<!--
	Title: Embark on the Road to Adventure
	Subtitle A look at three games from Infocom
	Authors: David and Sandy Small
	Source: Antic, v3(4)
	Date: August 1984
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

<img class="float-right-half" src="/public/img/articles/antic-embark-on-the-road-to-adventure/planetfall-cover.png" alt="Planetfall cover">

The first thing you notice about an Infocom game is its packaging.
Quite simply, Infocom produces the most imaginative packages on
the market. Remember the **Suspended** package, with the skull-mask eyes that
stare at you from counter tops? Or **Deadline**'s detective case file?

**Enchanter**, the first game in a new fantasy series from Infocom, features a
blue package with a jagged crack running across it. Open the package, and
you find a parchment with a wax-embossed seal, a well-written and clever
game booklet and the game disk itself.

An authentic-looking parchment with a wax seal? Yes, computer games
have come a long way from the days when you got a mimeographed instruction
sheet and a disk in a baggie. And we find it a lot easier to pay a high price
for this sort of class act. The people at Infocom are trying hard to make you
feel like part of the story, and packaging is an important part of this effort.

Upon reading the booklet and opening the sealed parchment, you discover
that Belboz, chief of the Circle of Enchanters, has discovered that a new
and powerful force for evil in the world is gaining power daily. Belboz also
knows that the Ancients had foreseen this danger. According to a prophecy
from some very old scrolls, the Ancients had divined that when this evil fell upon
the land, "turning day into night," a new and inexperienced Enchanter should be
the one to confront it. The Ancients felt that the evil force would disregard an
inexperienced Enchanter, whereas a full member of the Circle of Enchanters
would be challenged immediately.

Armed with four magic spells and a spell book, your task in Enchanter is to
find and defeat the evil and powerful Krill. You journey past the Lonely
Mountain (shades of Tolkien!) to Krill's castle, where you're in for all sorts of
adventure.

This game differs from Zork games in its lack of emphasis on the
physical manipulation of objects (locating a key, for example) and its new emphasis
on magical manipulation. Let's say that you arrive at a gate which is
rusted shut. In **Zork**, you'd probably need to find some oil, lubricate the gate,
and then push it open. In Enchanter, on the other hand, you need to cast the
right spell to open the gate. To complete your task, you must discover enough
spells to make your way past the various obstacles that block your path to Krill.

In some ways, there is a similarity between finding objects with which to
manipulate your environment and casting spells, but we find the concept of
casting spells far more romantic and exciting. Ah, if only we could discover a
spell to repair the leaking gaskets on our Camaro.

<h2 style="color: darkred">JUST FRUSTRATING ENOUGH</h2>

We don't want to give away any of the solutions to the puzzles in this adventure;
you'll have a great time figuring them out for yourself. We're growing
much more comfortable with the Infocom games, and this one in particular,
because they contain fewer of the "dead-end" puzzles that were found in the
Zork series. Too many times in the earlier games, you'd come up against a
puzzle that was unsolvable and that prevented you from advancing to the rest
of the game. But in Enchanter, all sorts of subtle built-in aids help keep the
game flowing smoothly. Indeed, we experienced just the right amount of
frustration, if there is such a thing, until the end of the game. Earlier adventures
tended to frustrate us needlessly.

Lebling and Blanc, who wrote the original mainframe and micro Zork
games, also wrote Enchanter. Over time, they've mellowed a bit, veering away
from puzzles with inconsistent environments that only a masochist could love
(such as the Royal Puzzle in **Zork III**), and evolving a far smoother, and more
sophisticated, style in which everything "hangs together." Since this is the key
element that makes us like Enchanter so much, we'll try to explain further.

<h2 style="color: darkred">LOST IN THE STORY</h2>

When you're reading an engrossing novel, the worst thing that can happen
is for the author to intrude and forcibly remind you that you're simply reading
a book. The magic mood of the story is disrupted. This kind of intrusion happened
frequently in the Zork series -- for example, we recall an instance in
which a flood-control dam shows up in the midst of an underground environment
Lebling and Blanc are both MIT graduates, so we can understand their
tendency to emphasize the technology, but this sometimes gets in the way of
the story. In the Zork games, the authors never let you forget that you're in the
middle of a computer adventure written by computer programmers.

<h2 style="color: darkred">ENCHANTER IS DIFFERENT</h2>

But Enchanter is different. For the first time, we got the impression that the entire
background story was laid out, the castle floormap designed, the history of
the Circle of Enchanters written, and other groundwork completed *before* a
single line of code was created. This is the only way to write a good, consistent
fictional story (note, for example, the work that Tolkien did with the linguistic
backgrounds of the Elves and Dwarves in *Lord of the Rings*). This is
part of the process of creating a worthwhile story, and Infocom is doing it now.

Enchanter feels like a story, not a collection of puzzles loosely strung
together. Perhaps this is due to the influence of the professional writers, such as
Michael Berlyn, on Infocom's staff. Perhaps Blanc and Lebling are growing as
writers and moving away from a programmer's view of adventure games.
Finally, it may be that Infocom's programming tools are improving: This
program handles much more varied input than the Zork programs and doesn't
crash as easily. Infocom seems to be starting to think of its creations as
interactive stories, rather than simply as computer programs.

We'd like to finish our discussion of Enchanter with a few notes for Zork
fans. First of all, do you remember the room in Zork III in which a scene from
**Zork IV** can be viewed? Well, that scene -- a blood sacrifice ritual -- is
included in Enchanter; thus, Enchanter could be called Zork IV. Secondly, a
sequel to Enchanter, called "Sorcerer," is due out about the time you read this
review. Finally, according to an "unnamed source" at Infocom, a third
game also in the works at this time will turn the series into a trilogy!

<h2 style="color: darkred;">THE REALM OF THE PYRAMIDS</h2>

Michael Berlyn wrote several adventure games before he joined Infocom; if
you've seen **OO-Topos** or **Cyborg**, you're familiar with his earlier work.
He's also published several books, so he's got credentials as both programmer
and writer.

**Infidel** reveals the many sides of Berlyn. While it doesn't appeal as much
to our deeper instincts as Enchanter does, it is still a good, well written game.
In Infidel, you're a brash, young archaeologist. Tired of being an understudy to
another explorer, you've decided to set out on your own. Alas, you don't know
much aobut keeping your workers happy; when you demand that they
work at the digs on a religious holiday, they drug your wine and leave you to
die in the sun, as befits an infidel.

The game includes a great deal of historical information about the find
you're exploring, along with the details such as the letter you were writing
when you passed out from the drugged wine, a map, several archaelogical symbols,
and a mysterious sketch of a cube remnant. Aside from these clues,
though, you are on your own.

<h2 style="color: darkred;">ANCIENT PUZZLES</h2>

Infidel confronts you with a number of puzzles. You can solve most of them by
manipulating objects in your environment and being observant. The program
doesn't try to hide information from you (for instance, if there are six exits
from a room, it tells you about all six), but it doesn't go out of its way to help
you, either. Midway through the game you'll come across a puzzle that is a bit
of a stickler. It will force you to experiment. One hint: if you don't get the
bricks right the first time, they'll never work properly again, so you might as
well RESTORE the game and try again. This will save you a great deal of time.

As you advance through the adventure, watch for traps and puzzles that are
consistent with the technology and culture of the Age of the Pyramids --
collapsing walls, deadly darts, one-way doors, bottomless pits, and the like (to
avoid ruining the game for you, we've mentioned some traps that aren't actually
included in Infidel). If you enjoyed the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark," you
know how to approach this game.

<img class="float-left" src="/public/img/articles/antic-embark-on-the-road-to-adventure/infocom-games.png" alt="Box art for Enchanter, Planetfall, and Infidel">

Suspense is very important in Infidel. In one room, for example, there are four
exits. Each exit leads into a corridor with a door on the far end. As you walk
down the corridor, the door in front of you gradually closes; by the time you
reach the door, it is completely shut. Ah, but when you look over your shoulder
at the opposite corner of the room, the opposite door is open -- until, of course,
you walk down *that* corridor.

<h2 style="color: darkred;">A NEW KIND OF INVOLVEMENT</h2>

When you finish this game, you'll realize that you've been involved in a story that
was written by an author who considers it as such. You are not borne off into the
sunset on the backs of cheering elves, as in earlier adventure games. Nor do
you become the heir to a kingdom, save the human race, or heal the Dark
Crystal. Instead, the ending is entirely consistent with the story and its background.
It feels right, even if it's not what you're used to in adventure games.

<h2 style="color: darkred;">PLANETFALL: A COMEDY ADVENTURE</h2>

**Planetfall** comes in an impressive package that pictures a go-getting soldier
against a background of stars. But this interstellar soldier is carrying a mop
and bucket: He's been assigned to galactic k.p.!

You've joined the Stellar Patrol to escape the drudgery of farm life. Your
primary goal: to avoid the task of cleaning up after all those farm animals. So,
you join the Patrol -- only to find  yourself assigned to clean up the spaceship
Feinstein.

Soon, however, an asteroid destroys your ship. As the sole survivor, you manage
to land on a nearby planet, which just happens to be inhabited by a robot named
Floyd.

Floyd is a bit like an insecure, highly affectionate dog, or perhaps a six-year-old
child. He's constantly stumbling into you, knocking things out of your grasp,
challenging you to games of "Hider and Seeker," and so on.

Together with Floyd (he won't let you leave him behind), you set off to explore
the planet's buildings and corridors, and uncover a mystery about its former
inhabitants. There's a lot of ground to cover, so get out a large sheet of paper
and start mapping. You'll need the map by the time you're done.

We have mixed feelings about Planetfall. We got the distinct impression that
Steve Meretsky, the author, either got tired of tying up loose ends or simply
found that the fine game he'd designed didn't fit on a double-sided Atari disk,
and had to be cut until it did. As a result, the game includes teleporter booths
that lead nowhere, and a helicopter complete with instructions but with a
control panel that can't be used.

We could be wrong, but it's always been Infocom's style to include just
enough objects to complete a game, and there is an excess of material here. It's
possible that Infocom has finally realized that there *should* be some excess
material included in an adventure, so that you don't always know which objects
need to be used. However, in this case, it doesn't appear that the excess was
planned.

Planetfall does include a little gem of writing that saves it from mediocrity,
and the game is worth playing just to find it. Other magazines have splashed
this magic moment <a href="/library/softline-call-yourself-ishmael">across their
covers</a>, thus ruining the game for their
readers, but we feel that you should experience it for yourself. We gained a lot of respect
for the game's author as a result of this special moment. We're pretty sure that
you will too.

<div class="article-sidebar-dark float-right" style="background: lightblue; font-style: italic;">
Infocom continually produces the best-selling text adventure games. They can be
contacted at: 55 Wheeler St., Cambridge, MA 02138. Telephone (617) 49201031.</div>

Infocom lists Planetfall as its first "Comedy Adventure." To be sure, there's
a lot of humor in the game -- you're tormented by an awful ensign named
Blather -- and many of the game's descriptions and responses are wonderful.
However, as the author's first effort for Infocom, it is somewhat unsteady,
although, clearly, a lot of thinking and work went into it.

*David and Sandy Small are contributing editors to **Antic**. They also have an
abiding love of adventure games.*
