Gaming Oddities: The Hobbit(1982)

More often than not, licensed games tend to be perfunctory attempts to cash in on the latest hit movie, TV series, comic book or other piece of fiction, but there are exceptions that prove worthy in their own right. The 1982 video game version of The Hobbit doesn't fall neatly into either category, but it's nothing if not ambitious.

As you might expect, the story is a retelling of The Hobbit, in which Bilbo embarks on a journey to take back the dwarves' treasure from Smaug, who has taken control of the Lonely Mountain. In this version of the tale, he's accompanied by Gandalf and Thorin, with the latter's comically large retinue of dwarves absent. Thorin must survive, but the same does not apply to Gandalf.

The game is a text-based adventure(albeit with illustrations of the places you visit), in which you act by typing in your commands, from moving by typing in the initials of the cardinal directions to interacting with the world by entering rudimentary commands. Unfortunately, like with text adventures, there's no guarantee the game will recognize your commands. Your companions present another complication, because they might refuse to do what you ask of them, or end up doing their own thing(for example, Thorin likes to sit down and sing about gold).

The rest of the NPCs exercise a surprising amount of autonomy for a game of this era. Some players have reported that monsters have eaten certain characters before the player could encounter them, potentially rendering the game impossible to finish. More modern games that allow players to kill NPCs either make essential NPCs invincible, or give the player an instant Game Over if an NPC dies.

One NPC who is not essential is Gollum, and it is in fact possible to kill him without consequences. Those familiar with the books will recognize that Bilbo's decision not to kill Gollum changed the fate of Middle-Earth; when Frodo refused to destroy the One Ring, Gollum bit off his finger, causing the Ring to fall into the fires of Mount Doom. Had Gollum not been there, Middle Earth would have fallen to Sauron.

The Hobbit's 1982 video game adaptation is a bit ahead of its time, but is nevertheless a memorable text-based adventure.


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