The Multi-Dimensional Thief is a text adventure created by Joel Finch in 1992. It was released as shareware.
A master thief aspires to join the largest and most prestigious of organized thieving bodies, The Multi-Dimensional Thieves' Guild. As part of a requirement to join, the thief is tested in his non-thieving abilities by escaping from a set of rooms borrowed from other universes and magically joined together.
This text adventure provides examples of:
- The Computer Shall Taunt You: Version 2, the stone faces in the temple will randomly insult the player.
- Forced Transformation: The witch's method of "killing" is to turn the player into a toadstool.
- Have a Nice Death: Of the number of ways to die, each gives a unique description of what happens, along with a unique rank.
- Hint System:
- Version 1 comes with pophint. The associated hints are vague, but can give some clues, or things that could be done in-game.
- Although the game gives the "help" command, the reply is a simple mockery. At most, you get one hint in the room containing the witch, and it's only one of the two.
- If the game was registered, there was also a hint booklet and a map offered with version 2.
- Interactive Fiction: A text-entry game, creates using Adventure Game Toolkit. The second version seems to use a different text adventure engine, but still has clear influence from the original engine.
- Last Chance Hit Point: The opal ring protects you once from death. It either stops an action that would be fatal, or moves the player to an adjacent room.
- Missing Secret: Version 1 allows claims that 50 points can be obtained. These points are only obtained by carrying certain items. You can only have a multiple of three points, and they don't even go up to 50. Additionally, that version also includes additional "blank" rooms to increase the count of rooms to an even 100.
- One-Time Dungeon: Kansas closes off when the witch is defeated. In version 1, it's also possible to miss out on an item.
- Portable Hole: An object that can be placed on walls in the main area. It can also lead to heaven or hell. However, it's not large enough to accommodate the stool, nor an active lightsaber.
- Portal Picture: Not compatible with the portable hole. The first one brings the player to Kansas.
- Red Herring: Makes direct comment to the concept in the aquarium.
- Sdrawkcab Name: The chests in hell have names, but they're really backwards spelling of their contents. Two are therefore fatal, the third has items taken from the player.
- Shout-Out: The game's locations contain references in the various locations. The essential one is knowing The Wizard of Oz, otherwise there's no information about water killing the witch.
- Sizeshifter: There's a machine in the laboratory that can either grow or shrink the thief. Shrinking is required to get past the silver guardian, but growing is lethal. In version 2, the change in size is delayed a few turns to give a use to the growth version.
- Teleportation with Drawbacks: The mystery object only teleports itself and the user, and not any objects. The vanishing cream only teleports objects.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay:
- The Sizeshifter has labels that mismatch from Alice Adventures in Wonderland, thus guaranteeing a first death.
- Killing the witch on the first visit. In version 1, the emerald is inaccessible. In version 2, the player might not have purchased a required item to reach the emerald.
- Unwinnable by Design:
- There's a limited number of times one can enter the plant room, and it's possible for that room to be the only route to rooms beyond (e.g. if the player dropped the hole in a room to the right.)
- The witch has a few nasty scenarios that make the game unwinnable. In version 1, killing the witch too early makes it impossible to get the emerald. In version 2, this becomes cruel as the player could miss an item that has a new use added and therefore be unable to purchase the bottle from the vending machine.
- You Can't Get Ye Flask: "Put Hole on North" works on version 1, but not on version 2. There are also other subtle changes in the text parser that may also not be understood in the newer version.
