Do you know why I liked Oregon Trail? Because you could name your players. You could cause your worst enemy to get diphtheria and drown in the Snake River. All it took was a few keystrokes and a miscreant mind. And how about text adventures? Gotta love those. I used to play them all the time on our old Vic-20. I had one with pirates and one with a haunted castle of some sort, and then my dad started inventing text adventures on paper during camping trips, and then my brother and I learned Basic and started programming our own, and I made a Back to the Future 3 one, which rocked. And then there's Sleuth. Andrea sent this to me and told me she loved it, and that I should play it. And so I did. This text adventure from 1983 is your basic ripoff of Clue -- you're a detective who must solve a murder by interviewing suspects, searching for clues, and -- in the end -- making an accusation. Let's play a game, shall we? Now, normally, I wouldn't give one single care if Jessica was murdered; however, considering the suspects -- I would like nothing more than to see one of them go down for the crime. And so I will solve this murder, or else I'll die trying. Okay, so here we are at the entrance to the mansion. Those white lines on the mustard-yellow background? Those are rooms, couldn't you tell? It's time to explore. Oh hey, look... Paris Hilton's in here! Paris, sitting there all smug. YOU did it, didn't you, Paris! Admit it! YOU WANTED TO BE THE #1 BLONDE REALITY SHOW DIVA! DIDN'T YOU! DIDN'T YOU! I don't belieeeve you. But I have other suspects to smack... er, question. Be right back. La la la, here I go toward the stairs and... AUGH!!! Quick shove down the stairs oughta do it... wait, what? Colin and Aaron are in love with each other, I KNEW IT! But first I must make sure Aaron corroborates this story. Wha-- oh, crap! *runs* Oh wait, I just found Aaron. Must interrogate... Their stories match up! Okay, moving on... and I need to find a magnifying glass... Hey, look, it's Nick -- husband of the victim. He probably had the strongest motive. And why is his pacing like that? It looks like GUILTY PACING to me. So hey, Nick... where were YOU last night? OMG you were doing it with your dead wife's sister? You jerk! That's it, I'm out of here, I can't take this anymore... Stalking me!?! What the hell? Oh man, where's the door? WHERE IS THE DOOR?! Is this it? Oh, no, this is the living room, not the -- oh hey, Hilary, how's it going? What? WHAT? That's it? Hilary Duff was the murderer? She killed Jessica and now she's locked me in the living room, intent upon chopping me into bits? Why can't I escape? Why isn't this like the Nancy Drew games, where I can whack the murderer over the head with a vase? I can't do that? I just have to die without a fight? I LOATHE YOU HILARY! I AM SO COMING BACK TO HAUNT YOU! So that, my friends, is Sleuth. And I suck at it. Want to download and play Sleuth? Click here! 4/24/2005 Leave a message in the guestbook to comment on this article. :) Back to Games Back to Main (c)2005 AlligatorJuice.com.