8/31/20- Moonmist (1986)

Moonmist (1986) developed and published by Infocom for DOS, Amiga, Apple II, Commodore 64, and others. Fun fact: This is the earliest game I or anyone else can find to feature an explicitly gay character; who that is, you’ll have to play to find out, as it’s integral to a major twist. This is one of Infocom’s classic text-based murder mysteries, where you take the role of an American detective (whose name you can make up; I chose to be Mr. Biggsby Crobblegibber), invited to a spooky English castle , where your friend and the owner, Tamara, has been suffering threats on her life by a mysterious ghost. In addition to Tamara and her fiancee, the eminent heir of the castle, Jack, the game features an assortment of characters who may or may not be as innocent as they seem. Moonmist was co-written by Jim Lawrence, who ghostwrote several Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew novels, and it has that distinctive youth-mystery charm, not taking itself too deadly serious and letting you revel in the fun of a game of Clue. It’s also fairly straightforward, and has been criticized for being too easy; I actually found the incriminating evidence on accident, without even finding the first clue. However, that simplicity also makes it a good entry point for those curious about the text-based adventure genre, in comparison to games like Zork or Jigsaw, which throw you into big open situations that can be quite intimidating. Check it out!