Stonequest is an archetypal "complete quest for king and usurp evil tyrant" adventure which would pass as unremarkable but for possibly the most turgid and unimaginative maze in text adventure history. The game itself is composed of 245 rooms, 200 of which are a stone maze with unclimbable walls.
There is a magic word that takes you to the maze exit but as you have to thoroughly map it to search for hidden objects that doesn't soften the blow too much.
The game is split into three parts with a codeword issued at the start of parts two and three to enable quick transit to the section you were last in but in these days of emulators and saved game options it is rendered redundant.
Many of the puzzles revolve around pushing furniture, drinking magic potions or saying magic words although there a couple of more imaginative ones, particularly a problem revolving around a canister and a room with green smoke. Many of the commands
seem hard coded to the rooms where they work; for instance the TRADE verb will only work in certain places when talking to one of the game's NPCs. Strangely you have to persist with one particular character which may be a clever way of bartering successfully through persistence or may be a bug.
All of your objects are automatically jettisoned when moving from one phase to the next so at least you don't have to worry too much about applying manifold items to a puzzle or an inventory limit.
The denouement features a nice homage to one of the most famous sketches from Monty Python's Flying Circus. Personally I've never pressed wild flowers.
Sparse but adequate given the limited scope required to progress in the game. The parser is a two word effort - it understands TAKE ALL but not OOPS or BACK. For once the spelling and grammar are very good with only the odd typographical error or clumsy phrase.
Reasonable but most rooms are merely backdrops to the puzzles. The first section is the largest and has the most varied geography and character interaction. When playing on the Altirra 4.21 emulator in CIO mode the game crashed at the end of part one but worked ok via 4.30.
I don't think you can make the game unwinnable but there are a few sudden death scenarios. Unusually there are no dark areas so no lamp. There are also no thirst or hunger daemons which is a refreshing change for older games and the one thing about them that I don't like.
A few clever ones but most are pretty obvious. There is for instance an unfriendly octopus and a harpoon gun. Hmmm....
I think 6 is fair. There aren't that many text adventures written exclusively for the Atari so when one comes along I like to give it a try as it was always my favourite micro and the one I bought when I was a teenager; otherwise I would probably have given it a 5.