Murder on the Zinderneuf 1983 detective game

Murder on the Zinderneuf (1983, United States)

Set in 1936 Murder on the Zinderneuf was a video game that mixed the classic elements (from such board games as The Clue) with what computers had to offer. As the only detective on board we have to crack the case before Zinderneuf will reach its destination. With over a dozen of suspects, each with different character and background, we have to talk to each of them and figure out who the killer might be.

On surface Murder on the Zinderneuf looked, to be completely honest, abysmal - the interface was challenging, the options were hard to access, the characters all looked the same, the graphic side was just awful. But once you got through that rough exterior beneath all of it there was a very complicated and well developed game. First of all there was a time limit, and I don’t mean in-game time limit, the gameplay was limited to 36 real-life minutes. And the second interesting bit of design was in the case itself - with each game you were given different set of connections between passengers, which means each time you run the game it is actually a different game with different culprit.

Originally published in 1983 Murder on the Zinderneuf was a very ambitious game that involved original ideas and high chances to replay the game after finishing it. The main drawback was the interface, limited by the hardware of the era.