''The Dallas Quest'' is a

graphic 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 ...

based on the soap opera ''

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

''. The game was programmed by James Garon for the TRS-80 Color Computer and published by

Tandy Corporation Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned leather goods company based in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store. By the end of the 1950s, under the tutelage of then-CEO Charles Tandy, ...

in 1984. It was the second game in the "Animated Adventure" series, following ''

The Sands of Egypt ''The Sands of Egypt'' is a 1982 graphic adventure game written by James Garon, Ralph Burris, and Steve Bjork of Datasoft for the TRS-80 Color Computer. It was licensed to Tandy Corporation and was the first disk-only game for the Color Computer s ...

'', and uses the same split-screen display.

Datasoft Datasoft, Inc. (also written as DataSoft and Data Soft) was a software developer and publisher for home computers founded in 1980 by Pat Ketchum and based out of Chatsworth, California. Datasoft primarily published video games, including home port ...

published versions for the

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

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, ...

, 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 ...

in the same year. The player takes the role of a detective. After an initial sequence at

Southfork Ranch Southfork Ranch is a conference and event center in Parker, in the US state of Texas, north of Dallas. It includes Ewing Mansion, the setting for the television series ''Dallas''. History The house was built in 1970 by Joe Duncan and was known ...

, the setting moves to South America, and the game has little to do with the TV show.

Development

Lorimar Productions Lorimar Productions, Inc., later known as Lorimar Television and Lorimar Distribution, was an American production company that was later a subsidiary of Warner Bros., active from 1969 until 1993, when it was folded into Warner Bros. Televisio ...

, the studio that produced ''

'', licensed the rights to its characters to

and provided a script by two "screenwriter's assistants" for the show. James Garon adapted the script into a

text adventure game '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

, with graphics provided by professional artists.

Reception

A five star ''

Your Commodore ''Your Commodore'' was a magazine for Commodore International, Commodore computers, including the Commodore 64, Amiga, and the Commodore Personal computer, PC range. It was published in the UK from October 1984 until late 1989 when the name was s ...

'' review praised the graphics as some of the best in the genre, though they "take a long time to be reproduced." The reviewer disliked the sparse use of music and was not impressed with the music that does exist. Overall, it was called "one of the best games out on the CBM 64."

Arnie Katz ''Video'' is a discontinued American consumer electronics magazine that was published from 1977 to 1999 by Reese Communications with a focus on video and audio devices. The magazine showcases new audiovisual products, analyzes current practices an ...

concluded a 1984 ''

Electronic Games An electronic game is a game that uses electronics to create an interactive system with which a player can play. Video games are the most common form today, and for this reason the two terms are often used interchangeably. There are other common ...

'' review with, "Once you get past the fact that ''Dallas Quest'' isn't very closely tied to the show, it turns out to be somewhat entertaining and reasonably challenging."

References

External links

''The Dallas Quest''
at Atari Mania *

at the official site for the TV series {{DEFAULTSORT:Dallas Quest, The 1984 video games Apple II games Atari 8-bit family games Commodore 64 games Dallas (TV franchise) Datasoft games TRS-80 Color Computer games Video games based on television series Video games developed in the United States Video games set in Texas Video games set in the 1980s Single-player video games