<!--
	Title: Run For Your Lives! It’s FOOBLITZKY
	Subtitle: A Unique Graphics Strategy Game
	Source: The New Zork Times, v4(3)
	Date: Summer 1985
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

Infocom? *Graphics*?

No, hell hasn't frozen over. Pigs haven't sprouted wings. But Infocom
is announcing its first non-interactive fiction game — and it does have
graphics.

"It's a hoax," you're thinking. "Infocom would never use graphics
to illustrate locations in text adventures. Infocom hates graphics."
Well, yes and no.

Infocom has yet to see computer graphics that add to the quality of a
text adventure. There may be ways in which graphics could be used
more subtly to enhance your mental imagery. But with today's machine
resolutions, and even with proposed advancements in technology,
graphics can't begin to compete with the scenes and characters you can
imagine. Therefore, Infocom still firmly believes that words paint the
most vivid images in your mind.

Of course, there *is* a place for graphics today: in a completely
different setting and in a completely different kind of game. In fact,
*Fooblitzky* is *all* graphics, and has more graphics in it than any other
computer game on the market.

But the *really* important thing about any game is how much fun it
is, how enjoyable it is to play, not whether it does or doesn't have
graphics. And *Fooblitzky* is a winner. Already, there are addicts at
Infocom.

Logic, deduction, chance, and social interaction are all big parts of
*Fooblitzky* — just like deductive reasoning is a part of *Clue*® and
*Mastermind*®. (*Fooblitzky* reminds some people of a cross between
those games, even though its theme is completely different.) *Fooblitzky*
is a *multiplayer* game — 2, 3, or 4 people can play. The name
"Fooblitzky" was chosen because it's easy to remember and incredibly
difficult to pronounce.

Okay, so the name is goofy. The *game* is goofy. But it's sophisticated
goofiness.

The roots of *Fooblitzky* go back more than 2 years. Marc Blank and
Michael Berlyn wanted to develop something unique, something totally
different from text adventures — or any other kind of computer game.
They hired a crazed crackerjack artist, Brian Cody, and a programming
magician, Poh C. Lim. More recently, Paula Maxwell joined the
graphics group as an artist. Together they played board games, computer
games, video games, mind games .... They discussed game theory: what
made a game interesting, challenging, intricate, multifaceted, and
replayable. And then they designed *Fooblitzky*.

People play against each other in *Fooblitzky*, not against some poor,
misguided computer. The fun is in trying to bluff, outsmart, or just plain
lie to the other players. Unless you're the multiple-personality type, you
can't play *Fooblitzky* by yourself. (If you don't have any friends and your
family is no longer returning your telephone calls, tough nuggies.)

*Fooblitzky* is intellectually challenging, requiring a sharp mind,
careful note-taking, and a penchant for chattering teeth and flipping hot
dogs. It's not a shoot-em-up arcade-style game requiring joystick coordination,
so even adults can play! A game typically takes 1 to 2 hours to
play.

Players move around the "city" of *Fooblitzky* on sidewalk squares,
much like you move tokens around a board game. Players can buy items at
stores with "foobles" (the unit of currency) and sell items at pawn
shops and work in restaurants to get more foobles. Players can also get
smacked by cars at street crossings, or get flashed by the Chance Man
and squashed by a falling piano. Through all this, each player tries to
deduce and then obtain the 4 "correct" items needed to win. Since
the 4 items change each time you play, no 2 games are alike.

*Fooblitzky* is unlike any game you've ever played before. And
Infocom is proud of that. Fooblitzky opens up new frontiers in computer
gaming, and that's what Infocom is all about.

*Fooblitzky* is so different and innovative that Infocom's marketing
department hit upon a different and innovative marketing approach.
Because you're a special customer of Infocom's, because you read *The
New Zork Times*, you can buy *Fooblitzky* before anyone else! Research
shows that the people who learn *Fooblitzky* the fastest and enjoy
it the most are the people who enjoy Infocom's interactive fiction the
most.

Therefore, for a limited time, *Fooblitzky* is available ONLY
through *The New Zork Times*. That's right: For the first six months,
*Fooblitzky* is available exclusively to YOU, since you read *The New Zork
Times*. Once you learn *Fooblitzky* and play it with your friends, you'll
love it. You'll become an Infocom ambassador, spreading the word
about *Fooblitzky*. When *Fooblitzky* is released to the rest of the world,
everyone will have heard of it and will want the new game. But you
don't have to wait: you can start enjoying the new game now.
