"Congratulations! You are about to play the most sophisticated game program yet devised for any microcomputer."
— instruction manual, The Hobbit for Commodore 64
The 1982 adaption of The Hobbit into the Interactive Fiction format, written by Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler of Beam Software, and published by Melbourne House for the ZX Spectrum, and later ported to the Commodore 64 (1983), IBM Personal Computer (1983), and a few other home computers.The game draws primitive illustrations of some areas. The graphics are just a few lines and bucket fills, but this stood out in an era when most computer games were only text. Some ports have no graphics.This game has an actual good parser, totally averting You Can't Get Ye Flask. It accepts commands like 'say to Bard "shoot arrow"'. The blogger Dehumanizer reported that 'take the short sword then viciously attack the troll with it' is a valid command.The Hobbit can also refer to a 2003 video game by Vivendi Universal; its tropes are at the bottom of this page.
The 1982 game provides examples of the following tropes:
Adapted Out: You travel with two NPCs, Gandalf and Thorin. The game doesn't mention the other dwarves.
Death by Adaptation: 'Kill Gollum with sword'. Okay, Gollum's dead! You just derailed the plot of The Lord of the Rings. Gollum survived the source novel of The Hobbit, and took an important role in the sequel.
Drop In Nemesis: Both orcs and elves (as well as Gollum and a mysterious tree-dwelling monster) made appearances. Whether you could escape before they attacked seemed to be random (except the monster, which could be eluded only by a specific set of commands). The wood elf, although he only captured Bilbo rather than killing him, also tended to capture orcs and vicious wargs, or even the Balrog, and send them to the same prison cell.
Escort Mission: As Bilbo, you must ensure Thorin's survival (and for maximum points, Gandalf's). Unlike most other Escort Missions, this one is not much of a hassle. Both characters are stronger and more capable than Bilbo, though frequently weaker than some of the more dangerous monsters. Fortunately, Thorin (who's critical to opening the side door to Smaug's lair) is programmed not to wander off the way Gandalf does—unless Bilbo is wearing the Ring, and thus invisible. Both characters are also prone to tell Bilbo "No" when asked to do important things like protect him from Orcs or help him out of a window he's too short to reach. Fortunately they don't attack powerful enemies much, but are often captured by both Orcs and elves and thus out of reach when needed.
Harmless Villain; The vicious warg is supposed to be a fearsome foe, but most of the time, by the time Bilbo reached him he had already been killed by another NPC. This became a Running Gag in many magazines.
I Can't Reach It: Justified. Bilbo must frequently ask for help from Gandalf or Thorin the dwarfnote Dwarves are taller than hobbits., because he's a hobbit and therefore too short to climb out windows and the like.
Interfashe Shcrew: If you drank the wine in the barrel in the elven dungeons, for the next thirty turns or so every "s" in the text would be replaced with "sh", as in "You can shee shome shand".
Plot Coupon: The "valuable treasure" is the coupon that wins the game. Bring it back to Bilbo's hobbit-hole, where you started the game, and put it in the "wooden chest". So, the whole game was a Fetch Quest.
The 2003 game provides examples of the following tropes:
Adaptational Badass: While in the book Bilbo only fought the spiders, here takes on bosses such as a giant armadillo-like creature and even a Wight Lord whose minions appear to be Nazgűl. As well, he kills countless orcs, some of which are much larger than him. Bilbo can also use his walking stick to pole vault and send enemies flying, He is much more agile since this is a platform game.
Adaptation Expansion: All levels have this, add subplots involving puzzles or combat. There is even an entire plot revolving around Bilbo freeing a dwarven prisoner in Goblin-town after he is separated from the dwarves and before meeting Gollum.
Adaptation Explanation Extrication: The dwarves' capture by the goblins and Gollum's realisation of what Bilbo has in his pocket are only briefly looked over in cutscenes.
Canon Foreigner: This game adds three recurring characters, such as Lianna, an Silvan Elf of Mirkwood, Balfor, a Dwarf of the Iron Hills, and Corwin, a Man of Lake-town.
Cutscene Incompetence: Bilbo is caught very easily by the stronger enemies, even when he has the ring.
In one cutscene, Bilbo encounters a goblin who has stolen the Black Arrow and is threatening to kill him with it. Bilbo makes no attempt to attack even though he has easily killed much more powerful goblins.
After feeing the dwarves from the spiders, Bilbo runs toward the exit to their cave when he encounters three giant spiders who seek revenge. He stops in his tracks, even though there is nothing blocking his path. Immediately afterwards an inescapable web appears in front of the exit.
Fake Action Prologue: The game starts out with Bilbo dreaming about the Battle of the Five Armies, which has yet to occur. During this dream you are invincible, and the controls are explained. Bilbo wakes up upon being surrounded by orcs in a moment of Cutscene Incompetence and the storyline proceeds for real.
Giant Spider: Many different kinds ranging from small to large sizes. The fact that some are venomous leads them straight into Demonic Spider territory.
Green Hill Zone: The Shire, naturally. One of the two levels with no combat.
Helpful Mook: The final level has a rather intimidating looking orc hidden behind a wall. If you walk up to him, he will tell you that he is tired of the fighting, and won't hurt you (you can't hurt him either). He also has a handy supply of healing mushrooms scattered all around him. Another one makes hardly any attempt to kill you, though you can kill him, and just yells threats.
Inexplicable Treasure Chests: This game has treasure chests everywhere, including part way up trees in Mirkwood. They are colour-coded as wooden, blue silver, or gold. Unlocking them is a minigame involving timing with moving parts, where failure can lead to injury or poisoning.
Multi Platform: For Game Boy Advance, GameCube, and some other systems.
Glóin tells Bilbo, "You have courage, little hobbit. You remind me of my boy, Gimli."
Several lesser-known hobbits are shown or mentioned. Bilbo has pictures of his relatives on his wall and calls them by name. Others include Holman Greenhand, Sandyman, Hamfast Gamgee and Bell Goodchild.
Many of the puzzles and traps are explained by being placed there by the Witch-King's people.
The Necromancer is mentioned a few times. In Thranduil's halls, an elf mentions that the White Council has taken up the fight with him.
Stealth-Based Mission: There are many of these, where you need to sneak past enemies such as trolls, goblin guards, Smaug, and when you steal eggs from a henhouse. If failed, you're sent back to the last save. When Bilbo finds the Ring they obviously become easier.
In one mission, Bilbo steals berries from Hobart's berry patch. If Hobart catches him, he will drone on and on about annoying things and you have to start over.
that 'take the short sword then viciously attack the troll with it' is a valid command.The Hobbit can also refer to a 2003 video game by Vivendi Universal; its tropes are at the bottom of this page.
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