<!--
	Title: Wishbringer
	Author: Shay Addams
	Source: QuestBusters, v2(6)
	Date: July 1985
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

Finally at last -- and what the Frobozziheck *took* so long? -- Infocom has published a new
game. Unfortunately for most of us, <u>Wishbringer</u> is an Introductory Level adventure
that seasoned adventurers will solve overnight even without using the seven "wishes" that
provide easier alternative solutions to the problems. For beginners and novices, however,
it handily surpasses the flawed <u>Seastalker</u> as an entry-level game. (Unsolicited clues never pop
up while you're simply walking around, an annoying distraction in that otherwise absorbing
adventure.) And if you're one of the many novices driven mad by <u>Zork</u>, the satisfaction of
beating <u>Wishbringer</u> may restore your sanity long enough to get you headed in the right
direction along Adventure Road. The Bottom Line: Anyone who has never solved an Infocom game
without resorting to clue books and help from friends will enjoy and learn from this game.
Others should wait for the next Infocom title.

<h2 class="center">QUEST FOR CAT</h2>

No ordinary quest, <u>Wishbringer</u> sends you after a kidnapped cat rather than a mysterious
orb or the fabulous treasure vault of yet another Lost City. As a postal clerk in the village of
Festeron, you're instructed to deliver a letter to the old woman who runs the local Magick Shoppe.
When she learns from the letter that her cat has been kidnapped by the Evil One -- who demands
as ransom an enchanted stone called the Wishbringer -- you set out to find the feline and
effect a happy ending to this interactive fairy tale. But upon returning to Festeron, you
observe from a hilltop that the village has undergone a dramatic and unsettling
transformation: the sign on the outskirts of town now calls it Witchville, and a menacing black
tower looms where the post office once stood.

In the streets, the Boot Patrol seizes anyone out after dark (and naturally, the sun just set);
in the tower, the Evil One tortures the prisoners before feeding them to the sharks. Avoiding the
Boot Patrol is your first priority. Finding the cat (call her Chaos, everyone else does) comes
second. In the process, you'll rescue Princess Tasmania. Not your typical damsel in distress,
Tas turns out to be an ugly duckbilled platypus. Later on you'll play the role of village
matchmaker, hit the local arcade, and face the most dangerous grue of them all -- the deadly,
ferocious baby grue. (At least you don't have to change its diapers, which would have been a
messy problem indeed.)

<h2 class="center">BRING BACK THE RATINGS!</h2>

There's no significant interaction with the main characters: your boss at the post office,
the town librarian, and the gravedigger. Instead, most problems are object-oriented and fairly
straightforward. After spying a brass token guarded by a piranha in the town's fountain, you
immediately know what to do with the earthworm found in the ______ One hundred points are at
stake here, but you don't get rated as your score goes up. Too bad. Novice Adventurer, Danger to
Society, Chicken of the Sea -- ratings like these are important: the clever gibes cajole you into
trying harder, and the congratulatory titles give you incentive to keep trying when the going gets
tough near the end game. RESTORE those ratings, oh Great Implementers, or the wrath of Xuluui
may descend upon the kingdom (Then again, it may not.)

After you find the Wishbringer, you can make seven wishes -- but not unless you possess
certain objects. In order to wish for luck, you must hold a horseshoe; for rain, an open
umbrella. You don't get quite as many points for solving a puzzle by making a wish, so a perfect
score is unobtainable unless pure logic is employed. (Even in this case, it's a three-four
hour game for pros.) The inclusion of alternate solutions for each problem boosts the game's
replay value: after completing it, you can try again without making any wishes.

Numerous other aspects make <u>Wishbringer</u> suitable for beginners: There aren't a lot of
locations, and a map that depicts most of them is included. This allows you to concentrate on
adventurology rather than cartography. Movement is restricted to the four points of the
compass, so you can't move northeast or in any of the diagonals. This makes it harder to get lost,
simpler to map when map you must. Prompts advise you of critical places where you should
save the game -- before entering the tower, the library, and other deadly locations.

<h2 class="center">A HOME RUN FOR A ROOKIE</h2>

<u>Wishbringer</u> is Brian Moriarty's first adventure since he began work as an Infocom
programmer not long ago. Hopefully, he'll dream up something appropriate for veteran
adventurers, for his prose is among the finest yet to emerge from CambridgePark-by-the-Sea.
It exhibits a sense of drama and pacing, and his flair for bizarre comedy -- witness the sight of
a pair of cavorting mailboxes, one intermittently screaming "Hungry!" or "Mail!" or "Feed
me!" -- is one of the game's highlights. There are also some clever allusions to <u>Original
Adventure</u> and a sidetrip to the little white house from <u>Zork I</u>, though I'm not sure many neophytes
will appreciate or even recognize these references.

Long renowned as the champion of innovative "bells and whistles packaging," Infocom has
provided an ornately illustrated manual that tells the legend of the Wishbringer and its seven
wishes; a plastic glow-in-the-dark facsimile of that magic stone; a map; and a novelty item I
wont' describe, for doing so would just spoil the fun for those who do buy the game. They aren't
all gimmicks, though -- the plastic rock makes an effective night light.

The Inexplicable Question remains: why did Infocom wait so long between games? Was this
the seventh-inning stretch in the big leagues of the burgeoning Adventure Industry, or what?
Actually, another title was under development and would have been out a few months ago, but
the game just didn't pan out, and died without a chance of resurrection. Apparently it's the first
time this has happened to an Infocom adventure. Let's hope it's the last.

<hr>

**Computer:** You Name It, They Got It<br>
**Skill Level:** Introductory/Novice<br>
**Serves:** 8<br>
**Price:**$34.95, $39.93 Atari & C-64; $39.95, all others<br>
**Manufacturer:** Infocom
