Timequest
Entry updated 2 April 2015. Tagged: Game.
Videogame (1991). Legend Entertainment. Designed by Robert Bates. Platforms: DOS.
TimeQuest is an illustrated text Adventure in which the player, adopting the role of an operative in a future organization of Time Police, must undo the alterations to history made by a rogue agent before they become irreversible. The basic structure of the game is modular (see Interactive Narrative); many different points in space-time, each of which corresponds to a Jonbar Point which must be restored to its historical state, can be visited in any order. The tone is generally dry; TimeQuest's designer was clearly more concerned with the presentation of intriguing intellectual puzzles than with the construction of a compelling narrative. Nevertheless, there are a number of amusing moments, and Bates was happy to alter various factual details to make the game more entertaining, despite a general emphasis on historical authenticity. TimeQuest was by no means the first text Adventure to deal with Time Travel, but it is perhaps the most accomplished such work, revelling in its convoluted Time Paradoxes. [NT]
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