Re: Prisoner 2

[rwgomez@hotTHIS-IS-ANTI-SPAM-TEXTmail.com (Robert Gomez)]

I loved this game as a kid and I have it and its original packaging
here in my office. The game was very clever in the way in which it
knowingly plays with the fact that it is a computer game. At one point
it even threatens to initialise itself if you don't do something
correctly. At times it feels like every puzzle in the game has no real
solution and they are there just to trick and confuse the player.

The makers of the game had a deal where, if you solved it, you could
send in a card with some key info about the end-game and they would
send you a poster. I "solved" the game by somehow getting to an
applesoft prompt, typing CATALOG, and just running random files until
I found the final "level" program. I sent in for the poster and
eventually got it [it has since been thrown away :( ], but it was an
image of a faceless figure punching out of a computer monitor.

Technically, I guess one could say my solution was cheating, but in a
sense it wasn't. There were times in the game where it would trick you
into typing your resignation number by exiting to an applesoft prompt
with an error message "SYNTAX ERROR IN 123". I would type "LIST 123"
not realising 123 was my resignation code until it was too late. The
game was just inviting you to hack in to it to beat the system. Very
abstract and in the spirit of the TV show upon which it was based.

-R


On Sun, 17 Nov 2002 07:57:58 -0500, "Mike S. Nowostawsky"
<mikenowo@sympatico.ca> wrote:

>I found an old Apple game called Prisoner2 but never could finish it. Anyone
>ever hear of it or see any hints for it? (It was based on the old Prisoner
>TV show.)