Trinity - Infocom - deleted
                         (Text Adventure)

                     Reviewed by Neil Shipman

On 16th July 1945 the world's first nuclear device was exploded at 
Trinity site in the New Mexico desert. In the graphic description 
of the event by eyewitness William Laurence, "On that moment hung 
eternity. Time stood still. Space contracted to a pinpoint. It was 
as though the earth had opened and the skies split. One felt as 
though he had been privileged to witness the birth of the world."

Living in the Nuclear Age this is, of course, history to you - but 
it's history that is suddenly horribly relevant as World War III 
seems to be imminent. (Forget about Glasnost, the break up of the 
Warsaw Pact and the recent changes in Eastern Europe. Just cast 
your mind back a few years to the pre-Gorbachev era and the time 
when Reagan considered the Soviet Union an evil empire. Not so 
very long ago.....)

Sharp words between the superpowers. Tanks in East Berlin. And 
now, reports the BBC, rumours of a satellite blackout. It's enough 
to spoil your continental breakfast. But the world will have to 
wait. This is the last day of your $599 London Getaway Package, 
and you're determined to soak up as much of that authentic English 
ambience as you can. So you've left the tour bus behind, ditched 
the camera and escaped to Hyde Park for a contemplative stroll 
through the Kensington Gardens.

You soon come across an old woman who entreats you to feed the 
birds, another who's having trouble with her umbrella, a boy 
blowing soap bubbles and, amongst other things, a clearing with a 
sundial. To progress from the 9 locations which make up the 
Gardens you need to find a way across the grass which, true to the 
notice, does not take kindly to being walked on. This will take 
you to Long Water where a missile suddenly appears in the sky 
overhead. World War III has indeed begun and you now have very 
little time to avoid being obliterated. Strangely, a white door 
opens up above the surface of the water and, as all the wildlife 
are making their way through, you plunge in after them.

(Do make sure that before you get to this point you have solved 
all the puzzles and are carrying everything you can. When I first 
played Trinity a couple of years ago I did something very silly 
right at the beginning which prevented me from finishing hundreds 
of moves later on. Readers of Adventure Probe will know that it 
was this mistake which had the Grue himself dubbing me a Frob and 
electing me to the newly-created Guild of Frobs. A very select 
Guild I might add with, at present, just four members. The only 
qualification for entry is that you must make a real howler in an 
Infocom adventure, tell the Grue about it and make him gurgle with 
laughter at your stupidity until the tears run down his cheeks!)

The door closes behind you and you find yourself in a world of 
fantasy whose landscape is dominated by an enormous triangle which 
casts a shadow across the ground. As you wander round this magical 
place you notice a number of giant toadstools with white doors in 
them which open as the shadow impinges on them and then close as 
it moves on. Working out how to control the shadow so that it 
stays on a particular door will allow you entry to six very 
different scenarios, each of which takes you back to the real 
world but to different times and places. All these are relevant to 
the development of nuclear weapons and range from a playground in 
Nagasaki to a satellite orbiting the Earth as part of Reagan's 
"Star Wars" defence shield.

A cottage in the fantasy world contains a magpie whose advice 
you'll need (so don't let it escape too soon), a bubbling cauldron 
and a large book. Do read the book - it's brilliant! You'll again 
come across the boy blowing bubbles (rather larger than before), a 
drooling barrow wight, a hive of bees with lethal stings and, most 
amazing of all, an arboretum containing a strange sculpture by 
Felix Klein. A trip round this can prove quite disorientating but, 
as Arthur C. Clarke says, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is 
indistinguishable from magic," and P. David Lebling counters, "Any 
sufficiently arcane magic is indistinguishable from technology."

By this time you will have undoubtedly been killed off and met the 
ferryman who takes you across the river. To gain access to one of 
the six doors - indeed, the one which will take you back to 
Trinity site just before the first explosion - you must persuade 
him to ferry you over while you're still alive. Speed is of the 
essence in this final section if you are to sabotage the test and 
alter the future for your (and humanity's) survival.

You always expect a lot of good puzzles in an Infocom adventure 
and the quality and quantity of those in Trinity are wonderful. 
The text is beautifully written and the author, Brian Moriarty, 
makes a great success of weaving a fantasy around a number of real 
historical events. His research is impeccable as is evidenced by 
his acknowledgements to various individuals and by the extensive 
bibliography provided for curious adventurers. All this and humour 
too, especially in the form of the roadrunner who can be both a 
great help and a damned nuisance!

The adventure makes good use of italic text to enhance particular 
scenes and it also features pop-up windows in which quotes from 
authors like Alexander Pope, Lewis Carroll and Emily Dickinson 
appear. Do make sure that you look at everything and, indeed, try 
using objects in many different ways, because Trinity boasts a 
vocabulary of over 2000 words and there are responses to all sorts 
of actions. The woman at the beginning is a fount of knowledge - 
try asking her about the memorial, football, roadrunner, Trinity 
and even grues! For other amusing responses look in the hole by 
the barrow wight, give the skink to the wight, eat the skink, 
examine Charon and the Styx and talk to the magpie.

The adventure's packaging includes The Illustrated Story of the 
Atom Bomb, a detailed, accurate map of the Trinity site, a 
decorated cardboard sundial and instructions for making your very 
own paper crane.

When I first played Trinity two years ago I got completely 
absorbed in Brian Moriarty's story and rated it the very best of 
the ten Infocom titles I'd then seen. I've since played it twice 
more and on each occasion I found that it had lost none of its 
original appeal. Having now worked my way through all the Infocom 
adventures available on the ST I can honestly say that it is one 
of my three favourites. If you haven't played it then you've got a 

real treat in store. If you have, why not dust it off and take 
another look - you won't be disappointed.

Postscript: I have just noticed that today, the day on which I've 
written this review, is Trinity Sunday. Not that the Holy Trinity 
has anything to do with the explosion of the first atom bomb, but 
then I don't know why the name Trinity was chosen for the test in 
the first place. So, especially in the light of William Laurence's 
description of that moment which changed the course of history, it 
is the sort of coincidence that makes you think a bit, isn't it?