Labyrinth: The Computer Game

Labyrinth: The Computer Game is a graphic adventure computer game, inspired by the 1986 film Labyrinth. The game was developed by Lucasfilm Games (later renamed LucasArts) and published by Activision in 1986 for the Apple IIe and IIc, Commodore 64/128, and MSX2.

Gameplay

Labyrinth: The Computer Game is a menu-driven adventure game, played from a third-person perspective. The game begins by asking the player their name and gender, and the game opens as a text-based adventure. During the text-based portion of the game, the player goes to the theater to see the film Labyrinth.

The movie starts, and an image of Jareth comes up on the screen. At that point, the game becomes a graphic adventure.

The game uses a "slot machine" text interface, with two vertical strips of words at the bottom of the screen. The player picks a verb from the left strip and a noun from the right strip to choose an action.

Development

The design team (including project leader David Fox and technical director Charlie Kellner) flew to London for a week of brainstorming with Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a computer enthusiast. Adams was good friends with Sesame Street songwriter Christopher Cerf, who was also involved with the game. Many of Adams' ideas ended up in the final design, including the text-based opening.

Adams really liked the word "adumbrate," a rather obscure verb meaning "To prefigure indistinctly; foreshadow." So it ended up on the verb list. This obscure word was used in an even more obscure puzzle at one point in the game, where the player has to "adumbrate the elephant" to break out of prison. The elephant breaks a hole in the wall, freeing the player.