Eight Tails of New Cryptics

Infocom's New "Liebrary" of Short Stories

Roy Wagner

Roy Wagner served as our Commodore specific columnist for several years. Now, he is serving as a "critic-at-large." In this article, he offers an overview of Infocom's recent release.

I'll try to "hold my tongue" and get this article write, but after the "sun's gone down" (I've finished with this game) that won't be easy. I'll just shake a elbow, put my hand down, and get an arm up to tell you all about this. The game is a knee (thanks Sherlock) and time will tell.

The game is comprised of eight relatively short text stories which take about one to three hours to complete. Each story involves various types of word play: puns, synonyms, homonyms, spoonerism, or other word tricks. Seven of the stories can be completed individually and totally independent from the others. To get to the eighth story, you must complete or know the passwords that are provided upon completion of the other seven. This game is not your typical Infocom interactive fiction. Infocom is branching out into new areas and this is one of them.

Some new game play concepts appear in this game that may appear in other new games from Infocom. Mapping is easier because of a "Status" line at the top of the screen which displays the places to which you can move. Play is also accelerated by removal of the "Examine Item" command. Now, you simply enter the name of the object to obtain details about it. A big plus with this game is that hints are readily available when you need them (and you will need them). Enter "Hint" or "Help" and the game display will be replaced with a list of subjects relating to objects you must use in completing a task and gaining points to carry on.

Welcome to Punster

The stories take place in the fictional town of PUNSTER. You have arrived to rescue this town from the verbal abuse to which it is victim.

"Go To The Shopping Bizarre": This story involves a shopping trip to the grocery store. You go to various aisles in the store substituting new words for the descriptions or names of the various items you find. Most of this is quite easy, except for the fellow in the cereal section and the final end of the story task. Remember, once an item is changed to something else, it can be changed back by entering what it was.

"Play Jacks": This story takes place at the house that Jack built and involves various objects with "jack" in their name. The house is almost bare inside except for a contraption that is somewhat like a very large Swiss Army knife. Note that almost everything on it has the syllable "jack" as part of its name and that these various items can be quite useful "out in the cold" where there are more problems to solve than inside. Once you determine what these objects are, you must determine how to use them to solve the various problems that exist in the story.

Assume there was a bristly kind of tail on the contraption and pulling it brings some kind of mule/donkey right there before you. Then, you could get on this animal and ride out into the cold forest. That isn't a real puzzle in the story, but it is similar to those in the story.

"Buy The Farm": This story takes place at a blighted farm where the resident family can no longer perform even the simplest of tasks. The situation brings to mind common expressions and proverbs. You'll find several barnyard animals such as a tired, old dog and a horse with a nearby trough. Put the phrases to use in the correct order to complete the story.

"Shake A Tower": This story uses spoonerisms such as "munching lobsters" being turned into "lunching mobsters". You'll find lots of these in this story which involves escaping through a strange stand-alone door in the midst of a forest.

"Eat Your Words": In this story you are dining in a very interesting town cafe with a very annoying waitress. You do everything conceivable to get her to leave you alone. Then, you finally get away from her by going in the kitchen, but you go up against the cook who also takes most of what you can feed him. Getting details on each object offers some fairly good clues, but arriving at the correct phrase may not be so easy.

"Act The Part": In this one, you take on the role of an actor in a situation comedy and are required to perform various humorous practical jokes on your brother-in-law. Figuring out the correct gags is somewhat difficult.

"Visit The Manor Of Speaking": This story revolves around a house in which the attic is actually below the other rooms and these rooms are, in turn, very strange themselves. By finding certain objects in the rooms and using them properly, you will be able to right the house in the correct manner.

"Meet The Mayor": This final story can only be accessed if you have completed the seven stories or know the passwords from them (a coded list is provided at the end of this article). You need to take the official decree to the mayor of Punster to be signed and outlaw the types of word play that got the town into such trouble.

You start off in the town square, do a few things outside, and enter the townhouse wherein the mayor resides. After picking up a six-pack downstairs, you go upstairs and find an interesting bathroom with lots of possibilities. Once you finally get the mayor to sign the decree, you may rest on your laurels. This successfully returns Punster to its normal complacency.

In Conclusion

I can't say that I really liked this Infocom game as much as I have liked their more complete interactive fictions. Though the stories were both funny and challenging, I felt that something was missing. Perhaps, the concept, though good, was difficult to interact with. In a game that is so involved with word play, more ideas come to mind than each individual story can handle. Sometimes, there was an excellent comeback to an unused twist of wording or phase, but too often my input went unnoticed.

Also, having eight separate stories has both its advantages (short and relatively easy to complete) and its disadvantages (losing flow and continuity). However, this game can probably serve quite well in an educational environment to "teach" about the various ways in which words can be used. Various types of word play could be discussed before the story is attempted, making the story much funnier and less frustrating.

Password, Please

THE PASS KEYS (Coded in ASCII decimal equivalent)

Shopping Bizarre:
83/85/80/69/82/83/65/86/69/82

Play Jacks:
74/65/67/75/83/84/69/82

Buy the Farm:
83/79/68/66/85/83/84/69/82

Eat Your Words:
83/65/84/73/83/70/73/69/68
67/85/83/84/79/77/69/82

Act the Part:
75/73/78/71/79/70 67/79/77/69/68/89

Visit the Manor:
72/79/78/79/82/69/68/71/85/69/83/84

Shake a Tower:
75/73/78/75/69/82/73/78/71/67/79/78/71

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