The Time Machine
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The Time Machine ZX Spectrum Front Cover

Published by

Released

1981

Platforms

Atari 8-bit, BBC Micro, Browser, Colour Genie, Commodore 16, Plus/4, Commodore 64, Dragon 32/64, Electron, Oric, TRS-80, VIC-20, ZX Spectrum

Genre

Adventure

Perspective

1st-person

Visual

Fixed / flip-screen

Gameplay

Interactive fiction / text adventure

Interface

Setting

Not an American user?

Description

The Time Machine is the second in the Mysterious Adventure series of text adventures by Brian Howarth. You are a newspaper reporter, come to investigate the eccentric professor who lives all by himself out on the moors. You start the game in a swamp and must find your way to an old manor house. When you get there, you find the place deserted though. Ultimately you must rescue the professor by finding 3 missing prisms which control his time machine, which are lost in time. Items found in one destination sometimes have to be used in another.

As the other games in the series, the game uses an interpreter similar to the Scott Adams adventure engine, and thus also has the same limitations - a basic 2-word parser, limited vocabulary, and brief descriptions. Illustrations are included in Spectrum, C64, Dragon and Oric ports.

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Screenshots

The Time Machine TRS-80 I Have Opened the Dresser

The Time Machine ZX Spectrum Having got to the house the player must find a way in. Still no scene setting or description from the game. All gameplay is guesswork. Should I even be here? How do I proceed?

The Time Machine ZX Spectrum At the start of the game the player is asked if this is a new game or the resumption of an old one

The Time Machine VIC-20 There is a house to the North.

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Part of the Following Group

Mysterious Adventures series

User Reviews

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Critic Reviews

Computer and Video Games (CVG)	TRS-80	Jan, 1984	14 out of 15	93
Commodore User	Commodore 16, Plus/4	Aug, 1985	17 out of 20	85
Crash!	ZX Spectrum	May, 1984	75 out of 100	75
Commodore User	Commodore 64	Aug, 1985		60