The Lost Treasures of Infocom - Activision - import only
    (Text adventure compilation for PC, Amiga/MAC to follow)

                 Reviewed by Alex McEwan

Just before Christmas I heard through colleagues in the US about a
compilation that had just been released there.  The package
contained 20 original Infocom games complete with a new front end
menu system, a composite manual, a collection of maps for the
games, and a 340 page hint book.  As if this wasn't enough, the
whole thing was selling for $60. In case your arithmetic isn't all
that it should be, that works out at $3 dollars per game not
allowing for the extras listed above. A colleague from my office
was going to the States for a few weeks in January and I asked him
to pick up a couple of copies for me while he was there.  Although
he tried the biggest software stores in Florida and New York he
found that everywhere was sold out which is no great surprise.

Next I contacted Activision's European HQ in Paris, who informed
me that there were no plans for a European release of the set. As
I just had to have this package I ordered a few copies for myself
and some friends direct from a dealer in the US. The parcel
arrived last week and the first thing to hit you is the sheer size
and weight of the thing. Make no mistake this is a big package.
The front cover shows a picture of a treasure chest overflowing
with gold coins, jewels, and a selection of the original boxes of
some of the games in the collection.  The back of the box has a
gallery type montage of the original covers of all twenty. Like me
I dare say that you are anxious to know what 'treasures' have been
included. They are Zork 1, Zork 2, Zork 3, Zork Zero, Beyond Zork
- Enchanter, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker - Witness, Deadline, Suspect,
Moonmist, Ballyhoo - Planetfall, Stationfall, Starcross,
Suspended, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Infidel, and The
Lurking Horror.

On opening the box you find that in the PC format you get 10 x 5¬"
and 5 x 3«" diskettes. The hint book is a large format paperback
with a section for each of the games giving clues in the same way
that some of the later versions of the Infocom games gave on-line,
i.e starting off with a gentle nudge in the right direction and
building up until, if required, it gives you the complete answer
to a problem. In the grand tradition of Infocom games they also
include a few humorous red herrings poking mild fun at you for
reading the hint book in the first place.

The manual is in the same size as the hint book but opens
lengthways (the format of Andy Capp books) and is 270 pages of
material from the packaging of the Infocom originals.  What you
get is pictures of all the extras included in the original
releases which are necessary to complete the game, but it does not
include the items that were for decoration only. For example in
the section for The Lurking Horror, you get a reproduction of the
student ID card, but you don't get the rubber worm.  The last
thing in the package which you will either love or hate, depending
on your views on mapping games as you go along, is a complete map
for each game. Personally I don't like the idea, because not only
does it show you all the locations, it also gives the layouts of
mazes and, worst of all in my view, the maps show items that will
be found on entering the locations. Thankfully it stops short of

showing the locations of objects or treasures which can only be
obtained by solving a puzzle.

Enthusiasts amongst you will have noted that all but two of the
games included in this collection are of the standard text type,
the exceptions are Beyond Zork and Zork Zero. The former differs
only in the font that it uses for the screen text while the latter
was the first of what Infocom called its graphical adventures.
They are both reproduced here exactly as they appeared originally,
so Zork Zero has the on screen compass and metal look pillars
surrounding a white text area. When installed to a hard disk, Zork
Zero is given its own directory while the data files for the rest
of the games are stored together.  Games can be installed
individually or all together to a hard disk. If the latter option
is chosen the set takes up 3.3 Mb of disk space. There is also an
option to install to a floppy disk where space obviously limits
the number of games that can be put onto one diskette.

Apart from my lack of enthusiasm for the maps included in the
package my only complaint lay with the new installation routine.
This takes the form of a simple question and multiple choice
answer session written in adventure speak, where a pirate appears
and asks if you want to install to hard disk, which drive and
directory you want to use, and which games you want to install.
Nothing wrong with that you may say and you're right, the problem
is that it had the worst of all horrors in a text adventure, a
spelling mistake. The fault in question comes when the pirate
opens his chest to 'reval' a host of treasures. I thought it was a
pity that the good name of Infocom with their reputation for
quality should be slightly tarnished by this piece of carelessness
on the part of the rework engineers who added the new routine.
Anyway, once installed the game is started by typing Infocom, at
which point you are presented with a menu of the installed games
and you select the number of the one you wish to play. From here
on everything is exactly as it was in the good old days.

In reviewing this collection I haven't touched on the games
themselves as most adventurers will already be familiar with them,
but have concentrated on the compilation aspects of the package.
Even allowing for my minor misgivings as mentioned above, I
believe this represents the best buy I have ever made in the
computer games field.  Allowing for the slightly less than
favourable exchange rate and the Customs and freight charges I had
to pay on my order, the final cost per copy was œ50. You may think
this is high for one item but bear in mind that this still works
out at œ2.50 per Infocom game and that includes the hint books
which used to sell for around œ6-8 each.

@~Lost Treasures should be officially available over here in the
@~autumn. More news when it happens.