External Links
- Download from itch.io
Downloads include Z-code story file, disc images for Apple ][, Atari (XE or thereabouts), and Commodore 64, and hints.
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Estimated play time: 1 hour (based on 2 votes)
Members voted for the following times for this game:
- 1 hour: "Needed a hint from the author twice" — Adam Biltcliffe
- 1 hour: "with hints" — Passerine
About the Story
As one of the least-competent agents at MI5, you, Arthur Blonde, have spent most of your career on administrative probation, filing paperwork and bothering the ladies in the secretarial pool.
But it's 1962 and the cold war is smoldering. Yet another supervillain is threatening the tenuous peace between the superpowers and, thanks to budget cuts at MI5, you've been selected to fill the breach.
Your mission? Find Dr. Dipole, the evil mastermind behind the international crime syndicate "Zodiac", and destroy his lair. If you're successful, you can once again reclaim your self-imagined title of "Greatest Secret Agent in the World".
Awards
2nd Place overall; 1st Place, Writing; 2nd Place, Puzzles; 5th Place, Playability on 8-bit computers - PunyComp 2025
Ratings and Reviews
| Average Rating: Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 1 |
This parser game takes you to a mountain town in Europe where you have to foil an evil villain. You'll explore a casino, tunnels, hotel and lair, have a car chase, use gadgets, and commit sabotage.
I started this a few times and stopped each time. The game is really open early on and the parser isn't 100% responsive so it was hard to know if I was on a wild goose chase or if I was close to figuring out the right thing.
I ended up trying a third time and followed the hints file pretty much exclusively. There were a lot of clever things in there that I probably wouldn't have thought of on my own.
The game leans heavy into genre stereotypes but it feels like it comes from a place of love, making for a generally enjoyable parody.
Tags
Game Details
First Publication Date: December 1, 2025
Current Version: 1
Development System: Inform 6
IFID: D99CBC60-4098-4A5C-B0EA-BE71B09CCC91
TUID: o0hwer4w5zf07lcg
Zodiac - An Arthur Blonde Mission on IFDB
Polls
The following polls include votes for Zodiac - An Arthur Blonde Mission:Games that are like eating pizza by Adam Biltcliffe
Dan Harmon has a quote about how writing for entertainment is often like making pizza: people like eating pizza, even if you're not redefining the medium with every slice. So let's hear it for the games that didn't change your life or...
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This is version 4 of this page, edited by chuckster on 2 December 2025 at 9:05pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page
