Hmm. I think I've got one that's *not* MSX!
It's a game that left a really big impression on me as a kid.
See, in the '90s, I was really big into local BBSes, which -- if you're not familiar with them -- were kind of like the gateway drug to the internet back then. They were all text-based, but by using high ASCII characters and ANSI codes for color-changing and cursor movement, you could create some relatively complex visuals, and even rudimentary animations.
This inevitably spawned games, known as "door games," which were... usually pretty basic, and often 100% text-driven without even any real attempt at graphic representation aside from maybe a title screen or a boss enemy. They were addictive, though, because they were multi-user, generally allowing players to attack other players, attempt to seduce or marry other players, etc. -- basically, MUDs, or proto-MMOs.
A few BBS doors were pretty widely known, and thus wouldn't qualify for this list -- games like LORD (Legend of the Red Dragon), Usurper, Trade Wars, The Pit, Lemonade Stand, etc. All classics that virtually every BBS had to offer (including my own, because of course I ran a local BBS, under the rather dubious name of "DreamSeeker MoonBeam" -- yeah, I dunno what the hell I was thinking either!). I even made my own BBS door game, which I adapted to be playable under Windows in 2011 if you're at all interested in checking it out:
forgottenkings.tripod.com/botc.htmlBut there was one door game that I absolutely loved, but which virtually NO ONE had ever heard of. There was like, one BBS near me that had it up, and I was the only person who played it. And I've never seen it, nor seen anyone mention it, since.
It was just called "LORE," which is probably part of why it wound up being forgotten: not only is that a rather generic name, but it's also really easy to assume that someone just typoed "LORD," which was the single most popular BBS door game ever made.
LORE was way cooler than LORD, though. It was basically a full-on Ultima game, but somehow MORE involved, as it had weather, seasons, day/night cycles, etc., as well as all the multi-user benefits of a BBS door game (yes, you could mess with other players... if you could find them, anyway!).
Shops would be open or closed depending on the time of day in-game (which I think may have been based on the actual time of day IRL, but I can't recall for sure), as well as the weather and the season, which would affect all your stats and also change all NPC dialogue. I didn't know how extensive the weather system in the game was until I signed in one day to find everything drawn in white, because there had been a blizzard the night before!
Combat was... I think random? Though enemies may have been visible on the map in advance; I can't recall. I do know that when you engaged enemies in battle, though, you were taken to a separate battle screen that played out like a turn-based tactical RPG, basically identical to the way combat played out in the NES versions of Ultima 3 and 4. Which may not sound like anything special, until you realize that this was done 100% with ASCII text and ANSI text-manipulation codes, and designed to play on BBSes that you were dialing into with modems that averaged 2400 baud at the time. It was a technical marvel of a game, with a scope and level of complexity that was exponentially superior to any other BBS door game I've ever played before or since.
The game had a decent story, too, and pretty intense dungeons -- LORE was the first game I ever actually busted out graph paper for, as I always tended to avoid titles with maps complicated enough that I couldn't memorize my way through them... but in LORE, I found the massive scope of the dungeons to be both endearing and engrossing, and I recall quite happily spending a couple hours mapping my way through a set of mountain caves.
In attempting to find screenshots of the game, all I came across was its title screen:
Though to be fair, screenshots of BBS doors *are* pretty rare in general. And... if I'm reading this site correctly, I guess there may actually be a BBS still up, accessible via the internet, that has LORE running:
24.229.195.66:81/lore.htmlAnd at the very least, this site has the full instruction manual for the game -- complete with its... well... lore! -- for perusal, so feel free to check it out if you want a sneak peek into a very obscure and forgotten (but totally impressive) BBS door game from back in the proto-internet days of yore!
-Tom
