Night Life (video game)

Night Life is a text-based adventure game released in 1989, created by Scott Adams and published by Adventure International. It is the thirteenth and final adventure game in the Scott Adams Adventure series.

The player assumes the role of a private investigator hired to find a missing person within the city's seedy underbelly. The gameplay consists of parsing text commands to interact with the game world, solving puzzles, and gathering clues. The setting draws heavily on film noir and pulp fiction tropes, involving gangsters, shady characters, and dangerous situations.

Unlike many adventure games of the era, Night Life has a time limit. The player must solve the case within a limited number of turns, adding a sense of urgency to the gameplay. Failure to do so results in a game over. The game utilizes the standard Scott Adams adventure game engine, relying on a limited vocabulary and simple sentence structure for player input. As such, the player is required to experiment and think creatively to discover the correct actions. The game is noted for its gritty atmosphere and challenging puzzles. It is available on various platforms, including the Apple II, Commodore 64, and TRS-80.