Here is Jason Dyer’s blog: all adventures (opens in new tab) (via RPS (opens in new tab)) From the beginning, he plans to play and write for every text adventure ever made. Of course, all he is, like his CRPG Addict’s impossible quest to complete a CRPG chronologically, is a glorious destined undertaking, which is why it’s great. Now Dyer is playing, Blog about ferrets (opens in new tab)an obscure sci-fi adventure originally released in 1982.
The original Ferret was created for the Data General Nova, a 16-bit minicomputer, and was made available exclusively for PC using a DOS version released as a free download by the original author in 2009. Data General, their game is “The phased development of the game’s architecture allowed us to incrementally add additional phases (opens in new tab).” And they continue to develop it, updates are “Final feature release with endgame (opens in new tab)” was uploaded on August 15, 2022.
So the time between the first version of Ferret and one version of the end game is 40 years, which could technically be the “longest time a game has been in development” record. Good luck to beat it, Beyond Good and Evil 2.
As Dyer points out, Ferret has 3,449 objects and 1,785 rooms (although not all rooms are reachable by the player). For comparison, the original Zork has 60 objects and 110 rooms, while A Mind Forever Voyaging has 30 objects and 178 rooms.Ferrets may be less verbal Cragne Manor (opens in new tab) (Collaborative work by 84 designers), but it’s a big shot. And it takes time for any player to complete. It’s an old-school trial-and-error puzzle game where you usually find out you made a mistake by dying.
If you’re still interested in trying Ferret for yourself, be aware that Windows doesn’t like official downloads and flags them as Trojans.Fortunately, Dyer minimal download (opens in new tab) Prevent Windows from conforming. After downloading these files, you need to run ferret.bat. Because ferret.exe launches a version that closes the window as soon as the user dies. ferret.bat allows you to stay in the parser and start over by typing “ferret”. Remember “save” [filename]”and” restore [filename]”Command is your friend, good luck.
