Murder Cruise

The tag "primitive parser" says it all. This game is from the early days, and the parser supports almost none of the usual commands. You can't "examine", "look", or even "go". Instead, you type in the name of the room you would like to move to.

The premise is simple: you are solving a murder on a ship. The suspects are in different rooms and they say something to you when you enter. The game is a simple type of deductive logic game. As the opening paragraph states, NOBODY suspects the real murderer. So when a suspect accuses another suspect, you cross the accused off the list, eventually deducing the killer through process of elimination. The killer, location of the body, location of the suspects, and suspect accusations change each time you replay the game.

This game can be called "interactive fiction" only inasmuch as it has typed commands. There is no real interaction; it's only a simple deductive game, the type that I enjoyed when I was 8 and computers didn't have graphics. It's not worth playing unless you want a very brief and bugless trip down memory lane. It's about a 5 minute diversion that will remind you of your childhood in front of your Commodore 64.