Beyond Zork - Infocom RRP #24.95 When I bought my ST about 3 years ago, there wasn't a great deal of adventure software about. But when I left the shop, I had in my possession two adventures by a company that I had heard a lot about - so much, in fact, that it was one of the reasons why I had upgraded from my 'umble speccy to the ST in the first place. The adventures were Wishbringer and Zork 1. When I got back home and the machine was set up, one of the first things I did was to load the two games and have a quick look. That was enough - from then on, I was hooked on Infocom adventures! Since then, I have keenly awaited each new game from them. I regret to say that although I have finished Zorks 2 and 3, Zork 1 still remains unfinished due to that pesky thief (I'll sort him out one of these days!). The three games, as most of you know (or can guess from the titles) follow on chronologically. So it was with great interest that we heard of Beyond Zork as this would take the series further still. Not only was Beyond Zork a step onwards in the Zork saga, it was also a great step forward for Infocom. Previously, they had written text-only adventures. And what did Beyond Zork have? No, not graphics, but a loading screen in colour (unheard of from them on their other games which had just thrown you straight into the adventure), coloured text and on-screen mapping. I'll admit I had my doubts about all this! But I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed the game - in fact, it is my favourite adventure to date. The basic story behind Beyond Zork is that you, a humble peasant, must find the fabled Coconut of Quendor. The task has fallen to you because the wizards of Quendor have vanished mysteriously. The Coconut is in the hands of the Implementors. These mysterious beings spend their time on "costly luncheons where gossip and sweet nectar flow freely" according to the booklet, the Lore and Legends of Quendor, which is included in the package. Naturally, the land of Quendor is inhabited by a wide range of other creatures, mostly unfriendly, so a good weapon is a must if you are going to survive to see the end of your quest. The fights aren't just straightforward "you-hit-a-monster-he-is-dead" fights either as the adventure contains a limited RPG factor in that you start with low attributes and each successful fight increases them and thus as you play the game, your experience level goes up. Performing certain actions will also cause selected attributes eg luck or compassion to rise. There are a lot of items dotted about which you will find useful. My one criticism of the game is that a lot of the objects are randomly placed in sets of randomly arranged locations and even the descriptions of the objects change from game to game. This is very confusing when you start to play the game. Though the arrangement of the screen is so different from a standard Infocom with the map to one side of the screen and the location description in a separate box from the rest of the text, you can use various commands to alter the screen so that, in the end, you can even get it to look like an ordinary Infocom if you like. After my previous feelings about the changes, I surprised myself by playing the game in its new form. Although the extra features mean that the text is not as verbose as usual, it still scores over a lot of other adventures with its descriptions. There are some really sneaky puzzles in the game and the plot is very convoluted. The author, Brian Moriarty, also wrote Wishbringer and Trinity and in Beyond Zork, he has excelled himself. There are even guest appearances from some characters and objects from his other adventures. When I first saw this adventure, it was at the time that Infocom were talking about introducing true graphics in their future adventures, and I was rather worried by the thought, being so happy imagining my own pictures and feeling that graphics would spoil the atmosphere rather than enhance it. If I had known then what I know now, that would have been the least of my worries! As you know, Beyond Zork was the last Infocom produced for the ST. The graphics came but, did we see them - nope, because we "only" had STs, not Macs, Amigas or what- have-yous. Even though the ST is not a popular machine in the States, I am still very surprised that Infocom did not continue to produce adventures for it. Who can doubt its popularity here and in the rest of Europe, and if Sierra can support the ST, why can't Infocom? Sue