Odieus's Quest for the Magic Flingshot

Odieus's Quest for the Magic Flingshot is a small text adventure with an unusual history: nobody knows who wrote it. It first appeared in 1987 on the CompuServe gamers' forum with no author attached, and was later ported to newer adventure systems by enthusiasts — among them David Malmberg, co-author of the AGT system, who converted it as a programming exercise. The DOS version from 1993 hosted here comes from that wave of conversions.

The plot is knowingly silly. You play Odieus, a distinctly unheroic hero whose magic flingshot — yes, a slingshot, but a magical one — has been stolen by the villainous Blackwing. Getting it back involves exploring the surroundings, picking up objects and solving small puzzles in the classic mould: go north, take thing, use thing in the right place.

Text adventures of this generation live or die by their parser, and this one uses a simple two-word model. Anything more elaborate confuses it, so part of the game is hunting for the verb it wants to hear. It is also short — a seasoned player will finish in an evening — and the humour is amiable rather than sharp.

Why bother, then? Partly because it is a lovely specimen of the amateur adventure scene that thrived on bulletin boards and CompuServe long before web archives existed, and partly because there is a peculiar charm in playing a game whose author never stepped forward. If you have never tried interactive fiction, its modest size makes it a fairly gentle introduction — just be ready to type in English.

You can start Odieus's hunt on oldgame.cz right in your browser and begin typing commands straight away.