A look at the Helen Stuckey case study of the game.
Helen Stuckey has done a great job of examining this game. Her piece is a well written case study that observes many aspects that make the game so special and ambitious for a game released in 1982.
She clearly sets out her intentions early, focuses on what makes the game unique and how well the developers did in fitting a relatively complex game into a 48k machine.
‘This paper explores The Hobbit’s dynamic gameworld. Reflecting
on the game’s design and its relation to Tolkien’s novel, the
discussion draws on the voices of players and their diverse
experiences to help explain how its database driven systems and
randomised routines made its simple world alive with possibility.
I also consider the importance of the analogue tasks of map
mapping and note making for the micro-adventurer..’
The writing is formal in style and certainly not that of a review. It takes a historical look at the games development with a clear account of the rise of the publishers Melbourne House. From the article we can see how popular computer games had already become in britain by this time, with the industry valued at $30-35 million.
The writer admits they had no personal memories to draw on from playing the game but did conduct interviews with both the developers and former players of the game. The piece is more of an examination than a critical appraisal, looking at the mechanics of the game and players reactions to it. It does make some observations on how impressive the game was for the time, not many text adventures had accompanying graphics to help set the scene. The games dynamic world with non-player characters performing actions out of sight of the player is also praised as being unique at the time of release.
Stuckey also observes the importance of the book itself in relation to the game. It is interesting that some of the puzzles will require the player to have read the book in order to solve them (the book was bundled with the game for some releases).
She looks at the ‘lost art’ of game-side map making. The only way to complete a game of this nature is to have a pen and paper beside you to map your progress, otherwise risking getting completely lost.
She also notes the imperfections in the game. There are bugs, and she remarks on the difficulty in ‘de-bugging’ complex games of this era. Particularly when, like the Hobbit, they are written in assembly language in order to squeeze as much as possible into limited available memory! This was a common problem in game development at the time. As Sid Meier (Civilisation) states in his autobiography – it was half the battle in making a game back then. Something had to give with such limited memory available, and it is testament to the developers that they managed to include some rudimentary graphics alongside a complex text adventure and pioneering AI!
I was 9 years old when this game was released and already a big fan of the book so I am gutted I never got to play the game. I never owned a Spectrum 48k. Starting with an Atari VCS, I eventually jumped to a Commodore 64 but never remember coming across the game or seeing any of my Spectrum owning friends playing it. This case study was a great examination of what should be considered an important piece of game development history.
Geoffwinton.com 