The first few weeks after Christmas are not easy for an adventure reviewer, mainly because software houses always try to release any new game for the Christmas rush, which is understandable, but it leaves January and February devoid of new material.
The only consolation for the unhappy state of events is that it allows one to write about one's special preferences and lean very much towards Infocom adventures, so this month I offer a kind of Infocom potpourri.
My first indication that such brilliant adventures existed was from reading the late lamented Micro Adventurer. Going through the problem page I would read such questions as "How do I cross the river?" or "How do I open the egg?" in Zork I. I never gave the games much thought as at the time I was busy with other games like The Hobbit, Twin Kingdom Valley and the Brian Howorth Mysterious Adventures series, plus anything else I could lay my hands on and because the Infocom games were disc only and I had only a CBM64 without disc drive I continued to devote myself to cassette-based games.
It was not until an article appeared in MAD extolling the brilliance of these games that I decided to buy a disc drive and find for myself what all the noise was about. Little did I know that trying to buy an Infocom game in the U.K. was like trying to find gold under Wigan pier. Nobody stocked Infocom games. Finally I managed to track down two, Starcross and Suspended, so to say my initiation into the world of Infocom was somewhat mindboggling is to say the least.
To me an adventure was an adventure. All this standard level business meant nothing to me. I had solved numerous adventures so, apart from more text why should Infocom be any different? Imagine me with a new disc drive raring to go, pen and paper in front of me, and then the magic words appearing on the screen of Starcross, an interactive fiction from Infocom, typing in my first commands and then waiting why the disc drive whirred away.
Who cares about a slow drive, especially when I was about to solve an Infocom game? I think I was kidding myself, I can honestly say Starcross drove me bonkers. How my micro did not end up on the lawn is still a mystery. It was no ordinary adventure - it was a figment of a twisted mind sent to destroy me forever. Would I ever complete it?
To understand how Infocom came into existence we must go as far back as 1960, when Digital Equipment Corporation created the PDP-10, a medium-sized computer. The 10 became popular at many research stations and a great deal of software was written for it. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology artificial intelligence laboratory an operating system called Incompatible Time-Sharing System was written for the 10. ITS was designed to make software development easy and the designers assumed that it would have a small, knowledgeable, friendly group of users, so they included no security features.
In 1970, ARPAnet was invented, which enabled interaction among virtually all computers capable of logging into the net or by knowing a certain telephone number and, because of the lack of security features, budding hackers from all parts of the country soon discovered a wonderful playground. Also around 1970 a language called Muddle - later MDL - was developed as a successor to Lisp. It never fully replaced Lisp but it developed a loyal band of followers, including the Dynamic Modelling Group. DM was responsible for some famous games - only in the States - among which was a maze game in which various players wandered round a maze shooting each other.
Each user's screen showed the view of the maze which his computerized alter-ego saw updated in real time. One of the chief developers of the game was Dave Lebling. Another well-played/hacked game was Trivia, which was written - second version - by Marc Blank.
By that time another hacker had joined forces with Lebling and company, Tim Anderson, and after Lebling had devised and written a command parser, Anderson, Blank and Daniels wrote a real adventure and the early forms of Zork began to take shape.
By that time Trivia was old-hat, so the multitude of hackers sat waiting for something new. Then Zork arrived on the network and people went bananas over it. Extras were added to the game in the next few months. Lebling invented the now famous Grues and Daniels infested the early Zork with them.
The first major change addition was in June, 1977. It was the river section devised and implemented by Blank and remains unchanged to this day. Further problems and locations were added on such as the volcano and mine section.
More scenarios and problems were added until the game as we know it was finished. Until then nobody had thought of it being a commercial proposition. The programmers were content with what they thought was just a hobby until 1979.
Zork was one great big computer game, about one megabyte in size - as large as it could be and still fit in its original home, a DECsystem-10. Blank and Lebling designed and wrote the program with the help of Daniels and Anderson. All four had worked together in the research dept of MIT along with other computer buffs but the team was slowly disappearing into the real world. That created a problem. What could the group work on together and to whom could they sell it?
Discussions had been going on from 1976 about the potential of the minicomputer market from a hardware and software point of view. The group was ignoring the vast potential of the micro market, not only from lack of experience but also from a serious concern about software piracy.
In those days when PCs ran to about 16K there was no way Zork would fit unless some form of specially-written program was written. Finally they concluded that, by inventing a programming system specifically for Zork, they could fit about half of it into a computer with 32K and one floppy disc drive.
Meanwhile, the group at MIT was forming a corporation, choosing Infocom as the name least offensive to everyone, and searching for a product to start generating income for the company. There were ideas such as systems for keeping track of documents, handling electronic correspondence and processing text but, until Berez added Zork to the list, nobody gave adventures a second thought.
The key to their design was an imaginary chip called the Z-machine. The chip would be able to run Zork, or at least part of it, if the program was coded in a special, very compact language. The design also called for each personal computer to have a program to interpret the special Z-machine language and make the computer act in the same way a real Z-machine computer would.
It involved creating another language called ZIL - Zork Implementation Language. Blank built a two-stage translator program to translate a ZIL program into the Z-machine language. He also built a ZIP - Z-Machine Interpreter Program - so that a DECsystem 20 could emulate the Z-machine.
The other problem was to cut Zork in half. Lebling examined his overall map of the Zork kingdom and, eventually, by drawing certain boundaries, found about 100 locations which included the above-ground scenario and the numerious locations around the round room. The rest would be saved for another day.
After numerous problems of copyright and distribution, Zork I hit the streets. The rest is history.
In some of the numerous letters I receive from fellow adventurers one question seems to be asked more often than most, apart from the questions about games, and that is what is my favourite Infocom adventure? Each adventure has always delighted me because each game contains certain novel characters which leave a warm feeling.
So making a choice from the Infocom range is difficult but I have made two choices. The first is also the first in the Enchanter series. Called Enchanter, it introduced spell-casting into adventures, originally to be released as Zork IV, but because of the difference in character you play, a new trilogy was planned and called the Enchanter trilogy. Sorceror followed not long after with the final part, Spellbreaker, entering our lives in the summer of 1986.
Enchanter produced a change in the type of character we were used to playing - the greedy adventurer whose sole intent was to collect as many treasures as possible, killing or maiming anybody or anything standing in our path. In this game the only protection we had was our trusty spellbook. Enchanter introduced fans to new words like Rezrov, Gnusto, Gaspar, and other equally bizarre names but, more important, spell-casting added a new dimension to the adventure. It seemed as if the game had a mind of its own and, once having started, you were instantly enmeshed in the subtle gameplay.
Peace reigned until one day when from the mysterious forbidden lands of the freezing north an evil sorceror called Krill went to dwell in an old deserted castle not far from Frobozz. News of Krill and his unholy sacrificial rites soon reached the ears of the Enchanters' Guild. Various members were sent to defeat Krill but his magic was so powerful that none of the Enchanters could defeat him. It would appear that Krill could read minds and if there was the slightest threat an invisible barrier would surround the castle.
The Enchanters thought long and hard about the problem until Belboz, and Chief Enchanter, had an idea so simple that Brains - reputedly the brainiest of the Enchanters - cut off his beard, left the guild and took up yak farming for not having thought of the idea. Rumour has it he is still there to this day.
Belboz's idea was to send a novice Enchanter to defeat Krill because, to put it in Belboz's words, "Anybody with the brains of a drelb, later to be known as a Dodo, should be able to approach the castle without posing a threat to Krill." With those words of encouragement echoing in your ears you set forth on your quest.
Enchanter contains some of author Dave Lebling's most endearing characters, such as the Turtle who, if you talk to him, will follow you round and perform a most astounding feat which, believe it or not, requires dexterity and speed - none of your common or garden type turtle in this game. Another highlight is when you meet the lone adventurer, a true parody with his drawn eyes looking furtively this way and that, lantern held high, rusty sword dangling from tattered scabbard, some long lost treasure gripped tightly in a grimy hand, willing to do whatever you ask in return for a reward.
Before your eventual showdown with Krill, Lebling will amaze you with his masterful way of introducing problems, delight you with the text descriptions, and frustrate you at the pure logic behind the problems.
My first choice was relatively easy, as Enchanter remains my favorite but making my next choice was more difficult. The Zork Trilogy stands out in my mind, as do Planetfall and Starcross, but I feel that Wishbringer, written by Brian Moriarty, must take second place, mainly because of the freshness it brought into adventuring. It is not a particularly difficult adventure with relatively few locations but Moriarty's brand of humour and writing ability set it apart from the more predictable - if you can call any work by Infocom predictable.
Taking a rather simple idea of returning a cat to its owner, Moriarty sets about weaving an intricate take where one minute you are a normal person trying to deliver a letter and then it is tighten-your-belt time and off we go into Moriarty's fantasy world, where talking Boots tramp around the streets, poodles turn into large ferocious dogs, platypus live on their own island ruled by King Platypus and a mailbox comes alive, acts like a cat, and dies bravely defending you from another male-eating mailbox amid shouts of "Poor little devil" and "Oh what a shame, I liked him." Such is the involvement when playing the games that one feels as if one is the person involved in all the dilemmas.
Scattered around are various masks, herbs and other brick-a-bat but what hits you most is the claustrophobic atmosphere which prevails. After delivering the letter you turn to leave when suddenly you lose all sense of time and reason. The next thing you remember is awakening outside the shop with the words "find my cat" ringing in your mind and that is when your heartaches begin.
All the Infocom adventures are now being released by Activision, which bought Infocom last summer, and are available for the CBM64/128/Amiga, AtariXT/XL/ST, Amstrad CPC and Apple.
The latest, Hollywood Hijinx, was scheduled for February release. Written by Dave Anderson it is a kind of spoof about the good old Hollywood 'B' movies. Set inside an old-style Malibu movie producer's home, your task is to find 10 treasures a la Zork. Only then can you inherit this vast estate. The catch is you must find all the treasures in one night or lose everything.
To add to the fun the character you control is a special effects creature from a Buddy Burbank sci-fi film. The package contains a gossip-filled Tinselworld magazine, an autographed photo of your Uncle Buddy, a letter from Aunt Hildegarde and a lucky palm tree swizzle stick. It sounds like just the thing to occupy a few pleasant hours.