Ludography
Mindfighter cover

1988 · Adventure · Post-apocalyptic

Mindfighter

1988 video game

Released
1988
Platforms
AmigaAmstrad CPCAmstrad PCWAtari STAtari ST/STECommodore C64/128/MAXMS-DOSZX Spectrum
Genres
AdventurePost-apocalypticText adventure
Developers
—
Publishers
—
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Text
Themes
Science fiction
Country
United Kingdom

About

Mindfighter is a text adventure game developed by British studio Abstract Concepts and published by Activision in 1988 for the Amiga, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Atari ST, MS-DOS, and the ZX Spectrum computers.

Keywords

  • interactive fiction
  • dystopian
  • based on - book

Media

Mindfighter screenshot 1

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game is a text adventure with basic graphics to set the scene. The package includes a 160-page book, Mindfighter by Anna Popkess, which lays out the background of the story, and provides hints for play. The player must guide Robin through the hazardous environment of post-apocalyptic Southampton, surviving famine, desperate mobs, radiation sickness, and the violent agents of "The System", the dictatorial government which now governs Britain. Robin must survive and somehow prevent the war from happening.

Story

The premise of the game is a prophecy by Nostradamus that at the end of the 20th century there would be a major world war, beginning somewhere in the Middle East. The game was produced at a time of escalating violence in the Persian Gulf due to the Iran–Iraq War.

The year is 1988 and Robin, an 11-year-old boy with unusual psychic powers, has awoken from a long sleep among the ruins of his former home in Southampton, which has been devastated by a nuclear war. The last thing he remembers is falling asleep as normal in his room. His family and friends are missing and Britain has become an ultra-rightist state.

Reception

Your Sinclair: "It's a golden age for Spectrum adventuring..."

Sinclair User: "An intriguing story. May send shivers down your spine!"

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
ZX Spectrum31 December 1988Europe
Commodore C64/128/MAX31 December 1988Europe
MS-DOS31 December 1988Europe
Amstrad CPC31 December 1988Europe
Amiga31 December 1988Europe
Atari ST/STE31 December 1988Europe

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Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.