Games I Grew Up On: TaskMaker

Most computer games I played when I was little were what was known as shareware.  That is, they were either free to a point (essentially a demo or lite version for the game) or free with occasional pop ups for donations.  One of those games that had a big impact on me was one my brother bought me for my birthday one year: TaskMaker.  A lot of the games I played back then were top down, turn-based RPGs.  What stood out for me with TaskMaker were two things: the open exploration of the game and the puzzles scattered around.

In the game, you play an adventurer who keeps going up to the TaskMaker (the leader of the land) to be told what to do.  Really generic, honestly.  But the tasks would lead you to the town you're supposed to be in and give you some idea of where you're supposed to go.  However, you had complete freedom to go anywhere in the world you felt like.  The only repercussions were that the monsters in areas you weren't ready for would smack you down quickly.  But even within a town, it was fun to find all the nooks and crannies and unlock all the doors to collect the hidden goodies.  I always found it funny when I found the town's trash dump and I would rummage around the trash pile and find some awesome piece of equipment (or just as likely, just find a bunch of trash).  A lot of these buildings would have secret doors or passages that were unlocked with puzzles of some sort.  Maybe stepping on a button would open a wall across town.  The game had a nice map system, so it was easy to see where you have and haven't been.

Another amusing thing is that when you died in the game, instead of getting a game over screen, you would be sent to Hell where you must find the exit in a maze of flaming walls, fight a demon to open the exit, and then leave.  However, any items that were on you when you died will be dropped, so usually loading an old save was a better way to go.  Especially since whatever killed you will still be sitting around your corpse when you come back to reclaim your items.