Analog Computing, #48

~3 minute read

Nov 1986

Panak strikes!

Trinity

Steve Panak

Trinity
by Brian Moriarty
INFOCOM, INC.
125 Cambridge Park Drive
Cambridge, MA 02140
ST $39.95

I've been waiting quite a while for this one. Since the first Interactive Plus game from the wizards at Infocom gave me a taste of really large universes (larger than a mere 48K) I've waited for a second serving. It has come not a moment too soon, a double helping of gourmet food for my starving mind.

This taste treat is Trinity, the newest work of interactive fiction from Brian Moriarty, the twisted genius who gave us the Wishbringer stone. His new masterpiece is as serious as it is challenging.

The scenario is an uneasy one. Amid superpower tension, you decide to take a much-needed vacation and visit jolly old London. Unfortunately for you (as well as your travel agent and the rest of the world's population), the last day of your vacation is also the first (and perhaps only) day of World War III. Not to worry; with interactive fiction, anything is possible. If you should be fortunate enough to survive the first series of puzzles, you'll be treated to another twenty-odd hours of time-travel fantasy.

Trinity takes its name from the U. S. government's experiment of the same name -- the test of the first atomic bomb. This standard-level game has over 600 objects and locations to explore, and boasts a vocabulary of over 2000 words. This vastness might be for naught if the prose were not vivid enough. Fortunately, it is.

Visits by the author to the actual locations yield descriptions so real you can almost reach out and touch them. You'll enjoy your travels, from London's Kensington Gardens to the magical world through the white door, and beyond.

While standing on the summit, "as your eyes sweep the landscape, you notice more of the giant toadstools. There must be hundreds of them. Some sprout in clusters, others grow in solitude among the trees. Their numbers increase dramatically as your gaze moves westward, until the forest is choked with pale domes." Even if you didn't know how important the toadstools would be, you'd still want to "Go west, young man." The toadstools are the key, doorways to time travel which drop you in and out of history's major nuclear explosions. The goal: save the world.

Characters populating the world are intriguing. From the giant boy, to the old crone selling birdseed in the gardens, all the inhabitants of Trinity's strange lands surprise, confound and entertain you. Puzzles are prevalent, tough enough to keep even the experienced adventurer on his toes. Regular Infocomers will recognize a couple of unique features. These include holding off the title page until you survive the first tricky teaser, as well as interspersed quotes from other classic works of fiction, which add to the drama and quality of our experience. And, while this is a serious theme, tackling a serious topic, there's more than enough of the Infocom lightheartedness to go around.

The superb documentation contains a paper sundial, a map of the Trinity site and directions for folding an origami crane -- all of which are integral parts of the story. The instruction booklet is packaged with a comic book entitled The Illustrated History of the Atom Bomb. Reading this is almost as entertaining as playing the game itself. As usual, the manual more than adequately explains how to play, without giving away any secrets.

Considering all of this, I can say that they've done it again -- bigger and better than before. If you have an ST and haven't played an Infocom game, this one is a must. Like all of their works, Trinity lives up to your lofty expectations, then surpasses them. Above all, despite its serious overtones, Trinity is a blast.

This article appeared in
Analog Computing
Nov 1986

These historical, out-of-print articles and literary works have been GNUSTOed onto InvisiClues.org for academic and research purposes.