The House of Thirty Gables is an interactive text adventure written by Bill Miller and published by Instant Software. It appears that this is the only adventure game written by Miller who also wrote the Eliza-like “Dr. Chips” for Adventure International. It was the only adventure game published by Instant Software as well although an ex-employee, Bob Liddil, would go on to start the Programmer’s Guild.
House of Thirty Gables ended up being somewhat of a unique game. The game has a number of red herrings and sports a rather unusual and original hint system. The game’s goal is to collect a number of gold coins and other treasures while dealing with various puzzles and creatures.
The sign on the wall reads; “Please Don’t Feed The Troll” When you take the dimly lit stairs down you do indeed encounter a troll. This seems like an intentional nod to Zork however the troll is one of the game’s red herrings. You find both an ax and an apple in the house before heading down the stairs. The ax is also a red herring. If you use the ax on the troll the game responds with; ONE MIGHTY BLOW FROM YOUR AX HAS KILLED THE POOR INNOCENT TROLL.
If you then LOOK you’ll see: A POOR MURDERED TROLL LIES IN THE CORNER.
If you feed the apple to the troll it will eat the apple however you will “softlock” the game for yourself as you will need the apple later in the game. The point is that you never even need to deal with the troll at any point in the game. Both the troll and ax are a bit of misdirection.
The game uses a point system and rewards you points for finding coins and treasures. This is nothing unique and was a popular text adventure trope during this time period however what WAS unique is the way in which the points were rewarded. You ultimately want to try and achieve 80 points in order to win the game. You receive 5 points for 8 different gold coins that you extract from the legendary house for a total of 40 points. You receive 10 points for a green emerald and another 10 points for a brilliant ruby for a total of 60 points. You’ll receive a final 20 points for returning these treasures to the surface where you initially started the game.
The game has a rather unique built in hint system. You can spend your gold coins in your possession for hints. The original Colossal Caves offered hints and we’ve played other games that will sometimes give you a hint however this is the first time we’ve encountered a game that lets you use your treasure items to purchase a hint. As the game progressed it felt a little bit like “cheating” because I would spend my gold coin for a hint with a puzzle I was having difficulty with and if I perished I would not spend my treasure currency in a later game. Obviously if you spend your gold coins on hints then you’re not going to be able to achieve a top score of 80.
One of the more difficult puzzles involves you trying to obtain an emerald from a giant snake. You are ultimately bitten and then have only 10 moves in which to find an antidote. Luckily the antidote that you need is close by.
How is this for unique? One of the gold coins that you find is actually another red herring. If you attempt to pick the coin up a heavy steel grate crashes down trapping you in the room. You then hear a rumbling sound as the ceiling begins to lower.
The game continues with; THE CEILING LOWERS ANOTHER FOOT. CEILING HEIGHT IS NOW 3 FEET !
YOU SEEM TO BE HAVING A BIT OF TROUBLE. I WILL GIVE YOU A HINT BUT IT WILL COST YOU A GOLD COIN. DO YOU WANT THE HINT?
If you answer YES at this point you get the following:
THE HINT IS: PMPH IS THE WORD
If you say PMPH at the prompt you’re rewarded with the following response:
CHUCKLE, CHUCKLE. MAN ARE YOU GULLIBLE
THE CEILING DROPS TO WITHIN 1 FOOT OF THE FLOOR! YOU ARE FLAT ON YOUR STOMACH.
You then are offered the following prompt from the game:
YOU SEEM TO BE HAVING A BIT OF TROUBLE. I WILL GIVE YOU A HINT BUT IT WILL COST YOU A GOLD COIN. DO YOU WANT THE HINT?
If you answer YES you receive the following:
I APPRECIATE YOUR TRUST and the game then opens the gate so that you can escape. This entire sequence however cost you two gold coins to escape with one gold coin; resulting in a net loss of a coin. If you avoid this room completely you’ll finally achieve a score of 80. You must know that it took me a couple of playthroughs and some experimentation to reach this conclusion.
A large serpent, not to be confused with the green snake guarding the emerald, guards a gold coin and this is where your apple will finally come in handy. The timing and posting sequence took me more than a few tries as you’ll discover if you play the game yourself.
I did end up reaching the high score of 80 points but not without spending some of my treasure currency in earlier game attempts. House of Thirty Gables ended up being a rather unique experience and it is the first game for home computers in 1980 whereby you can spend treasure for hints. The number of red herrings, unique puzzles, and sarcastic humor was enough to keep my interest and appreciate the game despite it being another treasure hunt.
My next gaming experience involves a CRPG from 1981 entitled Drac Is Back! Until next time…