The Cottage (video game)
| The Cottage | |
|---|---|
|
Swedish box art | |
| Developer(s) |
Kimmo Eriksson Viggo Eriksson Olle E Johansson |
| Publisher(s) | Scandinavian PC Systems |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS |
| Release date(s) |
1978
|
| Genre(s) | Text adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
The Cottage (Stugan) is a 1978 Swedish text-based adventure game.
Summary
The eponymous cottage, located in Småland, is a large building containing, among other things, an unreliable elevator running through nine levels, a large cave system and a phone company. The player navigates by typing cardinal directions while outside; inside the cottage the commands right, left, back, forwards, up and down are used. During the game, the player collects items, which may then be used for further exploration of the cottage, or left in a separate building where points are rewarded for certain treasures. Some objects may be used with other objects; for instance, a phone may be connected to a socket.
History
The first version of Stugan was written in the years 1977-78 by brothers Kimmo and Viggo Eriksson and their friend Olle E Johansson, when the authors were 10, 12, and 14 years old, respectively. The game was written in BASIC on the mainframe computer Oden at the Stockholm computer central for research and higher education, also known as QZ. Through QZ, the young authors had previously discovered Colossal Cave Adventure, released in 1975. Towards the end of 1978, a more developed version of The Cottage was added to the public server of QZ, where anyone could open an account. The discussion system contained a conference named Thomas's Cottage Council (Thomas Stugråd), where the developers and other users could meet and discuss opinions on the game, and submit bug reports. With the aid of feedback from the forum, the authors continued developing the game until 1980. The frequent question whether a certain feature of the game was a bug or a feature led to the addition of an in-game character exclaiming "Help, I can't tell if it's a bug or a feature!"
In 1985, an article written by Erich Fichtelius about the game was published in Linjeflyg's magazine, Upp&Ner. Jan Älmeby, who quite recently had started the company Scandinavian PC Systems (SPCS), read the article and contacted the brothers with the suggestion of making a commercial version for MS-DOS. The article was later republished in 1986 in connection with the release of the MS-DOS version of the game.[1] The price was set to kr 95, of which kr 5 went to the authors as royalty.
Cover
Jan Älmeby liked the illustrations (by Leif Åbjörnsson) in the Upp&Ner article enough to use them as cover art for the game.[1]
Music
The DOS port also allowed for simple music to be put into the game. The main theme was written by Kimmo Eriksson a few years earlier; other parts include music from The Pirates of Penzance and Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.[1]
Translated versions
Stugan was translated into English (as The Cottage), Norwegian and Danish. The translator of the English version, however, assuming Kimmo and Viggo to be humorous pseudonyms, changed the name Olle to "Jello".[1]
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Stuga: En historik". Textäventyr på svenska. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
External links
- Stugan, ett mästerverk i 4D Article at Gamingeye, December 13, 2003.
- Stuga - Text adventures in Swedish's website, where the game may be downloaded or run in a web browser
- Source code for TOPS-20