Curses is an
interactive fiction computer game created by
Graham Nelson in 1993. It was originally developed on an
Acorn Archimedes using
Acorn C/C++, before Nelson moved to his
Inform programming language, which was simultaneously released. It was the first non-test game developed in the language. It is distributed
without charge as a
Z-Code executable. Writing for the New York Times, Edward Rothstein described the game as "acclaimed." The Inform source code is not publicly available. Appearing in the beginning of the non-commercial era of interactive fiction, it is considered one of the milestones of the genre. The player takes the part of an English aristocrat called Meldrew. In the course of searching the attic for an old tourist map of
Paris, Meldrew steps into a surreal adventure to uncover a centuries-old
curse that has been placed on the family. The goal of the game is to find the missing map, and thus annul the curse.