This is a long shot, but let's go back to the mid to late 80's-- around the era of the 80286 computer. There is a text adventure (of which I have no idea what the title may be) where you play a kid, you go into the kitchen and your mom is there, she sees you and stabs you with a knife. Did you play this? Is this even real? If it is, I can't find a damn thing about it.

Mystified,
Mr. ChewyCheeks.

I've been playing IF since the same era but I'm afraid that particular one doesn't ring any bells, sorry. You could try looking through this list of classics to see if any jog a memory:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_text-based_computer_games

I think that lists about 10% of them...

Thanks, this is a list I hadn't looked at yet. No luck though. Will let you know if any other details arise.

Well dang. That escalated quickly. But I dont have any info on the game. Ill reply if I do find some though.

Maybe try the "Unwinnable by Design" on TV Tropes? I don't play (old, before this year) text adventures, sorry. That's the best I got.

Here's the link. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UnwinnableByDesign
"There are plenty of difficult games out there, but at least most of them have the decency to kill you off the moment your quest becomes impossible to complete — otherwise you'd end up wandering around looking for a way to progress when none exist. Now, in the case of games that are Unwinnable by Mistake it's kind of understandable — either a bug or an oversight has rendered the game broken so there's no way for it to tell the player how screwed they are."

Nothing there, but I love TV Tropes. That was quite a rabbit hole to get lost in. It did lead me to the Eamon subgenre of games, which seemed like a good prospect, but no luck there either. I don't think there were THAT many text adventures around the mid 80's, but I can't tell if this is a wild goose chase or some bit of clever googling is just evading me.

Are you sure it's from the 1980's? Tons of people make text adventures all the time.

Yes, based on this reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmyjoystick/comments/6j44ff/pcdos1980s_asciitext_game_about_a_kid_who_can_get/

That is also the problem, though, in that it seems it was not published in any official capacity, as far as I can tell.

I use yahoo answers. And many years ago, "ask."

I made a yahoo question. Worth a shot.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20170825005508AA3Ik3d

Thank you, that's very kind of you! I see you had a rather amusing exchange there as well.

Yeah. Sorry, I don't know why he was being a smart aleck, if he thought I was stealing from you, or something. Yeah, I suppose it was funny. I tried, at least.

That's a totally different Richard on that site, guys and gals!

I may play around a lot, and I might be a Richard-Head, but I'm not a straight-up RICHARD!

What has "MrChewyCheeks Jul 10, 2017 2:22 AM" got to do with this question?

I thought it was blatantly obvious that jmnevil54 was going out of his way to be nice and help someone out by re-posting their inquiry on Yahoo!

Oh well...

Maybe being a RICHARD makes that particular Richard feel superior.

...upon reflection, he may have just been confused and seriously asking that...

...or it may have just been an attempt at humor...

Anyway,

I've searched for this game all sorts of different ways since this was first posted, but to no avail.

It sounds like a game I'd like to play!

What a morbid game to have your mother stab you as a start.

there's actually a really cool short anime (~12 episodes) that has this happen as well (it's a good story, plot..and..twist): Soul Taker

Um, I googled 'soul taker based text adventure', not sure if it worked. Worth a shot, though.

https://www.google.com/search?safe=strict&ei=p9q6Wd-eNpORjwSQs5GACQ&q=soul+taker+based+text+adventure&oq=soul+taker+based+text+adventure&gs_l=mobile-gws-serp.3..33i160k1.4929.13621.0.14198.28.26.0.1.1.0.492.5917.1j9j11j1j3.25.0....0...1.1j4.64.mobile-gws-serp..6.21.4499...0j35i39k1j0i10i67k1j0i67k1j0i20k1j0i22i10i30k1j0i22i30k1j33i22i29i30k1j33i21k1.f8C0B2z2eOQ

I think the guy who made SoulTaker played the elusive text adventure we're in search of...

I know one thing:

Any way I've phrased "TEXT ADVENTURE MOM STAB KITCHEN", I'm never pleased with the search's results. (It's a sick world.)

Maybe if you remembered more about it, that could help. Maybe you could replicate the game on here, or something.

KV-- it's heartbreaking in more ways than one, right? Plus the number of modifiers I've added to that search ("minus police minus news minus movie minus national enquirer etc) has just been absurd.

I also like the idea that while it would be gratifying to find this game, there's a great chance that it would be just g.d. awful to play (based on previous low-budg text adventure experience).

MrChewyCheeks,

HK types: I am Norman Bates your son, teach me to use that Knife! I love you mommy dear!