Game #39: Mystery Fun House

This is another quality text adventure from the mind of Scott Adams. It is #7 in his popular Adventure Series and in 1979 Scott Adams was like Stephen King with writer’s block; writing and programming six adventures in that year.

The quality and originality of his work turned yet another corner with the creation of Mission Impossible, Voodoo Castle, The Count and now Mystery Fun House. He abandoned text adventure tropes of the period and replaced them with plot and some ingenious puzzles.

In this adventure scenario you play the role of a spy who has to enter a mysterious fun house and obtain some hidden blueprints. There are quite a few locations and a number of puzzles to solve in order to successfully complete your mission. Some of the successful ingredients that made Secret Mission and The Count great games are also found here in this one. There is a greater degree of “humor” or quirkiness in this than in the previous two games and this may resonate more with some than with others.

Most of the puzzles were not too terribly difficult but a couple do require you to backtrack and revisit locations until you have that “aha experience”. I do want to report that I did experience some frustration with the parser and some verb recognition in this game. This had not been an issue for me in the previous installments but these experiences for each user are subjective. I seemed to have a lot of problems with the gum and the stick for example and then finally landed on the correct verb. There was a huge issue with the grate late in the game too. I spent a lot of time trying to blow it up which was a purposeful red herring I am sure but I also spent an inordinate amount of time playing “guess the verb” where that grate was concerned. I again played “guess the verb” in the Rolling Barrel room as well so there were a few times where I felt like I was battling the parser a little bit. There is one puzzle right at the end that was both funny and diabolical all rolled into one. I will admit that I had to go to Scott Adam’s Hint Book and get a nudge on this one. I like his hint book because it will not give you an outright solution in most cases but point you in the right direction. It did point me to a location and I then had the “aha moment” that I hinted at earlier and I was then able to solve that last puzzle and obtain the plans.

Mystery Fun House has a diverse number of puzzles and unique locations due to the game’s setting. Who doesn’t expect weird and quirky when exploring a mysterious fun house? This game, much like Voodoo Castle, plays like a large puzzle box that needs to be solved. When you play a text adventure like Secret Mission, Voodoo Castle, The Count or Mystery Fun House you’re bound to become “stuck” with a particular puzzle or part of the game. I find that when I am not at the computer or playing the game; I am mentally turning the problem over in my mind and trying to look at it from different perspectives. I try to create a mental plan or road map of what I am going to try to do to move the game forward when next I play. There is an immense feeling of satisfaction when you do finally get it right without any kind of help. The very fact that a computer game has you thinking about it during a typical work day should bring immense satisfaction to Mr. Adams or to any game creator for that matter. It’s the hallmark of a job well done.