Swamp Witch

Streamed from July 25 to August 8, 2023

Swamp Witch was created by Jim Thompson in World Builder. He made the game for his kids, and they’re featured as the main characters. He actually created two versions: one where you play as his daughter and another with his son. The version starring his son was released as shareware in 1988. Since it wasn’t originally intended for release, it includes art taken from other games, particularly the MacVenture games Déjà Vu and Uninvited. In the Read Me file for the game, Thompson offered to create custom versions of the game, starring your own family’s names and photos. The cost was a mere $75 to $125, depending on the level of customization.

I remember seeing the Swamp Witch title screen in old shareware catalogs from Educorp. I was intrigued by it, but never had a chance to play it as a kid. It was a delight to finally experience it. What the game lacks in polish it easily makes up for in charm.

Swamp Witch on Macintosh Garden
You’ll need an older Mac or emulator to play it.
Play This Game: The Swamp Witch by AnnK
Dank Zine Issue 60
Includes a section on classic Mac games, including Swamp Witch.
Author Jim Thompson describes Swamp Witch as “a bit gory and slightly ‘indelicate’ in places.” Violence toward animals is included. Thompson says he would “not rate it higher than a ‘PG-13’ in coarseness for the 10 through teen set.”

Notes

There’s a point where you’re likely to get stuck in the game, making it impossible to progress after an encounter with the Swamp Devil. Here’s a spoiler-free solution.

After fighting the Swamp Devil, you must type south (in all lowercase) in Gaines’ living room. If you use the Commands menu or the command-S keyboard shortcut, you will not be able to progress in the game. If you’ve already gone past that point, it’s fine—just go back to Gaines’ living room, and type south to move to the front of the house. You should see a change in the next two screens confirming that it’s working correctly.

Since the game was made in World Builder, it’s also relatively easy to modify the game to fix the bug. If you’d like to try that, here’s the fix I recommend:

Open the scene code for Gaines’ living room
Scroll down almost to the end and find the line IF{TEXT$==south}THEN
Delete an equals sign, changing it to IF{TEXT$=south}THEN

This will allow the Commands menu and keyboard shortcuts to work as expected to progress the game.

Part 1

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Please experience Swamp Witch with me. It’s a shareware Mac adventure game from 1988, made in World Builder. The author made it for his kids, starring his kids. I’m positive it will be great.

Part 2

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Swamp Witch continues! We’ve defeated the Swamp Devil and harassed some toilet creatures into helping us. Up next: we must get past the quicksand and escape the swamp!

robotspacer’s adventure corner

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Swamp Witch

Notes

Part 1

Part 2