Valley of the Minotaur

[Jake Featherston <Jake_Featherston@comcast.net>]

Here is the text of an article I wrote for Wikipedia.  If anyone has
any idea how I might be able to locate a copy of this game, I would be
extremely grateful.  Thanks.


Valley of the Minotaur is a computer game for the Apple II series of
home computers. It was published by Softalk magazine[1] in 1983, on a
5.25 inch floppy disk. It is a work of interactive fiction, also known
as a "text adventure". The game occurs within a large, fictonal
setting that includes a detailed and exotic terrain, with some
references to Greek mythology.

Despite the fact it relies on a simple verb-noun parser, it appears to
be inspired by the first of the Zork games, in that the goal is to
collect treasures, and to deposit them in a telephone booth (whereas
in Zork I: The Great Underground Empire, the goal is to collect
treasures to be stored in a trophy case). Additionally, the game
features a giant bat, which will pick up the player (without his
consent), and carry him to various other locations within the game (a
feature nearly identical to the giant bat in the first of the Zork
trilogy games), as well as travel by boat (which is also featured in
Zork I).

The Valley of the Minotaur features many aspects which, at that early
period in gaming history, were essentially unique to itself, such as
an encounter with a tribe of cannibalistic headhunters. In addition to
treasure collection, there is a secondary goal, necessary in order to
solve the game: The slaying of the dreaded Minotaur.

The game appears to have some bugs, but that is difficult to determine
without confirmation from the programmers. What appear to have been
bugs may have simply been the off-beat nature of the game itself.
Valley of the Minotaur was an unusually long and complex work of
interactive fiction for its time, and gameplay required the use of
both sides of its floppy disk. The game was not a big seller in its
day, and is today very obscure, and extremely difficult to find.

Footnotes

   1. ^ http://adventure.if-legends.org/Softalk_Magazine.html
Adventureland: Legends of Interactive Fiction. Softalk Magazine (list
of interactive fiction games produced by).