I’ve covered early German computing history and especially the history of the Video Genie in my post here about The Mysterious House; you may want to read that post first, as today’s game is another one for Video Genie, the TRS-80 clone that managed to be more popular in Germany than the original.
This game previously hadn’t been indexed but Rob had brought it up in a discussion on German adventure games; some 1982 classified ads mention the game is for sale. It is one of the earliest known German adventure games.
Bode + Winkler are given as the publisher but I have found no evidence of them beyond the two classified ads for this game.
At the time I found a walkthrough but no game, and only managed to find it later buried amongst some assorted Video Genie disks, specifically the one called “spiele5.dsk”.
An author doesn’t get listed in the game itself. Cross-referencing the ad leads to a “Thomas Karcher” having the same address as the classified ad but I’m sticking with Bode + Winkler as the “author name”.
The newsletter of Club-80 has Alexander Wagner given as the “author” in a software catalog, but that’s apparently because he wrote the walkthrough in Issue 3 when he starts maintaining the club’s “Adventure Corner” in Issue 3 (September 1984).
The start of the walkthrough gives an action list, so I pulled it out right away. This isn’t just because of my difficulties with German; it’s also because all bets are off as far as what verbs might be considered “standard” when hopping over to another language. For example, this game includes both SCHLEICH (SNEAK) and LAUF (RUN) as verbs which are rare in English adventures from this era. The INVENTORY command is AUSRUESTUNG (EQUIPMENT).
LADE (LOAD)
GREIF (GRAB)
SCHLIESS (CLOSE)
NIMM (TAKE)
BEOBACHTE (WATCH)
WARTE (WAIT)
KLETTER (CLIMB)
SPRING (JUMP)
GEH (GO) — NORDEN, SUDEN, OST, WESTEN
RENN (RUN)
SCHLEICH (SNEAK)
LAUF (RUN)
LIES (READ)
DRUECK (PUSH)
ISS (EAT)
LEG (PLACE)
WIRF (THROW)
OEFFNE (OPEN)
SCHAU (LOOK)
SCHIESS (SHOOT)
AUSRUESTUNG (EQUIPMENT)
Generally speaking (at least in the games I’ve played so far) this means I can just think about translating nouns. This method was foiled early by a separable prefix which I’ll explain in a moment.
Our job is to break into a hunting lodge, steal a secret microfilm, and get out. We start with nothing whilst in a dark forest near the lodge.
ICH BEFINDE MICH IN EINEM DUNKLEN WALD.
I AM IN A DARK FOREST.
You can wander north, south, east, or west; if you wander in the wrong direction for too long the game says you are lost and starts over.
You need to start by going east before reaching a hedge.
ICH STEHE AN DER WESTSEITE EINES GRUNDSTUECKS, DAS VON EINER HOHEN HECKE UMGEBEN IST. EIN DURCHLASS IST NICHT ZU ENTDECKEN.
I’M STANDING ON THE WEST SIDE OF A PROPERTY SURROUNDED BY A HIGH HEDGE. PASSAGE THROUGH IS NOT VISIBLE.
Then go south, which travels along the hedge until arriving at the entrance. There’s an agent guarding the way.
ICH STEHE HINTER EINEM BAUM VERSTECKT AN DER SUEDSEITE EINES GRUNDSTÜCKS, DASS VON EINER HECKE UMGEBEN IST. 30 METER NÖRDLICH BEFINDET SICH DER EINGANG. EIN FEINDLICHER AGENT BEWACHT DEN EINGANG. ER TRAEGT EINE PISTOLE BEI SICH.
I’M STANDING HIDDEN BEHIND A TREE ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF A PROPERTY SURROUNDED BY A HEDGE. THE ENTRANCE IS 30 METERS TO THE NORTH. AN ENEMY AGENT IS GUARDING THE ENTRANCE. HE IS CARRYING A PISTOL.
This is where the verb list ended up being both helpful for me and (specifically for me) trouble. The presence of WATCH was exceedingly odd so I paused to wait, and a moment came up where the enemy agent’s back was turned.
I then tried RUN and then GRAB and … well, I was close. The game was fishing for GREIF AN, that is, using the separable prefix AN which turns GRAB into ATTACK, and yes, the AN really has to be there.
(Brief German lesson which I’m probably going to botch up: some verbs in German have separable prefixes. In some circumstances these prefixes will stay attached to a verb, that is, “angreifen” — to attack — will maintain the “an” in front. When the verb is in a sentence as a finite verb, the prefix moves to the end of the sentence.)
I imagine for a native German that’s completely implied by the verb list but my brain was not thinking that at all. I saw ICH BIN TOT quite a few times.
Having properly pummeled the enemy agent, you can nab their pistol and go inside. The room description mentions the possibility of going east and west but those both involve DIE DETONATION DER MINE and our protagonist messily dying.
Progress for a while after this is linear, as shown above, as long as you don’t get tempted to kill yourself again. For example, the first room of the hunting lodge has a empty elevator shaft to the east where going in kills you.
IM SCHACHT IST KEINE KABINE. ICH FALLE.
THERE’S NO CAR IN THE SHAFT. I’M FALLING.
Just north there’s some “caviar”…
ICH STEHE IN EINER KLEINEN KAMMER. IM NORDEN SEHE ICH EINEN SCHMALEN GANG, IM SUEDEN EINE TREPPE. NEBEN MIR LIEGT EINE KONSERVENDOSE MIT DER AUFSCHRIFT -ECHTER KAVIAR-.
I’M STANDING IN A SMALL ROOM. I SEE A NARROW CORRIDOR TO THE NORTH, AND A STAIRWAY TO THE SOUTH. A CAN OF FOOD LABELED “REAL CAVIAR” LIES NEXT TO ME.
…but opening the can kills you with a gas that makes you fall asleep.
Along the way there is a room with ammunition where you can load the empty gun you obtained from the enemy agent (incidentally, if the gun was empty, how was the agent shooting you earlier? Grrr.)
ICH STEHE IN EINEM KLEINEN, QUADRATISCHEN RAUM AM SUEDENDE EINES LANGEN GANGES. IN EINER ECKE STEHT EINE KISTE MIT MUNITION.
I’M STANDING IN A SMALL, SQUARE ROOM AT THE SOUTH END OF A LONG CORRIDOR. IN ONE CORNER IS A CASE OF AMMUNITION.
A bit farther north there’s a side passage that leads to a “rocket”. Going in farther I assume we somehow get blasted by the rocket or fall in or die in some other horrible way because the game is not specific. Getting past my translation issues demonstrates we’ve fallen in:
“Delete me from the pensioner list. I’m f fa faaaaalling!”
Avoiding the side passage and going north normally also kills you, this time with an alarm.
ICH STEHE IM SUEDEINGANG EINES ACHTECKIGEN RAUMES. EIN WEITERER EINGANG IST IM NORDEN. IN DER LINKEN UND RECHTEN WAND BEFINDEN SICH IN KNIEHOEHE ZWEI SELTSAME OEFFNUNGEN.
I’M STANDING IN THE SOUTH ENTRANCE OF AN OCTAGONAL ROOM. ANOTHER ENTRANCE IS TO THE NORTH. IN THE LEFT AND RIGHT WALLS, AT KNEE HEIGHT, ARE TWO STRANGE OPENINGS.
After some thought and fiddling with some gum nearby (red herring) and the caviar (still just deadly) I tried to JUMP (SPRING) north and it worked, leading to the north side of the map.
You can walk around the other side of the rocket and find a small key; otherwise, the way to go is east where there’s a room with a console inside containing a red button and a green button. Pressing the green button will launch the rocket at your home base and kill everyone. Pressing the red button will cause an explosion, I assume destroying the rocket. Fun design choices, hope your minion doesn’t have their finger slip!
ICH STEHE IN DER SCHALTZENTRALE. HINTER MIR FAELLT DIE TUER INS SCHLOSS. MITTEN IM RAUM STEHT EINE KONSOLE MIT EINEM ROTEN UND EINEM GRUENEN KNOPF.
I’M STANDING IN THE CONTROL CENTER. THE DOOR CLOSES BEHIND ME. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM IS A CONSOLE WITH A RED AND A GREEN BUTTON.
Pressing either button incidentally activates the only “special effect” of the game with a rapidly moving zigzag pattern rolling down the screen.
Assuming you’ve pressed the correct button, the way out is now blocked, although there is a new room (a dungeon) that is revealed. You can go in and find a skeleton as well as a note containing a numerical combination which will get used in a moment.
ICH BEFINDE MICH IN EINEM ENGEN MUFFIGEN KERKER. UMPFFF! ICH ENTDECKE AM BODEN EIN MENSCHLICHES SKELETT. NEBEN MIR LIEGT EIN BESCHRIEBENER ZETTEL.
I’M IN A CRAMPED, MUSTY DUNGEON. UMPFFF! I DISCOVER A HUMAN SKELETON ON THE FLOOR. A NOTE LIES NEXT TO ME.
Heading south, you get attacked by three enemy agents and have a gunfight. This is just a matter of typing SHOOT AGENT (SCHIESS AGENT) over and over until the luck works in your favor.
With the agents dead, you can step over them to find a safe and use the combination at the skeleton (it was 898 for me, looking at the walkthrough it seems to be randomly generated). Inside is the microfilm.
ICH STEHE VOR DEM TRESOR. DIE TUER IST OFFEN. IM TRESOR LIEGT EIN MIKROFILM.
I’M STANDING IN FRONT OF THE SAFE. THE DOOR IS OPEN. THERE’S A MICROFILM IN THE SAFE.
Getting out I thought was the only hard part. Everything up to here was reasonable to solve, if mostly a death-trap maze where sometimes you just have to test out the red button. In the same room as the safe, you can shoot the safe door, which somehow opens a secret door. I assume I missed a hint somewhere?
IM WESTEN OEFFNET SICH EINE GEHEIMTUER, HINTER DER SICH EIN FAHRSTUHL BEFINDET.
A SECRET DOOR OPENS TO THE WEST, BEHIND WHICH LIES AN ELEVATOR.
The secret elevator leads back to the entry room of the hunting lodge, so escape is now just a matter of making a beeline south to victory.
The president says to Central: congratulations, you did it!
I don’t know if this game had any particular influences; CLUB-80 did have Scott Adams in their catalog so I’m going to assume some Secret Mission. I also liked how the gunfight with the three agents resembled the circumstance in Crowther/Woods adventure where multiple dwarves have built up, just in that game you’re using an axe and in this one you’re using a gun.
Map from the CLUB-80 newsletter showing both Alexander who wrote the walkthrough and Gunther who was the president of CLUB-80. There’s a “Walter” in either Switzerland or Austria.
Alexander did keep up the Adventure Corner column; in the issue I pulled the map from, he gives a walkthrough for the graphical adventure Atlantean Odyssey. It is possible more of interest may be pulled up in later years (I have yet to read every issue), but for now this seems a good way to end my non-English explorations of 1982.
Map from the Adventure Corner walkthrough.
Coming up: The last 1982 game of Peter Kirsch.
Renga in Blue 