In 1986, Silicon Beach Software released World Builder, software for creating adventure games with a text interface and accompanying black-and-white graphics.
Four years later, Ray Dunakin released "Ray's Maze", a World Builder-based puzzle game that was both addictive and immersive, despite (or perhaps because of?) the primitive graphics. Ray would go on to release two sequals in the same universe, "Another Fine Mess" (1992) and "A Mess O’ Trouble" (1994).
The games found me via mail-order shareware floppy disks circa 1998. I played them for hours, days, months on end. I never beat a single one. They can be downloaded, but are hard to play without a classic macintosh. "A Mess O’ Trouble" has been ported to run on modern macs.
Now, decades later, I have managed to beat one of these games: "Another Fine Mess" (with the exception of one puzzle).
... On "Ray's Maze" I can't figure out how to kill the lava monster or what the balloon is for.
... On "A Mess O’ Trouble", I payed for the latest mac port, which includes an invaluable book of hints and maps. I remember playing through nearly all of it, but I can't remember how it ends or whether I ultimately finished it.
The community of players has all-but vanished, but to me these games are still better than many modern releases.
If anyone else is our there, still playing, thirty years later, I've drawn up a map of the parts of Ray's maze that I've been able to access. Perhaps we may yet learn how it ends.
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