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2006-10-19
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.IF DSK1.C3
^^^^^^^^^^TEXTWARE, SOFTWARE, and ELSEWHERE
^^^^^^^^^^^Articles and Reviews on the TI
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^by Jack Sughrue
You know, it's so great when you can finally save up
your pfennigs and francs until you can buy something you
really have been wanting instead of squandering it on this
and that until you've enough left to buy something
second-class instead of first-class.
Well, for those of you who want the best in adventure
games - the very best! - whip out your piggy bank and save
away. The best is here! INFOCOM.
For a long while INFOCOM has been known as the best in
the business for intellectual, challenging text games.
While we 99er-types slavered over such marvels on the TI
Professional or the Apple or the IBM, those friends who
owned those machines would look askance or, worse, invite
you in to try out these games on Their computer as if you
were some poor relative left to starve in the snow (and
They were filled with the milk of human kindness.)
No more!
Now I feel like the guy in the ad who said "They
laughed when I sat down to play the piano..."
All the INFOCOM games are now available for our superb
computer!!! And it's about time. I'm sure TI owners
will be able to play them all better than anyone else
anyway.
In case you're not familiar with INFOCOM, I'll give you
a little background. The text games are disk-driven only.
You'll need memory expansion, too. (Zork I, for example,
uses up 534 sectors on the two disks.) But these things
are almost worth purchasing all the peripherals just to
play.
They're expensive when compared to lesser materials
(You can look around and get the games for under $40), but
the IBM and other versions, for some reason, run $10 to
$20 more for each game.
These games are worth it.
The ZORK series (I,II,&III) are the most famous of
the lot, and I'll discuss those in a second.
INFOCOM also puts out some other unusual adventures:
ENCHANTER is similar to Zork in that there is
magical evil you must overcome in this fantasy world.
DEADLINE is a mystery. It is a real-life adventure
similar to those bizarre "novels" of Dennis Wheatley and
J.G. Links (which are police dossiers full of telegrams
and packages of pills and human hair and fingerprints and
police interviews which you must interpret to find the
doer of the dastardly deed). Deadline is like this. You
must solve the mystery.
WITNESS is an equally exciting mystery. Only this
time you have only 12 hours to solve the thing or you'll
be taken off the case. This package contains a magazine
(pulp-style, as it takes place in the 30's - the time of
Sam Spade).
INFIDEL takes you, a small-time explorer, into the
Egyptian Desert in search of a lost pyramid. If you like
Indiana Jones, this is your chance to use your computer to
transport yourself into cliffhanging adventures.
STARCROSS is the first of the science-fiction
adventures. You are about to have a space rendezvous.
SUSPENDED awakens you from cryogenic suspension
into an insane world of the future. This is even bizarre
for an INFOCOM game!
PLANETFALL is a hilarious science fiction adventure
(not that all these INFOCOM programs aren't filled with
wit and fun) that has an infantile robot named Floyd who
has to assist you.
SORCERER continues where ENCHANTER leaves off.
It is even more goony and more difficult than its
predecessor. Your back in Frobozz again and dealing with
a lot of characters remarkably unlike your next-door
neighbor.
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY is my favorite.
If you've ever read the amazing four-book trilogy by
England's Douglas Adams, you will love this game. He was
one of the two writers of this hilarious program. I've
already begun a review of this adventure which is going
along as I struggle through it. Hopefully, a review will
come eventually.
That's the lot, so far. And an ingenious lot it is,
too. The premise of all these adventures is a good one.
Each is a novel - a full-fledged novel - and you are it's
leading character. Early programmers dreamed of such a
thing. The unlikely has become real.
These adventures are not like Tunnels of Doom. Nor are
they like Devil's Dungeon or Haunted House. They may be a
little like Scott Adam's Adventures, but not much. Adam's
work is like a primer by comparison. You have to use two
clue words (Take Book, Go Rock, Talk Bird). You speak
English to INFOCOM. In Zork, for example, you can type
"Look in the bag. Take out the message. Read the
message. Drop the bag." all at once. Everything will be
done. You can even use complex sentences: "Throw the
newspper, the red book, and the magazine into the chasm."
And thy will be done.
I'd recommend you buy the maps for Zork. The empire is
so huge with so many places to go and so much to do before
you even get to the underground empire that it might be a
tiny bit frustrating. (It was more that a tiny bit with
me.) Helpful hints books are also sold for each of the
games, but hold off for a few months. And play the games
with family or friends. The more the merrier.
You will get sarcastic answers if you swear (and
different sarcastic answers for different swears).
I guess what it really comes down to is the MASSIVENESS
of the programs. They are immense. The thought and the
time that goes into them is amazing. They are packaged by
a genius. The stuff that comes with Deadline and Witness
is unbelievable.
If you want months of pleasure. If you like adventure
like Indiana's or mystery or fantasy or science fiction, I
would highly recommend the best: games from INFOCOM.
[Jack Sughrue, Box 459, E.Douglas, MA 01516]
******
If any newsletter editor prints these articles, please put
me on your mailing list. Thanks - JS
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