🧭 THE ARCHIVES

Quote of the day

A ghost appears in the room and is appalled at your desecration of the remains of a fellow adventurer. He casts a curse on your valuables and banishes them to the Land of the Living Dead. The ghost leaves, muttering obscenities.

-- Zork I

Factoid of the day

In Sorcer, the GOLMAC spell lets you travel backwards through time. The name GOLMAC is a portmanteau of "Gold Machine." In Zork III the Temporizer, which lets you travel backwards in time, is described as a "gold machine."

*Just when you thought it was safe to go back underground again.*
Nov 1981

Games, v8(12)

~1 minute read

Dec 1984

Computer Capers: Adventure

Sorcerer

Randi Hacker

You meet a lot of intriguing characters in this all-text sequel to Enchanter (Feb. 84), including a mysterious Adventurer whose identity will surprise you. Once again you're the young wizard you were in Enchanter, but this time you're more respected and have more spells. Your mentor, Belboz, has been carried off by a demon named Jeearr, who has also taken over Belboz's mind and is now living there rent free. Your job is to evict him. But first you've got to get out of the Enchanters' Guild without using the door. If you don't get out by bedtime, your dreams will take you to the House of Eternal Pain, where your agony will be so profound you won't be able to move or think -— or escape. Try to avoid this.

Your explorations will take you through the Underground Empire first visited in the Zork trilogy (Dec. 83) and later encountered indirectly in Enchanter. If you find the admission fee, you can spend a little R&R time in the best amusement park ever. Don't miss the arcade area, where the prizes for beaning bunnies with metal balls are even better than kewpie dolls. You'll meet gnomes, learn that crime does in fact pay, and discover that bat guano is not just something to avoid stepping in. Magic scrolls are littered all over the place, and the spells they contain will make' your mouth water. Making a map of the game's landscape is necessary, as is finding a friend to play with who understands mirror mazes and reverse mirror mazes —- and don't underestimate the usefulness of the Infotater, the information wheel that comes with the game.

The story line is brilliantly conceived. As in other Infocom games, the program understands full English sentences and is a witty smart aleck. For example, should you find a flag and type in the command wear flag, the computer's response might be "Who do you think you are, Abby Hoffman?"

Infocom, AP, AT, C64, IBM, MAC (D); $45.

This article appeared in
Games
Dec 1984

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