You take the dusty stairs two at a time and charge urgently up into the gloom. You find yourself in a cozy little room crammed with shelves, worn carpet and comfortable chair. Stacks of books tower precariously around the chair and a smoking pipe floats in mid-air above a side table. There is a sudden WHOOSH of air and suddenly the old mage appears out of nowhere to stand before his chair. He turns and acknowledges your arrival with a sudden arch of his eyebrow. “Here for another story are you?” The glowing circle pulsing on the floor suddenly disappears as he plucks his pipe out of mid-air and unceremoniously deposits himself into the folds of his old chair.
“Well sit down, sit down I’m not getting any younger.” He takes a puff of the pipe and appears lost in thought. The smoke rises towards the ceiling of the room; taking the shape of a stag being chased by a wolf. “Let’s see…. last time I told you about Morloc’s Tower; so it’s time for something completely different.”
Burial Ground is an interactive text adventure written by Joel Mick who was only 12 at the time. In the late 1980’s Joel Mick would attend the University of Pennyslvania and get tagged by Richard Garfield to help get the Alpha card set ready for Magic the Gathering. He later became Head Designer and Developer and then Magic’s Brand Manager. He would design Antiquities, Weatherlight, Mirage, Visions, Arabian Nights and Sixth Edition for you Magic the Gathering enthusiasts.
It is at this point that I start to ask a question when the old man vehemently waves me off. “Pay attention now lad; interactive fiction requires you to use your imagination! Hrumph! Now where was I….”
“There really is no plot to Burial Adventure. You find yourself on an island with a house and a kennel of dogs. I’m reminded of Ronald Dahl’s The Most Dangerous Game“, here the old mage chuckles and then scowls upon noticing my look of confusion, “…the youth of today need to spend more time with their nose in a good book rather than playing video games!”
“However it is not YOU that is hunted but instead your job is to be the hunter and collect a number of treasures and then deposit them in a safe spot.”
“When you find yourself trapped in a pit you’re going to need a rope to get out. Once you have the shovel in hand you can find the rope that you need by digging in the disgusting swamp. The dogs are going to need to be pacified in order to get the key that they are guarding. Be sure to watch the television inside the house; one of the commercials will nudge you in the right direction.”
“Finding the burial ground can be the hardest part of the game and that is merely because of word play and syntax. When you’re on the beach near the cliffs and they describe a hole you can go down; you can go down the cliffs but you can ALSO go down the hole. You’re going to want to be explicit and actually GO HOLE in order to make your way into the catacombs. I found myself hung up on this spot for some time before I realized I’d dug my own mental hole.”
The old wizard chuckles to himself at his own joke but frowns when I politely laugh as well.
“In the catacombs you’ll acquire the rubies, diamond jewelry, ancient drawings, and gold cross.” Here he wags a finger; “You’ll want to take a shovel with ya because at one point you’re going to have to dig your way out. If you don’t bring the shovel with ya you’re done for.”
“When you’re in the house; you need something to reach and push up the attic door in order to climb up. You’ll need the bamboo pole to get that job done.”
“Here is the list of treasures that you’re going to need to find:
- a pile of rubies
- diamond jewelry
- ancient drawings
- a gold cross
- a valuable portrait of George Washington
- a big black pearl
- an old stamp album
“Now if you’ll excuse me; the Innkeeper has a spider infestation problem that I need to take care of…..”