''Amazon'' is an

interactive fiction '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

graphic adventure game. The game was published by

Trillium ''Trillium'' (trillium, wakerobin, toadshade, tri flower, birthroot, birthwort, and sometimes "wood lily") is a genus of about fifty flowering plant species in the family Melanthiaceae. ''Trillium'' species are native to temperate regions of No ...

(later known as Telarium) in 1984 and written by

Michael Crichton John Michael Crichton (; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavily feature tech ...

Development

Best-selling novelist and director

was a computer hobbyist who taught himself the programming language

BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

. In the early 1980s he, programmer Stephen Warady, and artist David Durand began developing an

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

graphic adventure game based on Crichton's novel '' Congo''; he sometimes programmed game sequences which Warady converted into much faster

assembly language In computer programming, assembly language (or assembler language, or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as Assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence b ...

. They worked on the project for 18 months and, before Crichton found a publisher, Spinnaker Software approached him about adapting his novels for its

Telarium Telarium Corporation (formerly Trillium) was a brand owned by Spinnaker Software. The brand was launched in 1984 and Spinnaker was sold in 1994. The headquarters were located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The President of Telarium was C. Dav ...

division's new "bookware" games. The author revealed the game, amazing Spinnaker, and signed a contract in late 1983. Crichton did not realize, however, that he had already sold all adaptation rights to ''Congo'' to another party. The team revised the game (renamed ''Amazon''), moving the setting from

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

and changing a

diamond mine There are a limited number of commercially available diamond mines currently operating in the world, with the 50 largest mines accounting for approximately 90% of global supply. Diamonds are also mined alluvially over disperse areas, where dia ...

to an emerald mine; the novel's Amy the talking

gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four ...

became Paco the talking

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoide ...

. Because the game was mostly complete, Telarium was able to

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

it to the Commodore 64 before ''Amazon''s release. Crichton later said that he was disappointed with the game due to technological limitations at the time of its development.

Reception

''Amazon'' was the best-selling Telarium title with as many as 100,000 copies sold, the majority likely for the Commodore 64. ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly throug ...

'' 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". James Delson of '' Family 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." German reviewers recognized the suspenseful, atmospheric and elaborated prose. Storyline, graphics and

text parser {{Refimprove, date=August 2007 In adventure games, a text parser takes typed input (a command) from the player and simplifies it to something the game can understand. Usually, words with the same meaning are turned into the same word (e.g. "take" a ...

got the score "sehr gut" (very good).Heinrich Lenhardt: ''7 Klasse-Adventures auf einen Streich'', Happy Computer 9/1985, p.145; Boris Schneider-Johne, Heinrich Lenhardt: ''Science Fiction-Adventures'', Happy Computer 5/1985, p.145ff.

References

External links

*
''Amazon''
at Museum of Computer Adventure Game History

at Atari Mania * * {{Michael Crichton 1980s interactive fiction 1984 video games Apple II games Atari ST games Commodore 64 games DOS games Classic Mac OS games MSX games Video games based on novels Video games developed in the United States Works by Michael Crichton Single-player video games Telarium games