''Asylum'' is an

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

created by William F. Denman Jr. and released in 1981 by Med Systems (later known as Screenplay) of Chapel Hill, North Carolina for the TRS-80 computer. It combines a text adventure with simple line graphics to create a first-person perspective 3D game. Med Systems had earlier released games like '' Rat's Revenge'', ''

Deathmaze 5000 ''Deathmaze 5000'' is TRS-80 computer game written by Frank Corr, Jr. and published by Med Systems Software in 1980. It was ported to the Apple II and followed by the second game in the Continuum series, '' Labyrinth''. Gameplay ''Deathmaze 5000 ...

'', and '' Labyrinth'' with the same kind of graphics; these games were among the earliest commercial examples of 3D games. A sequel named ''Asylum II ''was released in 1982. The sequel was later enhanced with bitmapped graphics, color, and improved descriptions, and released simply as ''Asylum'' in for the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

in 1983, and

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

and

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

in 1985.

Plot

The story takes place in a labyrinthine asylum. One rather confusing feature of that labyrinth is that some sections of it seem to exist in several places at once. So an item dropped in a certain place will also show up in another place of the labyrinth, in a corridor of the same shape (but different orientation), and vice versa.

Reception

Debuting in February 1981, the game sold 5,000 copies by June 1982, appearing on ''Computer Gaming World''s list of top sellers. '' BYTE'' stated that "Not only is 'Asylum''a devious game, it is a very good buy for the money". ''

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

'' stated that the game's use of graphics "is one of the features that makes it more exciting than '' Adventure''". While criticizing its copy protection, the reviewer liked the time limit and stated that her daughter found the game "cool".

References

External links

* {{Mobygames, asylum_
Magic Chris' ''ASYLUM'' Pages
contain maps and walkthroughs 1981 video games Adventure games TRS-80 games Video games developed in the United States Video games set in psychiatric hospitals