Line #25 VideoGame/ThroughTheLookingGlass


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/throughthelookingglassapple_5000.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Apple spared no expense in packaging its first-party launch title. Then they delayed and buried its release, [[HilariousInHindsight terrified that the Mac would be mistaken for a gaming console.]]]]
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4	''Through the Looking Glass'', also known as ''Alice'' and ''[=AliceX=]'', is the earliest known game developed for the Platform/{{Macintosh}} computer. [[TheGameOfTheBook Inspired by]] [[Literature/AliceInWonderland the books]] of Creator/LewisCarroll, it pits Alice against a full set of pieces in a fast-action HumanChess match.
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6	Apple's Steve Capps created the game in 1982, when the Mac was still over a year from shipping. Despite interest from Trip Hawkins, who'd left the company to found Creator/ElectronicArts, Creator/SteveJobs was determined that Apple publish it in-house. Jobs promised Capps a first-rate package design, which he got, and marketing to match, which he didn't. (Apple was fighting corporate perception that [[ItWillNeverCatchOn the whimsical Mac interface of a "mouse" that pointed at "icons" was a toy unfit for offices]], and had withdrawn support from game developers--in this case, even itself.) ''Through the Looking Glass'' was released silently, some months after the computer made its debut.
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8	The disk included two of Capps' other programs as [[BSide B-Sides]]: a MazeGame called ''Amazing'', and a ''Clock'' screensaver with morphing digits.
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10	!! Tropes in ''Through the Looking Glass''
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12	* ArtImitatesArt: The cover and title screen are based on a 1474 woodcut (with the addition of a hidden Music/DeadKennedys logo).
13	* BookSafe: The packaging.
14	* CanonIllustrations: Alice appears just as Sir John Tenniel drew her.
15	* DisneyOwnsThisTrope:
16	** The WorkingTitle ''Alice'' had to be dropped as it already belonged to a database product. (It still appears in much larger print than the title, as the first word of the instructions.)
17	** Apple itself oddly denied Capps the title ''Alice'' for his iPhone port, so he settled for ''[=AliceX=]''.
18	* FlawlessVictory: The game challenges you to achieve a perfect score of 999, which means letting every pawn become a queen while never being captured yourself.
19	* GameMod: The sprites are kept in [=MacPaint=] files, which are easily edited--and include a message encouraging you to do just that.
20	* GravityScrew: One of the {{Easter Egg}}s turns the world upside down.
21	* NintendoHard: Capps repeatedly increased the difficulty at the request of an addicted co-worker, but never dialed it back for publication.
22	--> Making the original Alice insanely hard to play wasn't too great for sales.
23	* ReadingsAreOffTheScale: By invoking an easter egg that makes the chess pieces [[InvoluntaryShapeshifter randomly shapeshift]], you can reach scores above 999--but only the last three digits are visible on the [[ScoringPoints scoreboard]].
24	* SillinessSwitch: The iPhone port lets you transform the chess set into a hip hop group or the UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush administration (with Alice replaced by UsefulNotes/BarackObama).
25	* TemporaryPlatform: [[PortableHole A rabbit hole randomly wanders the empty squares]]; it can't be jumped over but can be jumped into. Chess pieces will be swallowed up, but Alice will be safely deposited on a board where [[RealTimeWithPause all her opponents are frozen until she moves again]].
26	* ThemedCursor: A three-dimensional "X" that matches the board's perspective. At the suggestion of [[Platform/AppleII Steve Wozniak]], it gets smaller when moved into the distance.
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28	!! Tropes in ''Amazing''
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30	* CartoonCheese: The game's icon has the traditional wedge of Swiss on one side of a maze, and a mouse on the other.
31	* JustOneMoreLevel: Bill Gates himself claimed to have [[http://www.folklore.org/images/Macintosh/gates_letter.jpg "wasted a lot of time solving mazes"]].
32	* PipeMaze: On the highest difficulty setting, the pipes are so densely layered that you often can't see where you are or where you can move.
33	* TrailOfBreadCrumbs: Rather than guiding an avatar through the maze, you draw out a line from one end to the other (and trace back along it if necessary).
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35	!! Tropes in ''Clock''
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37	* ArtImitatesArt: The program's icon is a [[Art/ThePersistenceOfMemory pocketwatch melting its way off a shelf]].
38	* {{Cap}}: Due to an overflow bug, the date function returns gibberish starting on September 18, 1993.
39	* InspirationForTheWork: Capps credits the 1974 computer-animated short, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwU3UARE6yc La Faim (Hunger)]]''.
40	* SpiritualSuccessor: Jamie Zawinski's [[http://www.jwz.org/xdaliclock/ Dali Clock]].
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Context VideoGame / ThroughTheLookingGlass