Game #149: Kidnapped (1980)

Kidnapped was written by Peter Kirsch and published as a type-in for Softside magazine in December of 1980.

We have played and experienced some great games that were featured in this same magazine. In Search of Dr. Livingston, Mad Scientist, Catacombs of the Phantoms, Volcano Adventure, and Dante’s Inferno were all type-in adventures featured in the same title. Softside Magazine would later feature an Adventure of the Month series and we will soon be playing and reviewing those games as well.

I really enjoyed Kidnapped and the game took me quite by surprise. I am amazed at how good these type-in adventures have been and Kidnapped does not disappoint. It has an original premise that we have not seen before. You’ve been kidnapped and you find yourself at the top of a 9 story building. You need to make your way down level by level in order to escape. Each level of the building has it’s own set of puzzles and unique problems that you need to solve. Some levels are fairly routine while other levels are much more difficult. I did map out each of the levels of the building but each level is so small that you may find mapping by hand unnecessary.

Items that you find on each of the levels are only used to solve the particular set of problems on THAT level. All items vanish from your inventory as you make your way down the building from one level to the next. The ninth level of the building, depicted above, was one of the more difficult levels to move off of. Items that prove useful on this level are a chair, flashlight, and electrical tape. You’re going to need to get the elevator operating again so that you can make your way down to the next floor. However the exposed wires providing power to the elevator are “hot” so you’re going to need to coordinate your repairs with a building blackout that occurs at midnight. It’s really some very ingenious and original puzzle creation.

The next level is a relatively short one which involves an aquarium filled with piranhas, a guard dog, and some rope. You will find that once you’ve solved the puzzle on the particular level that you’re on that getting down to the next level is done in a number of original ways.

The seventh level of the building might be the most difficult level of them all. It involves trying to wrest a dollar from a burglar that happens to be robbing a vault on this floor. Useful items on this floor include a string vending machine, a tank of helium gas, a gun, a large deflated balloon, some wood glue, and an old wooden step. The objects lend themselves to a very plausible idea of what you need to do but wrestling with the parser until you make your way off of the floor is another issue. Once again however the games originality shines through here.

Level six involves some sexy young office girls and having to fashion yourself a new suit. Knitting needles as well as a ball of yarn come into play here. You must find a way to wrest the small key from the sexy young office girls.

One of the sheer joys of this game are the nine diverse levels that you have to make your way though. I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun with a text adventure because once you successfully complete one floor and make your way to the next one you just never know what it is that you’re going to find. The puzzles and levels are borderline absurd but they work quite well logically and as stand-alone mini-adventures.

There is no greater example of this than finding Mary Poppin’s Umbrella on level five. The only floor that was perhaps more absurd was the eighth floor housing the aquarium of piranhas or the very challenging second floor.

On the next floor you quite literally have to experiment and turn yourself into Mr. Hyde in order to deal with the steel door. Does it make a lot of sense? No but it was very cool anyway.

The next level involved a small plant, a trap door, a water cooler, paper cup, flute, and rope. The originality here from one floor to the next once again really stands out.

The last level involves a small book, some quicksand, rope, and a piano. It was another challenging level. The ninth, seventh, and second floors were the three hardest for me in particular compared to the other floors.

If you’re a text adventure fan, and you have not yet played Kidnapped by Peter Kirsch, I highly recommend you do so. I had a lot of fun with this one, it’s premise, originality, absurd puzzles from one floor to the next, all served to provide a lot of entertainment. A gem in the rough for me in a year of a lot of text adventures. I was able to finish this one on my own and I had a lot of fun doing so.

The next game on my list is another text adventure from 1980 entitled City Adventure. Until next time….