Teori

On Spectrum I came across something I might have easily overlooked—Teori, a game without big ambitions and without much explanation. Spectrum could handle it, you'd think. Something on screen, some controls, a goal. But here for a while you're searching for what's actually supposed to happen.

Teori is a logic puzzle that you bring to a screen full of some elements—little squares, lines, structures, you don't know exactly. The goal is to move things so something becomes clear, so things match or so some unmentioned rule is fulfilled. It's a puzzle, it's lightly frustrating and it's precisely the type of game that holds you for a bit, then starts to bore you, then won't let you move on, and finally you close it with the feeling you understood something wrong.

Control is simple—move the cursor, let something be marked, move it, try combinations. Spectrum graphics, which were respectable then, look like letters on paper today. Sound, if there is any, you wouldn't notice. You play it because you want to solve that one puzzle, then the next, then you just want to know what the hell it is.

Teori belongs to the category of games Spectrum had plenty of—educational brainteasers for people who wanted more than just flying in Space Invaders. They weren't hits, weren't terrible, they were just games. It aged like a ten-year-old textbook—the content survived, the cover didn't.

Playing it today is worth it only if you enjoy figuring out rules from the game itself and don't have limited time for it. It's not for the hour before sleep. It's more a "come solve this for me" challenge for those who like to rack their brains. In a browser it runs without problems, but you'll spend at least a few minutes figuring out what it wants from you.