Murdac

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs

GAME DESIGNER:Jonathan Partington & Jon Thackray
GAME DEVELOPER:Topologika
GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware
Copyright 1989, Topologika

Murdac (by Avon designers Thackray and Partington) sees you flying off to the ancient land of Murdac. Your mission? To discover its secrets with the help – if you can call it that – of the old, wily witch Duessa. True to the game’s opening paragraph, “…in this challenging game you’ll meet ogres, cannibals, the Old Man of the Sea, endless hours of trudging until you come across a beatifully laid out garden and a small stone hut – where the secrets of Murdac will begin to be revealed!”

Murdac is in many ways a typical Topologika game: a “pure puzzle” adventure with hardly any plot development or character interaction. Puzzles are even more difficult than those in Avon, and requires the player to be very patient with a limited parser (which can’t understand some simple verbs, e.g. EXAMINE), and be very observant of room descriptions, which usually contain a clue or two about the current puzzle. All in all, a fun dungeon romp that’s worth a visit if you like Zork, although it is nowhere near as addictive.