Humbug (video game)

Humbug (computer game)
In-game screenshot
Developer(s)	Graham Cluley
Publisher(s)	Self-published
Platform(s)	MS-DOS
Release	1990
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Humbug is a text-based adventure video game written by British programmer Graham Cluley in 1990.

The game is set at Christmas, and features the character of Sidney Widdershins as he arrives as his Grandad's mansion for the winter school holidays.

Characters in the game include dentist Jasper Slake (Grandad's next door neighbour, and the villain of the piece), two Vikings, a fairy, a gravedigger, a computer hacker called Alex, a fireman called Dennis, Horace the gardener, and a camp clockwork shark called Kevin.

The game, which was written in Turbo Pascal, was distributed as shareware and appeared on a number of British magazine cover disks, including PC Plus magazine. Upon registration Cluley offered players a version of the game incorporating online hints and a printed map.

In 1991, Theo Clarke's review of Humbug in Strategy Plus magazine described it as the "most entertaining text adventure that I have played since Infocom's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy back in 1984".

The game has now been placed in the public domain and is available, with the hints and map, as a free download from Cluley's website.

Cluley had previously written another text adventure game called Jacaranda Jim.