The Fool's Errand

The plot, setting and artwork were inspired by the Tarot deck. Players followed the Fool as he roamed the lands, encountering places and people based on Tarot cards. Puzzles included word searches, crosswords, mazes, pentominos, and jigsaws, plus a number of brain teasers that defied desciption. The original Mac graphics were black and white, but ported versions were colorized.

The Fool's Errand is something of a cult classic amongst gamers, thanks to its mind-boggling complexity, beautiful artwork, and ingenious, original storyline.

The Fool's Errand is available free for download for Mac and Windows from Cliff Johnson's website:
http://fools-errand.com/01-the-fools-errand/index.htm

An excellent computer game made in the '80s for the Macintosh. Perhaps this was not intentional, but the copy I played (with my best friend when we were supposed to be "fixing" the computers) had no manual, instructions, or "Help" command. As a result, figuring out what to do was half of the challenge of the game. The game consisted of a series of puzzles, each different from the others, with a consistent Tarot card theme. Obviously, since there were no instructions (beyond an occasional poem or non sequitur), solving one puzzle was no assistance in solving any of the others. We never solved it. I would probably give a limb for a copy of it today.