«Indiana Jones y la Plaza de Wenceslao»: The Dissident Czechoslovak Text Adventure

In the closing years of the 1980s, Soviet influence over Central and Eastern Europe was falling apart. From Samizdat copies of banned books to pirated VHS movies in Romania, dissident movements began to gain more and more strength, using alternative channels to express their opposition. In the case of old Czechoslovakia, young people turned to code, creating adventures based on Western heroes, and one of the most famous is «Indiana Jones y la Plaza de Wenceslao», which has Indy trying to escape the country…

The Iron Curtain’s Computing Scene

Behind the Iron Curtain, computing operated under very different rules. The impossibility of importing components from Western countries provoked an explosion of improvisation and creativity, with projects like the Galaksija computer. But by the late 1980s, the Eastern Bloc had its days numbered. In Romania they executed Ceaușescu. Yugoslavia split into two million pieces, and in Czechoslovakia the Velvet Revolution took place, a name associated with the “relative non-violence” with which it happened.

The Digital Resistance

Czechoslovak students were central to the demonstrations, and many of the police interventions (read: batons, arrests, tear gas, and water cannons) during Palach Week in early ’89 were directed at them. However, they decided to continue the struggle on completely new ground: the digital. Those young people with access to computers and a bit of programming knowledge created protest games that joined rock songs, pamphlets, and Samizdat distribution. Some of those games had as main characters heroes from the other side of the Iron Curtain, and if there is one that stands out, it is Indiana Jones.

The Game: Indiana Jones and Wenceslas Square

The author of «Indiana Jones y la Plaza de Wenceslao» remains unknown, but the message is clearer than water: our favorite archaeologist is trapped in the famous Wenceslas Square, and must find a way to return to the United States avoiding all kinds of threats, from isolated stones to the worst of police brutality. The game takes place on the second day of the protests, and it is truly relentless: any error in the text commands can cause Indy’s death, which will be “covered up” by the local press (a “traffic accident”).

Historian Jaroslav Švelch took charge of adapting the game to a browser version (the original was compatible with the ZX Spectrum, with its players sharing and copying cassettes) with the help of Martin Kouba, a programmer with a lot of experience in the 8-bit universe. This special edition was fully translated into English, but you won’t find any help or SCUMM system here: pure text adventure trial and error, with exact commands. If you make a mistake, you die.

Now, why Indiana Jones? Essentially, because of the impact of “capitalist productions” and their contrast with the “authorized” films. Raiders of the Lost Ark arrived in Czechoslovakia four years after its release in the West, and marked an entire generation. Do you want to finish the game? Then, you’ll have to solve it the old-fashioned way: create a map of the square, take note of the commands. Some solutions are actually dead ends, and the archaeologist ends up dead from a stone or a shot.

Access the game: Click here. More information: Ars Technica.