<!--
	Title: (Reviews) Suspended For Commodore 64
	Author: Dan Carmichael, Submissions Editor
	Source: COMPUTE's Gazette, v2(2)
	Date: February 1984
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

In the world of text adventure games, Infocom has long been
one of the leaders. In 1979, its programmers started writing
their own language which enabled the adventure game player
to communicate with the program using complex sentences
instead of the usual one- or two-word commands. Ever since
1980, when Infocom marketed its first commercial success
(*Zork I*), Infocom's games have almost always been on the various
software best-seller lists.

One of Infocom's latest releases, *Suspended*, is no exception
to the rule. It is an exciting, imaginative adventure game
that's likely to keep you glued to your keyboard for hours.

The game is set in a future society where mankind has relegated
all duties —- from the control of transportation to farming —- to
robots and computers. While the human species continues to live
on the surface of the planet, the robots move about in a huge
underground complex controlling all the computers and
machinery that is necessary to sustain life on the surface of the
planet. However, the underground complex is not completely
automatic, and that's where you come in.

In the game, you have been chosen as the winner of the semi-millennial
lottery, and an honor it is. As such, you will serve as
Contra's Central Mentality for the next 500 years. This is a position
of immense responsibility because you must insure the
survival of all life on the surface of the planet.

You will be placed in a state of suspended animation, and
your brain will be used to control the Filter Computers, which
control all systems on the planet surface.

## Computers And Robots

To help you manage the huge underground complex and all its
machinery, you are given the use of six robots. You communicate
with the robots through the Filter Computers. The robots are
individual personalities and each possesses unique qualities and
talents.

The six robots are Iris, Waldo, Sensa, Auda, Whiz, and
Poet. Iris is a visual robot, the only one capable of seeing.
Waldo is your heavy-duty robot. He is capable of carrying many
heavy objects and is able to perform tasks ranging from heavy
equipment repairs to delicate microsurgery. Sensa has a mixture
of different sensory apparatus. She can detect such things
as vibrations in the underground complex, photon emission
sources, and ionic discharges. Auda is all ears, the only robot
capable of hearing. Whiz is the brilliant one. He is used as an
interface to the four computers that are the main sources of information
about the complex. Poet is the unusual one. He talks
to you in rhyme. His messages are sometimes hard to figure out,
but very informative once you understand his style. He is also
a diagnostic robot with a highly developed sense of touch.

<figure class="float-right">
	<img src="/public/img/articles/cg-suspended-for-commodore-64/suspended-screen-shot.png" alt="Suspended Screen Shot">
	<figcaption><em>Poet's messages mystify with rhyme, but can be very revealing in</em> Suspended.</figcaption>
</figure>

The four computers that Whiz operates (called *peripherals*)
are an important key to the game. They are the Index, Technical,
Advisory, and Historical Computers. By using Whiz, you can
gain information ranging from the technical aspects of any object
found in the complex to the history of various subjects. The
Advisory Computer might even give you some advice on how to
accomplish the task you're currently working on.

## Playing The Game

The Filter Computers control the surface systems such as weather
control, food production, and all surface transportation. When
the game is first started, the Filter Computers have just begun to
break down, and a major world catastrophe is in the making.
The weather system is in error, and major storms on the planet's
surface are killing the human population. The food-producing
system (deep underground hydroponic farms) has gone awry
and crops are dying. Without food, the population will starve.
And the transportation system has become chaotic. The Floaters,
Taxis, and Glide Ramps (forms of mass transit) are running uncontrolled
and are killing people by the hundreds of thousands.

Your job as central controller is to repair the Filter Computers
and reset all the surface systems to normal operation. You must
use your robots, and you encounter a number of extra surprises
along the way.

## A Busy Program

While *Suspended* is enjoyable and stretches your imagination to its
limits, the great complexity of the program itself does result in
one minor drawback: occasional slow response. Because the program
in *Suspended* has to keep track of six characters, the response
time can be somewhat slow. Infocom's special language
enables you not only to communicate with the robots using
complex sentences, but also to issue multiple commands in one
statement. Some commands require as long as two or more
minutes for a response. This is to be expected in a "thinking"
game as complex as *Suspended* —- many computer chess programs
take hours to ponder their moves.

If the small inconvenience of a sometimes slow response
does not bother you, then I can highly recommend *Suspended*.

Suspended<br>
*Distributed by:*<br>
*Commodore Business Machines, Inc.*</br>
*1200 Wilson Dr.*<br>
*West Chester, PA 19380*<br>
*1-215-436-4200*
