Keef the Thief: A Boy and His Lockpick (1989) — Release Date, Cheats, Price & Requirements

Keef the Thief: A Boy and His Lockpick

Originally released for the Apple IIgs, Keef the Thief is a unique parody role-playing game about a young thief. The game and puzzles are quite absurd, but strangely addictive. Some inside scoop from developer…

31 December 1989

What Keef the Thief: A Boy and His Lockpick is

Keef the Thief: A Boy and His Lockpick is a role-playing (rpg) game developed by Naughty Dog and released in 1989. It was published by Electronic Arts. It is available on Amiga, Apple IIGS and DOS.

The premise, in the publisher's words

Originally released for the Apple IIgs, Keef the Thief is a unique parody role-playing game about a young thief. The game and puzzles are quite absurd, but strangely addictive. Some inside scoop from developer Naughty Dog's website: "Keef was a classic sword and scorcery role-playing game. While we were making it, Andy entered sarcastic text as a place holder for what we believed would be the real text in the final release. EA liked the humor so much that they decided to make the entire game a comedy. The effect that this decision had on sales was no joke, however."

Description from the publisher · source

How it plays

It is played from a bird view / isometric perspective. Its themes are action and fantasy. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component.

What it launched against

Keef the Thief: A Boy and His Lockpick launched on 31 December 1989, within three weeks of Fantasy World Dizzy, A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia, Pipe Dream and Denaris.

Released around the same time: Fantasy World Dizzy, A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia, Pipe Dream, Denaris.

Keef the Thief: A Boy and His Lockpick — frequently asked questions