| Amazon | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Developer(s) | Telarium |
| Publisher(s) | Telarium |
| Programmer(s) | Stephen Warady |
| Artist(s) | David Durand |
| Writer(s) | Michael Crichton |
| Platform(s) | Apple II,Atari ST,Commodore 64,MS-DOS,Mac,MSX |
| Release | 1984 |
| Genre(s) | Interactive fiction |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Amazon is aninteractive fictiongraphic adventure game. The game was published byTelarium in 1984 and written byMichael Crichton.[1]
Best-selling novelist and directorMichael Crichton was a computer hobbyist who taught himself the programming languageBASIC. In the early 1980s he, programmer Stephen Warady, and artist David Durand began developing anApple IIgraphic adventure game based on Crichton's novelCongo; he sometimes programmed game sequences which Warady converted into much fasterassembly language. They worked on the project for 18 months and, before Crichton found a publisher,Spinnaker Software approached him about adapting his novels for itsTelarium division's new "bookware" games. The author revealed the game, amazing Spinnaker, and signed a contract in late 1983.[2]
Crichton did not realize, however, that he had already sold all adaptation rights toCongo to another party. The team revised the game (renamedAmazon), moving the setting fromAfrica toSouth America and changing adiamond mine to anemerald mine; the novel's Amy the talkinggorilla became Paco the talkingparrot. Because the game was mostly complete, Telarium was able toport it to the Commodore 64 beforeAmazon's release.[2] Crichton later said that he was disappointed with the game due to technological limitations at the time of its development.[3]
Amazon was the best-selling Telarium title with as many as 100,000 copies sold, the majority likely for the Commodore 64.[2]Computer Gaming World praised its rarely used animated graphics and Crichton's cooperation with its designers, stating that "the cohesive manner in which the game's storyline unfolds reflects Crichton's skill as a writer".[4] James Delson ofFamily Computing reviewed the Apple II version and wrote that the game "has limited graphics, but what's there is choice." Delson also noted the game's difficulty and wrote, "Patience is more than a virtue in this game, it's a necessity."[5] German reviewers recognized the suspenseful, atmospheric and elaborated prose. Storyline, graphics andtext parser got the score "sehr gut" (very good).[6]
Micheal Crichton(The Andromedia Strain, The Terminal Man) has actually created a software work from scratch:Amazon (Telarium; $39.95), which transports the player and a sidekick parrot named Paco into the jungles of South America in search of a lost city and hidden emeralds.