Gnome Ranger
Developed by:
Level 9 Computing, Ltd.
Level 9 Computing Ltd was founded in 1981 in the United Kingdom by three brothers: Mike, Pete and Nick Austin. Its aim was to produce and publish high quality text adventures initially for the BBC computer, and later the company expanded to other 8-bit and 16-bit computers of that era.
Mainly due to the decline in sales of text based adventures at the end of the 80s, Level 9 Computing had to close down in mid 1991. In the ten years in between it published over 20 main titles plus some licensed titles which have helped shape the adventure scene. Most of those releases were highly appreciated (and compared against those of Infocom). The theme of these adventures was initially set in fantasy and Middle Earth (which yielded the compilation: Jewels of Darkness), and later it published adventures with a Sci-Fi theme (Silicon Dreams trilogy). In the mid-80s it added relative rudimentary graphics to new and existing releases.
Multiplayer:
No Multiplayer
Platform:
Rated:
1 x
Current rating:
Uploaded by:
Anonymous
Your rating:
Not rated -
login
- and rate
Description
Released in 1987 by Level 9, Gnome Ranger is a text adventure game. The central character in this game is
Ingrid Bottomlaw, a gifted Gnome, who has been banished by her family, who were displeased with her for going
to University. Ingrid must now find her way back to the village, and the player must keep her safe from
the imminent dangers in the forest.
To keep Ingrid safe, the player must perform three tasks, each relating to animal, vegetable, and mineral
respectively. In the first task, the player needs to Get past an evil witch by defeating her, followed by
solving the riddle of the teapot in the second task, before moving on to the third task of a mineral nature.
The player can use commands such as GOTO, FOLLOW, and FIND for navigation. The other characters in the game
can be controlled using the GIVE, THEN, and FIND commands. The player needs to unite the other characters,
each with their own motives, to solve puzzles and ultimately reunite Ingrid with her family. The player also must
collect useful items and explore various settings to solve the puzzles during the game.
As is the norm with text adventures, the game is completely silent, but, the game adds an element of humor by
adding a 'g' at the start of all words starting with n - 'gnot' and 'gnormally' for example.
The writing of the game is impressive with detailed and enjoyable descriptions. There is also a novella included
in the game describing Ingrid's antics after her graduation that makes for an enjoyable read.
Gnome ranger was followed by a sequel titled 'Ingid's back'.
Comments