Long before the “24” TV show, there was one of the first PC games, circa 1987, called “24 Hours.” The game was made similar to “San Francisco Earthquake – 1906” in that it was programmed in BASIC and Assembler and designed for the Radio Shack TRS 80. Like Earthquake, it was a text-based game with no graphics. Many felt that it was simply a cheap imitation. But the game was not without interesting points.
The beginning of the game was very similar to Earthquake. A man wakes up to discover that her wife has been kidnapped and he frantically begins his search for her, having been informed that if she does not bring her ransom within 24 hours, she will be killed. Then the clock starts ticking. The game is played in real time. Every second you play, another second passes in game time. So you literally have to finish this game in 24 hours. And so, the chase begins, focusing primarily on modes of transportation, of which there are many.
The guy starts getting in his car and driving all over town looking for clues. He stops at coffee shops, liquor stores, and magazine stands talking to people along the way. He finds some items along the way and buys others. Each item leads you to a new track.
The first part of the game covers a large area of the city and consumes about 4 of the 24 hours. It was evident that the game was designed so that each section would take 4 hours, since there are 6 sections in the game.
The second section begins with the boy finding his way to the train station. Here, he has to leave his car and get on a train. On the train he meets several passengers who also give him some clues. Ultimately, these clues lead you to get off the train at a certain stop. If he doesn’t get off, that’s okay, since the train goes back and forth like a subway. He will eventually find the correct stop. This also takes about 4 hours.
After getting off the train, the next stretch is all on foot. The covered area will eventually lead you to an airport where you will charter a private plane. The clues found that ultimately lead him to this conclusion, of having to board the plane, are quite complicated. But if you think outside the box, you will discover them. Meanwhile, 4 more hours have passed and you are now 12 hours into the game and you are halfway to finding the guy’s wife or watching her die.
The plane ride takes you to a field. The field itself is a huge maze that leads to a cave. Finding the cave itself is very difficult as the maze is huge. This part of the game takes another 4 hours to go through the maze, which is done on foot. We are now about 16 hours through the game.
Once in the cave you find some footprints. It seems that the cave is some kind of underground railway. Ultimately, you find a small one-passenger train that you have to figure out how to drive yourself. The footprints in the cave seem to go everywhere. In a sense, you are in another maze. This takes another 4 hours to get to the end where you find your wife.
Here it is where it gets interesting. Your wife is handcuffed to something in the cave. The handcuffs do not have a key. Instead they have a combination lock. Meanwhile, there is a bomb in the cave that will go off in 4 hours. There is also a complex code box on the pump. Enter the correct code and the bomb will be denied. Enter the wrong code and it will explode. You have to decide. Do you defuse the bomb or try to figure out the handcuff combination and get your wife out?
You better hope you have 4+ hours when you get to this section of the game because whatever option you choose will be nearly impossible to solve. This is the most frustrating part of the game. The ending is ridiculously harsh.
Whoever made this game must have loved torturing people because this game is one of the most frustrating things you will ever play.
But oh, what fun it is. Even without the graphics.