Jinxter
| Jinxter | |
|---|---|
| Studio | Magnetic scrolls |
| Publisher | Rainbird software |
| Senior Developer | Georgina Sinclair, Michael Bywater |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1987 |
| platform | Acorn Archimedes , Amiga , Amstrad CPC , Amstrad PCW , Apple II , Apple Macintosh , Atari 8-bit , Atari ST , Commodore 64 , DOS , Spectrum +3 |
| genre | Text adventure |
| Game mode | Single player |
| control | keyboard |
| medium | Cassette, floppy disk |
| language | English |
| Current version | 1.3 |
Jinxter is a text adventure game with graphics from Magnetic Scrolls from 1987.
action
Jinxter is part of the Science Fantasy genre . The location of the plot is the fictional land of Aquitania, which bears clear traits of Great Britain in the first half of the 20th century. Centuries ago Aquitania was threatened by the power of the evil Green Witches, but the magician Turani succeeded in creating an artifact called "Turani's Bangle" which contained pure luck, distributed over Aquitania and thereby kept the Green Witches in check. However, the Grand Witch Jannedor devised a plan to break the power of the bracelet. Jannedor stole the bracelet, removed the five magical talismans attached to it, hid them in different places, and waited for the bracelet's magic to become weak enough to destroy it and then wreak havoc on Aquitania. This is where the game begins: The five talismans must be found promptly and put back into Turani's bracelet, otherwise Aquitania will run out of luck and the country will fall under the influence of the Green Witches. The player is recruited by a mysterious organization called "Guardians" and is given the task of freeing his friend Xam, who was kidnapped by the Green Witches, to get the five talismans, to put them together with Turani's bracelet, to defeat Jannedor with the help of the restored bracelet and to defeat hers Destroy castle.
Game principle and technology
Jinxter is a text adventure, that is, the environment and events are displayed as text on the screen and the actions of the player are also entered as text via the keyboard. In almost all versions, hand-drawn still images illustrating the scenery are displayed; only the Spectrum + 3 and Apple II versions have to manage without any graphic background due to the limited memory. Unlike most text adventures of the time, in Jinxter it is next to impossible to die and lose the game like that. Whatever dangerous thing you do as a player, one of the mysterious Guardians always comes and saves the player. A fatal faux pas is only possible in the context of the final encounter with Jannedor.
Production notes
Jinxter is the third Magnetic Scrolls adventure game after The Pawn and The Guild of Thieves . It was originally written by Georgina Sinclair, sister of Magnetic Scrolls co-founder Anita Sinclair. Due to discrepancies between Anita and Georgina, however, Michael Bywater, editor of the British satirical magazine "Punch", had to rewrite the entire script within three weeks. Jinxter included an "Old-Moose-Bolter" beer lid, a sealed envelope with work instructions for Guardians and a copy of the "Independent Guardian", a daily newspaper for members of the "Guardians" organization.
reception
Jinxter received generally positive reviews in the trade press.
| magazine | Rating | link |
|---|---|---|
| Amiga Computing | 70% | |
| Happy computer | 86/100 | |
| Power play | 8/10 | |
| The Games Machine | 92% | |
| Your Sinclair | 9/10 |
The clever plot, the atmospheric text descriptions, the humor of the game and the beautiful graphics were praised. The very specific parser was criticized in some places .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ MSChronicles.com: Jinxter Trivia ( Memento of July 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ BirdSanctuary.co.uk: Jinxter - Packaging ( Memento of March 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Dave Eriksson: Jinxter . In: Amiga Computing . 1, No. 5, October 1988, p. 12.
- ↑ Boris Schneider : Jinxter . In: Happy Computer . January 1988, p. 88.
- ↑ Anatol Locker : Jinxter . In: Power Play . January 1988, p. 84.
- ↑ Rob Steel: Jinxter . In: The Games Machine . No. 3, February 1988, p. 75.
- ↑ Mike Gerrard: Jinxter . In: Your Sinclair . No. 30, June 1988.