King Tut’s Tomb is the third text adventure published in 1978 from 12 year old Greg Hassett. His previous two games: Journey to the Center of the Earth & House of Seven Gables have already been covered. The game was developed for the TRS-80 and is yet another treasure hunt that has been wrapped in an Egyptian theme.
This text adventure also contains the additional tropes that we’ve seen so far in 1978: 1) you have to closely monitor your light source or it will run out on you leaving you in the dark and effectively ending your game 2) there is a maze within the pyramid that you’re going to have to decipher.
I had high expectations for this game going in. I had really enjoyed House of Seven Gables and thought it was a vast improvement to Hassett’s first game so I was expecting to see further progression. I am also a sucker for an Egyptian theme and the idea of exploring a pyramid for lost treasures.
While exploring the pyramid, instead of dealing with ghouls and ghosts, you have to contend with Goobers and mummies. I am not exactly sure what a Goober is but my guess is that it is Greg’s answer as a replacement for the Grue which are found in Zork and afraid of the light. These Goober’s are not afraid of light but they are afraid of something else.
There really isn’t much in the way of puzzles. The hardest part of the game is managing your light as a resource and dealing with the Goobers. There are numerous treasures to collect that are scattered about the pyramid so it becomes a simple matter of mapping the pyramid by hand and getting the treasures back to the surface. You can only carry or manage seven items at any one time in your inventory so you’re going to have to make multiple forays into the pyramid.
King Tut’s Tomb is better than Journey to the Center of the Earth but nowhere near as good as the House of Seven Gables. There really is no story to speak of and it is light on puzzles. King Tut’s Tomb was packaged as a trilogy by Mad Hatter Software with Hasset’s other two games. I think I spent about 90 minutes with the game and I was able to obtain all of the treasures and make my way out of the pyramid.
I’m not exactly sure why I didn’t get the maximum score of 207 but I can live with that. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go wash the sand out of my hair.