A unique text-based game released for the Commodore 64 computer in 1985. Written by an American psychologist, Alter Ego allowed you to assume a new identity (as either a boy or girl, somewhere in America), and then guide that persona from the womb (literally) to the grave.
The game's interface is a simple one - you choose from a group of playing cards arranged in a primitive flow chart format, each of which leads to a text-based scenario providing your Alter Ego with a thorny problem to resolve, in one of several categories - health, relationships, social, vocational, and so forth. Your decisions affect your personal attributes, and consequently the way you respond to future situations.
A simple idea, but brilliantly implemented. Crucially, Alter Ego is extremely well-written, managing to combine a gentle humourous tone with frequent forays into controversial subject matters, and maintaining a consistently high quality over an enormous amount of text. Indeed, Alter Ego is so huge that it could not be released on the standard cassette tape format of the time, and had to be released instead on several floppy disks, putting it well beyond the reach of most Commodore owners.
This tragically overlooked classic of 80's videogaming has now been expertly recreated in HTML, and can be enjoyed by a larger audience at -
http://www.theblackforge.net/