Download


Play online
Play the BBC Micro version of the game online, or download it
Play this game in your Web browser.
Murdac.z5
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
Murdac.zip *
MS-DOS Application
Avon​_Murdac.pdf
documentation
To view this file, you need an Acrobat Reader for your system.
topologika​_manuals.zip *
documentation in HTML format
Murdac
T/​SAL source code
* Compressed with ZIP. Free Unzip tools are available for most systems at www.info-zip.org.

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 downloadable files
All updates to this page

Monsters of Murdac

by Jonathan Partington

Fantasy
1982

(based on 3 ratings)
No reviews yet - be the first

About the Story

The forests of Murdac are some of the oldest, as well as the wildest and most isolated, in the whole land. Also they don't take kindly to intruders -- although living on the outermost fringes of the great forest, you have never been able to penetrate it: every time that you followed a track into the dark woods, you found that it somehow turned and took you away from the secret heartlands of Murdac.

It became almost an obsession with you. 'What is the secret of Murdac?' you wondered, frustrated at every turn. In the land where nobody ever set foot, there was surely some dread mystery to be revealed.


Game Details

Language: English (en)
Current Version: 1.07
License: Former commercial
Development System: T/SAL
Forgiveness Rating: Cruel
Baf's Guide ID: 1356
IFID: ZCODE-1-111115-63AD
TUID: q36lh5np0q9nak28

Editorial Reviews

Baf's Guide


Regarding its overall concept, this game is very similar to Zork, except it's playing in a lower league - being smaller in size, and having a weaker parser, terser descriptions, and much less versatile characters. One good aspect of Monsters of Murdac is its hint system (you have got to download the game "feelies" available at the IF-Archive to be able to use it). On the other hand, I thought one couldn't do without the hints to win, because at least 30% of the puzzles were quite obscure (at least to my taste), and the whole thing was anything but fair (one illustration: at the very beginning (which effectively means - from the very first move), the player has got to solve a tightly timed puzzle crucial for his further progress, not even being told there's a problem to deal with). And, as with the vast majority of old-school games, there's a maze (admitted, it's a slight variation of the standard, but it still requires being mapped out). The aforementioned accompanying materials, as well as the intro to the game, hint at a fancy story, but these promises remain unfulfilled. In spite of all these flaws, I can't say I'm regretting the time spent on Murdac - some puzzles were fun, and, being a former commercial game, it's very well polished and thoroughly tested. Plus (although that's not applicable to me), it possesses a certain nostalgic value. Still, if puzzles aren't your main attraction in text adventures, you'd better try something else.

-- Valentine Kopteltsev

Tags

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

(Log in to add your own tags)

If you enjoyed Monsters of Murdac...

Related Games

People who like Monsters of Murdac also gave high ratings to these games:

The People's Glorious Revolutionary Text Adventure Game, by Taylor Vaughan
Average member rating: (53 ratings)
Sure, there's only five of you against a world full of reactionaries, but you have Revolutionary Spirit! You can't possibly fail. Nothing can stand in your way! Now if only you could find your Revolutionary to-do list...

Harmonic Time-Bind Ritual Symphony, by Ben Kidwell and Maevele Straw
Average member rating: (11 ratings)
A musician's manic episode binds fiction and reality into a joyful union.

Hollywood Hijinx, by Dave Anderson, Liz Cyr-Jones
Average member rating: (26 ratings)
Vampire Penguins. A Corpse Line. Meltdown on Elm Street. Who could forget these classic Hollywood movies produced by your uncle, Buddy Burbank? But his greatest masterpiece has yet to be experienced... Hollywood Hijinx, starring you!...

Suggest a game

Recommended Lists

Monsters of Murdac appears in the following Recommended Lists:

I Was A Teenage Adventure Gamer by J. J. Guest
I grew up playing IF on the Acorn Electron, and later the BBC Master Compact. My aim here is to create a complete list of all the games that were in my collection back in the 8-bit era. It is not a Recommended List as such. Most of the...

Polls

The following polls include votes for Monsters of Murdac:

Games With Unfair Beginnings by Canalboy
By this I mean games that can be made unwinnable near the start or have hellish opening puzzles.




This is version 12 of this page, edited by Anthony Hope on 1 August 2020 at 1:22pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item