Torin's Passage

Torin's Passage is a game I wrote in 1994 after watching the film Mrs. Doubtfire with my daughter. I realized during that film that the audience was laughing in two different pitches: high little giggles when the kids laughed at the slapstick parts of the film, and deep knowing guffaws when the adults caught something that they knew the kids wouldn't get. I thought: Why isn't there a computer game that my 9-year-old daughter and I could play that works like that?

So I created one.

That's Torin on the left, with his sidekick, Boogle. The game is filled with creative characters by James G. Murphy, who left Sierra for a little company called Pixar, where he is now a lead animator. Dreep, above right, is still one of my favorite characters. Just look below at all the wonderful characters Jim created.

Mark Seibert, Torin's producer and my good friend, has a Walk Through of the game on his web site. While you're there, poke around through his other Sierra memorabilia. And check out the unOfficial Torin's Fan Page. Here's a fun cartoon about Torin's Passage. Here's a Torin's Passage promo video that was our equivalent of a movie trailer.

If you need help getting Torin's Passage to operate properly, visit the Torin's Troubleshooting page. Check out more of the game's graphics. See what the Russian version looked like. And finally, I have a few helpful cheats and eggs for you.

Screenshots

	As you can see from these screenshots, lead artist Bruce Sharp did a masterful job of creating the game's "worlds within worlds."
	Bruce, too, went on to bigger and better things at a little neighborhood company named Microsoft.
	The entire creative team was one of the best with whom I've ever worked. I am still very proud to say that I was involved creating something so beautiful... and yet, so fun.
	While Torin wasn't my best-selling game, it's probably the most meaningful to me because I wrote it for especially for my daughter and I to enjoy together.
	Torin was intended to be a series of five games, to be published in alternate years with King's Quest. Unfortunately, market conditions, and Sierra's loss of Ken Williams, meant that the first game of five became the only game.
	While you don't have to have a child to play it with (I think it stands up perfectly well as a more-or-less standard adventure game), if you do have one, find a copy of it and play it together. I promise you'll both laugh, although not necessarily at the same times!

Russian Torin

Torin was translated into many languages, including Russian. I want to thank Oleg Torshin for sending me these scans of the box, and a quote from me that basically says, "Yeah, he did Leisure Suit Larry, but this isn't like that!"