Ten Little Indians

Number 10 in the Mysterious Adventures series of interactive fiction is inspired by the Agatha Christie book "And Then There were None". The player's aim is to find the gold statue, formed by Major Johnstone-Smythe from most of his assets shortly before his death. The Major also made 10 worthless copies in various colours, and hid them in and around his mansion. Only the 10 'little indian' figurines, assembled together, would reveal the location of the final golden one. These figurines are hidden behind and under ordinary household objects, and in various hiding places. The game begins in a train carriage and the player's first task is to prevent the train from crashing, which must be achieved in a limited number of moves. Once this has been achieved the train arrives at Lower Massington station and the player must then find their way to the Major's mansion in Upper Massington.

Around this time, Scott Adams' game engine was redone to allow complete sentences instead of the more primitive 2-word input that had been used previously. Brian Howarth gained the chance to use this in the Mysterious Adventures games, although early versions of the game may have still used the cruder parser.

Added February 15, 2021
Published By Digital Fantasia
Paxman Promotions Ltd.
Channel 8 Software
Tynesoft
Tynesoft Computer Software
Developed By Digital Fantasia
Front Cover (United Kingdom) (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United Kingdom) (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Media (United Kingdom) (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (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
Starting screen, on a train (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
The day we caught the train (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Right on track (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
A snapper in the works (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
On the roads (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Gated (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
A castle (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
On the ledge (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
The key should be useful (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
On the platform (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Worth making a fuss then (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
One down, nine to go (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
This is the game's title screen. It is displayed while the game is loading (ZX Spectrum) from mobygames.com
The first question that the player is asked is if a previously saved game is to be loaded. In this case it's not ... (ZX Spectrum) from mobygames.com
The game starts here. The picture is drawn quite slowly. It starts out all red and the black areas are added last. After the picture is complete the text is displayed (ZX Spectrum) from mobygames.com
So I've worked out that I'm on a train. The train has stopped, how do I get off? (ZX Spectrum) from mobygames.com
Finally got off the train. This must be the platform. (ZX Spectrum) from mobygames.com
Just trying random commands to see what happened and another picture cropped up (ZX Spectrum) from mobygames.com
Oh Dear! Game Over - and I thought I was doing so well (ZX Spectrum) from mobygames.com

Year of Release:
1983

Genre(s):
Interactive Fiction Traditional

Graphic Style:
2D

Camera View:
First-Person

Control Type:
Text Parser

Setting/Theme:
Mystery

Available From: