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1
Lost Pig
Start here if you’ve never typed commands into a game. Grunk is looking for a missing pig, and his replies often tell you something about him even when your experiment gets you no closer. Type HELP for a command guide and hints. You can try odd ideas without leaving Grunk permanently stuck.
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Bronze (2006)
Released
Visit the Beast’s castle in the expanded version of Emily Short’s fairy-tale retelling. Try FIND when you remember an object and have forgotten where you left it. The game can also give you hints about a particular room or object, so you can ask about the thing you’re curious about without opening an entire walkthrough.
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9:05
A ringing phone wakes you up, and your first choices feel like the ordinary business of getting ready for work. This compact game is a good place to learn how much a little extra looking and reading can change what you think a command will do. Try a second run before you read anything beyond the opening.
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Aisle (1999)
Released
You’re in a grocery store late at night, and each run lasts exactly one turn. Type an action, read what happens, then start again and direct your attention somewhere else. A mundane action and an unexpected one can give you very different versions of the shopper and his past.
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Violet
You have a thousand words to write and an office full of distractions. The narrator sounds like the person the writer least wants to disappoint, so even a sidetrack can earn a reply worth reading. This is a good one to try small, plausible actions around a single room. There are built-in hints if you need them.
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Toby's Nose (2015)
Released
Sherlock Holmes brings his dog to a murder case, and you play the dog. Try smelling objects you can see, then follow things newly mentioned in the scent descriptions. A small set of commands carries you well beyond the room you started in. The archive has the tenth-anniversary release for browser play.
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Castle of the Red Prince (2013)
Released
A conventional text adventure often asks which direction you want to go. Here, you can get to distant places by examining them. Follow the places named in the prose and see how one act of looking leads to the next. The compact quest is a way to try the parser without keeping a list of compass directions.
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Ad Verbum (2000)
Released
Clear out a wizard’s mansion by paying attention to how some rooms make you phrase a command. A verb that works perfectly well in ordinary English can fail if it breaks a room’s rules. Pick this if you enjoy finding another way to say something, then seeing whether the game agrees with your choice of words.
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Shuffling Around
When a name looks odd, try rearranging its letters and entering the result. You can often learn as much from how the world names a thing as from where you found it. The author’s browser edition is Release 5 and comes with a separate walkthrough for when a promising set of letters won’t fall into place.
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Suveh Nux (2007)
Released
You’re a magician’s servant trapped in a vault. Treat the spell sounds you learn there like pieces of a language. Test a small change and see what changes in the result. The vault keeps your attention on what you can say, how you can combine it, and which objects give you a useful way to test it.
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The Wand (2017)
Released
The wizard’s wand has settings you enter as three-letter color codes. A clue may point you toward a new setting, but you still have to decide what to point the wand at. Keep a list of tested combinations so you can recognize when an old effect might work on a new object.
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For a Change (1999)
Released
The sun is gone, and you have a rock. The game’s descriptions make familiar words feel unfamiliar, so use straightforward actions to see what a strange object actually does. This is a good later pick if you want the writing itself to change how you decide on a command.
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The Gostak (2001)
Released
Most of the important words are invented, but you can still recognize a verb, a noun, and the shape of a sentence. Use the words in the descriptions and pay attention to what the replies suggest about your guesses. Save this for when you know the habits of a conventional parser well enough to use them as a foothold.
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