Infidel - Infocom RRP œ24.95
                       (Text-only adventure)

                     Reviewed by Steven King

Infocom games have  been around for years now,  and in my  opinion 
their  old  text-only adventures are still as good today  as  they 
were  5 or 6 years ago,   INFIDEL  being no exception.   It is set 
in the  Egyptian  desert,  where you have  been given the  task of
finding a pyramid and its hidden treasure.  

The expedition log,  found inside the game box, tells the story of 
the pyramid and the events leading up to the start of the game.  I 
won't  repeat the whole of the expedition log as it will take  too 
long, but  it tells how, in the early  part of the century,  a man 
came across a pottery shard, full of hieroglyphics.  He deciphered 
these and found that they pointed to an undiscovered pyramid.  But 
not  long  after he had begun  his expedition the desert  heat and 
local  water got to him and he died.   Some sixty years later  his 

daughter  found  the map and the  task was handed on to  you.  You 
decided to take up the job and left for Egypt the very next day.
  
But, only a week into the expedition you lose the navigation cube.
Five  weeks  later   you  are  still  waiting  for  a  replacement 
navigation cube that they said they would air-drop you weeks  ago. 
The  cube,  when used with the map,  will help you find the  exact 
point to start digging.   But after losing the navigation cube and 
weeks of grumbling,  your crew  eventually decide that  they  have 
had enough and drug your food.

This is where the game begins.   You start  in your tent  the next 
morning  feeling  like you've had one too many at the  local  pub.  
After a little search around the camp, you soon discover that your 
crew have deserted you and have headed back home.   But,  can  you 
find the pyramid alone?

Once you have overcome your hunger and thirst,  you can then begin 
your  search for the  pyramid. This isn't too hard,  provided  you 

have  the  navigation  cube and  map.  When  you  have  found  and 
entered the pyramid, the real adventure can then begin.

Once  inside the pyramid,  you find that the rooms are made up  of 
hieroglyphics and traps.  The hieroglyphics can be deciphered with 
the aid of the translation sheet enclosed with the game.  But, not 
all  of the symbols are shown,  so you have to work out  what  the 
other symbols are, mainly with guess work. This is one of the main 
tasks   of   this  adventure,   because   without   decoding   the 
hieroglyphics, you will not get very far.

The  traps  in the game remind me of an  adventure  Indiana  Jones 
might have for example.  Pit traps, poison traps and crushing wall 
traps are all to be found within this adventure.  Some are easy to 
overcome  while  others are hard,  but all have  been  ingeniously 
thought up.

Overall,  this is one of my favourite Infocom adventures,  next to 
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Zork 1.   Although some of 
the  puzzles  are  hard  and  it  is  an  ADVANCED  LEVEL  Infocom 
adventure,  it is the only adventure I have completed without  one 
hint  whatsoever from  any computer  magazines etc. It is packaged 
nicely,  like  all of  the other  Infocom  adventures  with a map,
letter, hieroglyphic stone rubbing and expedition log.

I  would recommend  it to any Infocom  or text-only adventure  fan 
anywhere.  I am sure that if you look around you might still  find 
a copy for sale around somewhere.

@~According to a recent article in  ST FORMAT magazine, Infidel  and
@~BattleTech  are the only two  Infocoms still officially available!