Hook

Moby ID: 20230
DOS Specs
See Also

Description official description

Peter Banning is an ordinary suburban dad with two kids - or so everyone thinks. What not even his family know is his past as Peter Pan, scourge of Captain Hook in JM Barrie's children's fiction. Captain Hook gains revenge on Banning by stealing his two children, so Peter must return to Neverland, return to eternal childhood, and get them back.

It's a point and click adventure, and the pirate setting ensures that it recalls the Monkey Island games. The top 2/3 of the screen features a visual depiction of the area Peter is in, which a row of icons along the bottom can be selected to alter the function of a mouse click. These include looking at an object, picking it up, talking to people, using objects to solve problems (often in combination with others), and giving objects to others.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (DOS version)

14 People

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 69% (based on 23 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 13 ratings with 1 reviews)

Quite a good game... my first bought game too (so this is sentimentally biased)

The Good
I was fond of the movie "Hook", so I enjoyed this ride in Neverland. It's a classical point and click adventure, quite funny, with plenty of tough puzzles. Some graphics were brilliant at the time. Several great ideas... like the faces of Captain Hook and Peter Banning on the lower part of the screen, smiling and laughing according to your actions.

The Bad
Well... it was a bit bugged. I played with the french version, and the game wasn't localized properly : problems with text (not or badly translated), and stuff like that. Animation was a bit poor too, and puzzles were sometimes not explained at all, you had to figure out where to click (oh yeah, some misplaced "clicking zones" too...).

The Bottom Line
It is definitely not THE adventure game of all times... Lots of bugs, but funny and offering nice challenges... and well, it's one of the first game I've ever played, so I am sentimentally attached to it. :)

DOS · by TheSmashingPenguin (50) · 2005

Discussion

Subject By Date
How to skip credits? Nowhere Girl (8680) Sep 18, 2019

Trivia

Copy protection

The Amiga version was protected using a variant of the Rob Northen Copylock routine, in that a failed second protection check would cause a key item, namely a mug, to disappear from the game. This was done in hopes that crackers would only detect and remove the first standard check and fail to notice subsequent checks with more subtle in-game consequences. According to an interview with programmer Bobby Earl, this turned out to be the case for at least one of the early cracked versions of the game.

The copy-protection used in the PC version was similar to that of some Software Toolworks games of the early 1990's; the diskettes were protected, but the installed versions were not -- but the installed versions were custom-tailored to your PC so that you couldn't use them on other computers. Here is an excerpt from the read.me file that came with the game:

Due to the complex nature of the file system used in Hook, it may no longer function correctly if any major hardware attributes of your PC change in any way (e.g. adding extra RAM or an additional Hard Disk). If this is the case then you must re-install Hook from the original floppy disks.

German version

The German translation was plagued by the fact that the game didn't implement the special chars in German language (such as ä,ö,ü and ß). Any dialogue containing these characters became distorted. This was the same on the Amiga version of the game.

Technology

Hook was one of the first smooth-scrolling adventure games on the PC, using a 256-color tweaked VGA mode (though all the in-game art comes from the Amiga version (32 colors)).

Information also contributed by phlux

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Grappling Hook
Released 2009 on Macintosh, Windows, Linux
Cyber Hook
Released 2020 on Windows, 2021 on Nintendo Switch, 2022 on PlayStation 4
Energy Hook
Released 2016 on Linux, Windows, Macintosh
Dead Hook
Released 2023 on Quest, PlayStation 5, 2024 on Windows
Stickman Hook
Released 2018 on iPhone, Browser, 2019 on Android
Hook Champ
Released 2009 on iPhone
Gravity Hook
Released 2008 on Browser
Hook 2
Released 2022 on Linux, Windows, Macintosh...
Gravity Hook HD
Released 2010 on Browser, iPhone, iPad

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 20230
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Martin Smith.

DOS added by Corn Popper.

Additional contributors: Corn Popper, PoliticallyCorrupt, Patrick Bregger.

Game added December 2, 2005. Last modified September 21, 2023.