Lampward
cd ..

The Dreamhold

Andrew Plotkin · 2004

You wake in a stone fortress with no memory, watched by a masked figure who seems to know what you did.

Play

SAVE creates a named Lampward checkpoint on this device. Nothing is saved automatically.

  • Z-code
  • Fantasy
  • Parser
  • About 3 hours
  • 378 KB

About

The Dreamhold was written as a way in. It is a full-sized Plotkin puzzle game — masks, alchemy, a cold fortress full of apparatus belonging to someone who was clearly up to something — with an optional tutorial voice that explains how to play as you go, and can be switched off entirely.

That makes it unusually good as a first parser game and still substantial as a hundredth. There is a second, harder layer for players who finish it and want to know what actually happened.

Tags

  • Beginner friendly
  • Classic
  • Fantasy
  • Puzzles

History

This chronology includes the world around The Dreamhold: background that may predate the game, its creation and publication, and later editions, research, and preservation. An early date is historical context, not necessarily a game release.

  1. Publication

    The Dreamhold published — by Andrew Plotkin

    The publication year for the work itself. Earlier entries are historical background, not earlier releases of the game.

  2. Lampward

    Playable release — Release 5

    The exact release Lampward currently serves. It may be a later edition or port of an older work.

Documents & sources

  • reference · Reference

    The Dreamhold on IFDB

    Reviews and release history for the game and its tutorial mode.

    IFDB

  • reference · Reference

    The Dreamhold at the author's site

    Andrew Plotkin's own page for the game, where he hosts it and describes its tutorial voice and its harder second layer.

    eblong.com

  • reference · Reference

    The Dreamhold on IFWiki

    Background on the game and its role as an introduction to parser interactive fiction.

    IFWiki

Rights to these documents are separate from rights to the game. Lampward links to archives it may not mirror, and says so rather than implying it holds a copy.

Credits & License

Credits
Andrew Plotkin.
Playing
The Dreamhold — Release 5, Z-code 8, serial 041231
IFID ZCODE-5-041231-9408
License
Plotkin has publicly stated that his games may be freely redistributed but not commercially redistributed without permission, and explicitly approved The Dreamhold's inclusion in a freely distributed 2022 Z-code compilation.
Use
The author permits free redistribution of his games but prohibits commercial redistribution without permission. Lampward hosts it noncommercially on that basis.
Source
Notices

Copyright © 2004 Andrew Plotkin.

The Dreamhold may be redistributed freely. Commercial redistribution requires written permission from the author, Andrew Plotkin.

Artwork
No cover art is used; the title card is generated by Lampward.

Rights to the game binary, to cover art, and to any documentary material on this page are separate. A permission covering one does not cover the others.

More bibliographic detail: this title on IFDB