Gnome Ranger is a text adventure

Interactive fiction

Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...

 game by Level 9 released in . It was followed by a sequel, Ingrid's Back

Ingrid's Back

Gnome Ranger II: Ingrid's Back is a text adventure game by Level 9 released in . It is the sequel to Gnome Ranger- Plot :Having just returned from her "holiday" in the wilderness, the gnome Ingrid Bottomlow must save her home village of Little Moaning from destruction by a greedy property...

.

Plot

The gnome

Gnome

A gnome is a diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature...

 Ingrid Bottomlow has displeased her family by her un-gnomelike behaviour, such as going off to university and getting an education. She has been banished from her village and teleported into the middle of a dangerous forest, and must find her way out.

Overview

The game is a standard text adventure with limited graphics on some platforms. It comes with a short novella by Peter McBride ("The Gnettlefield Journal") explaining Ingrid's predicament and setting the background to the story.

Gameplay

Gameplay is similar to the earlier Level 9 adventure Knight Orc

Knight Orc

Knight Orc is a text adventure game by Level 9 released in .- Plot :After a night of heavy drinking with friends, Grindleguts the orc awakes to find himself strapped to a horse and about to joust with a human knight...

, which uses the same game engine (KAOS). The player must explore the forest while collecting useful items and interacting with various non-player characters to solve puzzles and problems.

Miscellaneous

• The title is a pun on the term sloane ranger
  Sloane Ranger
  The term Sloane Ranger refers to a stereotype in the UK of young, upper class or upper-middle-class women, or men who share distinctive and common lifestyle traits...
  
  
• The silent g of "gnome" is the basis for a running joke throughout the game, with many other words deliberately misspelled in the same spirit (e.g. gnymph
  Nymph
  A nymph in Greek mythology is a female minor nature deity typically associated with a particular location or landform. Different from gods, nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young nubile maidens who love to dance and sing;...
  
  , gnettle
  Nettle
  Nettles constitute between 24 and 39 species of flowering plants of the genus Urtica in the family Urticaceae, with a cosmopolitan though mainly temperate distribution. They are mostly herbaceous perennial plants, but some are annual and a few are shrubby...
  
  , gnorthwest)

Reviews

• Sinclair User
  Sinclair User
  Sinclair User, often abbreviated SU, was a magazine dedicated to the Sinclair Research range of home computers, most specifically the ZX Spectrum...
  
  :

  "Level 9 manages to squeeze every ounce of life (or death) out of the joke. The player's role is that of Ingrid Bottomlow of Gnettlefield. After attending the Institute of Gnome Economics (I did warn you), she returns home in time to be given the order of the Gnomic Boot in the best Gnome tradition, that is by receiving a Magic scroll which has the effect of teleporting her many, many leagues from Gnettlefield."

External links

• Gnome Ranger at Lemon Amiga
• Gnome Ranger at Lemon 64