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jacjim.sol
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Jacaranda Jim

by Graham Cluley

Space Exploration
1987

(based on 3 ratings)
2 reviews

Game Details

Editorial Reviews

SPAG

My favorite place in the game is the cave. It contains interesting areas and plenty of puzzles. It also contains one of my favorite puzzles: the wall of fruit. As you explore the cave, it becomes less and less like a cave (it contains stuff like a telephone booth and a safe). [...] Overall, Jacaranda Jim is a good game and worth playing, but it could have been an excellent game if the puzzles had been better.
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SynTax

The humour is a bit restrained throughout, despite the introduction, but can afford a laugh on the odd occasion. I personally think this is a good thing, the humour taking second place to the puzzles. Some authors prefer to squeeze the puzzles in amongst the jokes - it works sometimes, but often doesn't. With JJ, however, the whole humour-puzzle interaction works very well, each one complimenting the other. (Grimwold)
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SynTax

All in all this game was worth the money, not to the extent of intriguing me but to the point where I want to go back and play the game many times over. (Rusty)
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SynTax
All text descriptions have a jolly, light hearted feel and the responses to your inputs are enough to make you cry. I'm one of those people who type in all the known swear words to see what the response will be and I've come across some really good ones in my time (Simon Avery's have had me chuckling here and there) but these are real side splitters. (James Judge)
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Terrible, despite the nostalgia., April 24, 2010
by Sam Kabo Ashwell (Seattle)

Jacaranda Jim was the first IF I ever played. It was, to put it mildly, not a brilliant game; the tone is wacky-morose-snark in that Douglas Adams style that's unbearable when done by anybody other than Douglas Adams. It was clearly aware of this. The world doesn't make a vast amount of sense now, and it made even less sense to an eight-year-old. It kills you a lot. It traps you permanently in certain rooms. It has a sidekick character, Alan the Gribbley, who is both revolting and useless. When I wrote off for the map and my one hint, the former turned out to be larger by several orders of magnitude than the area I had actually managed to explore.

There were, however, a number of puzzles that I managed to solve. They didn't really resemble anything that might be considered a plot, but I gained a good deal of satisfaction from them anyway. And I played and played and played it, despite everything, because I understood that this was a medium vastly more appealing than anything else available at the time, if only the content wasn't so horrendous. So I owe it a fairly substantial debt, despite all.

Moreover, it introduced me to a number of words, including 'bootleg' (there is an evil Software Pirate) and 'plinth'.

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Fun, whacky but a bit tricky, January 24, 2013
by Campbell (Edinburgh, Scotland)

This was the game that got me into Interactive Fiction all those years ago. I remember many a lunchtime rushing down to the computer lab to see if I could get any further.

As far as IF goes, it's very old school, focusing mostly on puzzles. Some puzzles are quite easy, whilst others are quite tricky. There's a main 'theme' to the game, that once you get makes progress much easier. Regardless, you do get killed, often, and without warning. An 'undo' feature would be handy here.*

Also, the game is 16-bit, which makes it difficult to run on 64-bit versions of Windows without using an emulator such as DosBox.*

Regardless, if you like traditional Text Adventures this is a must-play game, that should keep you entertained for a good few evenings.

Out of interest, has anyone ever managed to get more than 2255 points out of 2400? If so, please drop me a line.

(* Shameless plug - Both of these problems can be worked around by playing the ADRIFT port of this game)

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Jacaranda Jim on IFDB

Polls

The following polls include votes for Jacaranda Jim:

The Most Obscure Commercial IF Game I've Ever Played by Xervosh
I'm hoping to be reminded of some of the obscure little IF games I may have played during the 1980s, but since can't recall. In addition, this poll may get a few more obscure games from the 1980s (or early 90s, or late 70s) listed in the...

Games with NPCs that tag along by Ghalev
List here any games that feature a (preferably memorable!) "sidekick" character - an NPC who follows the viewpoint character around for most or all of the game, as per Floyd in Planetfall or Trent/Tiffany in Leather Goddesses of Phobos.

First IF that you have ever played by BlitzWithGuns
What is the first IF that you have ever played? The game that made you love the concept of IF?

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