Enthusiastically Reviewed Text Adventure of the Chicago World's Fair
Available Online for the First Time
Price Reduced to $14.95
An old school text adventure dressed up with hundreds of period photographs and other images, 1893: A World's Fair Mystery takes place at the Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in that year, the last and greatest of the 19th century's World Fairs. Coupling a well-researched and evocative depiction of the Exposition with interesting puzzles and a mystery to solve, 1893 proves there's life in the text adventure yet. Both fans of the genre and those interested in Chicago's history will enjoy it greatly.
But don't take our word for it: the Chicago Sun-Times called it "excellent," and Adventure Games called it "one of the most fantastic adventure games I have ever played."
The developer says:
A theft on the fairgrounds! Precious diamonds stolen from the Kimberly Diamond Mining Exhibit! An urgent telegram from your old partner arrives, requesting your help to solve the mystery. How can you refuse? And besides, you've been dying to see the wonder of the age everyone has been talking about, this Columbian Exposition. And so, dossier in hand, you take the next train to Chicago.
But this is no simple theft. And as theft turns to kidnapping, and kidnapping to murder, you find yourself at the center of a plot the extent of which you can only begin to imagine...
1893: A WORLD'S FAIR MYSTERY is an interactive adventure into Chicago history. It uses a text interface and still photos to bring the fair "vividly to life," and "proves convincingly that the best games aren't about razzle-dazzle special effects or cheap gimmickry. They're about story, character, and especially here, location, location, location" (The Associated Press). "Excellent," says the Chicago Sun-Times, and Game Chronicles Magazine calls 1893 a "breath of fresh air." Nominated for Best Game of the year and winner of Best Setting at the 7th Annual XYZZY Awards.
Features
- Hundreds of locations on the fairgrounds to explore, as if you were really there
- Over 500 archival photographs illustrate the places you go and the people you meet
- Dozens of interactive characters to encounter
- Carefully researched and historically accurate
- Non-linear gameplay -- you control where you want to go and when
- Challenging and unique puzzles
- In-game hint system
- Over thirty hours of gameplay
Reviews
"A text adventure brought vividly to life with 500 period photos, 1893 is the kind of adventure game we've allowed to languish far too long. Author Peter Nepstad has meticulously mapped and recreated the 1893 Chicago World's Fair in prose and pictures and used it as the setting for a mystery. Full of puzzles, history, intrigue, and interactive dialogue, 1893 immerses you in a place and time like few recent games have."
- GAMES MAGAZINE, Top 100 Electronic Games of 2004, Category Runner-Up, RPG/Adventure
"...1893: A World's Fair Mystery is fascinating, entertaining, deviously educational, and simply one of the most fantastic adventure games I have ever played, text or otherwise.""
- 4/5, Adventure Gamers
"1893: A World's Fair Mystery is a well-written, atmospheric, and even educational text adventure reminiscent of Infocom's Sherlock: Riddle of the Crown Jewels."
- Home of the Underdogs
"1893...arrives on the gaming scene like a breath of fresh air."
- Game Chronicles Magazine
Awards
The December issue of GAMES MAGAZINE has declared 1893: AWFM is one of the top 100 games of the year! It was a runner-up in its category, RPG/Adventure games. The winner? LucasArts' Knights of the Old Republic for XBox. Talk about an uneven matchup! About 1893, they write, "Full of puzzles, history, intrigue, and interactive dialogue, 1893 immerses you in a place and time like few recent games have." [this was in 2003, the year it was released.]