Ronin by David Alzofon and Cathryn Mataga 1984

About the Story

The daimyo's daughter is kidnapped! You, the Ronin, masterless samurai, must return her or purge your dishonor with ritual suicide. Navigate the feudal castle, befriend the Zen master, penetrate the ninja stronghold. When your task seems done, you are far from done. What is and what only seems to be?

Ronin (also The Ronin) was a never-published game in Synapse's (later Brøderbund's) Electronic Novel line, following works like Mindwheel, Essex, and Brimstone.

While the game was reportedly fully developed, so far all that's become public is an early pre-release version (implementing a few early scenes), recovered in 2023 from a disk retrieved from the archives of Synapse Software programmer Bill Darrah, dumped (with permission) by John Hardie of the US National Videogame Museum.

Game Details