I recently wrote about how thieving the Atarians are; it was just a tabloid treatise on text games for a rival platform's magazine. I also mentioned how many people in the 90s were inspired by the BASIC engine of Mr. Fuka's Indiana Jones – Chrám zkázy (Temple of Doom), a text adventure game.
Of the most famous games, Emgeton Story by Messrs. Hossner and Hokův stands out. I’ll allow myself a small digression - was there anyone who played it in the 90s? The version that has survived to us had some bugs in both parts of the game, which I modified, sped up a bit, and generally redid years ago.
Speaking of Mr. Hokův and Mr. Hossner, I managed to contact one of them, and we were in lively communication for a while. We were working on an engine for text adventure games that could be used on both Windows and Linux. The entire project was written in Python, making it quite impractical to do anything with it. However, a few games were created using it, including the aforementioned Emgeton Story.
As for Mr. Hokův, I extracted some interesting insights from him that I haven’t actually published anywhere, so let’s take a look at them. Emgeton Story was inspired by Viktor Lošťák and his Ataristův Protiútok (Atarist's Counterattack); however, Emgeton Story is written entirely in BASIC. We know that you can get into it quite easily - show me a BASIC program you can’t get into!
As I mentioned, Emgeton Story uses the engine from Fuka's Temple of Doom, which has been slightly modified, with scenery and objects separated. In the machine code, game time measurement has been added, along with a top bar featuring the game logo.
The second part of Emgeton Story, specifically its first part, is written in typewriter format, featuring Jarre's Magnetic Fields and an Atari logo with scrolling text. I quite liked it as a kid.
The characters and locations in Emgeton Story are based on real figures of the time. As Professor Švelch would say, the play is hyperlocal. The authors, who were around 17 years old in 1991, were working together: Mr. Hokův handled the programming while Mr. Hossner created the puzzles. While they were supposedly writing it collaboratively, the jokes and quirks were primarily the invention of Mr. Hossner.
After the first episode of Emgeton Story, according to Mr. Hokův, they began working on a game similar to Space Odyssey (definitely not to be confused with Mr. Danenberger's Space Odyssey). However, the gentlemen had a falling out, and he doesn't even remember why the game was abandoned.
Mr. Hokův began writing the second part of Emgeton Story on his own, with help from another friend named Petr, although he can’t recall his last name. As we already know, the game is set in the Krušné hory (Ore Mountains), specifically in the village of Výsluní (Sunshine), and is a direct sequel to Emgeton Story 1.
I remember that history a little differently. I bought Emgeton Story 2 as an original product; I believe it had to load a bootloader in the original cassette format, similar to what Atarist's Counterattack had. I don’t really remember how much it cost after all these years, but I guess it might have been around 100-150 crowns.
I’d like to digress a bit - one thing occurred to me. As we lament that Emgeton 2 couldn’t be finished because it was missing a few objects, wasn’t it a bit different? What if what has survived is actually the result of anti-piracy protection?
What if Emgeton Story had its objects located somewhere in the loader, and whoever stole or converted it discarded some of the memory? As a result, Emgeton Story 2 could not be completed. This is just speculation, of course, but it’s a possibility - I would have approached it that way myself.
Mr. Hokův also translated some games into our mother tongue, including Silent Service, and he added diacritics to Airline. He also wrote a couple of demos in machine code, specifically the U96 demo and the F15 demo. I remember the F15 demo; I had it on tape. He supposedly fixed a bug in Universal Hero where there was an error requiring the player to enter a code into the computer at the beginning of the game.
Subsequently, Mr. Hokův moved to the Amiga, where he translated the game Atrain and many others. This is interesting information; I’ve always wondered who translated those games.
I didn’t get any more information from Mr. Hokův. He was active on the text games forum for a while, and the last time he asked us to stop spamming him from the forum. I haven’t seen or heard from him since, except that he reportedly got a Jeep and is dedicated to it.
I always wanted to meet the authors of my favorite games in person, and with Mr. Hokův, I was able to do just that. I also managed to meet several other creators of 8-bit text games.
In the previous paragraphs, I mentioned that the inspiration for these hyperlocal games came from Viktor Lošťák and his Pomsta šíleného ataristy (Mad Atarist's Revenge) or Ataristův protiútok (Atarist's Counterattack). If it weren’t for these two games, I don’t think there would have been so many text games made for the Atari - I counted over 300 of them.
I played and finished most of them - the better ones, for sure. Or at least those that have reasonable controls and are playable. I fixed a few that couldn’t be completed due to bugs in the code, whenever I could.
Mostly, however, I fix these games at the request of the Game Archaeologist, who has made it his goal to complete all the Czechoslovak games. This year, we have games from 1994 to play, and I’m quite worried about which games won’t work and can’t be played at all.
The years 1990-1993 brought us not only Emgeton Story, but also other interesting titles. I could probably write and talk about them for days - there might not even be enough space in this magazine!
What does such a text adventure game need for me to play it and enjoy it? That’s pretty simple: it has to have a story, a reasonably functional parser, and it has to have some visual appeal. When I say it needs to look good, I mean that it should be in Czech; however, that’s not a strict requirement. I recently played a couple of games on a competing platform that were in "čeština," and the enjoyment I had with them was incredible.
Translation Notice: Here, the author refers to the use of the complete Czech or Slovak character set for texts, including special national characters not listed in the standard ASCII set. These characters are not available on older computers. The simplest, but least attractive, solution is to omit these characters altogether. The resulting text remains somewhat readable, but...
Compare this with the previously mentioned word: "češtině."
Let’s get back to the heart of the matter. Back then, people played Lošťák’s games and aspired to be as famous as he was - or at least to be talked about. This aspiration is reflected in Emgeton Story and other similar games. Another interesting hyperlocal game, which unfortunately has one significant flaw, is Válka gangů (Gang War), a small-town teenage story.
In this game, the controls bothered me a lot, as the player had to strictly enter three-letter command abbreviations, and they would send themselves. I have an unfinished version where the bug has been fixed, allowing for better text input.
That command entry bug is quite notorious among Atari users. Viktor indicated to everyone that entering three-letter abbreviations was sufficient; however, in certain situations, it’s better to type commands in their entirety. For example, if there is a garbage can and a garbage man in the location, using the three-letter abbreviation can lead to incorrect game actions.
This is just a bad habit of beginner programmers, and I was no exception. In my Debil's Action, commands must be written in three-letter form, complete with accents. Recently, a well-known ZX Spectrum publisher of text games mentioned on social media that the author of Debil's Action should go work in the Kladno coal mine for this. And they’re right. On the other hand, perhaps the authors of these blunders can be excused for their youthful indiscretions.
When I was learning to program text-based games in BASIC, I was inspired by what I encountered. Discovering Prudent Dactyl, which uses X, Y, and Z coordinates to navigate through locations, thrilled me. For instance, in Debil's Action, it isn’t possible to place an in-game object down so that the player can find it in that location later; I didn’t manage to implement that feature until I began programming on another platform.
Everything is connected, and in the 90s, game developers knew each other and were friends. So, when I discovered how to easily generate a character set initialized instantly by a program that stores character data as a BASIC listing of eleven lines, I didn’t keep it to myself. I showed it to Jarda Štáfka, who used it in Válce gangů (War of the Gangs). I also shared this with Tomáš Balon, who applied the same technique - in Noční Můra 2 (Nightmare 2) - where he also used the game engine from Prudent Dactyl.
Unfortunately, there were also instances of program rip-offs, where the introduction, music, and character set from the first part of the game were reused in others. One notable example is Indiana Jones 3, where Mr. Starý took parts of my code from Debil's Action, altered the release date by a fortnight, and happily distributed the game for profit via Annonce - without even a simple acknowledgment like, "Thanks, man, I really liked it; I included you in the credits..."
I didn’t mention that I was inspired by Prudent Dactyl, but that wasn’t exactly a secret, was it? On the other hand, Prudent Dactyl has received its due recognition recently. This includes the remake I created for the Amiga, inspired by Prudent Dactyl 2, as well as appearances in other Windows games by Peter Cain, where he is one of the main characters. If you're interested in playing it, look for Dobrodružství zchudlého šlechtice (Adventures of an Impoverished Nobleman).
Speaking of commercial games, particularly those sold through K-Soft, there’s a delightful title called Arnal a dva dračí zuby (Arnal and the Two Dragon's Teeth), which is based on a comic by Kája Saudek. It’s a well-crafted game. Another notable mention is Fairyland, which offers a completely different experience from the hyperlocal games about the Atari Club mates.
Games by Jirka Procházka and Zdeněk Houška are also interesting; both managed to work around the character set in unique ways. However, their games could be quite challenging, as players were only allowed to carry two objects at a time. If you set an item down, it would disappear irretrievably. Titles like Poustevníkův Život (The Hermit's Life) and Žižkovská Galérka (The Žižkov Gallery) are enjoyable, though they also evoke a sense of inspiration from Viktor Lošťák.
An interesting title is Poplach v Čaparticích (Alarm in Capartice) or Dobrodružství Malého Čaparta 2 (The Adventure of Little Capart 2), created by Radek Hrdlička. Unfortunately, only the second part has survived, though we know there was definitely a first and a third part as well.
I’ve known Radek for years, but unfortunately, he no longer has any of his Atari games. We can only hope that these two titles will resurface from forgotten tapes somewhere. However, we face the same issue with command input, and yes, I’d send Radek to the mines too - after all, actors have always belonged there, right?
The next game I struggled with was Help! I’m not 100% sure it was written in BASIC, and it really shouldn’t have been. It was a competition game that was quite challenging, and it had a bug that prevented me from finishing it until a couple of years ago. The game was released on several platforms, and successful solvers could win some sort of in-kind prize. Interestingly, it never reached me in the '90s.
As Atari began to decline, many teenagers sought bigger computers like the Amiga or Atari ST and got rid of their 8-bit machines. However, several other waves of games and game developers emerged, inspired by those who had already transitioned to those wonderful 16-bit machines.
It’s worth mentioning, particularly for a comprehensive article, Mr. Danenberger and his D... Adventure. His body of work, characterized by imagination, variety, and a prolific release schedule between 1992 and 1994, can be considered the first game studio to sell and distribute interactive fiction in our country.
However, this phenomenon deserves a separate story. When discussing his games with the Game Archaeologist, we find them incredibly timeless and imaginative. Yet, they often suffer from hastiness and underdeveloped game mechanics.
By the way, I exchanged a few electronic messages with Mr. Danenberger and encouraged him to bring his mythical box to the Atariáda so that someone among the attendees could digitize it. He lives about twenty minutes from the event location. If we had a rarity stamp, he would lend us his treasures.
It's not just about data on tapes; there are also printed documents involved. I know that many people disliked him for selling text games for five to twenty crowns. As a result, we mostly have surviving games that someone edited and labeled as D. Adventure - Scrooge McDuck.
For a whole separate story, there's also Mr. Spilka and his Datri production, along with the plethora of games released in the mid-nineties, which I didn't discover until much later.
Then there's our dear Ajvngou, a.k.a. Mr. Straka, whose games, while showcasing impressive machine code effects, are somewhat off-putting due to their lack of playability. They're so chaotic that they often don't make any sense. Here, the legacy of Viktor Lošťák concludes, giving way to Brutal Recall by Mr. Oščádal. This game, in particular, has such bewildering controls that I've never managed to play it. The entire experience is drenched in a kind of absurd humor that I find utterly detestable.
I know I’m about to contradict myself, but there’s a significant difference between the head of the Atari club in Odra pulling a dead stingray out of the reeds and throwing it at a player, and the player blowing up a car while charred characters crawl across the tiles. And heaven forbid someone incorporates some sort of action interlude into a text game, like a randomly generated boat ride. I enjoy absurdity, but it shouldn’t go overboard.
While I’ve primarily discussed Czech games, what about our brothers to the east? I can definitely recommend the game KickBoxer. It’s quite interesting, particularly for one specific reason: I never thought someone would actually use it. We know that if you write a large game in BASIC, where you have to keep the program and game situations within a maximum of 26 kilobytes, BASIC can start to crash and behave unpredictably.
In KickBoxer, this issue is solved in a Solomonic way. After completing a part of the game, the player is given a password to enter the next section, and the in-game items "sort of" carry over. It’s an absolutely brilliant idea.
The best and most elaborate game I’ve played recently on the Atari is Tajemný Amulet (Mysterious Amulet) by Mr. Houra. It’s the most ingenious and enjoyable text game I’ve encountered—totally non-aggressive and written in Assembly language, which makes it incredibly responsive. The parser is clever, allowing players to input commands without accents; for example, you can just type "cesky" instead of "česky."
I mention the Game Archaeologist here, so if you'd like to read more, then be sure to visit his site: https://herniarcheolog.blogspot.com.
And of course, I'd be happy if you'd check out my wannabe funny blog: https://panprase.cz, where you'll find mostly talk about old text games and their solutions in the form of nice tutorials.
PanPrase
This text is about Czech and partially Slovak text games in the adventure genre, and it does not reference any games or people from other countries.
The language or writing style of the original is colloquial and certainly not one approved by language teachers. This is not a matching English version.
Regarding game names, some Czech and Slovak titles have originally English names, even if they are presented only in their respective languages. One possible reason for this is to evade problems with national characters. I myself often use English for my filenames.
For those with national names, I am including translations of their meanings, if applicable.
František Fuka was an author of text games for the ZX Spectrum, one of the first in this region, perhaps even the first. His work had an impact beyond his platform, influencing our wonderful Atari as well.
The game "Help!" was originally written for the ZX Spectrum computer in BASIC language. The Atari version, however, was in pure machine code.
The entire competition turned out to be one great failure. Nobody received any prizes, and its organizers, including myself, suffered some financial loss. It was simply too late for 8-bit computers, or maybe for such an idea at all. I do not think it is possible today to organize a competition for solving text adventures on modern powerful computers and find ten thousand interested participants.
František Houra is probably better known as Fandal. He created many games for the small Atari, but to this day, he has only made one text adventure. At that time, he expressed a desire to create something like a real adventure, something not filled with parody and jokes, but also without sudden deaths or dead ends. Therefore, in his game "Tajemný amulet," there are no deaths, unsolvable situations, or gags.
The original is available only in Czech, the English version is only a dream up today.