Relive Tolkien's The Hobbit as Bilbo Baggins. A piece of Interactive fiction (with graphics to illustrate locations), you follow the plot of Tolkien's book (before the Lord of the Rings trilogy), starting with an encounter with Gandalf and Thorin. The other characters can make their own moves independently of the player and their actions can sometimes result in a situation where it is not possible to complete the game. Every character and object in the game has a calculated mass which affects how they can be manipulated by the player.
The implementation is rich enough that you can play entirely without pictures if you wish. Also, gameplay happens in realtime, uncommon for interactive fiction. The game's parser, called Inglish took as long to develop as the rest of the game. In contrast to other text-based games of the period which were based on simple verb-noun parsers, Inglish allowed for complete sentences to be entered.
Front Cover (United Kingdom) (ZX Spectrum)
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Spine/Sides (United Kingdom) (ZX Spectrum)
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Manual (United Kingdom) (ZX Spectrum)
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Loading screen
(ZX Spectrum)
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You start the game in your house
(ZX Spectrum)
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Outside your house are lots of hills
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Troll's footprints
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The troll camp
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Title Screen
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The beginning of the game, and it's graphic...
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...and the much more rich text interactive fiction that goes with it.
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A gloomy, dreary land
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A small clearing -- with a kettle...
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Through the trees
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You have been eaten by Trolls.
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Through the Misty Mountains
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I was captured and thrown into this dungeon
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Gate to Mirkwood
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A lovely spot..
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..that's what he said. And then I died.
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Your home in the Shire.
(Commodore 64)
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Waiting in the forest. Because of the ANIMACTION system, creatures moved around the world, so sometimes waiting was a good strategy.
(Commodore 64)
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The troll's clearing - about two locations from your home, and your first good chance to get killed.
(Commodore 64)
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Title screen
(Apple II)
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Full description of starting location, plus a request to flip disks.
(Apple II)
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Illustration for first location; compare the descriptions and see how slim this one has become!
(Apple II)
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Departing the Shire
(Apple II)
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This doesn't look so bad, but whose cauldron is that?
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Mr. Baggins is no tank, that's for certain.
(Apple II)
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Title screen
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Gandalph gives you...
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Talk...
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Trolls clearing
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Trolls cave
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At the gate of Mirkwood
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Trees that look like they're in water
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Title screen
(Macintosh)
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Starting location
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Trolls clearing picture
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Text description of the clearing
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Wandering through the Misty Mountains.
(Macintosh)
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Misty valley
(Macintosh)
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In a cave
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Beorn's house
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At the gate of Mirkwood
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Waterfall
(Macintosh)
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