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	Title: (Games & Books) Deadline
	Author: Stephanie A. Spadaccini
	Source: Games, v7(2)
	Date: February 1983
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

**<span class="larger">Deadline** (Infocom, available on disk for Apple II Plus,
Atari 800, IBM PC, NEC PC-8000, CP/M, and PDP 11; requires
32K; $49.95)

<hr>

As this unusual computer game opens, you are standing on
the grounds of a large estate. The owner, a wealthy industrialist
named Robner, has died under suspicious circumstances,
and you, the detective, must investigate.

Besides the floppy disk, your game kit includes copies of
interviews with all the suspects (characters that seem to have
come right out of an Agatha Christie story), lab reports, a
photograph of the scene of the crime, and even a few tablets
of the drug that did poor Mr. Robner in. Since the game is
text rather than graphics, you'll need to visualize the rest of
the clues.

As you move about the house and grounds, the computer
tells you whom and what you see. You can question suspects,
check for fingerprints, examine objects, and even try
to eavesdrop. The game is highly interactive, in that your actions
directly influence those of the suspects. (If you're not
careful, you can even become the killer's next victim!) You
must solve the crime within a certain time, or start over. The
game is often as frustrating as it is intriguing. Even after
you've learned what types of questions the computer will and
will not allow you to ask —- this alone may take several tries —-
you'll find yourself racking your brain for ways to discover
new information —- only to meet with exchanges like the following.
*Player*: Examine mud. *Computer*. The spots are all of
some sort of dried dirt or mud. They are not arranged regularly
but are bunched in the area between the balcony and the
desk. *Player*: Pick up mud. *Computer*: Surely you jest. *Player*:
Analyze mud. *Computer*. Sgt. Duffy appears with a puzzled
look on his face. "With all respect, I don’t think I can take that
to the laboratory."

If you feel your investigation is getting nowhere, there's a
newsletter that provides hints for this and other computer
games. For information, write: ZORK User Group, Box
20923, Milwaukee, WI 53220.