Ludography
Time Zone cover

1982 · On-Line Systems · Adventure · Puzzle

Time Zone

In order to save Earth's future you are given a time machine enabling you to travel into several time periods of the distant past where you meet famous people like Robin Hood, Christopher Columbos or Cleopatra who will help you to change Earth's destiny.

Released
1982
Platforms
Apple IIFM-7PC-8800 SeriesPC-9800 Series
Genres
AdventurePuzzle
Developers
On-Line Systems
Publishers
On-Line Systems
Series
Hi-Res Adventure
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Third personText
Themes
Science fiction
Country
United States
Age ratings
ESRB T
Time to beat
8hwith extras

About

Time Zone is a multi-disk graphical adventure game written and directed by Roberta Williams for the Apple II. Developed in 1981 and released in 1982 by On-Line Systems (later Sierra Entertainment), the game was shipped with six double-sided floppy disks and contained 1,500 areas (screens) to explore along with 39 scenarios to solve. Produced at a time when most games rarely took up more than one side of a floppy, Time Zone is one of the first games of this magnitude released for home computer systems. Ports were released for Japanese home computers PC-88, PC-98 and FM-7 in 1985.

›Story

The year is 4081 and the people of Mother Earth are in peril. Ramadu, the mighty and sinister ruler of the planet Newbourn, a thousand light-years away, is about to declare war on a weaker and smaller Earth - a war which will mean total destruction or worse total servitude on the part of the people of Earth, to the evil Ramadu.

For thousands of years the inhabitants of Newbourn (a very advanced society) have watched the struggling and developing Earthlings – as one would watch animals in a zoo. The Newburites, over the years, had traveled to Earth, sometimes learning, sometimes teaching, always curious. They saw revealed to them in the development of the Earthlings their own beginnings so many million years ago.

But Earth was cathcing up to Neburon – technically, medically, scientifically, in all areas. Neburon had once been extremely advanced compared to Earth but had grown comfortable and lazy.

The Newburites were in a slump. They needed a stimulus. They were angry about Earth's advancement and their on inactivity. Why, if nothing was done about it Earth may very well surpass Neburon in superiority in a few decades.

So Ramadu had come to power. But instead of spurring his people on to new growth and productivity and perhaps working with Earth to trade knowledge and ideas beneficial to both, he chose war. After all, Neburon was still more powerful than Earth and the Earthlings wouldn't stand a chance.

The year is 1981. You are an ordinary person walking through a meadow one day when you notice a strange looking contraption right in the middle of the meadow. You glance around yourself. There appears to be no one around.

You look inside the contraption – there are a lot of dials and something that looks like a bucket seat. The outside of the contraption is round with a large inviting doorway. Hesitantly, you enter the contraption and sit down in the bucket seat. Gingerly, you turn a dial and suddenly reality becomes a blur as you enter the greatest adventure of your life.

Keywords

  • interactive fiction

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Time Zone allows players to travel through time and across the globe solving puzzles while meeting famous historical figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Cleopatra, and Julius Caesar. The game has static pictures and a text parser that understands two-word commands.

Development

The game used the company's existing Hi-Res Adventures engine. Roberta Williams was the designer and writer, and its development took six months and about ten other people—the first example of the modern video game-development model in which programmers, artists, and designers are separate people in a team larger than a few people—worked on the game for a year. Each of the more than 1,300 locations had its own artwork. The company hoped to release Time Zone before Christmas 1981, but did not do so until March 1982. Because of the game's difficulty, Sierra offered a telephone help line that players could call for hints.

Reception

BYTE wrote "The Guinness Book of World Records must be getting ready for a computer game category, if Time Zone is any indication of things to come. Without a doubt, it is the longest adventure game to date". The game received a Certificate of Merit in the category of "Best Computer Adventure" at the 4th annual Arkie Awards.

Williams' brother-in-law and fellow employee, John, later said, "It frankly wasn't that good". Time Zone sold poorly; the original retail price of US$99 (equivalent to $330 in 2025) may make it the most expensive computer game in history after inflation. The game was reissued the year of its release as part of the short-lived SierraVentures line.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

Releases by platform
PlatformReleasedRegions
Apple II31 December 1982North America
PC-8800 Series1 February 1985Japan
PC-9800 Series1 February 1985Japan
FM-731 December 1985Japan

Decompilations and portscommunity projects that rebuild or port the game

In the same series

Games like this

Collections2 collections

Platform libraries

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