Infocom Text Adventure Games

In the world of text adventure games, certain families stand out enough to deserve overall discussions in addition to reviews of their individual members, among the most note-worth of these is Infocom’s Interlogic adventure series. (editor's note: Infocom would later drop the term Interlogic in favor of the much more descriptive term "interactive fiction".)

 Infocom’s text adventures games use text without graphics, a fact in which the company’s advertisements take great pride. A typical Infocom ad states, “We draw our graphics from the limitless imagery of your imagination-a technology so powerful, it makes any pictures that’s ever come out of a screen look like graffiti by comparison.” Sticking to text has another advantage: it makes it much easier to put the same adventure out on many different computers.

In the realm of text, Infocom is considered by many, clearly to be the industry leader; its products are unmatched in the command handling, story construction, and literary quality. Commands can use adjectives, prepositions, and multiple objects. PUT THE RED CARD ON THE TABLE, GIVE THE RING TO THE WEASEL-LIKE ALIEN, and TAKE ALL THE BOES EXCEPT THE WOODEN BOX are typical of what the programs can handle. Each program “understands” more than 600 different words.

Their text adventure games make use of the context in interpreting commands. Suppose, for instance, that you want to attack a troll with your sword. Then you could type the whole command ATTACK TROLL WITH SWORD. Alternatively, you can type ATTACK TROLL. If you have only one weapon (a sword, for instance), the program will add the message (with the sword) to let you know what assumption it has made. If you have more than one weapon, it will ask you what you want to attack the troll with. You don’t have to retype the whole command at this point; you can just type SWORD or KNIFE or whatever your choice of weapon might be.

Another way to initiate an attack against the troll would be to type SWING SWORD. The program will then look for a possible target. If the troll is the most reasonable target, it will complete the command and let you attack the troll.

There are hazards, though. In an early version of Zork I, if  there was no better target around, the program would give the message (at the you) in response to SWING SWORD-in fact, to swinging anything, however harmless-and cheerfully let you commit suicide. The complexities of a program often lead to surprises, even to the people who wrote it.

 Infocom’s developers have been learning from experience with such unexpected results, and they have incorporated a few improvements into each new product. Recently, the company went back to Zork I and re-released it with many of the enhancements that they had created for more recent games.

Each of the text adventure games has a similar format; the text scrolls up the screen, and a status line at the top displays such information as the name of the currently occupied room and the player’s score. Many of the descriptions are long, and the player is prompted to hit a key for MORE if the text is so lengthy that it would scroll off the screen before he could read it. A standard feature is the ability to save the state of the game on
any return and later restore it. The number of available save files varies from one computer system to another.

Many of these text adventures are populated by characters that are busily moving about, even when the player’s character isn’t around to see them. It is possible to address these characters; for example, you could type FRED, TELL ME ABOUT MR. SMITH. The limitations of the technology show up more in talking to characters than in straight command handling; there are a lot of things you’d like to ask the characters that you can’t. The format is still basically verb, object, and prepositional phrase; this excludes a lot of probing questions.

Time is a major factor. Game time passes only when the player enters a move, but them any number of things may happen. In several of the adventures, the player’s character must eat, drink, and sleep after a certain amount of time has passed. In the murder mysteries Deadline and Witness, the time of day is so critical that it is displayed on the status line.

Although Zork was written to challenge MIT students and staff members, not for the general computer-gaming community, Infocom’s more recent adventures, starting with Witness, have been at an easier level that the earlier ones. This move was intended to appeal to a wider market. Let’s hope that the company will continue to put out really challenging adventures along with the easier ones.

Most of the negative points about Infocom’s adventures come at a level that other companies haven’t even reached yet. Occasionally a puzzle has an arbitrary solution or requires tedious trial and error. A more significant point is that the tongue-in-cheek attitude that runs through all the adventures has kept them from developing into stories of real worth. The plot of Deadline, for instance, is worthy of Agatha Christie in its basic ideas, but it has many touches that remind the player that it’s “only a game.” For instance, in one if the room’s is a novelization of Deadline itself. If you read the ending of the book, you learn that the detective kills himself in disgust-and then you kill yourself in disgust.

There’s nothing wrong with humor, but the writers at Infocom seem afraid to be taken seriously. Perhaps they’re too self-conscious about the limitations of the medium or too diffident about their literary abilities.

But it’s hard to complain about a company that has accomplished so much more than anyone else. If a competitor arises with adventures of equal technical quality but different strengths than serious criticisms will be more meaningful.

Hints are available from Infocom in the form of the “InvisiClues” booklets. These illustrated booklets give hints printed in invisible ink, which can be exposed with the developing marker that is included with the game. One book-let and map are packages together for each game, besides providing an aid to perplexed players; they make a good souvenir of a completed game. Finally, a newsletter called The New Zork Times is available to anyone who wants to be put on Infocom’s mailing list.

Now let’s take a look at Infocom’s adventures, one at a time. The reviews are presented here in the order in which the programs were released.

ZORK I

Zork I: The Great Underground Empire, by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling, is essentially a cut-back version of the original Zork, with very little new material added. The reduction is only in the number of rooms and accompanying puzzles; the command handling, descriptions of the surviving rooms and general capabilities are retained in full.

Zork I borrows a lot from Adventure. There is a house on the surface near the Great Underground Empire; there is “a maze of twisty little passages, all alike”; and there is a Thief who is an enhanced version of Adventure’s pirate. The map and puzzles, however, are completely different from those of its predecessor. The Great Underground Empire gives the impression of a world created entirely out of magic, in contrast with the natural feel of Adventure’s Colossal Cave .

Nothing resembling a plot is to be found. Your goal is simply to go down into the dungeon, recover treasures, and put them in the trophy case in the house. Not all the treasures are in the dungeon; a few are to be found in the surrounding woods and along the Frigid River , which stretches from Flood Control Dam #3 to Aragain Falls . When you have stored all the treasures away, you are rewarded with an ending that serves as a lead-in to Zork II.

Light is necessary in the dungeon, since there are hungry creatures called grues roaming anywhere it is dark. Only a light will keep them at a distance. Grues have become Infocom’s standard way of enforcing the need for light, lurking even in the dark passageways of science-fiction adventures.

Consistency obviously wasn’t a goal. Some parts are technological, such as the dam and the machine in the coal mine, and even the crass lantern (like the one in adventure) runs on the batteries. Elsewhere there are elements of fire magic, such as the rainbow bridge, A Cyclops, who turns out to be the son of Polyphemus from the Odyssey, has somehow wandered in. The torch has an inextinguishable flame that seems magical, but it also has some realistic physical drawbacks. Some of the puzzles require strict logic; others need’s wild flashes of intuition.

There isn’t necessarily a single solution to a problem. When you first meet the Cyclops, for instance, he may seem impossible to defeat, but there are actually two different ways to handle him.

Just getting  your treasure’s back to the house is a problem in itself; someone always locks the door to the dungeon after you go in , so you have to find another way back out. There are several such exits, though some of them may not be wide enough to let you carry everything out.

An assortment of weapons is available to you. Some are better than other, and some may be positively suicidal in use. If your weapons fail you and all seems lost, prayer may help.

This text adventure game is a good introduction to Infocom’s like, since it awards points for performing certain tasks and for acquiring treasure. This gives the beginner a sense of making progress. Some other Infocom titles, such as Deadline and Witness, give no points for partial success; these are better suited for experienced players who can hope to finish the whole thing. Others, including Enchanter and Planet fall, give points for making progress but are really built around a single goal. Zork I is the only Infocom adventure that give the less experienced player a chance to pick up a few of the treasures, lease with them, and get a sense of accomplishment.

 

Zork II

Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz, by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling, continues where Zork I leaves off. Before, you had more underground passages to explore. You discover such creatures as a dragon and a unicorn, which are no more then you expected in such a place. But soon you find that you have a more persistent foe-the Wizard of Frobozz- who continually throws an assortment of spells at you. His specialty is spells beginning with F such as Fear, Falling, and Fierceness. Most of these spells are just nuisances, but the wrong one at the wrong time might make you launch a kamikaze attack on their dragon or fall fatally off a cliff. In the end you can defeat the Wizard, but the cost will be high.

As in Zork I, you accumulate treasures and score points for them. This time, however, there is no concept of going home with some of the treasures. You can leave the dungeon only when you have solved everything, and then you will exit to a passage that leads to Zork III.

One of the most difficult features here is a maze that seems entirely random. There is an odd pattern of clues to the maze, including diamond-shaped windows, a club autographed by Babe Flathead, and the Wizards voice, mocking your inability to get to first base. But even with this information, it may be a long time before you discover the maze’s secret, and it may be even longer before you pass the obstacle that lies beyond the maze.

There is a rather unlikely explosive device in this game; when you find that you might need an explosive, you may have to start lighting various objects until you do yourself in. Then you can figure out how to use it correctly.

 

ZORK III

Zork III: The Dungeon Master, by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling, takes on a different flavor from the first two; your object is not to acquire treasures, but to gain entry to the sanctum of the Dungeon Master. What you’ll need in order to accomplish that is learned only through careful observation. As in the first two installments, you face an adversary; however, the obvious response to his challenge isn’t necessarily the right one. The encounter may leave you wondering whether George Lucas played this game before creating Return of the Jedi

Instead of having a point system for accumulating treasures, Zork III gives you a “potential” rating from 0 to 7, based primarily on you’re reaching certain locations in the labyrinth. This score isn’t very informative, since you may have reached all the right places but still not have performed the right actions or obtained the items you need.

A more useful indicator is the Dungeon Master’s response each time you seek him out, He will express near-despair if you haven’t found any of the objects you need, and he will get more encouraging as you accumulate more of them. But there is one deed that you must perform before you even get to see him.

In most Infocom text adventure games, the map remains constant except for passages that you open and close by your actions. Here, though, an earthquake intervenes part way through the adventure to destroy existing passages and open new ones. This makes being in the right place at the right time very important. Elsewhere in the adventure, being in the right time at the right place is what counts…but I’ll leave that one for you to puzzle over.

In the room you will find a portal that lets you see and briefly enter scenes labeled I, II, III, and IV. Two of these take you into parts of the earlier Zorks, and the third takes you to another room in the current adventure. The one labeled IV take you to a scene that has since become part of Enchanter; your stay there is brief but permanent.

 

Deadline

In Deadline, by Marc Blank, you are the detective and have 12 hours to solve a murder. The clock ticks, not in real time, but according to how much time it takes your character to perform each action you specify. The stats line at the top of the screen tells you exactly what time it is, a fact which is important for anticipating scheduled events as well as for knowing how much time is left.

The adventure is peopled by characters that are constantly moving about the house, engaged in routine tasks (or perhaps trying to destroy evidence). You can explore the house, examine possible evidence, have Sergeant Duffy take items to the lad for analysis, and eventually arrest a suspect when you think you have enough evidence. To bring the adventure to a successful conclusion, upon must not only arrest the correct suspect but have enough evidence to get a conviction.

The dead man, Marshall Robner, has apparently committed suicide in a locked room by taking an overdose of a prescription drug. But there is a suspicious circumstance. Just a few days before his death, Robner contacted his lawyer about changing his will. Could someone have poisoned Robner? And if so how?

As with any good mystery, there are subplots and red herrings.  As you make progress, you may be convinced several times that you have found the real murderer, only to discover that you have to recheck the facts and let the situation develop a little more.  But if you wait too long, the murderer may strike again to get rid of someone who knows too much- and it may be you!

The variety of possible outcomes is very impressive.  Aside from the one you would like-arresting and convicting the murderer-you can arrest a suspect and not get a conviction, or get killed yourself, or run out of time.  If you don’t get a conviction, you receive a letter explaining why the jury was dissatisfied with your case.

The package comes with a sealed folder containing a letter describing your assignment, along with various memos and items of evidence.  These show the same attention to detail as the game itself.

Starcross

Starcross, by Dave Lebling, casts you as a space miner whose luck is running low until your mass detector reports a previously uncharted asteroid in the area.  But when you go to investigate it, your delight changes to astonishment-the objective is not an asteroid, but a gigantic alien spaceship!  You have little choice at that point, as a tractor beam brings you into a docking area; you might as well see what’s in the artifact.

The first truck is to get in.  You find a bunch of oddly arranged bombs on the airlock, pressing one is apt to make them all disappear.  But look again; does that arrangement remind you of anything?  This motif of having to recognize arrangements of dots or bumps occur several times in the adventure.

The makers of the artifact stay out of sight, but you discover that an assortment of species from other worlds is on board.  There is a tribe of weasel-like aliens, pathetically degenerated from their once high technological level.  There is a lone intelligent spider, who is content to stand by and observe things.  Worst of all, the makers have visited the world of Zork and brought Gruesa aboard; these nasty creatures lurk in dark places, ready to devour you if you don’t stay in the light.

Before long, you realize the makers are subjecting you to an intelligence test and that your life is forfeit if you don’t pass.  Success on the other hand, will make you a hero, since you will be able to bring a product of unbelievably advanced technology to Earth. 

The key to success is finding the various colored rods around the artifact, which are used to activate machines and open doors.  You have to make progress here quickly, since you find the place is running out of breathable air. 

Among the entertaining touches that are scattered throughout the artifact is a computer that stands in need of repair. If you forget to take certain basic precautions, you end up filling the air with delightful smell of fried computer.  Another clever idea is use of the ray gun.  You can use it to wreak all kinds of violence-but then will you have it when you really need it?  And is killing the only thing a ray gun is good for? 

The package, which resembles a Frisbee, is clever (but not very practical for stacking on a shelf).  Don’t lose the map that comes with it; without it, you’ll never get anywhere.  The package also includes a sheet explaining how to give coordinates to your ships computer.

Suspended

Suspended was created by Michael Berlyn. Like the author’s earlier Cyborg, Suspended presents a situation that is especially appropriate to the adventure game format. You are the master of a complex that controls monitoring systems necessary to the world’s survival, but you have no power to do anything yourself since you are in suspended animation. To control the complex, you issue orders to six robots, each with different capabilities. Iris can see, Whiz can get information from computers, Auda can listen, Poet can diagnose objects by touch and utter strange sayings, Sensa has an assortment of special sensory apparatus, and Waldo specializes in carrying and manipulating things. You talk to the robots through the filtering computers, which understand only a limited range of commands.

You control a robot by addressing it. For instance, you can say, WALDO, TAKE THE 16-INCH CABLE. For convenience in moving the six robots around, you can give a robot a destination (AUDA, GO TO LIBRARY CORE), and the robot will compute a path and tell you when it has arrived.

This adventure comes with a map of the entire complex, as well as pieces to keep track of the robots’ locations. Even so, you will have to send your robots exploring to find out what the various chambers contain.

This game is best approached slowly, since it takes time to get used to looking at the world from six different perspectives and then adding the information up. Hard as it maybe to ignore the fact that millions of people are dying out there, you should probably spend the first few sessions just discovering what the robots can and cannot do and what equipment they have to work with.

At the start of the game, weather control is going bad. In addition, seismic shocks are disrupting parts of your own complex. When you start assessing the damage, you soon discover another problem: Iris has gone blind. You can fix that, but soon afterward the serious trouble begins.

Unlike most adventures, this one continues to present a challenge even after you’ve solved it. First, your score depends on how good a job you’ve done. After solving it the first time, you can keep refining your strategy to get the best score. And once you’ve perfected your performance, you can select the advanced scenario, in which problems hit you more quickly. You can even configure the game to challenge yourself or a friend.

My one complaint is that the messages you get for finishing the adventure with a mediocre score are unnecessarily insulting, considering that you have just saved the world.

Once you’ve completed the advanced and configured versions, you can type IMPOSSIBLE for the toughest challenge of all. Infocom promises that “anyone successful in completing the impossible version of Suspended will win all expenses paid trip to Contra, there to be immediately installed as Central Mentality for the next 10,000 years.”

Believe me they’re on very safe ground.

 

Witness

Witness, by Stu Galley, is Infocom’s second murder mystery. It is set in the 1930’s. Freeman Linder has asked you to come to his house because of a threat on his life, and before you have been there very long, he is killed before your eyes! A few minutes later, Sergeant Duffy arrives, accompanying a man in handcuffs. He explains that he had seen the suspect running from the house right after the shot was fired. What’s more, the suspect is the very man who Linder had said was threatening him. An open-and-shut case? Well, maybe not….

Witness is significantly easier than any previous Infocom adventure, perhaps too easy for some people, but it is rich in detail, and the way the crime was actually committed is an ingenious piece of plotting.

Your choice of whom to arrest is limited to three characters: Stiles, who apparently shot Linder; Phong, the Oriental butler; and Monica, Linder’s daughter. This is a smaller number than in Deadline, but before you can make a successful arrest, you have to dig out the evidence. The smaller number of characters leaves room for a greater variety of actions; for instance, asking a suspect a particular question may provoke different responses depending on what you have already done.

As in Deadline, Sergeant Duffy is on call to analyze things for you at headquarters. Of course, since this mystery is set in the 1930’s, don’t count on the same sophisticated lab equipment that’s available to Duffy in the other murder mystery text adventures.

  In the early part of the adventure, what happens is mostly predetermined. Phong answers the door and brings you to the living room; Linder puts off your questions until he finished his drink; you accompany him to his office; Monica goes out; Linder is shot; Stiles is arrested. You can take actions that change this sequence-for instance, just staying outside the house for an hour-but they either lead back to the main plot line or turn out to be dead ends. After Stiles is handcuffed to the couch, you have many more options.

In spite of its relative simplicity, Witness probably would not make a good introduction to Infocom’s games, since it doesn’t offer any partial victories. However, it makes a good second step before going on to the more difficult ones.

  Planetfall

Planetfall is by Steve Mertzky. You can start as an Ensign Seventh class mopping floors on a stellar patrol spaceship. But then the ship explodes, and your escape pod lands on an apparently deserted planet. Your first order of business is to find enough food to keep yourself alive; then you can start figuring out the purpose of the scientific complex on the island. Your time is limited but the food supply, disease, and the fact that the surrounding ocean is rising and threatening to engulf the island. Planetfall is set in the same universe as Starcorss, and the events of Starcross are cited as the source of the knowledge that makes interstellar travel possible in Planetfall’s time. This planet also has the nasty, darkness- loving creatures called grues, which first came to earth(that is, to Zork) from the starship discovered in Starcross.

A lighter touch is evident here that in most of Infocom’s adventures, particularly in the treatment of a robot names Floyd. This robot is at first an amusing companion, later possibly a little boring as his antics become repetitious, but ultimately he is indispensable to your purpose. He can come to a tragic end, though, and the hideously maudlin description of his death must be intended to punish the player for sending a brave robot to its doom.

There are two island complexes that you must explore; you can attempt to move between them by train, helicopter, or teleporter. Using any of these conveyances requires finding the appropriate magnetic access card. And do be careful about the handling of these cards! Operating the train is an interesting exercise; it can accelerate or decelerate by a certain amount each turn, and it may take a few tries before you can bring it into the station without crashing into the wall.

Not all of the problems in Planetfall are soluble; in fact, some of the dead ends are quite elaborate. This helps to make the world of the adventure seem more complete, since many things besides the elements of the actual problem are present. These dead ends can be frustrating to the player who assumes that every interesting object and place must be useful or attainable.

The packaging includes a Stellar Patrol Id card, three picture postcards from different planets, and few pages of a diary. The ID card includes a magnetic strip and a signature strip, and they all look impressive. However, these materials don’t provide the kind of vital information that the items packaged with most of the recent Infocom games do.

 E nchanter

In  Enchanter, by Dave Lebling and Marc Blank, the warlock Krill is at large-and the circle of enchanters must find a way to prevent his evil power from spreading over the land. But sending a powerful mage against him won’t work, though, because Krill would be alerted by his coming, so the enchanters choose you, an apprentice at magic, to penetrate Krill’s castle and find some way to defeat him.

This text adventure game returns to the magical world of Zork, with several enhancements. For example, you now have the use of magic spells. You start out with a spell book that contains a few spells; as you proceed, you will find scrolls containing spells that can be added to your repertoire. As in Dungeons and Dragons, a spell fades from your mind after you cast it; you must relearn it from the spell book afterward. You also forget all spells when you go to sleep.

Another enhancement is that the game pays attention to the basic necessities of life. Before you enter the castle, you must provide yourself with food and water, Cycles of day and night occurs, and you must sleep periodically. As well as giving you rest, sleep brings you dreams, which may contain hints from the gods-or rather, the Implementers.

Your score advances as you overcome obstacles between yourself and Krill. If you defeat him, you earn a score of 400 and a seat at the Circle of Enchanters. On the other hand, there is an evil even worse than krill that you may carelessly unleash. If you do this, you get a score of -10 and a rating of Menace to Society. Achieving your goal while avoiding this catastrophe requires solving a nice logical puzzle, this is not too difficult.

One of the most amusing touches in the game is the appearance of an adventurer bearing a brass lantern and an evilish sword of great antiquity. Anyone who has played Zork will recognize this character, who engages in the kinds of strange actions that frustrated Zork adventures often attempt. The adventurer does serve a purpose, as do several other creatures found in or around the castle.

Like most of Infocom’s more recent adventures, Enchanter is considerably easier to solve than the Zorks. Still, it provides a satisfying assortment of difficulties and a sense of growing excitement as you move toward your final duel with Krill.

Finally, the package is one of the most beautiful ever created for a computer game. Anyone considering accepting a pirated disk instead of the legitimate packages product should keep in mind what he or she will me missing.

Sorcerer

Sorcerer, by Steve Meretzky, is a squeal to Enchanter and starts off at a fever pitch. As the adventure begins, a hellhound is racing toward you, baring its teeth-and you have just one turn to do something about it!

Your character is the same one who, in Enchanter and starts off at a fever pitches. As the adventure begins, a hellhound is racing toward you, baring its teeth-and you have just one turn to do something about it!

 Your character is the same one who, in Enchanter, defeated Krill and was rewarded with membership in the Circle of Enchanters’. In this adventure, Belboz, the leader of the Circle, has disappeared; since all the other Enchanters are away, it’s up to you to find and rescue him.

The first part of the action (not counting that little business with the hellhound) takes place in the Hall of the Circle of Enchanters. You much find out what has happened to Belboz, gather any items that might be useful, and discover how to get to his location. Don’t be shy about taking things that belong to your fellow Enchanters; under the circumstances, they’ll understand.

You then transport yourself to an entirely different area to search for Belboz. There is no going back to the hall once you’ve done this, so make sure you take everything you might need. You have a large area to explore, including wilderness, caverns, and an assortment of manufactured structures, before you can find him.

As in Enchanter, spells are the key to success. You have a larger initial repertoire this time, but you will need to find many spell scrolls in order to accomplish your quest. One of the spells allows you to provide for your own resurrection and lets you return to life any number of times. It is not useful toward the end of the game. However, since some places can be entered only once a new source of magic-powerful potions- is available as well.

This adventure contains some excellent descriptive writing. There is excitement when you go on a wild roller-coaster ride, humor as you rout some monsters that have disguised themselves, bafflement as you come face to face with your own double, and sheer horror if you find Belboz but blunder in your attempt to save him. The handling of the time loop when you meet your double is especially striking.

Still, Enchanter is a difficult act to follow, and Sorcerer does not really break new ground. It does not provide as consistent a universe as it predecessor; the amusement park (which includes the roller coaster) is a gross incongruity in a medieval world of magic. Players who succeeded at Enchanter might want a greater challenge in the sequel, but both adventures are relatively easy. Another problem is that Sorcerer sometimes requires “knowledge from a previous life.” For example, one part of the adventure involves exploring a coal-mine maze on a limited air supple; performing the necessary actions in time is impossible unless the maze has already been mapped.

Included with the adventure is a copy of Popular Enchanting, which provides background information as well as explaining how to play, and an “infotater” wheel with illustrated descriptions of a dozen monster species. Another un-usual packaging element is the musty smell that is apparent when the wrapper is opened.

Sorcerer offers no radical departures from Infocom’s previous adventures, but it is enjoyable adventure that makes good use of the company’s game experience.

Infidel

Infidel, by Michael Berlyn, is the most literary of Infocom’s adventures to date. The trouble is that the hero of Infidel imitates an anti-hero with whom few people would care to identify.

You are an archeologist who has antagonized your entire Egyptian work crew into quitting and running off (taking most of your equipment). This leaves you with barely enough supplies to set out on your own and find the pyramid; you must commit further acts of vandalism in order to achieve the ultimate goal of finding and opening the sarcophagus.

As you, the player, push this character toward his fate, you may find yourself wondering whether it’s really worth it. Even the messages you get in response to silly commands have a nastier edge to them than usual and rub in the character’s worthlessness. Our doubts will only be doubled when you finish the game with a perfect score, for there is no real victory. The best possible outcome is to find the sarcophagus, open it, drool over its riches- and then die. You have no choice about the characters development; in success or failure, he’s equally rotten. This aspect stands in contrast especially to Zork III, in which you can make choices about your character’s development and thereby affect the outcome of his quest.

In an adventure that builds toward a single goal, the equality of the final puzzle is very important. Infidel’s finale only adds to the disappointment, since it requires performing actions in every possible order until you just chance on the right combination. Considering that this fiddling around occurs in the burial chamber, it can get quite depressing,

The command handling and text descriptions are to Infocom’s usual high standard. The puzzles are strictly logical; perhaps more so than in any other Infocom adventure. Other than that, the major plus in the game is the use to “hieroglyphics”, make of combinations of ASCII characters, found in various places. A student of languages would turn pale at seeing them presented as ideographs with an English-like syntax, but they provide a novel way of getting clue about the pyramid. The best approach to these hieroglyphs isn’t to try to translate whole sentences, but to notice the same symbol occurs in different place.

Infidel’s apparent goal of moving in a realistic and literary direction is a commendable one. But there is more to reality than self-destructiveness and more to literature than anti-heroes. Of all Infocom’s adventures, this has the least to recommend it.