Lumpies of Lotis IV

I was killed by an alien wielding a #4 refreshment! This fact alone should reveal some of the completely alluring whimsy of this classic from the 8-bit age of Basic computer adventures. Apparently the game started out as an overhead view maze quest on a ZX-81/Timex 1000, but the Klein brothers kept working at it until it had morphed into a 3D perspective dungeon crawl on the PC, with a unique science fiction twist. The Lumpies are at the same time cute and somewhat terrifying, as are their choices of weapons. These range from the already mentioned #4 refreshment to 5/16th wrenches, to the more traditional, but not necessarily more deadly bombs. The game requires some skill at navigating and mapping a maze of passages and selecting when and when not to engage in combat with the Lumpies (with their incredible ability to turn anything to hand into a weapon). In the end you must free as many prisoners as possible and discover where the communications room lies, and then figure out what you need to do to get a distress call out to the people back on Earth. Along the way you must also find weapons and enough food to replenish yourself for more run'ins with the Lumpies. The mazes can become a little monotonous, but they demonstrate some clever use of the limited graphics capabilities provided by Basic on early 8-bit machines. You'll feel a satisfactory sense of accomplishment when that distress call finally brings rescue from Earth.