Denis Through the Drinking Glass
Description official descriptions
Margaret Thatcher's late husband Denis was known to like a drop of gin, a fact frequently exploited by satirical magazine Private Eye. As such, this text adventure stars you as Denis, on his quest to escape Number 10 Downing Street (and Maggie) to get to the Gravedigger's Arms pub.
Denis must get a drink within 10 moves, or else it is game over. The location descriptions are written in an unusual style, set to rhyme and featuring wry observations about the drudgery of political life from Denis' unique position. Similarly, the Help feature often gives terse, sarcastic and less-than-helpful responses.
As you progress through the game, mock headlines from The Sun newspaper appear to comment on your situations. The game is written in Quill, a popular adventure creation package from Gilsoft themselves.
Groups +
Screenshots
Credits (Atari 8-bit version)
Text | |
Storyline | |
Programming |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 83% (based on 1 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.0 out of 5 (based on 3 ratings with 0 reviews)
Be the first to review this game!
Trivia
Cancelled successor
Applications Software later worked on another adventure in a similar vein, called The Tebbit (a play on
Title
If this game's name rings a little bell, you are thinking of Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
First commercial Quill game
The Spectrum version of Denis Through the Drinking Glass was the first commercially released game written using The Quill. It was released on November 5th, 1983 not long after The Quill first appeared.
Poetic style
Author Roger Taylor liked to say that Denis was "the only adventure game written entirely in doggerel".
Old joke references
One of the reasons the game is almost impossibly hard to play now is that it assumes that as well as a detailed knowledge of UK politics and media circa 1983, you are also familiar with a number of corny old jokes. For example, one of the early puzzles in the game will only make sense if you know that the answer to "Why do policemen have bigger balls than firemen?" is "Because they sell more tickets!"
Analytics
Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!
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.
Electron added by S Olafsson. BBC Micro added by Kabushi.
Additional contributors: Pseudo_Intellectual, Patrick Bregger, James Byrne.
Game added March 29, 2005. Last modified February 22, 2023.