The Hobbit

The Hobbit was among the pioneering titles that combined a text adventure with accompanying static location graphics on the Atari 800, and above all with a then-remarkable artificial intelligence system for its characters, thanks to which Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin, and the other dwarves acted independently, moved around the world according to their own needs, conversed with each other, and reacted to the player's actions independent of a fixed script. The player moves through a story loosely based on Tolkien's original, from the unexpected visit in the Shire through the encounter with the trolls to the expedition to the Lonely Mountain, solves puzzles using a text parser, and cooperates with accompanying characters whose unpredictable behavior made every playthrough a different experience.

On the Atari 8-bit, the graphics were modest – simple but atmospheric static illustrations of locations complemented the text descriptions and the parser, which could handle relatively complex sentences as well as direct commands addressed to NPCs, a technical rarity of its time with no real competition. The unpredictability of the companions was also famous for its legendary bugs, in which key characters could get lost, become stuck, or die out of the player's sight and control, which also gave the game a reputation for the unusual difficulty of bringing the story to a successful conclusion.

The Hobbit is still cited today as one of the most influential titles linking storytelling, adventure puzzles, and character behavior simulation, and it inspired later approaches to NPCs in adventure games as well as RPGs with more open worlds. On the Atari 800, the game remains interesting above all as a historical and technical curiosity, whose ambitions in many respects outpaced the era and the technical capabilities of eight-bit computers at the time, though the unpredictability of the companions can still give today's player quite a hard time and force them to rely on a bit of luck as well.

Why play it: For fans of adventure design and genre history who will appreciate the pioneering simulation of NPC behavior – even at the cost of unpredictable companions that demand patience and a pinch of luck.