Hobbit, The: Software Adventure (DOS) - online game | RetroGames.cz
RetroGames.cz - staré hry ONLINE

„We don't stop playing because we grow old;                         
... we grow old because we stop playing.“                         

English EN       Czech CZ            

   
 Menu
 Games
 Others
 Search

 

   
 

Hobbit, The: Software Adventure - DOS


Control:

Game is con­trol­led by the same keys that are used to playing un­der MS DOS. For full­screen press 'Right Alt' + 'En­ter'.


Help:

If the game e­mu­la­ti­on spe­ed is low, you can try to in­cre­a­se it by re­lo­a­ding this pa­ge with­out a­ds or cho­o­se a­no­ther e­mu­la­tor from this table.


Other platforms:

Unfortunately, this game is cur­rent­ly available only in this ver­si­on. Be patient :-)



Game info:
Hobbit, The: Software Adventure - box cover
box cover
Game title: Hobbit, The: Software Adventure
Platform: MS-DOS
Author (released): Beam Software (1982)
Genre: Adventure Mode: Single-player
Design: Philip Mitchell, Veronika Megler
Music:
Game manual: manual.pdf

File size:

556 kB
Download: Hobbit.zip

Game size:

253 kB
Recommended emulator: DOSBox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

   The Hobbit is an illustrated text adventure computer game released in 1982 and based on the book The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was developed at Beam Software by Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler and published by Melbourne House for most home computers available at the time, from more popular models such as the ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC 464, BBC Micro, MSX, Dragon 32 and Oric. By arrangement with the book publishers, a copy of the book was included with each game sold.
   The parser was very advanced for the time and used a subset of English called Inglish. When it was released most adventure games used simple verb-noun parsers (allowing for simple phrases like 'get lamp'), but Inglish allowed one to type advanced sentences such as 'ask Gandalf about the curious map then take sword and kill troll with it'. The parser was complex and intuitive, introducing pronouns, adverbs ('viciously attack the goblin'), punctuation and prepositions and allowing the player to interact with the game world in ways not previously possible.
   Many locations were illustrated by an image, based on originals designed by Kent Rees. On the tape version, to save space, each image was stored in a compressed format by storing outline information and then flood filling the enclosed areas on the screen. The slow CPU speed meant that it would take up to several seconds for each scene to draw. The disk-based versions of the game used pre-rendered, higher-quality images.
   The game had an innovative text-based physics system, developed by Veronika Megler. Objects, including the characters in the game, had a calculated size, weight and solidity. Objects could be placed inside other objects, attached together with rope and damaged or broken. If the main character was sitting in a barrel which was then picked up and thrown through a trapdoor, the player went too.
   Unlike other works of interactive fiction, the game was also in real time - if you left the keyboard for too long, events continued without you by automatically entering the 'WAIT' command with the response 'You wait - time passes'. If you had to leave the keyboard for a short time, there was a 'PAUSE' command which would stop all events until a key was pressed.
   The game had a cast of non-player characters (NPCs) that were entirely independent of the player and bound to precisely the same game rules. They had loyalties, strengths and personalities that affected their behaviour and could not always be predicted. The character of Gandalf, for example, roamed freely around the game world (some fifty locations), picking up objects, getting into fights and being captured.
   The volatility of the characters, coupled with the rich physics and impossible-to-predict fighting system, meant that the game could be played in many different ways, though it could also lead to problems (such as an important character being killed early on). There were numerous possible solutions and with hindsight the game might be regarded as one of the first examples of 'emergent gaming'. This also resulted, however, in many bugs; for example, during development Megler found that the animal NPCs killed each other before the player arrived. The game's documentation warned that 'Due to the immense size and complexity of this game it is impossible to guarantee that it will ever be completely error-free'. Melbourne House issued a version 1.1 with some fixes, but with another bug that resulted in the game being unwinnable, forcing it to release version 1.2, and the company never fixed all bugs.

More details about this game can be found on Wikipedia.org.

For fans and collectors:
Find this game on video server YouTube.com or Vimeo.com.
Buy original version of this game on Amazon.com or eBay.com.

Find digital download of this game on GOG or Steam.

 
Platform:

This ver­sion of Hobbit, The: Software Adventure was de­sig­ned for per­so­nal com­pu­ters with o­pe­ra­ting sys­tem MS-DOS (Mi­cro­soft Disk O­pe­ra­ting Sys­tem), which was o­pe­ra­ting sys­tem de­ve­lo­ped by Mi­cro­soft in 1981. It was the most wi­de­ly-used o­pe­ra­ting sys­tem in the first half of the 1990s. MS-DOS was sup­plied with most of the IBM com­pu­ters that pur­cha­sed a li­cen­se from Mi­cro­soft. Af­ter 1995, it was pu­s­hed out by a gra­phi­cal­ly mo­re ad­van­ced sys­tem - Win­dows and its de­ve­lop­ment was ce­a­sed in 2000. At the ti­me of its grea­test fa­me, se­ve­ral thou­sand ga­mes de­sig­ned spe­ci­fi­cal­ly for com­pu­ters with this sys­tem we­re cre­a­ted. To­day, its de­ve­lop­ment is no lon­ger con­ti­nue and for e­mu­la­tion the free DOSBox e­mu­la­tor is most of­ten used. Mo­re in­for­ma­ti­on about MS-DOS operating system can be found here.

 
Available online emulators:

5 different online emulators are available for Hobbit, The: Software Adventure. These emulators differ not only in the technology they use to emulate old games, but also in support of various game controllers, multiplayer mode, mobile phone touchscreen, emulation speed, absence or presence of embedded ads and in many other parameters. For maximum gaming enjoyment, it's important to choose the right emulator, because on each PC and in different Internet browsers, the individual emulators behave differently. The basic features of each emulator available for this game Hobbit, The: Software Adventure are summarized in the following table:
 

Emulator Technology Multiplayer Fullscreen Touchscreen Speed
Archive.org JavaScript YES NO NO fast
js-dos JavaScript YES YES NO fast
js-dos 6.22 JavaScript YES YES NO fast
jsDosBox JavaScript YES NO NO slow
jDosBox Java applet YES YES NO fast


Similar games:

If you like Hobbit, The: Software Adventure you'll probably like also some of the similar games in the overview below. The games you see here are selected based on title similarity, game genre, and keywords. However, the list is generated automatically and can therefore be very 'subjective' especially for some specific games. To find a particular game, please use our search form.

The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I Lord of the Rings - Volume One The Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers Rambo: First Blood Part II Zork: The Great Underground Empire
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I Lord of the Rings The Lord of the Rings, Vol. II Rambo Zork I
 
Softporn Adventure Adventure in Serenia Trinity Planetfall Eamon
Softporn Adventure Adventure in Serenia Trinity Planetfall Eamon
 
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Mickey’s Space Adventure Little Big Adventure Flashback: The Quest for Identity Robin Hood: Conquests of the Longbow
The Hitchhiker's Guide ... Mickey's Space Adv... Little Big Adventure Flashback Robin Hood

Comments:


 

This website is NOT sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Atari, Sega or by any other video games company. RetroGames.cz makes no claim to the intellectual property contained in the individual games.
Text content of RetroGames.cz is available under the Creative Commons 3.0 License. You can copy it freely, but indicate the origin and keep the license.

Facebook | Privacy policy | Terms of Service | Cookie statement | Advertisement | Report NA content

This website is hosted by WebSupport.cz.