Tass Times in Tonetown — a town where style is physics Runs here
1986 · Interplay / Activision · System 6 · Mini vMac (Mac Plus) · 512×342 black and white
Guide updated September 2026
Your grandfather has gone missing from his cabin in the woods, and looking for him drops you into Tonetown, where the local currency is being fashionable and the dog has a hairstyle. The parser is the standard mid-80s sort; the setting is not.
It is a graphic adventure with a picture window, a compass rose, an inventory strip of icons and a text area, all on one screen. For 1986 that layout was unusually well organised, and it is a large part of why the game still reads clearly today.
Boots straight into the game at your grandfather's cabin. Type commands, or use the compass and inventory icons.
Controls
| Type + Return | Commands, in the usual VERB NOUN form |
| Compass rose | Move without typing |
| Inventory icons | Click an object to use or examine it |
| Save a Game / Load a Game | On the menu bar, inside the emulated Mac |
Activision published it and Interplay developed it; both still exist. Neither has sold it in decades and it is part of no current product from either company.
Archives
- Internet Archive — the Macintosh floppy this copy was made from.
How it works & what to expect
| Machine | Macintosh Plus, 512×342, black and white |
|---|---|
| System | The floppy's own — this disk carries the System it shipped with |
| Emulator | Mini vMac, compiled to WebAssembly |
| Saves | Save a Game on the menu bar; saves live in your browser |
The whole interface is on one screen, which was not typical. You can play it entirely by typing, entirely by clicking, or in the mix most people settle into — compass to move, typing for everything else.
Like most adventures of the period it will let you make the game unwinnable without telling you. Save in a fresh slot before anything irreversible, and keep more than one.
Why it is remembered
The setting is genuinely strange. Most comedy adventures of the era were parody. Tonetown is not parodying anything in particular — it is a place with its own logic, where being unfashionable is a practical problem, and the writing commits to it completely.
It was Interplay's showcase. Brian Fargo's studio built it after Mindshadow and Borrowed Time, and it is the most confident of the three: better art, better interface, and a tone nothing else was attempting.
Ennio the dog. The hip dog with the fashionable haircut who joins you is the thing everyone who played it remembers, which tells you most of what you need to know about the game's priorities.
Getting started
Explore the cabin thoroughly before you go anywhere. Take everything that is not nailed down, including the things whose purpose is not obvious — this is an adventure game and it means it.
Once you reach Tonetown, pay attention to what people say about how you look. It is not colour: your appearance is a mechanic, and several doors are closed to you until you deal with it.
Save often, in rotating slots. The game has dead ends, and the one thing that will end a playthrough is a single save file overwritten one move too late.
Questions people ask
Is this a text adventure?
Part text, part graphic. There is a picture window and clickable icons, but the parser is still the main way you do things.
Can I play it entirely with the mouse?
Mostly — the compass moves you and the inventory icons handle objects — but some puzzles need typed commands.
Can I save?
Yes, from the menu bar. Saves live inside the emulated Macintosh in your browser. Use several slots.
Can the game become unwinnable?
Yes. Like most 1986 adventures it will let you lose an essential item without saying so, which is why rotating saves matter.
Who made it?
Interplay, designed by Michael Berlyn and Muffy McClung Berlyn, published by Activision.
Is it in colour?
Not here. This is the Macintosh version, black and white at 512×342.
Put Tass Times in Tonetown on your own site
Free, no permission needed and no account. Paste this where you want the machine to appear; it brings its own emulator and asks nothing of your page.
<iframe src="https://macemu.com/embed/tass-times/"
width="512" height="342"
style="border:0;max-width:100%"
allowfullscreen
title="Tass Times in Tonetown"></iframe>Sized to this title's real screen. How embedding works.
