<!--
	Title: Moonmist
	Source: QuestBusters, v4(1)
	Date: January 1987
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

<img class="float-right" src="/public/img/articles/questbusters-moonmist-review/moonmist-castle.jpg" alt="A very pixelated image of a castle against a full moon">

Gothic ghost story, Moonmist is one of Infocom's most ingenious and
unusual mysteries. It was written by Stu Galley and Jim Lawrence, who also
collaborated on *Seastalker* (*The Witness* was Galley's first mystery). The setting
is Tresllyian Castle in Cornwall, England. An American private eye, you
have just arrived to attend a memorial birthday dinner for Lionel Tresllyian, the
deceased father of Lord Jack, to whom your friend Tamara Lynd is engaged. The
purpose of your visit is to solve the mystery of a spirit that is haunting the
house and trying to kill Tamara. Is it the real thing, or someone dressed as a ghost?
In the process of identifying the ghost you may uncover evidence of a murder
and discover a hidden treasure. It is this trio of goals that distinguishes *Moonmist*
from previous Infocom mysteries, for these are independent goals: you can find
the treasure without having identified the ghost, or arrest the killer without finding
the treasure. So if time runs out, you'll still feel a sense of accomplishment-and
will be encouraged to try again.

Character interaction is important, and Dr. Nicholas Wendish, the flirtatious Iris,
Montague Hyde, Vivien Pentreath and three other dinner guests are glad to tell
you their ghost stories as Tamara shows you around the castle. Some say it
reminds them of Deirdre, the woman who was engaged to Jack years ago, and fear
her ghost seeks revenge on Tamara. They're not as helpful in furnishing
information about each other. When asked about another person, the usual
reply is "I don't indulge much in idle gossip." Throughout the game they
amble about the castle, so you're rarely lonely in this adventure. As you would
expect from a Gothic tale, creaky doors, cobwebs, and eerie sounds heighten the
atmosphere.

The array of objects in the castle spans the medieval and the contemporary, from
an iron maiden to an aerosol device—and the first brass lantern I've seen in a
mystery. (Zorkers will feel right at home.) A multi-level affair, the castle
has numerous rooms and even a secret passageway to investigate, though you
won't get much done until after dinner.

Things get off to a strange start when the butler announces that, according to
Lionel's will, all the servants are to leave the castle before his memorial dinner and
stay away until morning. Then, before you've hardly had a bite to eat, everyone
is startled to hear Lionel's voice, which you realize is coming from a tape
recording he made before he died.

Lionel tells of a "valuable artifact" that is hidden somewhere on the grounds, and
sets the group off on a treasure hunt by steering them toward the first clues.
These are bits of verse that lead you to more clues and eventually to the treasure.

While searching the castle you11 have time to poke about for evidence
concerning the ghost and the crime. Don't waste it, though, for the story,
which begins at 7:00 PM, ends twelve hours later when the police arrive to take
over the investigation. There is no Duffy or lab to which you may send evidence to
be analyzed, so you're solely dependent on your own wits in puzzling out this
mystery. At the end, you can read the "author's explanation" of the plot, which
tells exactly what happened. who did it, and why. I like this idea, since it wraps
up any loose ends the player might be wondering about.

## *Extra Replay Value*

And after solving *Moonmist* you can replay it, for there are four color-coded
versions of the game: red, green, yellow and blue. At the outset, you type in your
name as Lord Jim Dudley, Miss Anna Stetic, or whatever, then the program
asks for your favorite color. Your reply determines which version you will play.
(Or you can pick purple, orange or some other color and the program will pick the
version, so you won't know which one you're playing.) They vary in difficulty,
and red is apparently the trickiest. In each version, the objects are found in different
areas, and some that are valuable in one version are useless in the others.

Another departure from the Infocom formula crops up in the area of the
scoring system-no points are awarded for puzzle-solving. Instead, the program
borrows the method introduced in Broderbund's Interactive Novels. When
you type "score" or quit, you'll read a brief list of your accomplishments: "So
far you've found the treasure, but haven't identified the ghost or found the
evidence." Another big difference is that a room's contents won't always be
mentioned in the game text. An accompanying brochure provides a map of
the castle, however, and describes such items. This serves as a form of copy
protection, since you'll need the map in order to solve all the puzzles. In addition
to the brochure, you get a collection of ghost stories about famous spirits of
Cornwall, a "Moonmist" t-shirt iron-on, and the letter from Tamara

A couple of practical features have been carried over from *Suspect* and *Deadline*:
You can type "go to dining room" instead of a series of directions, and the wait
command (which lets you quickly kill 1-60 minutes) is useful for speeding up the
game in some instances.<br>
**Conclusions:** The puzzles are logical, the story is engaging, and the prose
surpasses *Suspect* but can't match *Deadline*. With the most extensive replay
value of any Infocom adventure, *Moonmist* should be on every mystery
fan's shopping list (If it's not already in their inventory.)

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

**System:** All Home Computers<br>
**Skill Level:** Novice to Intermediate<br>
**Price:** Atari 8-bit, C64/128, $34.95; others, $39.95<br>
**Company:** Infocom
