirt:
21050 GESCHRIEBEN IM OKTOBER 81 VON UWE SCHUSTER
October 1981! My other copy mentioned Uwe Schuster, but not the date. This places it as the earliest German adventure game currently found. I will not give any guarantees there isn’t older; early German computer history still needs study. I can say that when Mikro+Kleincomputer did a review of Apple Adventure in February 1982, it was written as if adventures were a new idea. It explains that you communicate using commands of two words, and that you are searching for treasure, that there are “beinahe unendliche Labyrinthe” and you should make a map.
We have some clue as to Uwe Schuster’s influences, as while one copy contains a year and month, the other contains an author statement.
Dieses Programm erhielt seine Anregung von “Haunted-House”. Es erschien mir reizvoll, dieses Thema weiter auszubauen. Da mir die Abenteuer von Scott Adams gut gefallen, habe ich versucht, dessen Schema zu übernehmen, um ein lästiges Scrollen des Bildschirms zu vermeiden. Gewiss ließe sich das Programm noch weiter ausbauen, aber ich hoffe dass es trotzdem Spaß gemacht hat.
(Uwe Schuster)
The program was inspired by the game “Haunted House” and the author wanted to expand on the same idea, following the pattern of Scott Adams that avoided screen scrolling. While we’ve had multiple game titled Haunted House only one has been for TRS-80, the very early Robert Arnstein one sold by Radio Shack.
The instruction screen I gave earlier indicates shortcuts move around (N, S, W, O) take inventory (B) or redraw the screen (R). However, there’s also a full verb list, and following my procedure with Languages I Am Not Great At, I grabbed the list from the source code directly:
NEHME -> TAKE
NIMM -> TAKE
HOLE -> TAKE
GEBE -> GIVE (functionally DROP)
LASS -> LEAVE (DROP)
STELLE -> DROP
LAUFE -> RUN
GEHE -> GO
STEIGE -> CLIMB
SAGE -> SAY
SPRICH -> SPEAK
RUFE -> CALL
SIEH -> SEE
SCHAU -> LOOK
SUCHE -> SEARCH
FINDE -> FIND
BRICH -> BREAK
SCHLAGE -> HIT
BRECHE -> BREAK
SCHNEIDE -> CUT
TRINKE -> DRINK
GIESSE -> POUR
SCHUETTE -> SHUT
SCHLAFE -> SLEEP
WARTE -> WAIT
HILF -> HELP
OEFFNE -> OPEN
SCHALTE -> SWITCH
Despite being inspired by a haunted house game, this really is more of a “mysterious” house: there are no ghosts or other spooks to battle against. There is a little magic. Our goal is to escape with all the treasures (three of them).
The description follows the minimal format of “you are in a suchandsuch” and most of the rooms have one item in them, either takable or non-takable (above, a guest room, with a bed).
You’re in a living room, with a carpet. The carpet can be taken.
Balcony with railing, which can’t be taken.
Breakfast room with endless coffee cup, which can be taken, and mysteriously doesn’t count as a treasure.
The house is mostly wide open, and the starting approach should be something like Eno: break and smash and tear stuff looking for hidden objects.
For example, there’s a television set showing the Arabian Nights, and you can smash it into pieces with a hammer. You can also smash the coffee cup (not helpful) and a mirror (helpful, I’ll show that off shortly). A knife also gets use as you tear open an upholstered chair, revealing a diamond, and a coat, revealing a wallet.
That makes for 2 out of 3 treasures, suggesting this game will go quickly, but it turns out treasure 3 (which is needed to escape) was kind of hard to find. But let’s go back to smashing the mirror first:
The mirror breaks into thousands of pieces which immediately dissolve into nothing. Behind is a bottle of acid.
With the bottle of acid, and destruction still on my mind, my eye turned to the marble floor in the room immediately adjacent.
The acid dissolves the floor reveal a magic word: KERKY. Upon then doing SAY KERKY, I was teleported to the room shown above (“secret room”, with a “hole in the ceiling”) and was told that “all good things come in threes”. What this is hinting at is that the word only works three times to take you to the secret room, after which it will teleport you to random places, including a mid-air drop killing you.
I have fallen from the 13th floor! The adventure is over.
With my eye on the hole in the ceiling, I brought over a ladder from a nursery, and was able to climb to a roof.
I climb through the ceiling and get to the roof of the house. It’s very cold.
Going in a direction seems to randomly either kill you or land you in a room back in the house. It was here, at 2 out of 3 treasures, that I was very stuck. Just to list the inventory available:
key, cup of coffee, knife, bottle opener, jug of cognac, ladder, hammer, carpet, diamond, wallet
The jug of cognac is also auto-refilling and is essentially to opposite of the cup of coffee. I hadn’t found a use for the key but it turned out that I never would: it’s a red herring. Looking at the carpet, the game just states “a vacuum cleaner wouldn’t do any harm” so it took me poking inside the source code (it’s 10k, roughly the size of Raspion Adventure) to realize it could be transformed into a flying carpet.
But how? I tried various uses of the magic word, setting the carpet on the roof, plummeting off the edge while holding the carpet, whacking at the carpet really hard, and still no magic appeared. I finally broke down studied the relevant source portion rather than just glancing:
7100 IFX>23THEN7200:ELSEW1$=”B”:W0$=”A”:GOSUB12000:IFW0=1ANDCO=1ANDW1=1THENPRINT”DER BODEN LOESST SICH AUF UND EIN SCHILD WIRD SICHTBAR”:PRINT”DARAUF STEHT: MAGISCHES WORT “:D$(2)=”SCHILD MIT MAGISCHEM WORT”:M(2)=1:S$(3)=”SCHI”:S$(4)=”MAGI”:GOTO131
7110 W0$=”H”:W1$=”F”:GOSUB12000:IFCO=8ANDW0=1ANDW1=1THENPRINT”DER TEPPICH FAENGT AN ZU SCHWEBEN”:S$(11)=”FLIE”:D$(6)=”*FLIEGENDER TEPPICH*”:SC=SC+1:GOTO131
The first line 7100 is the result of pouring acid on the marble floor. I realized 7110 must also involve pouring a liquid of some sort.
The above depicts me on top of the roof pouring the jug of cognac while the carpet is sitting their waiting to absorb its precious energies. After this is done on the next turn (no matter what you type) you’ll fly off to safety.
The carpet floats up and away with me. I’m saved and have found all the treasures.
It is possible I am missing some subtle hint in German to this, or maybe there’s some mythology involving alcohol and flying carpets? The source code is here if someone would like to try a poke.
I found it interesting that while Mr. Schuster managed to pull off a two-word parser just fine, he stuck with a fairly grid-like map like the French Colditz game by Marcel Le Jeune. Most games from the US and UK insisted quite early on with having twisty maps, yet these two early examples of non-English adventure games eschewed cavelike-maze layout altogether. This may be because in both cases the influence came primarily from Scott Adams; while Adams had some mazes they were fairly small and didn’t really dominate in the same way the Crowther/Woods mazes did.
Or it could be that figuring out a parser from scratch (which both authors had to do) was complicated enough as it was, so they decided to keep the map aspect simple to keep track of.
Unfortunately I have not be able to unearth anything more about the author. His name shows up in a 1986 German magazine, but just in asking a question to the editors. While Marcel Le Jeune knows of the first-original-adventure-game-in-French status of his work, if this really is the first adventure game in German, I’m not clear if Uwe Schuster is even aware of it.
Renga in Blue 
Thanks for the EACA company background, that was interesting. Must have been very large bills to have 10M in a briefcase. (or a very large one)
Considering all denominations larger than US$100 were discontinued in 1969, and banks were thereafter ordered to destroy any larger bills deposited into them, I’d bet on the latter.
Cracked did a calculation and concluded that the echt Zero Halliburton Classic Aluminum Attache Case (medium size) holds $1.4 million if you leave some space round the edges, $1.58 million if you fill everything.
This website says that it was $10 million in a suitcase, which is more plausible. The German website it links says “Der Marketing-Koordinator für EACA in Europa, Keuk, hatte aus Holland angerufen und berichtet, dass sich Eric Chung, Chef von EACA in Hong Kong, mit über US$ 10.000.000 im Koffer, abgesetzt habe.” I will cynically observe that it might have been advantageous for whoever didn’t flee to exaggerate the amount of cash that left with the person who did flee (and if I gather correctly, wasn’t findable for a bit?)
also wondering how they knew exactly how much money was in the briefcase!
(the CEO btw, did in fact disappear, and as far as my research has gone never surfaced again in history, at least not under the same name)
While the suitcase scenario seems more likely, one thing to consider would be that, as an (ahem) older person, I seem to remember that that $1000 bills were still floating around quite a bit back in the 70s and 80s. In fact, if IIRC, whenever they would show a bank heist or some shady payoff going down on a show like Rockford or Barnaby Jones back in the day, they would often use wrapped up stacks of $1000s as a prop.
I think the hint about using the cognac can be found here, most likely by examining the bottle or something:
5180 PRINT”DA IST EIN ETTIKETT AUF DEM STEHT:”:PRINT”ABENTEURERSCHNAPS (MIT VERSCHIEDENER WIRKUNG)”:GOTO131
Translating to something like:
“There’s a label that says: ‘Adventurer’s schnapps (with various effects)’.”
I also seem to remember hearing about cleaning carpet or upholstery stains with alcohol, and the game mentions that it’s dirty. So between those two hints, and the “Oriental” references (Arabian nights on the TV, the money being rupies), plus the fact that you can get dropped off a roof, I can kind of see where he thought it would all come together, especially since you’re already supposed to have figured out that pouring liquids on things has an effect in this game, via the acid puzzle.
Very interesting to see this, after having just played Skatte Jagt. Some definite similarities via the common Adams influence, but also a few differences.
Speaking of East Germany, I am curious, from which year will be the first adventure game in your list from the other side of the Iron Curtain? Or have you perhaps already played one and I just missed it?
Hungarian has come up laterally because of a book that made its ways over there, although the earliest year I have for that is ’85
there’s also a Czech translation of Forbidden City, the pictures alone are worth a look
’85 is the earliest I can go at the moment although I obviously haven’t researched thoroughly into those countries yet
while _not_ behind the Iron Curtain (part of Yugoslavia) you might be interested in the Slovenian game Kontrabant from 1984
https://worldofspectrum.net/item/0006546/
My current best guess is the Czech game Poklad, although deeper research will be necessary:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poklad_(video_game)
Maybe this would be a good time to throw this out there, since I’ve been wondering about “The Mystery of Poklad” (dramatic, no?) for a while now…
The basic story here is that František Fuka, the teenage author of Poklad ( which translates as “Treasure”), was inspired to write it at the time by, amongst other things, an earlier Czech language adventure called (wait for it) Poklad that he had played on his ZX-81. However, he had sold off all of his computer equipment, so he had to write it on his friend’s new ZX Spectrum. He essentially wanted to do an adaptation of this original Poklad, but he had to do it all from memory, so it seems to have ended up somewhat different. The twist here is that the first Poklad was actually a Czech translation of an even earlier English language game, a fact that both František and other Czech sources who have interviewed him and researched the subject seem sure of, although nobody seems to know anymore who did this translation or which game it was based on, as it’s apparently long lost.
So, the question is, what game was it? Despite Fuka’s version being a 1984 title and thus still far off on the horizon to be covered here, it may still be relevant to investigate, as the original could be a game that’s already been covered, or soon will be, presumably being a title from 1983 or before. The best way to understand the game’s contents are by reading this blog post about it and an enhanced remake he did a year later (the 1984 version had a fatal bug which made completing it impossible), but don’t read it if you’re trying to avoid spoilers:
https://herniarcheolog.blogspot.com/2017/02/hra-2-3-poklad-1984-poklad-2-1985.html?m=1
I will say that the game’s structure and map is somewhat distinct, as well as some of its items and elements, although one would guess that some of these may have been thrown in there by Fuka himself or the original translator. However, in making a surface comparison to games from the ZX-81’s adventure library, I’ve thusfar come up empty. I’d guess that it may have been adapted to the ZX-81 from another platform, or perhaps a magazine or book listing. In any case, I’d be interested to see if anyone out there can come up with a likely candidate.
I didn’t look super closely, but based on the map structure, the spacesuit, snake, bird, and diamond, if it’s based closely enough on an English game to be recognizable I haven’t played it yet
The restricted, “leveled” structure and map make me think that it’s more likely derived from a “teach yourself to program adventures” article or book than a commercial release, with some of the silly or illogical game elements being the later additions of a teenaged mind, so matching it with the former will be the more likely method of pinpointing its origins, if that ever proves possible.
East Germany actually had their own home computers! Starting in 1984, an electronics combine called Robotron released the “Robotron Z9000” and the “Kleincomputer” KC-85 (Kleincomputer essentially standing for “microcomputer” line of home computers. These were based on the U880 CPU, a Russian microprocessor that was essentially a 1:1 clone if the Z80. This “Kleincomputer” series of microcomputers were never really far spread (even within the GDR they were kind of a rarity), but there were games created for them. So I would wager the earliest adventures from East Germany were probably created some time in 1984/85.
I actually have a booklet on the East German computer landscape, though it currently is in storage somewhere. I could try digging it up and see whether it contains any hints about specific text adventures. I dimly remember that two of the most popular early KC-games we’re some kind of maze and a top-down racing game…
there’s also this old (apparently defunct but thankfully web-archived) website:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240406132708/https://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/~kc-club/09/0900.HTML
The links under “MC-Spiele” and “BASIC-Spiele” contain dozens of games for these computers in different file formats. They also contain short descriptions, but I don’t know how accurate they are; the BASIC-List contains a game called “Seefahrt” which is categorized as an “Adventure” for example, but looking at the earlier linked KC85 site it rather seems to be some kind of trading sim.
Thanks for the link. I checked the game folders out and yeah, it’s mostly the same stuff, but with a few action and strategy games described as adventures for whatever reason.
Here’s another resource, for the z9001 specifically. If you check the Software folder, there’s a software archive you can download, but I think it’s mostly just the same as TOSEC and has nothing different as far as adventures go:
ttps://hc-ddr.hucki.net/wiki/doku.php/z9001
The funny thing with these systems was the ongoing obsession with conversions of the otherwise obscure Happy Computer type-in “Niemans Land”. There were at least 2 different versions, under like four or five different names. It’s was like East Germany’s version of Colossal Cave or something…
The funny thing with these systems was the ongoing obsession with conversions of the otherwise obscure Happy Computer type-in “Niemans Land”. There were at least 2 different versions, under like four or five different names. It’s was like East Germany’s version of Colossal Cave or something…
That’s… Actually a pretty astute observation, and you might be onto something there. Happy Computer was kind of a Kult Magazine around here (I was born in West Germany), as it was one of the first german computer mags that dedicated entire sections only to computer games. Given the trade restrictions during the Cold War era, it’s highly unlikely that your typical mainframe- or Apple-Ii-era games would’ve found their war across the Iron Curtain into university or High School computer science labs, where these “firsts” in games usually originated. German-language magazines on the other hand, especially relatively “innocent” ones dealing with “technical” topics (like, say, computer programming) and that didn’t bear the seal of the dreaded “class enemy” USA, were much easier to come by – and they usually provided pages upon pages of type-in BASIC games that could be adapted to U880/Z80 based systems. So it makes sense that while West German games would take their inspiration from Colossal Cave Adventure et al (even the university I graduated from has stories about that game causing massive downtime in the Natural Science departments), the small East German homebrew scene would get their first major inspirations from West German games and magazines like Happy Computer or 64’er and their extensive BASIC type-in sections. (Another example would be a game called “König”, which was a clone of a very popular West German C64 game called “Kaiser”, which itself had been directly inspired by the game Hamurabi…)
East Germany actually had home computers of their own. Beginning in 1984, a state-owned Electronics combine called Robotron (no relation to the game, although I find it prettey funny)started their own line of microcomputers (or “Kleincomputer” as they were called in the GDR) that were based on the U880 microprocessor, a clone of the Z80. The first was the So-called Robotron Z9001, later (in 1985) followed by the more popular KC-line of computers (in particular the KC85/1). Those computers were relatively rare even within East Germany (there is an estimate that ZX Spectrum or C64 computers “gifted” from West German relatives were far more widespread :p ). And considering that the company producing these computers were state-owned, “games” weren’t really on the forefront of their intentions – I guess the first game released for these machines was a chess simulator. But they were popular enough to warrant a homebrew developer scene of their own. In fact, there was a weekly radio programme in East Germany that aired programmes for these computers on the airwaves: they actually sent out the data signal of a computer tape, and users at home could record these onto cassettes and then use them on their computers.
Based on that, I would assume that the first Text Adventures from East Germany would also probably have been created around late 1984/early 85 for either the Z9001 or the KC85-line of home computers.
I actually have a booklet (about 140 pages in DIN A 5 format) on the East German computer landscape. It says that one of the earliest popular games for these systems was “Im Tal der Könige”, a clone of the MSX-game “King’s Valley”, a kind of early puzzle platformer.
There’s an online archive with about 180 known games that were developed for the KC85-series of home computers online. https://www.lanale.de/kc85_emu/KC85_Emu.html Chances are that if there ever was a text adventure released for these systems, it can be found there.
I just now found some sales numbers on the computers made by Robotron: Of the Z 9001, the KC85-line (KC85/1 through 4) and its follow-up KC87, a total of about 30.000 devices were sold. The home computers HC 900, KC 85/2, KC 85/3 und KC 85/4 , released between 1984 and 1988, were actually NOT produced by Robotron (despite the name), but rather made by the (also state-owned) VEB Mikroelektronik Mühlhausen, and were more popular (mostly because those PC were somewhat compatible and could thus partially run the same software. The site I linked above contains a software archive for THOSE computers, not (as I erroneaously stated earlier) the KC85/1! Unfortunately I don’t have any numbers on units sold for this line of computers.
this is terrific! only have looked into east germany as far enough to know I didn’t need to worry about it yet, but it’s still fun to read about
Yeah, thanks for the link. That online emulator is great!
I skimmed through the games, and all of the adventures there are listed on CASA, as well as a few others for these platforms. The thing is, the earliest dated ones (from around 1985-1987) are all unofficial ports of C64 type-ins from Happy Computer magazine, which was published out of Munich, so they’re not really East German games. It’s a few of the more obscure, undated ones that need to be looked into, although based on the rest of the game library, they’re more likely to be from the late 80s.
@Rob that’s a fair assessment. I’m not overly familiar with what German text adventure was released on which platform first. The thing is, Given that even the KC-85 home computers weren’t that common in the GDR (most East Europeans only got to try out a KC computer at school or summer camp) and commercial creation of games was actively discouraged, getting exact dates for when certain games were created exactly is a bit hard to discern. And like I said, Commodore 64 computers bought at so-called “Intershops” and/or gifted from Western relatives were more prevalent, so it can’t be ruled out that there might’ve been an adventure made in the GDR fir that platform that I’m not aware of. But be it as it may, given the computing landscape I think it’s fair to assume that the oldest example is probably not earlier than late 1984/early 85, regardless of platform.
huh, what do you know, just found an Interactive Fiction database that has a (small) listing for “games from the GDR”: https://ifwizz.de/interactive-fiction-themen-spiele-aus-der-ddr.html
I think all these games found there can also be found in the KC85-emulation site I linked earlier. Doesn’t really make things much clearer, as only two games have a given year (1987 and 1988, respectively) while the rest just says “presumably created between 1985 and 1989”); but it’s a start at least.
That’s incredible. I had never heard of this computer.
Checking through the list, I could not find any cRPG nor wargame (except for the compulsory Star Trek clone [“Enterprise”]). I found it amusing to find a “strip” game though!
I did a little more poking around with these systems, and came up with a couple more resources:
https://www.z1013.mrboot.de/software-database/db/index.html
This is a big software database for the related z1013 kit-based system, which seems to share much of the same library.
It’s quite good, as besides the file links there are often descriptions, screenshots, gameplay videos and even source code.
There’s also this older site, which offers brief descriptions of a few of the more obscure titles:
https://z9001.net/
In combing through these, I came up with a few more adventures that don’t seem to be listed elsewhere, including “Wuest”, “Trap” and “Back to the Future”, although again, the roughly 1985-1989 timeline seems to hold here.
I would generally agree with you that, if there’s an original East German produced adventure from before 1985, it’s likely to have been written on an “imported” West German C64, Video Genie, etc., and would probably be hard to differentiate from the rest of the known 8-bit German-language adventure library without some pretty deep research.
That should be “Wueste”, by the way. There’s another one called “Wunderland”, too.
Pingback: Xenos (1982) | Renga in Blue
Pingback: 1982: The Final Stretch | Renga in Blue
Pingback: 2024 Retrospective | Renga in Blue
Pingback: Geheimagent XP-05 (1982) | Renga in Blue
Pingback: All The Adventures Up to 1982 in Review | Renga in Blue
Pingback: Epic Hero #1, Ocean Hunt (1982/1983) | Renga in Blue