| Jinxter | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Magnetic Scrolls |
| Publisher(s) | Rainbird Software |
| Designer(s) | Georgina Sinclair, Michael Bywater, Paul Findley |
| Artist(s) | Geoff Quilley, Duncan McLean |
| Composer(s) | John Molloy |
| Platform(s) | Acorn Archimedes, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Apple II, Apple Macintosh, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum |
| Release date(s) | 1987 |
| Genre(s) | Interactive fiction |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Media/distribution | Tape, floppy disk |
Jinxter is a text adventure computer game developed by Magnetic Scrolls and published by Rainbird in 1987 for popular 8-bit and 16-bit machines of the time as well as the 32-bit Acorn Archimedes. The game was originally conceived as an answer to Infocom's Enchanter.[1]
Jinxter was originally written by Georgina Sinclair, the sister of Magnetic Scrolls' founder Anita Sinclair who had previously written the novella A Tale of Kerovnia for the game The Pawn, later script-doctored by Michael Bywater.[1]
Contents |
The game is set in the fictional country of Aquitania, which bears a strong resemblance to early-to-middle 20th century Britain. The central characters in the story are the Guardians, immortal guardian angel-like beings who look after and help people. The Guardians are described as liking to wear herringbone overcoats and eating cheese sandwiches. Centuries ago the country was threatened by the rising dark power of the evil Green Witches until the good magician Turani created a magical object, called the Bracelet, which holds luck and distributes it throughout Aquitania to limit and keep in check the menacing magic of the witches, banning the dangerous parts of the witchcraft and rendering them relatively harmless. However, the high witch Jannedor has enough of the restraints and plots to re-establish the old power and glory of the Green Witches. To this end, she obtained and disassembled the Bracelet, stripped it of its five magical charms and hid them in various places (the bracelet itself is worn by Jannedor), waiting for its powers to be weakened enough it could be destroyed so she would fulfill her schemes of conquest.
If the charms of Turani aren't reunited soon with the legendary Bracelet of Turani then luck could completely run out and the Green Witches will regain all of their old magic and the country will again fall under their influence. The player character is, pretty much accidentally, recruited by the Guardians to rescue his friend Xam, kidnapped by the witches, retrieve the charms, fix the Bracelet and then use its powers against Jannedor in her castle, defeating the witches and restoring luck to Aquitania.
Jinxter was famous for its quirky, eccentric humour. Many of the textual descriptions are very long and have a humorous aspect. Each of the five charms provides a magic spell, and the words to trigger these spells are common placeholder names. Unlike many other text adventures, in Jinxter the player character almost never dies during the course of gameplay: even if he gets into otherwise lethal situations, one of the Guardians will appear in some absurd way, and save his life (the only exception to this rule is an encounter with Jannedor). Once Jannedor's evil ambitions are put to an end, however, the player's character is put back just where he before he began his adventure—in front of a speeding bus—and killed.[2][3]
The game received the score of 92% and a Crash Smash award from the Crash magazine,[4] as well as 88% from Amstrad Action.[5] It also received the ratings of 70% from Amiga Computing, 7/10 from Amiga User International', 8/10 from Power Play and 92% from The Games Machine.[6][7][8][9]
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