Dream Zone

Dream Zone is a graphic adventure game in which the player controls a boy who is sent to a surreal dream world by a psychiatrist's potion and must defeat a lurking beast to escape. The game features a screen divided into distinct areas for streamlined interaction: a menu bar at the top for game management, a central picture area displaying the current location with panoramic views and up to twelve objects, a control pad on the right for movement, an icon bar below the picture for action verbs, a command line at the bottom for input execution, and a description window for text responses.

The player issues commands through a hybrid system combining mouse-driven icons and keyboard text entry. Common actions occur via the icon bar, where single-clicking verbs like "drop", "talk", "hit", or "buy" inserts them into the command line, followed by clicking an object or character to complete the phrase, with a final return key activation. Double-clicking verbs toggles alternatives, such as "hit" to "kill" or "buy" to "steal". The control pad provides directional arrows, up and down bars, and a central "enter" button; double-clicking the enter button causes the player to exit the current location.

A boy plagued by recurring nightmares seeks help from the eccentric Dr. Sigmund Fraud, who wires him up to a bizarre machine and determines that a monstrous "beast" is tormenting his sleep. Fraud prescribes a strange liquid that will send the boy to a dream world in which he can slay the beast, warning him that failure to do so means never waking up. Before going to sleep, the boy sneaks a water gun from his brother's toy chest after bribing him with money. Upon falling asleep, the boy enters a surreal landscape, with the beast preventing his return.

To enter the Rigor Mortis Saloon, the boy must buy a fake ID from an anthropomorphic fox hustler in a nearby alley, who requires a form from the Department of Information to make the sale. The boy navigates the labyrinthine building, a bureaucracy inhabited by pig officers, in search of the form. In the dream world, his water gun takes on a lethal quality, allowing him to shoot uncooperative officers and retrieve the form. In the saloon, the boy trades a holy wafer for a keg of beer, emptying it for a thirsty crowd.

Following the success of their previous title Ski Crazed (1987), JAM Software founders Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin continued their relationship with publisher Baudville and began development on Dream Zone. The game was jointly designed and written by Gavin and Rubin, with Gavin programming the game and Rubin creating the graphics. The music was composed by Sarah Sidman. The game's introduction features black and white digitized graphics depicting the real world, with the dream world scenes conveyed in color by Rubin's hand-drawn illustrations, an effect that Gavin compared to The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Dream Zone was released for the Apple II and Apple IIGS in the second quarter of 1988, for MS-DOS in November 1988, and for the Amiga and Atari ST in December 1988. It was JAM Software's first game to be released outside the Apple II platform.

Dream Zone was met with a generally positive reception upon release. James V. Trunzo of Compute! predicted praise or condemnation from players based on taste, but proclaimed that delight for the aesthetics would be undeniable.

Hartley, Patricia and Kirk Lesser of Dragon deemed it excellent and playable for all levels, anticipating future works from the young developers. Keith Campbell of Computer and Video Games called it offbeat and trapping, urging more from the publisher. Shay Addams of Compute! enjoyed the hassle-free experience provided by the parser.