If you like cheesy text games, then check out my online version of Taipan, the Apple ][ classic. Just telnet to 208.235.26.66 and log in as “guest”.
Comments appreciated!
Spitzoli, this forum is for questions that have a factual answer. What you’re asking fits much better over in our MPSIMS forum; I’ll move it over there for you.
heck yes! i still have my apple ][e, and whenever i get a craving for a good game, i pop zork I, II, or III in and i’m set for hours.
that or i’ll get really bored and start coding my own game in (gasp) BASIC…
I love these sort of games, too, both the resource management type and the adventure/puzzler. Zork I found a little frustrating to be honest, but there were many other text adventures put out by Infocom that were just terrific. I think my favorite was Wishbringer. A little on the easy side, but a great story.
By the way, I found it kind of difficult to play the game using Windows telnet. If you listed the port number, would it work to connect with a mud client? (I’m going to assume that people who like text games are familiar with what a MUD is :))
I’m presently addicted to a MUD called Act of War, a diehard PK mud. If you see me in chat and I’m not responding, that’s where I am. 
I’m a rabid text-based gamer. And since I’ve gotta head home soon if I want to avoid rush hour, I’ll just give a quick plug:
The official interactive fiction competition is a gosh-darn good place to hang out. This year’s comp ends in one day, so you’ve pretty much missed it, but it’s been growing in popularity every year since its inception in 1995.
And the ftp.gmd.de/if-archive interactive-fiction archive is a great place to go to get all the freeware games. (Note that this does not include abandonware, and no pirated games are available at either of the locations listed above. However, most (if not all) modern IF authors release games as freeware.)
Text-based adventures forever, baby.
Any Zork game was worth playing. Too bad the series died a quiet death. They released the last one and said by the next Christmas a new one would be released. That Christmas came and went a few years ago.
Leather Goddesses of Phobos was a good one. The first and only text adventure I know of with a Scratch and Sniff card. I just got out the card. There’s pizzia, banana, and five other putrid scents.
I used to love an Apple ][ text-based game called “Adventure Land.” I recall it having objects like aladdin’s lamp, a magic carpet, Paul Bunyan’s ox Babe and other legendary stuff. The object (as I recall) was to find enough treasures to make it to 100 points, but the best I was ever able to do was 92. 12 treasures…I could never find that elusive # 13…if it existed.
I also played similar games with a Western theme and a carnival theme, but I was never as good at them as with Adventure Land.
If there’s a PC version of those games, I’d grab it in a second.
I second that motion! We had a couple of text based adventure games for our TRS-80. (Cannot remember if it was for the Model 1 or the Model 3, Dad was big on Radio Shack.) I was not great at them but I was quite proud of myself when I solved one. I think it was named “Pirate Adventure” or something like that.
I think I played the “Adventure Land” one as well. Did it have a river of lava that you had to damn with bricks? I got through most of it except there was a sleeping dragon and a bee hive. The game kept giving me a clue to “Dragon Sting” but could never figure out what to do.
Geez, that was 15+ years ago…
Regards
Taipan is one rockin’ game. I finally found it again after 15 years at Classicgaming.com, and play it on an emulator. It can still entertain me for about an hour a month.
Amazing - how such a simple game with barely any graphics can be so captivating.
BTW, in 15 years, I’ve met only ONE other person who has even heard of this game.