Mystery House

About

Mystery House is an 1982 adventure game developed by Micro Cabin, the first graphical adventure made in Japan. You navigate a mansion using a basic text parser that accepts English verbs and nouns to interact with the environment. The goal is to find a hidden diamond by exploring rooms and manipulating objects through typed commands. The game debuted on Sharp MZ-80B machines and later expanded to other 8-bit platforms, using simple graphics and a parser that feels rudimentary by today’s standards but effective for its time. This title shares a name with a 1980 Western game but is completely unrelated, despite similar mechanics. Its creation marked a key moment for Japanese adventure games, leading directly to a sequel released the same year. While technically basic, its focus on logic puzzles and exploration laid groundwork for later titles. The text parser’s reliance on English commands stands out in a Japanese game, hinting at its influence from overseas developers.

Storyline

The game has the player navigating a mansion through the use of an English verb-noun text parser in order to locate a valuable diamond hidden inside.