<!--
	Title: Lost Treasures of lnfocom II
	Author: Russ Ceccola
	Source: QuestBusters, v9(9)
	Date: September 1992
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

<div class="article-sidebar-box float-right">
<strong>Type:</strong> All-text adventures<br>
<strong>System:</strong> MSDOS (640K required; no sound support)<br>
<strong>Planned ports:</strong> Amiga, IBM CD
</div>

<p class="article-dropcap">
Activision did something very smart recently by repackaging a good
number of the most popular Infocom all-text games into one product, with
all the manuals and hint books bound into book form. <em>The Lost Treasures
of Infocom</em> flew off the shelves in software stores everywhere. The <em>Zork</em>
games alone were worth the $69.95 price tag.
</p>


Now Infocom fans can get their paws on the sequel to this popular
game collection, *The Lost Treasures of Infocom II*, which contains most
of the remaining Infocom titles and definitely some of the most experimental
and interesting ones. You get: *Border Zone*, *A Mind Forever
Voyaging*, *Plundered Hearts*, *Bureaucracy*, *Cutthroats*, *Hollywood
Hi-Jinx*, *Seastalker*, *Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels*,
*Wishbringer*, *Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It* and *Trinity*.
*Lost Treasures II* and the first collection together contain all of the
Infocom adventures, except for the *BattleTech* RPGs, the *Infocomics*
stories, *Journey*, *Shogun*, *Arthur*, *Leather Goddesses I* (which they're
trying to sell on its own to promote *Leather Goddesses II*) and all the
post-collapse games that bore the Infocom name brand but had nothing
to do with the company as we knew it. For all intents and purposes, the
two collections are all that fans need to preserve their Infocom favorites.

## Flashback...

For those readers who never had the chance to enjoy these games, here's a
quick look at what's in store. *Border Zone*, the first and last spy game
from Infocom, is divided into separate chapters like a book. It is also the
only Infocom game to incorporate a real-time clock. *A Mind Forever
Voyaging* was the first 128K text adventure and is more of a story than
an adventure. *Plundered Hearts*, their only historical romance game, puts
you in the role of a woman on the high seas amongst pirates and treasure.
*Bureaucracy* designer Douglas Adams liked working on *The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* so much, he wrote this hilarious romp
through modem life.

*Cutthroats*, by Michael Berlyn, is an earlier title and was the first
Infocom game to use their standard gray, striped box. It takes place in
and around the world of scuba diving and some corrupt people in a search
for sunken treasure. *Hollywood Hi-Jinx*, with more than its share of
wacky humor, exhibited the spirit of the treasure hunt in *Zork I* but takes
place in a Hollywood mansion of a deceased uncle.

## Old-timers

*Seastalker* was the simplest of all Infocom adventures and really
geared toward teenagers. This game was also the first collaboration
of Stu Galley and author Jim Lawrence. *Sherlock* was the first
game by Bob Bates, now president of Legend Entertainment, and Infocom's
only use of a licensed character. *Wishbringer* was "Professor" Brian
Moriarty's first Infocom game, a wonderful fantasy that exhibits his
way of thinking and characterization that eventually led to a game such as
*Loom*. *Nord and Bert* is an adventure game whose story progresses as you
unravel pun-based puzzles. Different wordplay types are separated into
chapters. It also has the longest Infocom game title. *Trinity* addressed
the nuclear age in an adventure that takes the player through dream/fantasy
zones back to the test site of the first nuclear bomb.

*Lost Treasures II* has some winners, but most of the games—with
the exception of a few like *Wishbringer*, *Trinity* and
*Bureaucracy*—took chances and weren't as popular as the games in
the first collection. All of them are fun and cover the range of difficulty
levels.

Two glaring errors are the crediting of *Nord and Bert* to Kevin Pope,
who actually did the cover art and the original package's enclosed post
cards, and the misspelling of the title (*Burt*) in the manual. The game was
designed by Jeff O'Neill, author of *Ballyhoo*, who left Infocom in protest
of their move to incorporate graphics into their titles and make other
company changes. I hope this credit oversight is not a result of bad blood
between O'Neill and Infocom. In any case, it's a fun and unique game, just
like the collection. Unfortunately, *Lost Treasures II* does not
have an extra booklet that collects the hint books, but the collection is certainly worth
the money. Unlike recent games, it has many hours of game play in only
a little bit of hard drive space.

Further driving these classic stories into the memories of the new
generation of computer gamers, Activision just released a CD-ROM
version of *The Lost Treasures of Infocom*. This version eliminates the
disks from the first version and storage requirements and is the most
bang for the buck of any CD out there. The version on store shelves
works in both IBM and Mac CD-ROM drives and is the perfect way to
make use of this new medium.<br>
**Conclusions:** Your "interactive bookshelf" is not complete without this
*Lost Treasures I* and *II*, which provide months of adventuring and
offer rare insights into the golden age of adventure games.

**Skill Level:** Varies with game<br>
**Company:** Infocom/ Activision<br>
**Price:** $59.95<br>
**QuestBusters price:** $49
