The Hobbit (1983) PC

The Hobbit is an adventure and text game based on the plot of the title book by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is also one of the first attempts to transfer the work of this great writer to PeCety. The player will play the role of Bilbo Baggins, a lowland leading a peaceful life in a land called Shire. Together with the wizard Gandalf and dwarf Thorin, he will set off on an expedition to Lonely Mountain, where a terrible dragon named Smaug lives. The task of the team (in the original a bit more numerous) is to recover the treasures that the creature once seized by the dwarf's ancestors.

As befits a classic text game, all messages and descriptions are presented in written form. Although there is an option to run a graphic design represented by simple, static images, you can also do without it. We control the hero by issuing commands - also with the use of text. Due to the large number of quotations taken directly from the book's prototype, the player will have to demonstrate a good knowledge of English.

Although you can't see it at first, the game takes place in real time. This means that all NPCs (including our companions) will carry out their own actions and follow their own paths regardless of what Bilbo is currently doing. The passage of time also has a different meaning here, as anyone who tries to get out of the troll trap soon after the game starts will find out. Due to the large number of random events resulting from the use of an independent environment, gameplay is not the easiest. It's worth recording the state of the game often, so that you don't have to start your adventure from the very beginning.

Without a doubt, The Hobbit is one of the most interesting "textbooks" that have ever appeared on home computers and by far the most successful adaptation of Tolkien's work created by Australian Beam Software studio. The company later tried to continue the idea by bringing the famous novel The Lord of the Rings to the screens, but the games in this series (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Shadows of Mordor and The Crack of Doom) in no way match the original.

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Last updated on 10 December 2007