Jack the Ripper 1987 detective game

Jack the Ripper (1987, Ireland)

detective games

Jack the Ripper was one of the many text adventures published in the 1980s on different platforms - they looked exactly the same, they had very similar construction, very similar style, so the producers and publishers were looking for a way to distinguish their products from the rest. In the case of this title, of course, the main antagonist was a strong enough element to draw attention to the game, but in fact the game had one more gimmick that made it an interesting to offer. That gimmick was actually time - unlike other games in the genre in Jack the Ripper, time was moving on no matter if the player was active or not. If you keep in mind that this was the 1980s, you can imagine how innovative that was - almost all the text adventures were pretty linear - you reach point A, you do trigger something and the story moves on. But in Jack the Ripper, the story moves on when you think what to do or just gather your thoughts.

About 40 years from premiere Jack the Ripper of course does not have the same appeal as it had in the past, but with interesting setting, grim graphical elements it still can be intriguing. On the other hand, the genre of text adventures went out of the audience favour years ago and for a reason - with short attention span and fewer users used to reading, it can hardly be as attractive as it was years ago.

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