I’ve written a bit about myself on the About Me page, but here I’d like to go into more detail. It’ll also help me organize some of my thoughts.
Late 1980s
This time in my life was marked by two major events, or actually three (my parents gave me my first Walkman), but here, only two are relevant. First, my sister’s boyfriend gave me a Commodore 64 (C64), along with two large boxes full of floppy disks and some cassette tapes (Commodore Datasette). The C64 came with a plotter, a cassette player, and a disk drive. I connected it to a black-and-white CRT TV, and it took a few more years before I could upgrade to a color one.
The second event was another gift from my sister’s boyfriend: a NES console with about ten games, which became a centerpiece in my small bedroom.
These events were important because the C64 played a major role in shaping me into the video game nerd I am today. Also, the NES does but a few years later and under specific circumstances, more on that later.
Early 1990s
At this point, I was still using both the C64 and the NES. The C64 was particularly fascinating, as its keyboard offered more tactile interaction than the NES. While I mostly played games with a joystick, the process of entering multiple startup commands to launch a game felt exciting, almost a bit like hacking.
I still remember a Spider-Man text adventure. Of course, I already knew who Spider-Man was, but I had no idea how to play the game. I kept trying to use Spider-Man’s “spider sense,” but unfortunately, it never worked. It might have been Questprobe featuring Spider-Man (Adventure International, 1984), but I’m not sure. That game had graphics on the C64, but I don’t recall seeing any.
Another memorable game was Neuromancer (Electronic Arts, 1988). It was text-heavy but required fewer inputs since it was already a point-and-click adventure.
I also had Stationfall (Infocom, 1987). I vividly remember its quirky cover art, but the game itself was way too difficult for me at the time, especially since my English skills were very limited.
With Zork (Infocom, 1983), I was completely lost. Even though someone suggested I should draw a map, my notes and directional inputs never made sense. A white house, no entrance, a weird forest—I quickly gave up.
I have fragmented memories of input fields and commands from other games, but I can’t connect them to specific titles. I often pestered my sister or her boyfriend for help, especially with English words and interpreting what the games were trying to tell me.
Mid 1990s
By now, the NES had taken center stage in my gaming life. I discovered Mega Man 3 (Capcom, 1990) and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Nintendo, 1988). Eventually, I lent my C64, its peripherals, and all my games to a friend—a big mistake!
A few weeks later, I saw my games at his place, all in the wrong cases, removed from their boxes, and cassettes left unrewound. It was chaos! I took back my C64, told him he could keep the rest, and never looked back.
My interest in adventures wasn’t entirely gone—I still enjoyed point-and-click adventures. However, due to some events at school, I almost completely lost my passion for reading, which is crucial for text adventures.
Fast Forward: 2021–2022
In 2018, I started studying Japanese studies. Around 2022, one of the teachers suggested creating a video game club. While the idea wasn’t implemented perfectly, it was still a good one. For the club, we were tasked with writing about video games. I thought it would be interesting to write a mini-essay about text adventures, and it reignited my passion for the genre.(Link to the Essay)
2024
At the vocational school where I now teach a game design club, I started a game design project within a project week event in early 2024 with the help of a good friend.
Planning the project was a challenge, after all, a week isn’t very long, and with only four days to work, we needed a manageable scope. By the end, the students needed to have a finished product.
After some research and failed attempts, I discovered Adventuron, a lightweight engine with minimal programming requirements and excellent documentation for creating text adventures.
After a brief introduction, the students could choose between using Adventuron or Adventure Game Studio to create their games. Interestingly, no one chose point-and-click adventures. Both teams decided to make text adventures instead.
Of course, I couldn’t just sit at the teacher’s desk, glancing around occasionally. Instead, I took some short stories I’d written over the years and began creating my own text adventure.
The students’ games turned out great, especially considering the short timeframe:
This was also the birth of my own game, Whispering Silence.
Thank you for reading this far! Don’t worry—this article ends here. But now you know, or at least have an idea, how I got into text adventures. I’ll dive deeper into their appeal in another article, hopefully not as long as this one.
Addition
This part dates back to the time when I wanted to build this site with a focus on text adventures. This has shifted somewhat in the meantime, but I didn’t want to start re-writing articles now, especially as they still serve a general purpose.