The Quest For Moonbright Tower

More than you ever wanted to know about 1983-era text adventure gaming

A couple years ago I bought a large lot of TI 99/4A gear from a family in the Chicagoland area.  They were selling the lot from a parent’s estate.  The price was good, and they had some software I wanted (despite not completing any of them back in the day, I’m mildly obsessed with collecting all the text adventure games released by Infocom* for the TI).  There was a little back-and-forth when the (well packed!) lot showed up and the Infocom games weren’t in there, but they were quickly found and sent separately, and the transaction was ultimately successful.

I found myself on an adventure of another sort when I started looking through the other floppy disks included.  I found one labeled Moonbright Tower and the name vaguely rang a bell.  I booted it up and found myself on a mysterious coast, with a summoning horn hanging from a nearby tree.  At my signal, a spooky ship helmed by a blind captain appeared, offering passage to the far shore and the rumored tower beyond.

Good stuff!  I came back to my 21^st-century computer to look for signs of Moonbright Tower’s provenance.  Besides a ¼ page ad that ran in 99’er and Compute! Magazine in the fall of 1983, there seemed to be almost no indication that Dave Mayer’s adventure game existed.  Nothing turned up in a search for the game, Cinquedea Software, or even old Garowulf, the shadowy protagonist.

Dear Gar-bear: do you personally loathe me? [y] [n] (circle one!!)