Phosphor Dot Fossils: The Prisoner – Escape Attempt #2

Friends, you might recall back in April when Earl Green was generous enough to clue us in that in 1980 there was a computer game produced based on The Prisoner for the Apple II. As I shared in that article, a first attempt by Earl to beat the game, this particular computer game is said to have been adopted by the CIA to train their agents – thanks to the game’s difficulty and need for one to think outside the box to complete. Programmer David Mullich went on to work on many of the Heroes of Might and Magic titles – but he most definitely made a name for himself when he designed and programmed The Prisoner for Edu-Ware. One of the reasons the game is so well remembered is not that the difficulty crosses the line of being unfair… but that the game is programmed into actually trying to trick you into revealing your secret code from the beginning of the game. While the setting for The Prisoner game might be ‘The Island’ that is certainly well known behavior for those who inhabit the classic TV show’s ‘The Village’, right?

As this is the second time that Phosphor Dot Fossils has featured The Prisoner – it probably isn’t a spoiler to say that with Earl’s first attempt he was unable to find freedom from ‘The Island’. As he himself points out in this latest video, he hasn’t looked up anything online in regards to a walkthrough guide – the fun is of course trying to best the game on your own. From encountering a bizarre hospital to a casino that at least seems to offer the chance of escape if you can afford it – The Prisoner is a unique game to say the very least.

Will Earl be able to find his way off ‘The Island’ this time? I will quote a well known piece of advice from ‘The Village’ as way of an answer – “Questions are a burden to others. Answers a prison for oneself.”