THE ADVENTURER

Playing & solving adventure games

Downloading and buying adventures	Getting assistance for the game
Playing text-adventures	What is the UHS?

In order to play an adventure, you must first buy or download one. Most text-adventures are freeware, which means you can download and play them free of charge. Newer graphical adventures are probably not. You'll have to buy these adventures. If you want to download a text-adventure, the best place to do so is at ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games. If you're not familiar with FTP or you don't want to browse the FTP index, go to the download page. If you want to buy an adventure, you can visit the site of the company that made the game by going to our list of game publishers.

Additionally, you can also play some Infocom text-adventures on-line, using Java. Go to our Playing adventures on-line for more information.

Infocom adventures

If you ever download a file with a .z* (where * can be any number from 3 to 8) extension, you'll need an Infocom interpreter to run the game. Interpreters are available for most systems, including older ones like the Amiga and TSR-80. If you want to download one, view our interpreters page. Information on creating Infocom games is availabe in the Creating your own adventure games section. If you would like to get more information on Infocom, the best place to go to is the INFOCOM Homepage. This site contains virtually everything there is to know about Infocom.

TADS adventures

TADS files can be recognized by their .gam extension. If you ever download one of these files, you'll need a TADS compiler to run the game. If you want to download one, view our download page. Information on creating TADS games is available in the Creating your own adventure games.
In addition, Tela Design has made a website all about TADS, which can be found at: http://www.tela.bc.ca/tela/tads/.

If you buy an adventure, you will receive a manual along with the game. The manual should provide you with enough information to install and run the game. If you're experiencing any difficulty, you should contact the game's publisher by going to their website and requesting technical assistance.

Adventures can be very difficult. Complex puzzles are seldom solved without difficulty. Sometimes, a puzzle can be so hard, that you get stuck. You can't think of any solution to the problem you're facing, nothing seems to work. Don't think you're the only one! Even the most experienced adventure game players get stuck. Besides, it wouldn't be much fun if there was no challenge. Finding a solution to the problem you haven't been able to master for days gives an incredible satisfaction, but not being able to find one is very irritable.

That's why there are lots of spoilers and hint files you can download to solve that one puzzle. A spoiler is a document in which is explained how to complete the game, thereby spoiling it. If you're really desperate, a spoiler can be very useful, but there are better ways to get the help you want. The best source to download these spoilers is The Spoiler Centre. Use the search engine below to look for a particular spoiler, or go to the Spoiler Centre main page .

Spoiler search engine:

The UHS is one of the better ways to solve puzzles. UHS is an abbreviation of Universal Hint System. This program, made by Jason Strautman, reveals the solution in several steps, beginning with subtle nudges, and finally complete solutions. This ensures that you only receive the amount of help you want, and gives you an opportunity to solve puzzles on your own. For more information on the UHS, go to the UHS page.