Time Zone

Last updated: January 10, 2026

Overview

Time Zone, released in February 1982 by On-Line Systems, stands as one of the most ambitious adventure games ever created for home computers.¹ Designed by Roberta Williams, this fifth entry in the Hi-Res Adventures series was an unprecedented undertaking that spanned six double-sided floppy disks and contained approximately 1,500 screens to explore across 39 different time scenarios.² The game was marketed as potentially requiring “a year to complete” and represented what was believed to be one of the first games of such magnitude ever released for home computer systems.³

The game’s premise centers on a player chosen by a terrestrial guardian to secure Earth’s future by traveling through time and space to ultimately destroy the evil ruler of the distant planet Neburon.⁴ Throughout this epic journey, players encounter famous historical figures including Julius Caesar, Christopher Columbus, Robin Hood, Benjamin Franklin, and Cleopatra.⁴ The development took over fourteen months to complete, with a team of approximately ten people—a remarkably large development team for its era.⁵

Despite its groundbreaking scope and ambition, Time Zone became a notable commercial failure, primarily due to its unprecedented retail price of $99, which was considerably higher than typical games of the period.³ BYTE Magazine declared it “without a doubt… the longest adventure game to date,”¹ though the game’s commercial performance ultimately did not match its scale and ambition.

Game Info

Developer: On-Line Systems¹ Designer: Roberta Williams² Publisher: On-Line Systems¹ Engine: ADL (Adventure Development Language)¹ Platforms: Apple II, FM-7, PC-88, PC-98² Release Year: 1982 Series: Hi-Res Adventures (#5) Protagonist: Unnamed Time Traveler Sierra Lineage: Core Sierra

Story Summary

The narrative of Time Zone is set against the backdrop of the year 4081, depicting Earth as a fast-paced, highly technological society that has achieved remarkable advancement.⁵ However, this progress has drawn unwanted attention from the Neburites, an alien race from the planet Neburon who view Earth’s development with hostility rather than admiration.⁵ The evil ruler of Neburon, named Ramadu, threatens the very existence of humanity.⁵

The story begins simply enough—the player is just walking through the trees outside their home when suddenly a time machine appears.⁶ A terrestrial guardian or keeper has chosen the player for an extraordinary task: to secure the Earth’s future by destroying the evil ruler of Neburon.⁴ To accomplish this seemingly impossible mission, the guardian grants the player the remarkable ability to travel through both time and space.⁴

The player takes on the role of a time traveler who must navigate through various historical periods, ranging from 400 BC to 4082 AD, visiting locations across North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.⁷ Throughout these journeys, the player encounters legendary historical figures and must gather items and solve puzzles to ultimately confront and defeat the alien threat. The game presents the compelling question posed by Roberta Williams herself: “What if you really could go anywhere at any time?”⁶

Gameplay

Interface and Controls

Time Zone employs a two-word parser adventure game system typical of early 1980s text adventures with graphics.⁶ Players interact with the game world by typing simple one- or two-word commands to perform actions, examine objects, and navigate between locations.⁸ The game offers the ability to switch between graphic and text modes, allowing players to choose their preferred visual experience or to speed up gameplay by disabling the graphics that required time to draw on screen.⁸

Structure and Progression

The game’s structure is remarkably expansive, containing over 1,000 different locations spread across 39 time zones or scenarios.⁹ The player uses a time machine to navigate between different eras and geographical locations, creating a vast scavenger hunt-style gameplay experience.⁶ The time periods and locations include:

• Prehistoric Era: Ancient world with primitive environments
• 400 BC - Ancient Civilizations: Encounters with figures like Cleopatra
• Medieval Period: Including encounters with Robin Hood
• Age of Exploration: Meeting Christopher Columbus
• Colonial America: Benjamin Franklin’s era
• Future (4082 AD): The ultimate destination on Neburon

Each location features its own artwork, contributing to the game’s unprecedented visual scope.¹ Due to the game’s immense complexity and difficulty, Sierra offered a telephone help line to assist struggling players.¹

Puzzles and Mechanics

The gameplay revolves around exploration, item collection, and puzzle-solving across multiple time periods. Time Zone is actually well-written and enjoyable to play through, providing players know which locations to visit and which objects to use.⁹ However, the game must be completed in a strict order, which adds to its difficulty.⁹

The save game system requires a specifically designed floppy disk for saving progress, reflecting the technical limitations of the era.⁸ Modern players using emulators report that the experience is significantly improved without the need to constantly swap floppies and wait for the drive to read the data.¹⁰

Reception

Contemporary Reviews

Upon release, Time Zone received the notable distinction of being declared “without a doubt… the longest adventure game to date” by BYTE Magazine in December 1982.¹ The game’s sheer ambition and scale were recognized by industry publications, though the response was mixed regarding the quality of the actual gameplay experience.

The game received a Certificate of Merit for Best Computer Adventure at the 4th annual Arkie Awards, demonstrating that despite commercial struggles, the industry recognized the game’s achievement.¹ Softalk magazine ranked Time Zone as the 20th best software of 1982, and Electronic Games also awarded it a Certificate of Merit in 1982.⁵

However, not all assessments were positive. John Williams, Roberta’s brother-in-law who worked at On-Line Systems, offered a blunt retrospective assessment: “It frankly wasn’t that good.”¹

Modern Assessment

Modern critics and players have reassessed Time Zone with a mixture of appreciation for its historical significance and acknowledgment of its gameplay limitations. The game is recognized as a pioneering effort that demonstrated the potential scale of computer games, even if the execution was flawed.

Aggregate Scores:

• MobyGames Critics: 46% (based on reviews)²
• MyAbandonware User Rating: 5/5¹⁰

Modern retrospective analysis from The Digital Antiquarian describes Time Zone as “a high-profile flop” despite its groundbreaking ambition, noting that the chaotic development process resulted in a product that was rushed and considered poorly designed.⁵

Development

Origins

The concept for Time Zone emerged from Roberta Williams’ desire to create the most ambitious adventure game ever attempted. The development began in early 1981, with Roberta posing the fundamental question that would drive the game’s design: “What if you really could go anywhere at any time?”⁶ The premise of time travel allowed for virtually unlimited creative possibilities, which proved to be both the game’s greatest strength and its most significant challenge.

Time Zone was produced at a time when most games rarely took up more than one side of a floppy disk, making its six double-sided disk format revolutionary.³ On-Line Systems committed to creating what would potentially be the most expensive video game development of its era when adjusted for inflation.⁵

Production

The development of Time Zone stretched over fourteen months, with the design and writing process alone consuming six months.² The project required a team of approximately ten people—a remarkably large development team for home computer games of the early 1980s.¹ Roberta Williams later reflected on the scope of the undertaking: “Once we got into it and saw how big of a job it was, we were almost sorry we started it in the first place.”⁵

The production of 1,400 hand-drawn pictures made Time Zone one of the most visually ambitious games of its time.⁵ However, the development process was described as chaotic, and the pressure to complete the project led to compromises in gameplay quality.

Development Credits:¹¹

• Designer: Roberta Williams
• Producer: Bob Davis
• Producer: Jeff Stephenson
• Graphics: Terry Pierce
• Graphics: Michelle Pritchard
• Additional Development: Ken Williams

Time Zone was notably the first project for Jeff Stephenson at On-Line Systems, who would go on to become one of Sierra’s key technical figures.⁵

Technical Achievements

Time Zone utilized the ADL (Adventure Development Language) engine, which powered the Hi-Res Adventures series.¹ The game’s technical achievement lay primarily in its unprecedented scale rather than in graphical innovation—containing 1,500 areas to explore across 39 scenarios required significant memory management and disk-swapping systems for the Apple II’s limited hardware.³

The game shipped on six double-sided floppy disks, representing twelve disk sides total—an extraordinary distribution method for its time.¹² The disks were differentiated by volume number, and players would frequently need to swap disks as they traveled between time periods.¹²

Technical Specifications

Apple II Version:¹¹

• Memory Required: 48K RAM
• Media: 6 double-sided floppy disks (12 disk sides)
• Graphics: Hi-Res format
• Input: Keyboard

Japanese Ports (1985):²

• Platforms: PC-88, PC-98, FM-7
• Publisher: StarCraft, Inc.

Version History

Version	Date	Platform	Notes
1.0	1982	Apple II	Initial release, disks dated 1981, screen copyright 198212
1.1	1982	Apple II	Minor revision12
SierraVentures	1982	Apple II	Reissue under budget label1
Japanese	1985	PC-88/PC-98/FM-7	Published by StarCraft2

Technical Issues

Players attempting to run Time Zone on modern emulators have reported challenges with the save game functionality. The game requires a specifically formatted disk for saving progress, and getting the virtual save game to work in emulation environments has proven problematic for some users.¹³ The .dsk container format requires substantial modification to function properly, though .woz files work with fewer issues.¹²

Easter Eggs and Trivia

• Profanity Protection: Typing a swear word kicks the player out of the game entirely.²
• Geographical Error: Roberta Williams accidentally placed a rhea bird in Australia instead of South America, where the species is actually native.²
• Swimming Puzzle: The Prehistoric Era lake features a memorable swimming puzzle that requires specific timing.⁶
• Historical Poster: The promotional poster for Time Zone was likely extracted from Softalk magazine, volume 2 number 3 (November 1981).¹²

Legacy

Sales and Commercial Impact

Time Zone’s commercial performance was disappointing despite its ambitious scope. The game’s original retail price of $99—considerably higher than typical games of the period—proved to be a significant barrier to adoption.³ At a time when most games sold for significantly less, the premium pricing alienated potential customers who might otherwise have been interested in the innovative concept.

The game ultimately “bombed” commercially,³ becoming a cautionary tale about the relationship between development ambition, pricing, and market expectations. Despite the commercial failure, Time Zone demonstrated to the industry that large-scale adventure games were technically feasible, even if the market wasn’t ready to support them at premium price points.

Collections

Time Zone was reissued under the SierraVentures budget label in 1982 following its initial commercial struggles.¹ The price reduction to $50 helped move some additional copies, though the game never achieved the commercial success that its development investment warranted.⁵

Fan Projects

The game has been preserved through various emulation and archival efforts, including comprehensive preservation at the Internet Archive.¹² Modern players can experience Time Zone through Apple II emulation, though the game remains a niche interest primarily for gaming historians and adventure game enthusiasts rather than casual players.

Related Publications

• Time Zone Manual: Included with the six-disk package, providing instructions for gameplay and the game’s backstory⁵
• Softalk Magazine Feature: November 1981 issue featured promotional material for the game¹²

Critical Perspective

Time Zone occupies a unique position in adventure gaming history as a cautionary tale about ambition outpacing execution and market readiness. While the game represents a genuine milestone in terms of scale and vision—demonstrating that home computers could support sprawling adventures spanning thousands of screens—the actual gameplay experience failed to match the promise of its concept.

The game’s historical significance lies not in its quality but in its demonstration of possibility. Time Zone proved that adventure games could be massive undertakings, paving the way for later ambitious projects while also illustrating the pitfalls of scope creep and inadequate development resources. The chaotic development process, rushed completion, and premium pricing combined to create a commercial failure that nonetheless influenced the industry’s understanding of what adventure games could potentially achieve.

For Sierra specifically, Time Zone represented an important learning experience. The company would continue to push boundaries in adventure game design, but with a more measured approach to scope and pricing. Roberta Williams’ subsequent projects, including the King’s Quest series, would find better balance between ambition and accessibility.

Downloads

Purchase / Digital Stores

• GOG Dreamlist - Community wishlist

Download / Preservation

• Internet Archive – Time Zone v1.1¹¹
• Internet Archive – Time Zone Complete Package¹²
• MyAbandonware – Time Zone¹⁰

Manuals & Extras

• Manual (Archive.org)¹⁴

Series Continuity

Time Zone represents the fifth entry in Sierra’s Hi-Res Adventures series, following the mythology-themed Ulysses and the Golden Fleece. While the series maintained consistent technical foundations through the ADL engine, each game explored dramatically different settings and themes. Time Zone’s time-travel premise made it the most ambitious in scope, spanning millennia rather than focusing on a single setting or mythology.

The game’s commercial failure did not end the Hi-Res Adventures line, which continued with The Dark Crystal. However, Time Zone’s struggles influenced Sierra’s approach to subsequent projects, encouraging more focused game designs with achievable development timelines and market-appropriate pricing.

• Previous: 1981 - Hi-Res Adventure 4 - Ulysses and the Golden Fleece
• Next: 1982 - Hi-Res Adventure 6 - The Dark Crystal

References

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia – Time Zone (video game) – development history, BYTE review, awards, sales information, team size ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

2. MobyGames – Time Zone – platforms, release dates, publisher information, ratings, development details, easter eggs ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

3. Sierra Fandom Wiki – Time Zone – pricing, commercial failure, technical specifications, development timeline ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Adventure Gamers – Time Zone – plot summary, historical figures, gameplay description ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. The Digital Antiquarian – Time Zone – development history, Roberta Williams quotes, team information, manual excerpts ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

6. Blue Renga – Time Zone Ultimate – Roberta Williams quotes, gameplay mechanics, platform information ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

7. Sierra Help – Time Zone Walkthrough – time periods, locations, gameplay structure ↩

8. Sierra Gamers – Time Zone – interface details, save system, series information ↩ ↩² ↩³

9. Adventure Gamers – Time Zone Walkthrough – gameplay assessment, technical specifications, pricing ↩ ↩² ↩³

10. MyAbandonware – Time Zone – user reviews, file information, platform details ↩ ↩² ↩³

11. Internet Archive – Time Zone v1.1 (WOZ-a-Day) – development credits, technical specifications ↩ ↩² ↩³

12. Internet Archive – Time Zone Complete Package – version information, disk format, preservation notes ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

13. Sierra Gamers Forum – Time Zone Installation – emulation issues, platform compatibility ↩

14. Internet Archive – Time Zone Manual – game documentation ↩