Borrowed Time (video game)

Lore & Background

Borrowed Time was produced by Interplay for Activision as part of a $100,000 contract that included three adventure games. The plot, written by Arnie Katz and Bill Kunkel, follows private detective Sam Harlow as he attempts to free his kidnapped ex-wife Rita Sweeney while being pursued by gangsters. The game is set in the United States during the 1930s and adopts the style of a detective story in the noir crime genre.

The game uses a parser developed by Interplay founder Fargo and a collaborator, which at one stage had a dictionary of 250 nouns and 200 verbs and could evaluate input with prepositions and indirect objects. The same engine had been used in Interplay's previous games Mindshadow and The Tracer Sanction. The writing and much of the game design were outsourced to Subway Software, a company founded by game journalist Bill Kunkel specifically for this project, because Fargo felt no one at Interplay could produce quality prose.

Gameplay involves keyboard control, with an alternative graphical menu system that can be navigated with a joystick or mouse. Movement is handled through a selection window with cardinal directions. The player must interrogate suspects and collect evidence across various locations, and some actions have time limits for problem-solving.

Reader's Guide

Borrowed Time is significant as an early example of a text adventure enhanced with a graphical user interface, bridging the gap between pure text adventures and point-and-click graphic adventures. Its parser, capable of handling prepositions and indirect objects, was advanced for its time. The game received positive reviews, with Info rating it four stars out of five and calling it 'a big step forward in the realm of interactive entertainment.' Ahoy! praised its writing and graphics, while Compute! noted its 'delightful game environment' evoking classic hardboiled detective stories. Computer Gaming World's Charles Ardai described it as 'a superbly cinematic graphic adventure' that was too brief and deserved a sequel. A German reviewer gave it 82 out of 100, recognizing the challenging storyline, detailed graphics, and comfortable gameplay. The game's legacy includes its republishing as a budget title by Mastertronic, and its place in the early history of Interplay, a company that would go on to become a major force in adventure and role-playing games.

Did You Know?

• Borrowed Time was part of a $100,000 contract between Interplay and Activision that included three adventure games.
• The game's writing and much of its design were done by Subway Software, a company founded by game journalist Bill Kunkel specifically for this project.
• The parser used in Borrowed Time had a dictionary of 250 nouns and 200 verbs at one stage of development.
• Mastertronic republished the game as a budget title under the name Time to Die.