Introduction
LET'S GO IN SEARCH OF THE MOST AMAZING THING
In Search of the Most Amazing Thing was a computer game created by Tom Snyder Productions and published by Spinnaker Software in 1983 for the IBM PC, the Commodore 64, the Atari 8-bit home computers, and the Apple II. Spinnaker Software was primarily known for its educational games, and this was presented as one at the time.
Here in 2019, I think we'd disagree. In Search of the Most Amazing Thing is in fact a complicated action-adventure game, with some serious interface issues and a developer, publisher, and audience that were not yet familiar with "action-adventure game" even as a concept. E.T. had just been an enormous failure the year before, and Pitfall II would be a proper success a year later. Here... well, nobody was quite sure what to make of here. Not even Spinnaker itself.
As we'll also see in this LP, the game is pretty inaccessible as well. I was arguably too young for the game when I tried to play it, and did not get very far in it. It is also quite clear that I was not alone in this. Oddly for a game of this vintage, there are basically no walkthroughs, no fan articles beyond a few enthusiastic comments on forums, and no longplays or even shortplays on YouTube—the most I found were captures of its extensive attract screen.
This is a pity, and I'm going to fix that. My goals are twofold: show off as much of the design as I can, and solve it thoroughly and clearly enough that the LP can work as a walkthrough and not merely as a longplay.
I'd like to say it's also a fun game that people should play, but, honestly, I can't. I do think it's interesting to look at, though, and it's more interesting when the tedious bits get compressed or smoothed out. I can play it, so you don't have to.