Curses (video game)

<p>The player plays the part of the current owner of Meldrew Hall. In the course of searching the attic for an old tourist map of <a href="/facts/Paris/DrNHpwnA">Paris</a>, the protagonist steps into a surreal adventure to uncover a centuries-old <a href="/facts/Curse/VhHCHBXj">curse</a> that has been placed on the Meldrew family. The goal of the game is to find the missing map, and thus annul the curse.
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<h2 id="development">Development</h2>
<p><i>Curses</i> was originally developed on an <a href="/facts/Acorn_Archimedes/BxInoqjT">Acorn Archimedes</a> using <a href="/facts/Acorn_C/C%2B%2B/THa1YBjP">Acorn C/C++</a>, before Nelson moved to his <a href="/facts/Inform/wVHUn48A">Inform</a> programming language, which was simultaneously released.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> It was the first non-test game developed in the language.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> It is distributed <a href="/facts/Freeware/c8oGA9ju">without charge</a> as a <a href="/facts/Z-machine/AN4mCxxX">Z-Code</a> executable. The Inform <a href="/facts/Source_code/o9J6Jv23">source code</a> is not publicly available.
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<h2 id="innovations">Innovations</h2>
<p><i>Curses</i> contains some innovations that contribute to its appeal.
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<ul><li>Managing the player's inventory by automatically placing items in a container to make room for an object needed in hand (such as placing an item in the rucksack when reading an entry in a book), eliminating the tedium of having to manually drop one item before picking up another.</li>
<li>Commands <i>places</i> and <i>objects</i>, displaying all the locations visited and all the objects seen during the game.</li></ul>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Jigsaw_(video_game)/WwTVf8Wn"><i>Jigsaw</i></a>, another Graham Nelson game, from 1995</li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=plvzam05bmz3enh8"><i>Curses</i></a> in the <a href="/facts/Interactive_Fiction_Database/bfeF0Wqx">Interactive Fiction Database</a>; the entry has some coverage, reviews, and links to both the original release (version 7) and the most recent one (version 16)</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Rothstein, Edward (1998-04-06). "TECHNOLOGY: CONNECTIONS; In the intricacy of a text game, no object is superfluous, no formulation too strange". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2012-11-08. Retrieved 2008-11-13. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/06/business/technology-connections-intricacy-text-game-no-object-superfluous-no-formulation.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/06/business/technology-connections-intricacy-text-game-no-object-superfluous-no-formulation.html?pagewanted=all</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>Montfort, Nick (2005). "7 The Independents". Twisty little passages : an approach to interactive fiction. Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-63318-3. Before Nelson began work on Inform [...] Using an Acorn Archimedes and programming in ANSI C, he quickly abandoned his small game to begin developing Curses, using that to put the in-progress compiler through its paces. <a href="0-262-63318-3" target="_blank">0-262-63318-3</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>"Interview: Graham Nelson". XYZZY News. Eileen Mullin. Archived from the original on 2002-02-24. Retrieved 2002-02-24. I use two languages, the excellent Norcroft ANSI C compiler and Inform. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20020224194335/http://www.xyzzynews.com/xyzzy.1c.html" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20020224194335/http://www.xyzzynews.com/xyzzy.1c.html</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>"Interview: Graham Nelson". XYZZY News. Eileen Mullin. Archived from the original on 2002-02-24. Retrieved 2002-02-24. I use two languages, the excellent Norcroft ANSI C compiler and Inform. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20020224194335/http://www.xyzzynews.com/xyzzy.1c.html" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20020224194335/http://www.xyzzynews.com/xyzzy.1c.html</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Curses (video game) open-in-new

Curses (video game)