One of the problems with Spectrum games is that virtually all of them were too damn hard. At least, it seemed that way to me as a child anyway. There were very, very few I ever completed, or even got close to completing. I think Big Ben Strikes Again was one. Short Circuit, possibly with a cheat on, was another. I’m struggling to think of many others.
I do remember, however, completing the text adventure game Red Door. It was one of a series of coloured door related text adventures by Tartan Software, and came free on a Your Sinclair cover tape. Like most text adventures I played back then, I enjoyed them a lot but never got very far in many. Perhaps the puzzles were too obtuse, or the language or knowledge required was too grown up for me at the time, I don’t know. What I do know, is that with the help of a complete solution (also from Your Sinclair), I completed Red Door. Yes, that was essentially cheating.
Can I complete it now without a guide? Of course not. I’m still rubbish at text adventures. I have no idea what to do with the anubis (although unlike myself as a child, at least I know what one of them is now) for a start.
[includeme src=”http://torinak.com/qaop#l=https://lofi-gaming.org.uk/tools/speccygames/RED-DOOR.TAP” frameborder=”0″ width=”440″ height=”330″]
The emulator used is Qaop/JS – a rather spiffy HTML5 Spectrum emulator.
