
THE INSTITUTE

The Institute was released in very limited quantities several years ago in a text-only version.  Shortly thereafter, work began on this high-resolution graphics version.

   This deviously clever game places you in a mental asylum, from which you can only escape in your dreams.  When you "solve" one dream, you return to The Institute to solve another.  Commands are typical for such games, including compass directions N, E, S, W, NE, etc.  Many of the puzzles are extremely challenging (the solutions may strike you as illogical), so there are 22 encrypted hints included in the instructions.

   One of The Institute's best features is its graphics.  The cartoon-like drawing style is cute and fun to look at.  There are over 60 different colorful high-resolution graphics screens, some of which contain important visual clues that aren't mentioned in the text.  If you're moving through a familiar area, you can turn off the graphics for a faster journey.  For a real challenge in adventure gaming, try The Institute.

$29.95.  Screenplay, Box 3558, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.  Phone (919) 968-0051.  Requires disk, 48K. 


Second to Scott Adams himself, Jyym Pearson was probably the most recognized adventure game author to come out of Adventure International. Pearson, usually with co-authors, worked on a number of the AI "Other-Ventures" games, including Curse of Crowley Manor, Escape from Traam and Earthquake San Francisco 1906, as well as the unnumbered adventures Zossed in Space and Saigon: The Final Days.

Published in 1981, The Institute was Pearson's first game released outside of Adventure International, though it uses the Other-Ventures game file format and interpreter. Jyym was still writing games for AI at the time, and after, so I'm going to speculate that AI directed him to MedSys / Screenplay whenever his work ventured into the territory of questionable taste. (The plot of Institute casts you as a mental patient who escapes his cell, raids the medicine stores, and takes drug-induced trips to various remote locales. Jyym is also known for Lucifer's Realm, which according to rumors was the first computer game to be banned in the U.S.)

Unlike Scott Adams, Jyym Pearson is no longer with us. He succumbed to terminal cancer (metasticized lymphoma) in 1994.
