Enchanter

One of the more amazing things about Enchanter is the graphics. They are cinemascopic, stereophonic, technicolor graphics of the most surreal variety. The dark and ominous castle, the acrid smoke hanging in all the rooms, the blood-stained altar. Gruesome. Gruesome and incredible. And the most amazing thing about the graphics is, there are no graphics. Enchanter is an all-text adventure game but one that is so absorbing and outstanding that you'll swear you can actually feel the evil warlock's presence when he steps inside your mind and probes it.
You are a novice sorceror. No. More accurately, you are the 98-pound weakling of sorcery. You attended sorcery school but, it seems, slept through many of your core courses and therefore haven't committed many spells to memory. But it is precisely because you are so weak that you are chosen by the Circle of Enchanters to travel to a Tolkien-like country in order to hunt out the wicked Krill and release the land from his oppressive spell. Being weak means you won't be detected by him quite as early as a stronger sorceror might.
You arrive in this unfriendly land without so much as a letter of introduction or a traveler's cheque. All you've got is the robe on your back and the spell book in your hand. Your spell book, however, is more useful even than a Boy Scout Manual. In it you have three spells: your basic Frotz spell which causes things to emit light, your basic Nitfol spell which lets you talk to frogs and other animals and your basic Blorb spell which protects "your most precious possession" whatever that may be. It isn't yourself.
As you walk east towards the menacing castle nestled malignantly in the hills above the sea, you come upon scrolls which have other spells that come in handy later on in the game. Often the scrolls practically scream at you to pick them up. Other times, some searching skills are required. You will also have to eat and drink. Remember that. We can say no more.
The castle itself is a masterpiece of hidden terror. Hairy shapes chant unintelligible but threatening religious kyries; bones are littered about the kitchen and hideous monsters with more heads than any creature has a right to guard doors. There are some more savory folk hanging about, too, such as princesses, rainbow-colored turtles and a rather puzzled adventurer who tries to eat his sword.
Figuring out how to get into the castle and explore it without being summarily disposed of right off the bat is the first problem and, like all other problems posed during the course of the game, is not easy to solve. However, once you do realize how to go about it, you feel a sense of accomplishment unparalleled in this dimension. Once inside the castle, the myriad rooms and corridors, towers and turrets, will have you wandering around entranced. Or enchanted.
I cannot praise Infocom enough for the imagination, innovation and humor that went into Enchanter. If I could Blorb it, and that way keep it forever, I would.
Exex or not, it isn't your job to get the scroll in the control room.

Enchanter begins the second sword-and-sorcery trilogy from Infocom, the company whose name is synonymous with high-quality text adventures. Unofficially dubbed "Zork IV," Enchanter owes a lot to its legendary predecessor, both in authorship (Zork creators Marc Blank and Dave Lebling collaborated on this effort) and in genre (the full-text fantasy uses the Interlogic prose, making the computer capable of understanding complex commands).
But Enchanter sports some interesting twists on the old puzzle-solving theme. For one thing, food, water, and rest are required for any magician's acolyte who hopes to stay alive, a concept pioneered in Infocom's Planetfall. Also, there are far fewer objects just lying there to be used. Instead, the majority of treasures are actually scrolls containing powerful spells, which must be cast appropriately.
The young Enchanter starts out with four spells in a spell tome. When a new spell is found, it must be written into the pages of the book if it's to be reused, because once the spell is cast, the scroll vanishes. To use any magic contained in the tome, the wizard must first memorize it.
The scenario is explained in a beautiful, antique-looking scroll, while game instructions are contained in a "guild directory" pamphlet. While the packaging isn't as out-and-out brilliant as some of Infocom's other releases, like Witness, it's both attractive and functional.
The game begins with a meeting of the Elders of the Circle of Enchanters. It seems the evil Warlock has slowly gained power in the eastern lands, and he must be stopped to free the subjugated population. But the Warlock is alert to powerful intruders, and the aura generated by an Elder is far too strong. Therefore, the Council has decided to send you, a mere acolyte, because your mind is so weak it presents no immediate threat.
Unarmed save for a spell tome (the beginning spells allow players to create light, speak with animals, write magic, and guard their most precious possession in a strongbox), the player must find enough food and water to survive the trip, then journey to the inside of the eastern fortress - where the Warlock and his foul servants pay homage to an evil deity.
Good luck! Just one word of warning - those aren't ketchup stains on the temple altar!