| Plundered Hearts | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Infocom |
| Publisher(s) | Infocom |
| Designer(s) | Amy Briggs |
| Engine | Z-machine |
| Platform(s) | Amiga,Apple II,Atari 8-bit,Atari ST,Commodore 64,MS-DOS,Mac |
| Release | July 30, 1987 |
| Genre(s) | Interactive fiction |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Plundered Hearts is aninteractive fictionvideo game created byAmy Briggs and published byInfocom in 1987. Infocom's only game in theromance genre, it was released simultaneously for theApple II,Commodore 64,Atari 8-bit computers,Atari ST,Amiga,Mac, andMS-DOS. It is Infocom's 28th game.
Plundered Hearts casts the player in a well-defined role. The lead character is a young woman in the late 17th century who has received a letter. Jean Lafond, thegovernor of the smallWest Indies island of St. Sinistra, says that the player's father has contracted a "wasting tropical disease". Lafond suggests that his recovery would be greatly helped by the loving presence of his daughter, and sends his ship (theLafond Deux) to transport her.
As the game begins, the ship is attacked by pirates and the player's character is kidnapped. Eventually, the player's character finds that two men are striving for her affections: dashing pirate Nicholas Jamison, and the conniving Jean Lafond. As the intrigue plays out, the lady does not sit idly by and watch the men duel over her; she must help Jamison overcome the evil plans of Lafond so that they have a chance to live happily ever after.
As early as 1984, Infocom employees joked about the possibility of a romance text adventure, althoughThe Boston Globe observed "somehow the moves don't seem appropriate to a computer keyboard".[1] By 1987, the year ofPlundered Hearts's release, Infocom no longer rated its games on difficulty level.
Although this was not the only Infocom game designed in an effort to attract female players (one example beingMoonmist), it is the only game where the lead character is always female.
ThePlundered Hearts package included an "elegant velvet reticule" (pouch) containing the following items:
Game reviewers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser complimentedPlundered Hearts in their "The Role of Computers" column inDragon #128 (1987), citing its "gripping prose, challenging predicaments, and scenes of derring-do".[2]Computer Gaming World said "this might be the perfect gift for your 'significant other' so that she can understand why interactive fiction is so fascinating".[3]Compute! praisedPlundered Hearts' writing and said that the game was suitable for both men and women.[4]ANALOG Computing approved of the game's "intrigue, adventure and, yes, romance", but regretted that "most of Infocom's regular audience (presumably male) are likely to forsake this bold new endeavor" because of its genre.[5]