<!--
	Title: New Release: A Mind Forever Voyaging
	Source: The New Zork Times, v4(3)
	Date: Summer 1985
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

<figure class="float-left-half" style="border-bottom: 1px solid;">
<img src="/public/img/articles/nzt-new-release-amfv/amfv-packaging.jpg" alt="A Mind Forever Voyaging packaging">
<figcaption><em>Items from Dr. Perleman’s desk are contained in every </em>A Mind Forever
Voyaging<em> package.</em></figcaption>
</figure>

*A Mind Forever Voyaging*, the first advanced-level Science Fiction story
from Infocom, is for true text-adventure buffs. Why? Because it
has more locations to visit (several hundred), more things to do, more
responses, and a large vocabulary (1800+ words) than any of our previously
released products.

The story takes place in 21st-century Rockvil, South Dakota. The
United States of North America has fallen prey to incredibly high unemployment
and crime rates. Political indiffererence, perhaps caused by
backward educational systems or diminishing national resources, has
swept the nation. Exploiting this opportunity, Senator Richard Ryder has
develop (*sic*) the Plan for a Renewed National Purpose, stressing patriotism
and a return to American values as they were at the country's peak,
the 1950s. The public, desperate for a change, embraces the Plan, but
many high government officials are unsure whether it will succeed. That
is where you come into the picture.

You are PRISM (Perelman-Randu Introductory Soliptic Machine); the
first intelligent, self-aware computer. You have been created to enter a
simulation of Rockvil, years in the future, and return with recordings of
what life would be like if the Plan were to be introduced. While you're
busy exploring the future, the scientists and programmers who created
you are honing and perfecting the simulation's parameters. Thus, as the
story progresses, you can travel further and further in time, watching
Rockvil prosper as the Plan succeeds, or perish as it fails. Only
you can tell on what course the country sets itself by adopting the
Plan.

While there are several puzzles to keep players on their toes, designer
Steve Meretzky (author of Planetfall and Sorcerer, and co-author of The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) concentrated more on immersing the
player in a vast, highly detailed, realistic world; a vision of the
destiny of mankind. *A Mind Forever Voyaging* represents Infocom's
greatest step yet away from games, and toward true fiction: a serious,
often chilling, look at the future of the human race, reminiscent of such
great works of science fiction as *1984* or *Brave New World*.

What makes an epic game like this possible? Interactive fiction "plus",
the latest development system from Infocom, designed to complement
our currently-used "classic" system. "Plus" will be available for most machines
that have 128K or more of internal RAM, allowing us to more
than double the size of our products. In fact, the entire Zork trilogy could
have fit into one game if we'd had the "plus" system at our disposal in
1981. Thus, large projects, like *A Mind Forever Voyaging*, are now
entirely within our capabilities. Unlike the new Whopper®, or New
Coke®, this revolutionary gaming technology promises to please the
tastes of even the most discriminating player, allowing for more of just
about everything (game bugs being no exception). Finally, this size increase
should not be seen as "the beginning of the end" of our support
for machines with under 128K of memory. Owners of smaller
computers can rest assured that we will continue to produce plenty of
products for their machines, using the "classic" system.

Meretzky began work on the project by writing a short, intriguing
fictional piece, which introduces the player to the concept of artificial
intelligence, as well as to the main characters and themes of the story.
This short story, part of an issue of "Dakota Online Magazine," is found
in the game package, along with the instruction manual, a full-color map
of Rockvil, a "21st-century" plastic pen, and a Class One Security Mode
Access Decoder.
