Gnome Ranger

Ingrid Bottomlow stands out from her family of gnomes - she's a gifted student, with a degree from the Institute of Gnome Economics. As a result, they exile her using a teleporting spell, leaving her lost in the forest. It is your job to keep her safe in this interactive fiction game.

The game is split into three tasks, broadly relating to animal, vegetable and mineral in that order. The first involves defeating an evil witch, the second is the Riddle of the Shrinking Teapot, and the third involves precious stones.

Commands such as FOLLOW, FIND and GO TO make travelling the game world much easier, and put an emphasis on object-manipulation and character interaction, rather than map-making.

Instructions can be issued to other characters, with words like THEN, FIND and GIVE to join them. This co-operation is essential to solve many puzzles, and takes place in a world where characters have their own aims and motives. There are BRIEF and VERBOSE modes of text. A running joke in the game is that the screen display adds a 'g' to the start of all words beginning with n - 'gnorth' and 'gnugget' for example.

Graphics are included in the disk versions of the game, except in the ports for Atari 8-bit and Apple II, which are text-only on every media.

Followed By Ingrid’s Back!
Added February 14, 2021
Published By Level 9 Computing
Developed By Level 9 Computing
Front Cover (United Kingdom) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United Kingdom) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Media (United Kingdom) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (United Kingdom) (ZX Spectrum) from mobygames.com
Spine/Sides (United Kingdom) (ZX Spectrum) from mobygames.com
Manual (United Kingdom) (ZX Spectrum) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United Kingdom) (ZX Spectrum) from mobygames.com
Media (United Kingdom) (ZX Spectrum) from mobygames.com
IGDB Cover from igdb.com
Old Cover Image
Title screen (EGA) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Game start (EGA) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Centaur shop (EGA) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Witch's cottage (EGA) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Stream (EGA) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Rainbow (EGA) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Grassy plain (EGA) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Swamp (EGA) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Moorland (EGA) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Llama-Llama-Llama... (EGA) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Towering pinnacle (EGA) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Eagle chicks (EGA) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Game start (Monochrome) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Title screen (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Game start (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Centaur shop (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Witch's cottage (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Swamp (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Eagle chicks (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Moorland (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Grassy plain (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Rainbow (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Llama-Llama-Llama... (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Stream (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Title screen (Atari ST) from mobygames.com
The starting location (Atari ST) from mobygames.com
Lost in the mist (Atari ST) from mobygames.com
Loading screen with credits (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Starting position (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
A winding road (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
The automated GO TO feature (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
What ya waitin' for? (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Inside the building (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
On Marshland (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Chick-fighting (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
The mother's reaction (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Have you heard the one about the gnome and the llama? (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
This is very Hansel-and-Gretel (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Demonstrating the ability to give instructions to NPCs (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Marshland (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Some particularly plain plains (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Why would I do this? (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Meeting a Nymph (or gnymph in this case) (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Rainbow time (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
The stream (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
128K Loading screen (ZX Spectrum) from mobygames.com
Starting point (ZX Spectrum) from mobygames.com
Into the building (ZX Spectrum) from mobygames.com

Year of Release:
1987

Genre(s):
Interactive Fiction Traditional

Graphic Style:
2D

Camera View:
First-Person

Control Type:
Text Parser

Setting/Theme:
Fantasy

Available From: