The Prisoner was one of the first adventures we did back in 2013 and, to celebrate the decade since its launch, we present this new version, fixed, expanded, with graphics and music in-game. In addition, we have added the documentation in the same file, we have included the Catalan version and we present everything in two formats, D64 disk and CRT cartridge. And as we did then, we continue to insist on the validity of its plot and that you should give it a chance to see a risky and premonitory series in all aspects.
The history:
The plot puts us in the shoes of a British secret service agent who, after resigning from his position, is put to sleep and transferred to a mysterious Village. There he will find himself a prisoner, without understanding who has taken him there and where they will try by all means to discover the reason for his resignation. Our protagonist, number 6 in The Village, will try by all means to escape from it and find out who number 1 is.
The importance of "The Prisoner"
We are fortunate to have the collaboration of two institutions regarding the series. David Stimpson, probably the person who has studied and written the most about it, author of "The Prisoner" Dusted Down" and who translated the English version of the game for us and Santi Pagés, author of the book "No soy un Número" , an authentic Spanish guide to the series and everything that happened around it.
The importance, Its meaning, its validity & Whatever you believe by David Stimpson.
What is the importance of the Prisoner? Does it have any? The series was ahead of its time. Through the Prisoner Patrick McGoohan warned us about the progress of man, of the more and more reliance on technology, that we were progressing too quickly, he was right, look where has it got us!
The Prisoner deals with a man in isolation, isolated from the outside world, and yet you need not put a man in a village in order to isolate him, he can feel isolated in a packed public bar. He can feel isolated in his own mind.
The Prisoner demonstrates that we are all numbers. We are given numbers whether we want them or not {for official purposes} because we are already in the village, and have been there since the day of our birth, and the only way out is to be carried out in a coffin by two undertakers!
Surely the importance of the Prisoner lies in the fact that at the time there had been nothing like it before. Ground breaking would be the two words I would use to describe the series, which unlike many television series of the time, has stood the test of time, and is probably more relevant today that it was in the 1960’s.
Patrick McGoohan didn’t just make a television series, it was a warning. He attempted to teach us to rebel, don’t let the system drag you down. “Hey, you can’t turn me into a number, I’m a free man!” The Village is basically a self-contained unit of our own society, and yet even in such a community as the Village people are free to enjoy it, some wouldn’t leave for the world! And yet as McGoohan once said, we are all Prisoner’s of something whatever it might be. We do not live in the Village as Number 6 does, despite the belief that the World we live in has vastly become like the Village with surveillance cameras everywhere. Really you are as free as you want to be, because there is always freedom to be found, even in the prison!
In it’s validity is the Prisoner logically or factually sound? A prison is prison no matter how much you dress it up to look like an Italianate village. Patrick McGoohan claimed that there were such places in the world….how would he have known? Brick walled prisons build in the Victorian age yes, concentration camps, Gulags, refugee camps yes. But isolated Italianate prisons such as in the Prisoner, I doubt that very much. Originally the Village wouldn’t even have been of an Italianate design had a Butlin’s holiday camp been used instead. Now that would have looked more like a concentration camp at the time….no offence Butlin’s!
As for logic, I don’t think logic enters the Prisoner for one moment.
My personal view is that the Prisoner-Number 6 is John Drake (Danger Man) despite what Patrick McGoohan claimed, as I much prefer the words of the late Frank Maher and cameraman Jack Lowen who both clearly understood at the time, that Number 6 and John Drake were one and the same. He could also be Everyman, well not quite, because you have to have done something to find themselves waking up in the Village!
I also believe that the Prisoner is whatever you want it to be, action/adventure - Science-fiction - spy drama, a follow-on from Danger Man. A story, tale, or parable. And whatever Prisoner fans believe of the series, they are all correct!
The reason for viewing it, from Santi Pages, the author of the book "No soy un número":
Did you know that in 1967 a television series was released that would influence creators as different as Jack Kirby, Christopher Nolan, Alan Moore, JJ Abrams, Grant Morrison and Mark Frost? Well yes. This is The Prisoner, a masterpiece of the medium that more than half a century after its first broadcast continues to be an object of worship, fascination, debate and analysis.
The Prisoner was the result of the alchemy of two almost opposite minds, that of the journalist and novelist George Markstein and that of Patrick McGoohan, the most popular television actor of his time. Together, they managed to create a series that challenged the conventions of spy fiction - girls, cars, glamour -, a series that took place week by week in an identical location, a surreal and retro-futuristic village called The Village in which a powerful Unknown locks up people in possession of valuable information, strips them of their identity, and mercilessly surveils and controls them.
The protagonist, whom we only come to know as Number 6, is a former secret agent who suddenly finds himself drugged and kidnapped in this unreal vacation resort that no one knows where he is and from which no one can escape. Episode by episode, his captors, led by Number 2, will try by increasingly extreme means - chemical, physical, ethical - to get him to confess the true reasons for his resignation. Episode by episode, Number 6 will refuse to be his pawn. He will try to escape, to find out who really controls The Village. Back home. Beat.
But this is just the premise. Each episode raises new questions and reveals new layers of intrigue and conspiracy. Each episode subverts the narrative parameters of television, past and present. The Prisoner is entertainment of the first magnitude, an audiovisual feast that also explores existential themes: the possibility of rebellion and personal autonomy in the face of structures of power and control, the fight to maintain our integrity in a world undermined by disloyalty and uncertainty.
It seems incredible that a series that aired for the first time almost six decades ago is both such a child of its time and that it was so far ahead of it, to the point of transcending it. The Prisoner looks as current today as it did in 1967. Markstein and McGoohan sought to denounce the dehumanizing progress of society and with this, without intending to, they managed to ensure that the series still dialogues with us in this digital age of ours in which technology and corporations They exert omnipresent control over our lives and our thoughts. As Number 6, we no longer know what is true and what is not.
The Prisoner will turn your expectations about the possibilities of television language upside down and will immerse you in a universe halfway between reality and nightmare. He will offer you an electrifying and amazing journey, out of the ordinary, in which you will explore the limits of freedom and identity, of community and individual. A trip you can't miss.
This new version has 3 different editions. Apart from including all the music within the same game and also having graphics, other small changes have been made:
- In the Spanish version, minor spelling errors have been fixed, some synonyms and descriptions that could be improved have been added. Some text has been shortened so that it would look better with the graphics and thus save a little memory.
- The English version has been kept as is. The work that David Stimpson did in the translation, maintaining the language of the original series, is perfect and has not been touched.
- The Catalan version is new and we have added it to the rest of the versions.
- We have created a CRT that includes all 3 versions and extra graphics.
The TV Show:
Produced by ITV and filmed between 1967-68, it was the spiritual sequel to Danger Man and consists of a total of 17 chapters. It was as pioneering as it was misunderstood and its ending left unanswered questions causing doubts and indignation on the part of viewers. The series can only be seen in English and South American and in 2009 a revision was made, changing certain aspects that did not convince either former followers of the series or critics in general. Due to the lack of success of this new version, Christopher Nolan refused to make the film version of it in 2009 and in 2016, Ridley Scott was also offered to make it, waiting for the perfect script to get behind the camera and direct it.
How it works:
- To move, use the cardinal points N, S, E, W and UP and DOWN.
- EXAMINE or EX is used to see something or someone specific.
- The parser works with 2 words, VERB + SUBJECT. For example: TAKE JACKET.
- LOOK or R is used to get an overview of the location.
- HELP shows us instructions similar to these.
- INFO shows us the credits of the game.
- The most common actions are: PICK, TALK, LEAVE, GO, USE, EXAMINE, GIVE, DIG, RAISE, DOWN, PUSH, PULL, CUT...
- Watch at least the first episode of the series. You will enjoy the game much more and you will feel closer to our character.
- Don't forget to examine everything and talk to the people you meet.
- Make yourself a map. You will orient yourself and position yourself better in the game.
- Idea, programming, graphics and story: Bieno
- Music: Baron Ashler and SoNiC
- Extra code c64: Karmic
- Cover editing: Josepzin
- HERE you have information about the series from Wikipedia.
- HERE you can purchase the book "No soy un número", a complete anthology and study on the series in Spanish.
- HERE you have the article about the first Spanish version of the game from 2013.
- HERE you have the article about the first English version of the game from 2014.
- HERE you will go directly to the official page of Portmeirion, the Welsh coastal town where the series was filmed.
- HERE you can visit the page of David Stimpson, surely the person who has delved the most into the series and dedicated the most time to writing about it.
- If you want to receive the next editions of Tally-Ho completely free of charge, you just have to request it at stimpyfor6@msn.com.
- HERE you have all the current information on everything related to the series.
- The game and all the extras are available on OUR Itch.io
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