Cutthroats

Cutthroats was a text adventure game released by Infocom in 1984 for multiple platforms, including the Apple II. In this game, you play a diver searching for sunken treasure on Hardscrabble Island. The goal is to find valuable artifacts from shipwrecks and become rich, but you must work with other divers who might betray you at any moment.

The game starts in The Weasel, a shabby hotel where divers hang out. You have limited money and must convince other characters to join your treasure hunting expeditions. Each diver has different skills and personalities. Johnny Red is strong but not very smart. Pete the Rat knows secret locations but cannot be trusted. McGinty is experienced but greedy. You need their help to succeed, but they might steal your share of the treasure or leave you to drown.

Cutthroats uses Infocom's standard text parser system. You type commands like "GO NORTH" or "EXAMINE BOOK" to interact with the game world. The game understands hundreds of words and complex sentences. You must solve puzzles, manage your diving equipment, and make deals with other characters. Time passes realistically in the game. If you waste too much time, other divers might find the treasure first.

The game features multiple shipwrecks to explore, each with different treasures and dangers. You need proper diving equipment like tanks, weights, and underwater lights. Running out of air underwater means death. The ocean floor contains sharks, strong currents, and confusing underwater mazes. You must also decode old documents and maps to find the exact locations of valuable items.

What made Cutthroats special was its focus on betrayal and greed. Unlike other Infocom games where you played a hero, here you worked with criminals and thieves. The other divers would lie, cheat, and double-cross you. Sometimes they would help you reach a wreck, then abandon you underwater. Other times they would steal treasure you worked hard to find.

The Apple II version required 48K of RAM and ran from a single disk. Like all Infocom games, it used the Z-machine interpreter, allowing the same game code to run on different computers. The game had no graphics, but its text descriptions created clear mental images of the seedy island setting and dangerous underwater environments.

Cutthroats received mixed reviews. Some players loved the realistic characters and moral ambiguity. Others found it too difficult and frustrating when allies betrayed them. The game sold reasonably well but was not as popular as Infocom's fantasy and science fiction titles. Today, it remains an interesting example of how text adventures could explore adult themes of greed and betrayal within the technical limits of 1980s home computers.