Re: Valley of the Minotaur

[magnusfalkirk <dean.phares@gmail.com>]

On Nov 3, 7:49 am, Jake Featherston <Jake_Feathers...@comcast.net>
wrote:
> 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).

If it was produced by Softdisk you might be able to find it as part of
the Softdisk Supreme CD that is sold by Syndicomm, which is a
compilation of all 166 issues of Softdisk:

http://store.syndicomm.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=136

if it was sold as a completely separate game then I'm not sure you'll
be able to find it.

Dean