Earthly Delights (video game)
| Earthly Delights | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) |
Roger Webster Daniel Leviton |
| Publisher(s) | Datamost |
| Designer(s) |
Roger Webster Daniel Leviton |
| Platform(s) | Apple II, PC Booter[1] |
| Release date(s) | 1983 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Earthly Delights is a 1983 Apple II text adventure game created by Roger Webster and Daniel Leviton and published by Datamost.
Premise
In Earthly Delights, the story begins with the death of your favorite uncle, whom you've not seen for many years, and the unusual inheritance you receive from him — a portrait of a beautiful woman entitled Earthly Delight. Your uncle writes that pleasures and rewards will be yours if you keep the picture, and exhorts you not to sell it. When a stranger approaches you offering an enormous sum for the work, your suspicions are aroused and the adventure of Earthly Delights begins.
Game play
This game is an interactive text-only adventure in much the same style as the earlier and better-known Zork and Eamon series, in which the player is presented with a description of his surroundings and is then prompted to enter commands to move about, get objects, and interact with other characters. Though allowing for some freedom and innovation of action, the game is scripted to unfold a story in a particular way as you solve various mysteries and puzzles.
The game's interface shows the player's location in the fictional world in the upper left corner and the number of "moves" that have been made in the upper right. The player enters commands at the question mark prompt.
Earthly Delight
The introduction to the game describes the painting as "Parrish's Earthly Delight", alluding to American painter Maxfield Parrish. This allusion is supported by the painting's depiction on the cover, which mimics the mountainous landscape of Parrish's Canyon and female subject in flowing dress common in his works. Though Parrish never created a piece named Earthly Delight, Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch painted a triptych named The Garden of Earthly Delights in the early 16th century.