The Lurking Horror
Description official descriptions
Despite a terrible snowstorm, a young G.U.E. Tech student travels to the school's computer lab to work on his grad paper. However, something strange has happened. The file containing the student's document has been partially overwritten by the Department of Alchemy's files. At first the student's only goal is to retrieve his lost document, but soon he realizes that something far more sinister is occurring in the depths of the school building.
The Lurking Horror is Infocom's only horror-themed text adventure game. The game is set in the haunted school building, in the midst of a blizzard that rendered escape impossible. The player explores the environments and has to solve puzzles to overcome obstacles. There are hostile creatures in the game, most of which must be defeated or outsmarted by using specific items.
Groups +
Screenshots
Credits (Amiga version)
| Founder | |
| Architect | |
| Sound Engineer |
Reviews
Trivia
Copy protection
Copy protection for the game required the user to input the correct Student ID number and password into a computer terminal.
Extras
(From the Infocom Home Page site)
The game contained "G.U.E. at a Glance" (G.U.E. Tech guide), a G.U.E. Tech student ID card, and a red rubber centipede (between two sheets of clear plastic).
References
- The college you find yourself at is George Underwood Edwards Tech, aka G.U.E. Tech. GUE was the abbreviation for the Great Underground Empire from the Zork series, also published by Infocom.
- G.U.E. Tech was based on MIT, the alma mater of most of Infocom's employees. Locations in the game are similar, along with various MIT slang.
Sound
Lurking Horror featured sound for certain systems (like Amiga). Do you want your version of LH to have sound? As of 2000, the missing sound files and a utility to upgrade your .DAT file were available via anonymous ftp from ftp.gmd.de at if-archive/infocom/missing-files, and the file was called LHSOUND.ZIP.
Unofficial Sequel
The premise and setting (radically recast as "PUE Tech") are revisited in Jason Davis's 1991 Amstrad CPC text adventure The Smirking Horror, written with the "Graphic Adventure Creator" (GAC).
Awards
- Happy Computer
- Issue 01/1988 - Best Text Adventure in 1987
Information also contributed by Afterburner, Adan Baratz, Belboz, Chike Mikesell and Pseudo_Intellectual
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Related Sites +
-
Infocom Home Page
Fan site with comprehensive Infocom coverage -
Lurking Horror Elevator Game
Working Z Machine File. -
The Commodore Zone
All about the game with introduction, images, related links and comments area. -
The Infocom Gallery
High-quality scans of the grey box package and manual of The Lurking Horror.
Identifiers +
- MobyGames ID: 475
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Tony Van.
Apple II added by Droog. Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit added by Kabushi. Macintosh, Amiga added by Terok Nor. Amstrad PCW added by Игги Друге. Commodore 64, Atari ST added by Belboz.
Additional contributors: Pseudo_Intellectual, David Ledgard, mo , c64fan, Patrick Bregger, theclue.
Last modified February 22nd, 2023.