External Links

Commercial game not available for download.
Salvaged Copy
The source files and a precompiled ZMachine storyfile of this adventure were recovered from a salvaged "Infocom hard drive", and made publicly available on GitHub in an effort to preserve them.

Have you played this game?

You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in.

Playlists and Wishlists

RSS Feeds

New member reviews
Updates to external links
All updates to this page

Moonmist

by Stu Galley and Jim Lawrence

Mystery
1986

(based on 42 ratings)
5 reviews

About the Story

More ghosts haunt the misty sea-coast and stone ramparts of Cornwall than anyplace else on earth. One such soul roams Tresyllian Castle: a pale phantom with flaxen hair and a luminous, flowing gown. It seems like a fanciful legend... until the spectral "White Lady" threatens the life of your friend Tamara!

Arriving at the fog-shrouded castle, you meet a cast of eccentric characters ranging from a blue-blood debutante to an overly helpful butler. Has one of them donned the ghostly guise of the White Lady? Or has the drowned lover of Lord Jack, Tamara's fiancé, returned to haunt her successor? Perhaps the spectre is seeking the valuable treasure hidden somewhere in the lavish rooms and secret passageways of the castle. The solution to the mystery, as well as the location of the treasure, changes in each of the four variations of Moonmist.

Get ready to spend the night in a haunted castle. But don't sleep too soundly. The next victim might be you.

Difficulty: Introductory


Game Details

Editorial Reviews

SPAG

The writing tries to convey a sense of the castle, but fails. Much of the description is left to the tour booklet included in the packaging, so the game itself neglects to add those touches necessary to make the locations spring to life. There are four variations possible in the game, but they did not add replayability as much as they made the plot feel random.
-- Stephen Granade
See the full review

Tags

- View the most common tags (What's a tag?)

(Log in to add your own tags)
Tags you added are shown below with checkmarks. To remove one of your tags, simply un-check it.

Enter new tags here (use commas to separate tags):

Member Reviews

5 star:
(3)
4 star:
(13)
3 star:
(19)
2 star:
(6)
1 star:
(1)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 5
Write a review


Most Helpful Member Reviews


9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Four enjoyable mysteries, September 7, 2010
by Victor Gijsbers (The Netherlands)

Like Seastalker, which I reviewed earlier this week, Moonmist is an Infocom game aimed at younger interactors. However, Moonmist is far more successful. Rather than writing down to children, or assuming that for a kid being given responsibility is enough of a thrill, we are treated to a solid combination of gothic horror and detective stories that is quite enjoyable for readers of any age.

This is not to say that Moonmist's plot and characterisation are deep: this is standard stuff. We are in an old castle. The previous lover of the young local lord has died or been killed; his new lover, a female friend of ours, has been threatened. In addition, a ghost haunts the castle. And finally, the previous lord has hidden a fabled treasure somewhere on the premises and uses hidden clues and audio-taped messages to direct us towards it. The eight guests, all of whom might be somehow implicated in the plot, are quite stereotypical: the older female artist, the grumpy doctor, the young débutante, and so on. Nevertheless: stuff is going on, the characterisations are miles beyond those of Seastalker, the British setting is British, there is atmosphere, the descriptions are almost lush, and we even get Edgar Allen Poe quotes.

After an introductory sequence, gameplay mostly consists of searching the castle for clues. There are of course secret passages, cryptic clues (including wordplay and riddles), and lots of hidden objects. You will be spending a lot of your time walking through the castle, which is large, and although you will unfortunately need to read some of the room descriptions from the feelies (hello, copy protection scheme!) this is generally enjoyable. Plus, you can instantly go to any room, person or object you have previously seen. With several different tasks to perform (follow the clues to the treasure, find out who the ghost is, find out what really happened to the dead woman) you won't quickly run out of ideas, especially since the difficulty isn't high. One tip: if you successfully "search" something, do it again, because there can be more than one object hidden.

At the beginning of the game, you are asked to state your favourite colour. This seems an innocuous question, but it is actually very important: choosing red, blue, green or yellow starts one of four completely different scenarios. (Choosing another colour will randomly select one.) The treasure will be different, hidden in a different place, and different clues will lead to it. The ghost will be someone else, and the real story behind the death will be different too. Thus, Moonmist is really four games in one; and although solving one will help you solve the others, it will far from make it automatic.

All in all, then, very enjoyable. It's not in the end truly memorable, but as a relaxed gothic detective romp, there is nothing wrong with it either. Three-and-a-half stars.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Classic Infocom style and play. A bit dated now but enjoyable still., March 13, 2022

Moonmist is an interactive fiction computer game written by Stu Galley and Jim Lawrence and published by Infocom in 1986.

** Be sure to grab the "extras" package on the internet - originally paper brochures that came in the original packaging, they will enhance your experience if you can grab them as a pdf and read prior to starting the game.

The player's character is a young detective, asked by friend Tamara Lynd to investigate her new home of Tresyllian Castle in Cornwall, England. Tamara has recently become engaged to the castle's lord, Jack Tresyllian. She was very happy until she began seeing what appeared to be The White Lady, a ghost who has allegedly haunted the castle for centuries.

As if seeing a ghost wasn't nerve-racking enough, she's also begun to fear for her life. Is Tamara's imagination just overly excited from living in a large old castle, or is someone really trying to kill her? And if her life is in danger, is it from a ghost or someone using it as a disguise?

I enjoyed the atmosphere created, and exploring an old coastal castle and its secrets was fun. It could have used more depth and playability (perhaps instead of splitting it into 4 parts that doesn't really extend playability, just shorten it?)

Interesting twist when I realised the consequences to answering my favorite colour at the start, and not just that the guest room happened to be made in that colour!

Well worth a few hours of your time.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Classic but still a jolly jape, April 11, 2020
by eldis (UK)

Interesting playing a game that was set in Cornwall, UK by the sea but doesn't allow you to go explore outside much.
The castle is quite interesting and easy to explore. The mysteries are all pretty simple and straight forward and 1 or 2 clues allow you to solve the main one. The other ones can be solved by just exploring everywhere and examining everything.
I liked the layout of the castle but it did feel very simplified. There was also a classic Infocom maze, but thankfully easy to navigate.
I enjoyed the game and it's a good way into the IF genre.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

See All 5 Member Reviews

Moonmist on IFDB

Recommended Lists

Moonmist appears in the following Recommended Lists:

Detective and mystery games by MathBrush
These are games where you play a detective or someone else investigating a mystery. Most of them are realistic games which I am splitting off of my realistic list. Some are more magical or science fi-ish.

Infocom Salvaged Adventures by Tristano
List of the Infocom adventures that were recovered from the salvaged Infocom hard drive, and their source code was published on GitHub in April 2019 by Jason Scott for educational purposes and in an attempt to preserve them from...

The Canonical Infocom Games by wfaulk
This is a list of the canonical Infocom games in order of release, as according to the Infocom Fact Sheet.

Polls

The following polls include votes for Moonmist:

Most inappropriate response. by Biep
Sometimes responses simply don't make sense - but sometimes they DO make sense, but inappropriately so, with sometimes humorous results. If possible, please put how to elicit the response in the Quick Quote part of the comment, and the...

Games for Beginners by WriterBob
I'm looking for games that are suited for adults who are new to IF. My purpose is to share these games with friends and let them get experience IF without being frustrated by mazes or guess-the-verb issues. Please avoid children's games....

Games with Replay Value by Lance Cirone
These are games that you can come to again and again, even after you beat them. It could be a story-heavy game where you won't connect all the dots until you run through it a second or third time, or an expansive core mechanic that...

See all polls with votes for this game




This is version 7 of this page, edited by Petter Sjölund on 27 September 2021 at 9:37am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page