Pepper's Adventures in Time

Sierra On-Line
Industry	Video games
Headquarters	United States
Products	Pepper's Adventures in Time

Pepper's Adventures in Time is an educational adventure game launched in 1993 by Sierra On-Line. The idea, created by Sierra's Vice President of Development and Creative Director Bill Davis, included characters he personally designed. Designed as the inaugural entry in a planned series of edutainment titles, players assume the role of Pepper, who journeys through time to fix historical inaccuracies.

This game represents the third installment in Sierra's Discovery Series, succeeding two EcoQuest titles.

Plot and gameplay

The storyline centers on Pepper, a tomboyish girl, and her pit bull named Lockjaw. When Pepper’s Uncle Fred invents a time machine and Lockjaw is unintentionally transported to 1764 Philadelphia, Pepper follows to retrieve him. The timeline becomes distorted by mixing elements of 1960s counterculture with Benjamin Franklin’s period, depicting Franklin as a "flower child." Players engage with witty scenarios to correct history and reunite Pepper with her dog.

Educational aspects are incorporated through a "truth" icon and multiple-choice quizzes presented at the conclusion of each act.

Development

Initially named "Twisty History," the project aimed to combine educational content with captivating adventure gameplay.

Reception

Adventure Gamers awarded the game 4.5 stars, praising its unpredictable storyline and sharp writing. Hardcore Gaming 101 regarded it as one of Sierra’s most imaginative adventure offerings, successfully merging learning with entertainment. Metzomagic noted that its humor was quite sophisticated for its intended audience due to numerous cultural allusions. Dorkly listed it among "6 Educational Games That Actually Weren't That Bad," commending its dialogue and character development. Kotaku pointed out its intertextual connection with Day of the Tentacle, both featuring Benjamin Franklin’s kite experiment.

The publication Debugging Game History: A Critical Lexicon compared its animation style and puzzle design to Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, though it criticized the quizzes for interrupting gameplay flow. According to Science Fiction Video Games, the title is "gently amusing" and targets a more mature adventure gamer audience than typical Sierra releases. Every Family's Guide to Computers emphasized its "learning by contrast" methodology, where players must amend distorted historical events.

In 2011, Adventure Gamers placed it at number 67 among the greatest adventure games ever made.

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