The Basilisk and the Banana (TALP)

It’s early morning. Just another day… or is it? You can’t think what’s special about today, but maybe… something?

Anyway, you’re Hermes, Greek god and messenger, and today you’ve got a letter to deliver to Zeus, king of the gods. He also happens to be your dad.

Sounds simple, right? What could possibly go wrong?

WELCOME

This is our first parser game, a collaboration between Darren (ancient, but not Greek) and Jasper (8). We’ve had fun and we hope you will too.

Rating PG because (no spoilers) there’s a monster. There are also improbable references to tropical fruit.

As beginners we’re particularly grateful to our playtesters (credited below), thanks to whom it should no longer be possible to take your wardrobe with you on your travels, although it’s due to one of them that you can (if you wish) attempt to milk the minotaur.

HOW TO PLAY

This is an old-school text adventure, written for the Text Adventure Literacy Jam 2024.

This means you are Hermes, the main character, and you have to choose and control what you do in the game. You do this by typing simple sentences, and then reading what happens.

It’s easier to do than to explain, and there’s a tutorial (optional) that will take you step-by-step through the first section of the game and introduce the main commands you need to know, if you just want to jump in and get playing. There’s also a system where you can call your father – telepathically – by typing CALL ZEUS at any point, and he’ll help you out (or you’ll hear what he’s up to, if he’s not feeling particularly helpful at that point).

Alternatively, keep reading – these are the main things you need to know.

EXAMINE (X)

In text adventures, it’s helpful to look closely at everything mentioned in the descriptions. You do this with the command EXAMINE, which can be shortened to X. So, for example, early in this game you’ll need to be typing X WARDROBE.

GET

You use this command to pick up items you find, which will often be important. For example, GET TOGA. If you pick up an item of clothing like this, you can also put it on by using the command WEAR, so you can WEAR TOGA. You REMOVE items of clothing to take them off. You can get drop items you’re carrying by typing DROP and the item’s name. Occasionally you might want to give something to another character – so GIVE PEBBLE for example, may be useful.

INVENTORY (I)

Type I to see a list of the things you’re currently carrying and wearing.

LOOK (L)

Type L to look again at where you are, and see the description again.

MOVING ABOUT

You move about the game world by typing the direction you want to go in. In this game, the only directions are the main four compass points – NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST, plus sometimes UP and DOWN. These are shortened to N, S, E, W and U and D. The available directions are always shown at the top right of the screen (in this game) and most of the time, others won’t work (but you can still try…). Your current location is shown at the top left of the screen, if you’re ever not sure where you’ve got to. This is not a terribly complicated game but some people still find it helpful to sketch a map as you go, to see how to get back to places you’ve been (if you want) or to see any directions you haven’t been yet. But it’s not essential. You can safely wander about this game.

OTHER COMMANDS

There are a handful of other commands that might be needed along the way (it’s possible, for example to PUT one item IN another item, occasionally) but where they’re essential to finishing the game there will be hints in the descriptions, and you can CALL ZEUS to get help, too. There are plenty of other commands that may have interesting outcomes as well – you can OPEN and CLOSE things, EAT and DRINK, try to TALK TO other characters, SAY things, CLIMB certain things, LISTEN, and so on. You can’t break the game doing this, and you can’t get killed or get irretrievably stuck in this game so it’s safe to experiment.

SAVE, LOAD, RESTART

Type SAVE to get an option to save the game at the point you are at. Type LOAD to restore a save from earlier (you can have up to three current saves). Type RESTART to start again from the beginning without saving.

WALKTHROUGH

If you get really stuck, there’s a walkthrough that includes just the essential commands to get to the end of the game, using one possible route (download below).

PICTURES

The game is illustrated, and occasionally there might be useful hints in the pictures, but these are not essential to playing and succeeding in the game – everything you need is in the text and the game only takes text input from you.

SOUNDS

Sounds (only a couple in the game, and not essential) can be turned off by typing SOUNDS OFF and on by typing SOUNDS ON.

FONTS

You can type FONT at any point to get an option to change between the Greek(ish) one and a more conventional font.

DOWNLOAD

You can play the game right here online, or use the download link below to play offline (again, using a web browser).

CREDITS

Written, designed, illustrated and coded by Jasper & Darren.

Tested by Garry Francis, Tabitha, manonomora, Noah Si, Elliot & Joe.

Much help was had from the Adventuron discord, particularly from Garry Francis and Chris Ainsley.

Adventuron was developed by Chris Ainsley, and is copyright of Adventuron Software Limited 
(and is frankly brilliant for young / beginner coders).