Fellowship of the Ring, The - Part 1

When I imagine a text adventure from 1986 about The Lord of the Rings, I see endless lines of commands and plenty of waiting for the response "I don't understand that." But Fellowship of the Ring tried a bit harder — at least by the standards of computer literature back then.

It's a text adventure system where you move with commands like north, south, east, west, get into trouble with Gandalf in the Shire, collect things you don't even remember, and try to pretend you're having fun. The game follows the logic typical of adventures from that era — you take an item, use it on something else later (maybe, or maybe not), and move forward that way. Tolkien's world exists here primarily as description and dialogue; graphics are nonexistent, atmosphere depends on you and your imagination.

The gameplay revolves around typing commands — "use ring", "talk to wizard", "go west" — and waiting to see what happens. When nothing changes, you try "examine object" and read another paragraph of text. Decisions are often made blindly; puzzle logic sometimes matches reality, sometimes not at all. The game occasionally nudges you forward, but now and then it goes quiet, as if waiting for you to generate it in your own mind.

From this distance, we remember it not because it was excellent, but because it existed. Text adventures were the only way to play something more detailed on a PC in the mid-eighties — unless you wanted to buy a Commodore. Tolkien will already be working on you, and the game is just sort of an interactive book with a gimmick.

Who will enjoy this today? Anyone willing to invest time knowing it won't be instantly fun. Anyone who loves retro text adventures regardless of subject matter. Anyone curious about how Middle-earth played out on a PC with a modem and a hard drive the size of a cigarette box. Anyone not the type who needs something flashing on the screen.