Parsely games are an ingenious mash-up of computer text adventures, RPGs, and party games. One player acts as the “parser” - the program running the text adventure. He reads descriptions to the others, and responds to their commands. The other player or players can take turns giving the parser commands, like GET TORCH, and attempt to complete the goal of the adventure (and, optionally, collect as many victory points as possible.)

These games are a great way to get people involved in roleplaying, even if they’ve never played a regular RPG before. The adventures are much shorter than traditional text adventure games, but just about the right length for an hour or more of play. There is even a SAVE function, to prevent your character from having to start over from the beginning!

In Space Station, you awake from cryogenic sleep to find all of your fellow crewmembers dead and a Frellion warship assaulting your space station. Your mission is to find out what happened, and try to make it out alive.

(You will probably want to also get the first of the Parsely series, Action Castle, for the rules and tips on how to run these analogue text adventures.)

I paid for it. I downloaded it. I read it. I deleted it.

Another in the great line of Parsely text adventure games, Space Station captures the feel of classic CRPGs like System Shock. It's possibly my favorite of the series. Again, highly recommended!