The Guild of Thieves is an interactive fiction (text adventure) video game developed by Magnetic Scrolls and published by Rainbird Software in 1987. It is the second game set in the fictional land of Kerovnia, following the company's earlier title The Pawn.
Gameplay
The player assumes the role of an aspiring member of a thieves' guild who must prove their worth by stealing all valuables located in and around an island castle. The game features text-based descriptions supplemented by approximately 30 graphical illustrations of key locations. The game's parser was noted for its sophistication relative to contemporary titles.
The retail package included several physical "feelies": a faux newsletter titled What Burglar (containing encrypted hints), a Bank of Kerovnia Trading Account Card, a parchment copy of an indentured servitude contract, and a six-sided die with a blank "3" face.
Development and Release
The game was designed by Rob Steggles and published across numerous platforms including Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Apple II, Acorn Archimedes, Atari ST, Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, Macintosh, and ZX Spectrum.
Reception
The Guild of Thieves won the Golden Joystick Award for Adventure Game of the Year in 1988. Crash magazine awarded it a score of 90%. Dragon magazine called it an "exciting sequel" to The Pawn, praising its "witty dialogue, outstanding graphics, wry humor, and challenging puzzles." Computer Gaming World (1988) commended the game's sophisticated parser, British humor, and high-quality graphics, stating that "it compares well with the best of Infocom." A retrospective review by Charles Ardai in Computer Gaming World (1992) described the puzzles as "pretty good" but noted the game "lacks the sparks of innovation that would elevate it above the level of dozens of similar games."
Legacy
The game was re-released in 1992 as part of The Magnetic Scrolls Collection, which featured an updated user interface and an art poster. In June 2017, Magnetic Scrolls recovered the original source code from aging magnetic tapes (using a process that involved baking the tapes in an oven to prevent data degradation) and released a remastered and enhanced edition in December 2017. The remastered version is published by Strand Games and is available for modern platforms including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.
