''Borrowed Time'' is a

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 ...

game about a detective, who tries to rescue his kidnapped wife. The game was developed by

Interplay Interplay may refer to: * Interplay (John Coltrane album), ''Interplay'' (John Coltrane album), 1957 * Interplay (Bill Evans album), ''Interplay'' (Bill Evans album), 1962 * Interplay (Al Haig album), ''Interplay'' (Al Haig album), 1976 * Interpla ...

and published by Activision in 1985. Mastertronic republished it as a budget title under the name ''Time to Die''.

Plot

The plot in the style of a detective story of the noir crime genre is set in the USA of the 1930s. The player takes a role of a private detective, Sam Harlow. His ex-wife Rita Sweeney has been kidnapped, and he tries to free her. In the process, he is pursued by gangsters who are after his life.

Gameplay

''Borrowed Time'' is a text adventure with a complementary graphical user interface. Control is via the keyboard, alternatively, many commands and objects can be selected from a graphical menu with a joystick or a mouse. Moving around is done in the same way - a selection window with cardinal directions is available. The player must interrogate suspects and collect evidence at the various locations in order to achieve the game goal. Some game actions have a time limit for problem-solving.

Development

''Borrowed Time'' was produced by Interplay for Activision and was part of a $100,000 contract that included a total of three adventure games.Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson: ''High Score.'' McGraw-Hill/Osborne: Emeryville, California, 2004. Page 209. ISBN 0-07-223172-6 Interplay founder Fargo already had experience in the adventure genre: his first game was the adventure

The Demon's Forge ''The Demon's Forge'' is a 1981 video game published by Saber Software for the Apple II and IBM PC, designed by Brian Fargo. Gameplay ''The Demon's Forge'' is a game in which the player is a mercenary banished to a dungeon. The game is an interac ...

, released for

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 ...

in 1981. The parser used by Interplay was developed by Fargo and a collaborator, and at one stage of development had a dictionary of 250 nouns, 200 verbs, and could evaluate input with prepositions and indirect objects. The same engine had been used in the previous games Mindshadow and The Tracer Sanction. The writing and much of the game design were done by Subway Software, a company founded by game journalist Bill Kunkel specifically for ''Borrowed Time''. Fargo outsourced the writing because he felt that no one at Interplay could produce quality prose.

Reception

'' Info'' rated ''Borrowed Time'' four stars out of five, describing it as "a big step forward in the realm of 'interactive entertainment' ... a tonic to jaded adventurers", and praising the game's graphics, parser, and humor. '' Compute!'' wrote that "Activision has created a delightful game environment with the look and feel of those classic hardboiled detective movies and novels". ''

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 through ...

''s

Charles Ardai Charles Ardai (born 1969) is an American entrepreneur, businessperson, and writer of award winning crime fiction and mysteries. He is founder and editor of Hard Case Crime, a line of pulp-style paperback crime novels. He is also an early employe ...

called ''Borrowed Time'' "a superbly cinematic graphic adventure" that was too brief and deserved a sequel. A German reviewer recognized the challenging storyline, the detailed graphics and the comfortable gameplay. He gave Borrowed Time 82 out of 100.Heinrich Lenhardt: ''Tatort Computer'', ''Happy Computer'' 4/1986, p.150f. (german)

References

External links

* * {{IFDB, id=a6s8n66vllgv3bdj 1980s interactive fiction 1985 video games Activision games Amiga games Apple II games Atari ST games Classic Mac OS games Commodore 64 games Detective video games Interplay Entertainment games Mastertronic games Single-player video games Subway Software games Video games developed in the United States Video games set in the 1930s Video games set in the United States