🧭 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."

*In 1996, Zork Nemesis becomes your virtual world.*
Apr 1996

ST.Mac, v1(5)

~1 minute read

Jun 1984

MarketWatch

Macintosh Goes Adventuring

This month, Infocom is releasing Macintosh versions of its line of text adventures. The programs, translated from the Apple II versions, contain few changes from the originals. Each game accepts compound sentence commands and has a large vocabulary.

The Zork trilogy chronicles the history of a great lost empire that once existed underground. Zorks I and II use standard scoring and standard goals, while Zork III has an unusual scoring system that awards points for appropriate actions, not the solving of puzzles. Zork I, $39.95; Zork II and Zork III, $49.95 each.

Infidel stars an antihero in a desperate quest for treasure in the Middle East. $49.95.

In Deadline, the detective has twelve hours to find out who killed an unpopular millionaire. Careless detectives can meet their end, while slow ones may miss important clues. $59.95.

In Starcross, the hero is a space prospector confronted with the mystery of an apparently abandoned alien ship. $59.95.

Witness is a campy 1930s murder mystery that reflects the then-popular style of pulp detective fiction. $39.95.

Suspended is a space adventure requiring players to control six robots that can act simultaneously. Each robot has an individual character and special abilities. $59.95.

Enchanter is the first of a trilogy sequel to the Zorks that expands interaction with the other characters, goes above ground, and features the use of logical magic. $39.95.

Planetfall is a science-fiction text adventure in which a lovable robot steals the show. $39.95.

Seastalker casts the player as the main character in a submarine quest to save the world's first undersea research station. The game was designed for beginners and is recommended for those nine years old and up. $39.95.

Sorcerer is the second release in the sequel to the Zork series. Magic is emphasized. Sorcerer's parser understands a vocabulary of more than 1,000 words. $49.95. Infocom, 55 Wheeler Street, Cambridge, MA02138; (617) 492-1031.

This article appeared in
ST.Mac
Jun 1984

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