Lurking Horror_ The
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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Despite a terrible snowstorm, a young G.U.E. Tech student travels to the school's computer lab to work on his grad paper. However, something strange has happened. The file containing the student's document has been partially overwritten by the Department of Alchemy's files. At first the student's only goal is to retrieve his lost document, but soon he realizes that something far more sinister is occurring in the depths of the school building.

The Lurking Horror is Infocom's only horror-themed text adventure game. The game is set in the haunted school building, in the midst of a blizzard that rendered escape impossible. The player explores the environments and has to solve puzzles to overcome obstacles. There are hostile creatures in the game, most of which must be defeated or outsmarted by using specific items.

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(From the Infocom Home Page site)

In The Lurking Horror, you are a student at G.U.E. Tech. You have braved a snowstorm to get to the Computer Center and finish work on an assignment. But the snowstorm has turned into a raging blizzard, and has trapped you in a complex of buildings late at night. You are not alone, fortunely ... or perhaps, unfortunately. Thus you begin the story, unaware that anything may be wrong beneath or within the veneer of the quiet campus.

 Copy protection for the game required the user to input the correct Student ID number and password into a computer terminal. 

 (From the Infocom Home Page site)
 The game contained "G.U.E. at a Glance" (G.U.E. Tech guide), a G.U.E. Tech student ID card, and a red rubber centipede (between two sheets of clear plastic). 

G.U.E. Tech was based on M.I.T., the alma matter of most of Infocom's employee's. Locations in the game are similar, along with various M.I.T. slang.
The college you find yourself at is George Underwood Edwards Tech, aka GUE Tech. GUE was the abbreviation for the Great Underground Empire from the Zork series, also published by Infocom.

 Lurking Horror featured sound for certain systems (like Amiga). Do you want your version of LH to have sound? As of 2000, the missing sound files and a utility to upgrade your .DAT file were available via anonymous ftp from ftp.gmd.de at if-archive/infocom/missing-files, and the file was called LHSOUND.ZIP. 

 The premise and setting (radically recast as "PUE Tech") are revisited in Jason Davis's 1991 Amstrad CPC text adventure The Smirking Horror, written with the "Graphic Adventure Creator" (GAC). 

Awards
Happy Computer 
Issue 01/1988 - Best Text Adventure in 1987

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Description from the packaging:

Ever since you arrived at G.U.E. Tech, you've heard stories about the creepy old campus basements and storage rooms, some so ancient that they contain only rotting piles of unidentifiable junk. Until now, you've never ventured lower than the ground floors of the monolithic classroom and dorm buildings, avoiding the warren of tunnels that connect them.

But tonight, something draws you down into the mysterious depths of the institute. Perhaps it's the blizzard raging outside, making the outdoors as threatening as anything you could ever imagine within. Perhaps it's the nightmare you had, hinting at horrific mysteries below and leaving you with a strange object that seems to lead you inexorably downward. Or perhaps it's just another way for you to avoid writing that twenty page term paper you have due tomorrow.

In any event, you soon find yourself wandering away from your computer and into the dark nether regions of G.U.E. Tech. Suddenly, you're in a world that rivals your most hideous visions, a realm of horror lurking beneath the calm corridors and study halls.

Shapes emerge from dark corners. Eerie sounds draw closer. Slimy passageways lead to sights so horrifying that they will feed your nightmares for weeks.

The Lurking Horror recalls the ghastly visions of H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King, as author Dave Lebling turns an everyday world into a frightening web of uncertainty. The numerous puzzles will challenge both first-time and experienced players, and Lebling's chilling descriptions will leave you with images you'll never forget.

Get inside a story.
Get one from Infocom.
It's like waking up inside a story! Load Infocom's interactive fiction into your computer and discover yourself at the center of a world jam-packed with surprising twists, unique characters, and original, logical, often hilarious puzzles.

For the first time, you're more than a passive reader. You can talk to the story, typing in full English sentences. And the story talks right back, communicating entirely in vividly descriptive prose. What's more, you can actually shape the story's course of events through your choice of actions. With hundreds of alternatives at every step, the horror can last for weeks and even months.

Find out what it's like to get inside a story. Get one from Infocom. Because with Infocom's interactive fiction, there's room for you on every disk.


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