''Strange Odyssey '' is a text adventure written by

Scott Adams Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8, 1957) is an American author and cartoonist. He is the creator of the syndicated ''Dilbert'' comic strip, and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, and business. ''Dilbert'' gained nation ...

and Neil Broome.

Description

Published by

Adventure International Adventure International was an American video game publishing company that existed from 1979 until 1986. It was started by Scott and Alexis Adams. Their games were notable for being the first implementation of the adventure genre to run on a ...

, this text-based adventure game was one of many from Scott Adams. Gameplay involved moving from location to location, picking up any objects found there, and using them somewhere else to unlock puzzles. Commands took the form of

verb A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...

and

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...

, e.g. "Take Shovel". Movement from location to location was limited to North, South, East, West, Up, and Down. The game begins with the player stranded on a tiny

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

in a damaged spaceship. The player must use an alien

teleportation Teleportation is the hypothetical transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them. It is a common subject in science fiction literature and in other popular culture. Teleportation is oft ...

device to travel to distant worlds, collect treasure, and find the materials to repair the spacecraft.

Reception

''Kilobaud Microcomputing'' stated that ''Strange Odyssey'' was inferior in quality to '' Adventureland'' despite being released later, stating that the older game had "many more treasures and situations to figure out" and criticizing ''Strange Odyssey''s lack of help for novice players. The game was reviewed in issue #42 of '' The Dragon'' magazine. The reviewer, Mark Herro, stated that "My present situation in this game is opposite that of '' Pirate Adventure''. I’ve found treasures but I don’t know where to take them! ... The game starts in the control room of a disabled spaceship. It took me a good half hour just to find my way out of the spaceship! To compound problems, a space suit must be worn when outside the spaceship. When the air is gone, that’s it, my friend."

Reviews

*''

Commodore User ''Commodore User'', known to the readers as the abbreviated ''CU'', was one of the oldest British Commodore magazines. With a publishing history spanning over 15 years, it mixed content with technical and video game features. Incorporating ''Vic ...

(Aug, 1985)

References

External links

Strange Odyssey
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

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