~4 minute readPanak Strikes!
Plundered Hearts
Plundered Hearts
Infocom
125 Cambridge Park Drive
Cambridge, MA 02140
48K disk, $34.95
With the release of their latest work of interactive fiction, Infocom has produced the first such story written by a woman, as well as made its entry into the genre of romance. Spearheading this two-fisted attempt to attract more female purchasers, Amy Briggs has crafted a pirate story full of intrigue, adventure and, yes, romance. Unfortunately, I think most of Infocom's regular audience (presumably male) are likely to forsake this bold new endeavor.
In Plundered Hearts, you are a beautiful young woman who has just received a message detailing how a grave illness has befallen your father. He now lies near death on a tropical island, and an unknown friend, Jean Lafond, claiming to the governor of the island, has penned the note, because your father is too weak to even lift a hand. He pleads that your encouragement may be his only hope. Being a loyal, loving daughter, you board one of the governor's ships and set sail.
But two days into the voyage, pirates attack. The captain of your ship, Bartholomew Davis, who might be considered less than heroic, immediately sees in you a way to divert the pirates, saving his own skin. You are locked in his cabin. Moments later, the door breaks in, and a vile piece of humanity grasps you in his arms. He clutches you tightly, fouling your face with a breath reeking of rum. Just moments before he has his way with you, he slumps, having been knocked unconscious by his leader, one Captain Nicholas Jamison, also known as the Falcon. He too has a note from your father, labeling Lafond a traitor, and telling you to trust and accompany the Falcon. Does the fact that you feel so attracted to this fine specimen of a man make it a little too easy to trust him? But then, what choice do you have, as your ship burns, the cowardly Davis lying slain at your feet? You go with the Falcon and begin a journey unlike any you've ever imagined.
Since this game is targeted, presumably, at first-time Infocom customers, I'll take a minute to cover some program specifics. (Regular users will want to jump to the next paragraph.) In interactive fiction, you control the game by issuing commands to the main character in a story. In theory, as in a good book, you project yourself into this character. What distinguishes Infocom stories is the complexity of the program's parser and the power of its prose. The program understands (and occasionally demands) complete sentences, containing subject, verb, direct object and adjectives. Abbreviations speed you through often-used commands, while special commands allow you to save your place in the novel, control verbosity and print a journal.
Spearheading this two-fisted attempt to attract more female purchasers, Amy Briggs has crafted a pirate story full of intrigue, adventure and, yes, romance.
And the simplicity with which you communicate with the program allows you to fully enjoy the rich descriptions and action. Just relax and let the story unfold. Getting back to Plundered Hearts, included in every package is a velvet reticule (a pouch) containing a 50 guinea note and a letter from Jean Lafond. Also included is the standard Infocom instruction manual, explaining how to play the game, giving helpful tips and highlighting common problems. Finally, a special coupon will allow purchasers to enjoy Cutthroats, another Infocom pirate story, at a special price. But still, I have a lot of trouble recommending this game to everyone.
This is because romance is my least favorite literary form. My personal tastes, firmly ingrained by a childhood filled with Twilight Zone, Star Trek and bad B movies, run toward horror, fantasy and science fiction. So, it should not come as a surprise that I didn't care much for the story. Newcomers will find the puzzles to be standard Infocom fare, and advanced players will find it relatively easy.
Plundered Hearts should be looked at as just what it is, a romantic work of fiction. One trip to the bookstore will convince you that romance is a viable, popular and profitable literary genre. And with the game's program design and prose up to Infocom's traditional high standards, romance readers might just find it worth their while to turn on to these pages.
That's a wrap for this month. But before I go, some old business. I took a look at Bridge 5.0 last month, and in the interim a new version has been released. A cursory test has revealed that although the last version's weak bidding has been strengthened, the auto-play mode still needs some work. Whether you want to hold out for yet a better version is dependent on how much you want to play bridge. Next month: the latest simulation from 551 and yet another flight simulator. Until then, good gaming.
This article appeared in
Analog Computing
Sep 1988
These historical, out-of-print articles and literary works have been GNUSTOed onto InvisiClues.org for academic and research purposes.
