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	Title: (Infocom Previews "New Generation") Zork Zero, Shogun, Journey & Battletech
	Author: Russ Ceccola
	Source: QuestBusters, v5(9)
	Date: September 1988
	Transcription by Steve Derby
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When I went to New York for the unveiling of Infocom's "new generation" of interactive
fiction—the company's first such games with graphics—I didn't
know whether I'd leave the press conference with the feeling that Infocom had
sold out or not. Fortunately for questers all over the world, their next four releases
may turn out to be the best adventures ever designed for computers. *Zork Zero:
The Revenge of Megaboz*, *Shogun*, *Journey* and *Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's
Inception* look to have the most well-developed story lines and challenges of
any Infocom adventure ever—*any* adventure ever, for that matter.

After Infocom president Joel Berez narrated a brief slide show depicting the
present state and future direction of adventure games, he introduced the primary
person behind each of the new ones, and they discussed and demonstrated their
creations. Earlier Berez had remarked that the new titles "represent the beginning
of a new generation of Infocom products." If this is the case, then no other
software company, except a select few, perhaps, will come close to Infocom in
sheer entertainment value and game presentation over the next few years. *Zork
Zero*, *Shogun* and *Journey* were designed by three of the company's most prolific
authors, Infocom veterans Steve Mertezky, Dave Lebling and Marc Blank, respectively.
*Battletech*, produced by Christopher Erhardt, combines the talents
of a number of people and was programmed by Westwood Associates (who
recently did *Questron II*).

<img class="float-right" src="/public/img/articles/questbusters-infocom-previews-new-generation/zork-zero-screen-shot.jpg" alt="Zork Zero screen shot">

## *A Zork Prequel*

*Zork Zero* is exactly what it sounds like—a prequel to the trilogy that put Infocom
on the map [of course, you had to draw the map in those days]. Here you
get to witness the fall of Lord Dimwit Flathead, play Double Fanucci, learn all
about the origin and destruction of the Great Underground Empire, see where
Grues come from, and (my favorite), find out about the origin of the White House
in *Zork I*.

The foregoing merely touches the surface [a surface good enough to put any
numbers of objects on] of the myriad marvels you'll discover in *Zork Zero*.
Basically it's a text game that employs graphics in unique and appropriate ways.
Meretzky succeeded admirably in his stated goal "to use graphics differently—applying
graphics in puzzles, not just using them as surface gloss."

You'll find rebus puzzles and other types of problems that rely on graphics
for clues or puzzle presentation. In additio to graphics-based puzzles, you'll see
the visuals put to work in other ways. Each location has a picture icon, and
these are used in an on-screen map that can be summoned up with the touch of a
button. Other graphics grace the story as decorative borders that are location-dependent

Game features include: a highlighted compass rose that indicates possible exits,
graphic mini-games that fit into the story (unlike most action sequences in other adventures),
hints, a variety of puzzle types and obstacles, and an illustrated *Encyclopedia
Frobozzica*. Offering more than enough for beginners and *Zork* fans alike,
*Zork Zero* is a work in the spirit of an advanced *Beyond Zork*. Meretzky's trademark
humor runs rampant throughout, and he told me to look for references to
all the other games set in the Zorkian universe.

## *Show and Tell in Shogun*

Based on James Clavell's novel, *Shogun* puts you in the role of John Blackthorne,
a 16th Century English sea pilot who sails to Japan and into a political
power struggle between a pair of locals. A complex tale of politics and intrigue, it
allows you to interact with many different characters. *Shogun*'s puzzles are not the
traditional logic puzzles you've come to expect, but are based on how well you act
in character throughout the game.

In this regard, it may carry "interactive fiction" to its limits, since you are actually
"writing" the story as you go along, based on your actions. Lebling says he
met with Clavell and discussed the possible directions the story could go. Most
important to success in the game is that you act with honor. Whether you live or
die is immaterial, as long as it is done with honor.

The graphics in *Shogun* are used to create atmosphere, having no other purpose
but to depict what is going on in the text. In this sense, *Shogun* did exactly
what I had hoped Infocom would not do—just slap pictures onto the text. But
my dashed hopes were quickly restored by a significant and unexpected difference,
for the pictures are ornately painted in the traditional 16th Century Japanese
style. Because the pictures are used only for decoration, I had expected the game
itself would be poor. This is definitely not the case.

## *A New System, A New Parser*

In order to bring the complexity of the novel to the home computer, Infocom had
to completely redesign their development system and develop a new English language
parser that seems to truly accept complex sentences. In its quest for better
games, Infocom even replaced their mainframes with a pair of Mac IIs for all game
development.

As he demonstrated the game, Lebling really put the parser through its paces, and
as a result I realized later that *Shogun* relies on beautiful prose and challenging
human situations to win fans. For those who ever wondered what would happen if
an event did or didn't take place in a story, *Shogun* should be your next adventure.
Every action you take moves the story along to one of many possible
outcomes.

<div class="article-sidebar-box float-right">
<h3 class="center">Systems & Release Dates</h3>

**Zork Zero:** Mac, Apple II (October); IIGS, IBM (November); ST, Amiga (early 1989)<br>
**Shogun:** Same as Zork Zero, but also C 128 (spring, 1989)<br>
**Journey:** Mac, Apple II, IIGS (October); IBM (November); ST, Amiga (early 1989); C 128 (spring, 1989)<br>
**Battletech:** IBM (November); C 64, Apple II (February, 1989)
</div>

## *A New Kind of Adventure—The Role-Play Chronicle*

As Marc Blank described it, *Journey* "takes the best elements of interactive fiction
(puzzles and prose), and role-playing games and all the best of traditional fiction
(story line and dialogue) and puts them all together." It's the first game in
Infocom's newest product line—Role-Play Chronicles. In such a game, the story
is told from the point of view of a narrator and presented as a travelogue or
diary of the characters.

The narrator of *Journey* is Tag, who keeps the diary for a group of five adventurers
out to save a village by defeating the Dread Lord and finding the great wizard
Astrix. Numerous animated pictures display the locations and characters you'll
meet on the trip, and of course, you'll find lots of puzzles.

One really neat thing about *Journey* is that you don't have to type in text commands
at all. The interface consists of menus and command lines in which you
make selections with a mouse. Every command appears on an advanced status
line at the bottom of the screen, which indicates all commands that are relevant at
the time. (All the game's commands are never available simultaneously, just those
currently appropriate.) Different commands may be accorded to different characters,
who can each go their own way; you can switch back and forth between
the party and individual members.

The challenge lies in discovering the whole story, which is not apparent at the
outset. There can be no right or wrong move, for each action advances the story
in some way toward a complete or incomplete ending. Blank's idea was to let you
finish the game by taking it to its logical conclusion, but not necessarily the right
one. Hints are included for just that reason. In the form of "musings," they offer
suggestions for correcting past actions as written by Tag in the diary, answering
"What if?" questions. *Journey* may be the easiest of the four to play, as well as the
most rewarding, for due to the knowledge you acquire from game to game, no two
will end the same way.

## *Robots on the Rampage*

To cap the evening, Infocom showed off what may be the most complex role-playing
game ever made! *Battletech*, adapted from FASA's long-time bestselling
paper and pencil RPG, has over four million locations for the diligent adventurer
to visit. Set in a future where soldiers operate huge robots, the game has
no text commands: all orders are chosen from menus. It draws heavily on graphics
and animation.

You assume the role of Jason Youngblood, an eighteen-year-old Battletech
warrior who must save his planet from destruction. Unlike most RPGs, *Battletech*
moves the story along with each encounter and exploration. In addition to
overhead views of surrounding geography, it features "emotive outtakes"—close-ups
of characters, drawn in the style of Monga, a type of Japanese comic, and
close-ups of battles that are shown from a first-person view on the battlefield.

Options allows you to let the computer do everything, from fighting a battle to
choosing the best path across the land. Combat includes one-on-one and multiple-character
battles, which focus on 30-foot tall BattleMech robots. Bar graphs
show damage levels in different parts of the robots. It's a fast-paced, challenging
RPG with a great story line and lots of things to do before you even get close to
the finale.

With this new batch of games, Infocom has surely outdone themselves. This
"new generation" of products really began with *Beyond Zork* and the technology
it introduced. Now Infocom has taken interactive adventuring to a level never before
achieved, and the future holds even greater promise.
