Sam Mallard - The Case of the Missing Swan

Sam Mallard - The Case of the Missing Swan

Story

The clock had turned midnight and I was just about to leave my office when there was a knock on my door. It was a Mr. Swan, owner of the Swanline shipping company, he explained that his wife was missing and the police had told him that "Unless they can prove outright that there was an involuntary disappearance, they just file paperwork." He said he'd pay me a grand upfront if I could find his wife by morning, no question asked. That may be a suspiciously large reward for a simple missing person case, but I haven't had that many jobs lately and my purse is getting thin, so who am I to ask questions?

About the game

Back in 2016 I found a handful of graphics I made around 10 years prior, they were going to be used for an adventure game I had planned on making for the Commodore 64. It never got anywhere and I thought it could be fun to do something with them, so over a late summer month in 2016 I created the code, puzzles, story, additional graphics and released the game for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

It's a simple menu driven graphical text adventure. I tried to make it an accessible experience and you can't die or make the game unwinnable. It's not a particularly hard nor long game, but it was fairly well received when released.

The game is also available in Spanish thanks to Radastan.

How to play

This game requires at least a 48k ZX Spectrum (or a suitable emulator) to play.

To load the game: LOAD ""

Use a Kempston Joystick (Up, Down and Fire) or the Keyboard (Q, A and Space).

Available on Cassette

Sam Mallard is now available on physical media again. This edition, published by Matra Computer Automation, contains the English version on Side A and (for the first time) the Spanish version on Side B. Get your copy here.

Credits

Game by: Ersh
Spanish Translation: Radastan

Tools used: pasmo, zx7, mackarel
Logo font: Betty Noir