<!--
	Title: (product reviews) Ballyhoo
	Author: Michael Lasky
	Source: Antic, v5(4)
	Date: August 1986
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

Infocom, Inc.<br>
125 Cambridge Park Drive<br>
Cambridge, MA 02140<br>
(617) 492-6000<br>
$39.95, 48K disk

Everybody enjoys a good mystery, right? And the circus, right? Why not
combine them for what should be a surefire hit? That's the premise of
**Ballyhoo**, Infocom's newest all-text adventure game.

You're under the big top of the Traveling Circus That Time Forgot,
headed by visionary Tomas Munrab (Barnum spelled backwards). The
show is over and you loitered behind to see what goes on. Instead, you
overhear a conversation about kidnapping Munrab's daughter, Chelsea.
As you type in questions on the screen, you learn slowly but surely
that this circus isn't all cotton candy and happy clowns. You investigate
further, although danger lurks around every unknown corner. You've never
been here before, so you must find your way around by painstaking trial
and error. This is the ever-changing challenge of interactive fiction.

Infocom rates Ballyhoo as a "standard level" mystery, but it repeatedly
baffled me. Characters give coy, cute and evasive answers when questioned.
You need to be as tenacious as Sherlock Holmes to discover who
kidnapped Chelsea and how to get her back. Remember, you're at the
circus, which relies on flash and illusion to disguise its sordid underbelly.

<img class="float-right" src="/public/img/articles/antic-ballyhoo-review/circus-clipart.png" alt="Clip art of a circus tent">

Included in Ballhoo are a ticket, a balloon and a souvenir program.
Read them all carefully for important leads. With the ticket, you can have
a palm reading or a hypnosis session, and questions will be answered differently
depending on your sex. The balloon will get you past Harry, the
guard. As Harry anything you want about the circus and its inhabitants --
he enjoys talking.

When you stumble upon costumes and masks, try them on for size and
disguise. Remember, you're an outsider, so play it cool. Act like you belong
there. Greet everyone you meet. To get far beyond the sideshow, you
must do seemingly outrageous things.

Like all Infocom's text adventures, Ballyhoo requires patience and endurance.
This might not be the circus you want to run away with, but programmer
Jeff O'Neill supplies enough escapist entertainment to make it
seem as if you have.
