<!--
	Title: Circuit's Edge: Best Quest of the Month
	Author: Shay Addams
	Source: QuestBusters, v7(7)
	Date: July 1990
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

Aeons have passed since I truly enjoyed an adventure from Infocom, whose transition
from all-text to illustrated interactive fiction was rockier than—that's funny...I
can't think of anything rockier than that clutch-slipping, gear-grinding shift. *Journey*
and *Shogun*, *Arthur* and *Battletech*—each had its virtues, but none effectively
implemented graphics into Infocom's literary style of gaming. So it's ironic that
*Circuit's Edge*, the one game that finally does the trick, lacks one of the most distinguishing
elements of Infocom 's early games, the articulate full-sentence parser.

## *A Zorker Writes a Game*

*Edge* is a science fiction story based on characters and settings from a series of
novels by George Alec Effinger. (*Zork* fans take note: he's working on a novel
based on the *Zork* trilogy that's due out late this year.) On this game he collaborated
with Infocom designers to devise a story set in the Budayeen, the bad part of
town in a 23rd Century city in the Middle East. Effinger also wrote most of the text.
(He says in the manual that he's been an Infocom adventurer for years, perhaps
one reason for the game's success.)

In ways *Edge* is reminiscent of Interplay's *Neuromancer*, with plug-in chips
that modify your personality and endow you with special powers. But *Neuromancer* focused on
breaking into online computer databases and wielding assorted software in combat
with the Artificial Intelligences of the computers, while this one emphasizes interacting
with people rather than computers, and its events unfold in a more storylike
fashion.

## *I Want My Moddy!*

Decked out with names like Kung Fu, Julius Cesar, Rad Hacker and Muscle
Man, the chips that can be implanted in your skull are dubbed "Moddies" and
"Daddies." Moddies affect your personality, some making you more aggressive,
for example. (These, and other events and actions, can affect the way people react
when you talk to them.) Daddies, on the other hand, endow you with specific
knowledge: the Rad Hacker chip enables you use the datalink terminal. In some instances
you can "use" a skill chip to solve a puzzle or deal with a situation.

Once the Chronos chip is installed, you get a non-stop digital
display of the time, for this is a real-time story with real-time
events, whose shops and bars are usually open only in the wee
hours, and in which you've got to sleep, eat and drink.

<figure class="float-right">
<img src="/public/img/articles/questbusters-circuits-edge-review/circuits-edge-screen-shot.jpg" alt="Circuit's Edge screen shot">
<figcaption class="center bold">Is that a parser, or are you just glad to see me?</figcaption>
</figure>

With a mouse, you can click on the onscreen slots to plug chips
in and out; keyboard users will find it almost as easy a task. You can look at a chip to
learn its use. This is true of the objects you find, for the program tells you if an
item can't be used in a place if you try to do so, which saves the time otherwise
spent grappling with it on the door, the furniture and everything else in sight.

## *The Gritty Part of the City*

As Marid Audran, a character from
Effinger's novels, you awake in a rundown tenement. Several calls on your
belt-phone promptly spur you to race around town on a progression of miniquests.
These are linearly structured, so you've got to go to a hotel to pick up a
notebook before the next turn of events will send you to visit Papa, who runs the
underground scene in the sordid section of town called the Budayeen.

Papa is infuriated by the murder of Kenjii Carter, one of his minions, and
wants you to nail the killer. He offers assistance in the form of cash and contacts.
This even includes some help from the police, who are also in his pocket. Then
out you go, back into the sleazy streets of adventuredom' s sleaziest city.

Or into topless bars like the Blue Parrot, Frenchy's and the Red Light Lounge,
that is, where much of the action occurs. In these and other interior locations, you
can hit "L" to see three pictures. These flip back and forth horizontally, frequently
revealing a flash of flesh.

Scantily clad hookers, grungy drug dealers, transvestites, sex-changers—the
people who live in the Budayeen are indeed a colorful lot, and the world of the
Budayeen itself brings to mind the French Quarter of New Orleans (which
makes sense, for Effinger hails from the Big Easy).

Anyone seeking cross-references to other Infocom games, a popular pastime
of all Zorkers, won't have far to look: there's a racy bordello
called Leather Goddesses, which is run (or should that be dominated?) by
an appropriately attired madam. (Yes, I could go over the edge and call this
Infocom's "gamiest game yet," but I refuse to resort to such questionable
puns.)

## *Menus to Go*

The interface consists of drop-down menus whose options can be selected
with a mouse or from the keyboard. You can move by clicking on the picture with
the mouse, or by hitting the number or arrow keys, which I found myself relying
on more than I expected.

Conversation is initiated by choosing Talk from the menu. A sub-menu lets you
utter one of several pre-written one-liners, offer to buy things, or talk about
something (in which case the seriously handicapped parser waits for you to type
in a few words). Objects may be manipulated in a similar fashion and can be used,
given away, looked at and so on.

A small text window scrolls to reveal ample portions of inviting prose. Dialogue
is sprinkled with the local slang and assorted Muslim expressions that
lend flavor and spice to the drama. So do the exotic names of liquors like *tende*
and hallucinogenic drugs such as RPM.

Infocom' s renowned parser was reduced to looking for keywords and is the
game's weak spot. If you don't get the package to Saied in time, he loses interest
in it and won't even respond to your dropping the word "package." For someone
so determined to get his hands on the thing a few hours earlier, he should at
least have had some conversational response.

Bill the psycho cab driver proved more talkative. He drove me to a few locations
outside the Budayeen, small places where I could do only one or two things before
a quick ride back to the Budayeen.

A first-person view shows the characters and buildings in front of you, while a
little map in the comer divulges your location on an aerial-view map. You can
call up a full-screen map of the Budayeen with a single keystroke but can't move
about while viewing it. Even so, the little map that's always onscreen is one of
most useful auto-maps I've seen. And by comparing the main auto-map with the
street map in the manual, I learned my way around town in no time.

## *Sights and Sounds*

Graphically the game excels, with sharply defined illustrations that are
imaginatively employed. Black and blue marks sustained in a street fight slowly
fade from your face as time goes by, and though there's no substantial animation,
the pictures themselves are dynamic.

A sound board will introduce a whole new dimension to your quest, for the music
and sound effects contribute immensely to the action and atmosphere.
With a Roland I heard foreboding music while sneaking through the alleys, livelier
tunes in the bars, and energetic blasts of rock music during combat. (Ad Lib users
will hear the same music and sound effects, but Activision says they sound better
with a Roland card.)

Combat, while not the core of the game, is fun and easy. You click on an
icon to pick a weapon, then click on the attack: jab, slice or thrust with a stiletto,
for example. It's over in a hurry, which I appreciated.

Though your character's life is governed by stats like Strength and Stamina,
which are affected by lack of sleep and food, and you do have all those skill
chips, Edge is not really a role-playing game. The emphasis is on puzzle-solving,
not attribute development or combat.

Money, called kiam, may be stashed in the bank and withdrawn with an ATM
card. I whiled away a few hours at Baccarat and roulette, self-contained gambling
games that outstrip anything seen in a Sierra adventure. (They're nice enough
that you'll want to keep the game just to play on nights when you're too burned
out to do anything except push-button gambling.)

## *Ye Futuristic-type Puzzles*

The conundrums and clues were hauntingly familiar—quite suggestive of those
in the classic Infocom games. You spend your time exploring places and finding
objects, then using them in other places, and talking to people for clues about
where to find or use them, and so on.

After saying the right word to Lt. Hajjar, for instance, you'll get a police pass
that enables you to claim the dead man's personal effects, which include a telephone
answering machine chip and a pawn shop ticket.

Then you've got to figure out how to play back the chip, only to learn part of
the message is in a foreign language. This calls for a special language chip. Then
there's a halo disk you can play back for more on the plot, and so on and so forth.

Others sorts of puzzles are also in store. I was extremely proud of myself
for figuring out the MCDIX clue was really a string of Roman numerals and
not someone's name (and I'd be even prouder if I could figure out what to do
with this startling revelation).

The Recall Events automatically records up to 50 of the most significant
conversations and events, which may be reviewed in the text window for clues
you overlooked, forgot to scribble down, or scribbled down but can't quite decipher
the next day.

Unfortunately you can save just one game in progress, but that's the only
drawback. Though parsing is weak, the parser is used only when conversing
with NPCs.

The 32-page manual offers background information on the people, places
and customs of the Budayeen, composed by Effinger himself. You also get two
pages of hints and a handy street map with a list of useful phone numbers.<br>
**Conclusions:** Finally Infocom has done it—achieved a remarkable synthesis
of their pre-Activision style of all-text adventure with the latest in graphics, and
tossed in a dash of role-playing elements that bring the story to life. While relatively
linear, the flow of the story feels loose, and Effinger throws in enough plot twists
to keep you from feeling as if you're just being dragged through yet another series
of set situations. The Recall Events and auto-map features make Edge the most
adventurer-friendly Infocom game in years. Except for younger gamers (whom
I'm confident are already running out the door to buy it), *Circuit's Edge* is highly
recommended.

<hr style="border-top: 4px double;">

**Skill Level:** Intermediate<br>
**Protection:** None<br>
**Price:** $49.95<br>
**Company:** Infocom/Activision
