S.P.A.G. (Part 4) Taken from CompuServe by Alex McEwan @~Continued from last issue =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: "Stephen Granade" Witness IBM Commercial 7.5 -Pa: 1.7 Wr: 1.3 Pl: 1.6 Ch: 1.7 +1.2- The year, 1938. The place, Los Angeles. A wealthy but paranoid man has asked you, a police detective, for protection. But despite everything you do, the man is killed. Can you find who killed Freeman Linder? The Witness was Infocom's second detective adventure; its parser contains many of the commands now standard to this genre. The writing is the weakest part of the game; many times I felt as if Stu Galley had simply lifted whole chunks of clever responses from Deadline, the first Infocom detective adventure. The plot is well-laid out, though linear in nature. The characters is where the game shines. There are really only three to deal with, one of whom you can discount almost from the first of the game. However, those two remaining NPCs are quite alive and feisty. I gave my wildcard points for the feel of both the game overall and the characters. The Witness is available (where else?) in The Lost Treasures of Infocom 1, available from Activision. The repackaging is flawed, but at least it is available. The Witness is a good medium-difficulty detective game. After you finish Moonmist, work on The Witness, then Deadline, as they become progressively harder. - Editor's Note: I should probably note that this game has a really nice '30s detective movie feel to it. Stu Galley put a lot of effort into making things ring true, and it shows, even if the rest of the game is pretty standard. As is often the case, the best part about playing The Witness is in trying to break it. I had loads of fun with the handcuffs in the game, trying everything from arresting the cat for murder, to trying to solve the mystery using knowledge gained in another game, which I couldn't possibly have had at that point. I also played havoc with the manservant for awhile, since he's such a nifty stereotype from the movies. In any event, this one is much shorter than the average Infocom game, taking me only a few hours to solve and exhaust its entertainment potential. Still, it's better than a lot of games I've played. - READER'S SCOREBOARD---------------------------------------------- Here is a sample entry for Trinity: Name Avg Sc # Sc Rlvt Ish Notes: Trinity 9.7 21 1-5, 8, 11 C_INF Looking at this, you see that Trinity has received an average score of 9.7 out of 10 from 21 readers. The notes are listed below, and lastly, reviews or other relevant bits about it have appeared in issues 1-5, 8, and 11 of SPAG. This is only an example, and does not reflect any actual data regarding Trinity. Other Possible Notes: A - Runs on Amigas. AP - Runs on Apple IIs. GS - Runs on Apple IIGS. AR - Runs on Archimedes Acorns. C - Commercial, no fixed price. C30 - Commercial, with a fixed price of œ30. F - Freeware. GMD - Available on ftp.gmd.de I - Runs on IBM compatibles. M - Runs on Macs. S20 - Shareware, registration costs œ20. 64 - Runs on Commodore 64s. TAD - Written with TADS. This means it can run on: AmigaDOS, NeXT and PC, Atari ST/TT/Falcon, DECstation (MIPS) Unix Patchlevel 1 and 2, IBM, IBM RT, Linux, Apple Macintosh, SGI Iris/Indigo running Irix, Sun 4 (Sparc) running SunOS or Solaris 2, Sun 3, OS/2, and even a 386+ protected mode version. AGT - Available for IBM, Mac, Amiga, and Atari ST. This does not include games made with the Master's edition. INF - Infocom or Inform game. These games will run on: Atari ST, Amiga, Apple Macintosh, IBM, Unix, VMS, Apple II, and Apple IIGS. I believe that it is also possible to play these on the C64, TSR-80, Acorn Archimedes, and others, but I am not positive, as I saw no public domain interpreters for any systems other than the first group on ftp.gmd.de. I will update this as people confirm or deny the feasibility of running these games on these computers. Other computers will be added as pointed out to me. This key will appear in each issue. Readers are asked to let me know if any games are available on a platform for which I do not have them listed. Name Avg Sc # Sc Rlvt Ish Notes: Cutthroats 7.4 1 1 C_INF Horror of Rylvania 7.7 1 1 C20_TAD_GMD (Demo) Infidel 6.7 2 1 C_INF Klaustrophobia 9.5 1 1 S15_AGT_GMD Lurking Horror, The 7.2 1 1 C_INF Moonmist 6.4 1 1 C_INF Sanity Claus 9.0 1 1 S10_AGT_GMD Starcross 8.3 1 1 C_INF Trinity 9.4 2 1 C_INF Unnkulian One-Half 9.1 1 1 F_TAD_GMD Unnkulian Unventure 1 9.0 1 1 S10_TAD_GMD Unnkulian Unventure 2 7.3 1 1 S10_TAD_GMD Unnkulian Zero 9.0 1 1 C25_TAD_GMD (Demo) Witness, The 7.5 1 1 C_INF The Top Three: 1 Klaustrophobia -9.5- 2 Trinity -9.3- 3 Unnkulian One-Half -9.1- - Editor's Notes: Remember that these scores still represent a very small sampling of SPAG readers, and as such, aren't quite as representative as I would like. You have been warned. - ADVERTISEMENTS--------------------------------------------------- -----------------------Save Princeton----------------------------- Have you ever wanted to kill somebody by feeding them school food? To hobnob with F. Scott Fitzgerald? To be single-handedly responsible for the salvation or destruction of one of the oldest universities in the United States? Save Princeton offers you the chance to do all this and more. In the role of a visitor to the campus, you must save Princeton from a mysterious invasionary force. Saving Princeton doesn't require any familiarity with the place. In fact, all it requires is an off-beat sense of humor and a little bit of brains. Save Princeton was created with TADS, the Text Adventure Development System. The game has fifty-two locations, and a vocabulary of about 980 words, which makes it about as complex as a middle-period Infocom game. It's shareware, with a fee of œ10. Save Princeton is available for the IBM-compatible and Mactintosh computers, as well as any other systems that support TADS. - Editor's Notes: I know that there's a lot of prejudice out there against games that the author appears in, but Save Princeton isn't half bad, if you overlook the first few rooms or so. The puzzles are well done, and there's a pretty nifty camera to play with even. I would definitely recommend it for a bit of tongue-in-cheek fun. - ------------------------------------------------------------------ A Word about the Infocom Games. Many of the Infocom games are available in two packages being sold by Activision as Lost Treasures of Infocom 1 and 2. They are also available on CD. LTOI 2 CD has three bonus games: Shogun, Arthur, and Journey. I am not sure which computers these are available for, but at least IBM compatibles are supported. LTOI 1 contains 20 games, with the relevant packaging items from the older versions reproduced as photocopies in a book. It also includes maps and a hintbook with hints for all the games. The hints are all in plain sight. LTOI 2 lacks both the maps and the hintbook. It has been commented by several people that the repackaging was shoddily done. I tend to agree, especially in reference to LTOI 2's lack of maps and hints. LTOI 2 contains only 11 games, and costs the same, yet leaves those two things out. Other things missing are the letters from Moonmist, the clever sample transcripts that were in the old manuals, and Leather Goddesses of Phobos, which is available only through a mail-in offer. Finally, all of the great props appear only as photocopies, and even then, some of the niftiest are missing or have been transformed into a more mediocre form. Overall, poor treatment of some classic games, which defined things for hundreds of games that have followed in their footsteps. Having said that, let me also add that the LTOI packages are getting harder to find in stores, so if you want them, buy them soon. Even with all their shortcomings, the low price gives an excellent deal on some truly wonderful games that will always be fondly remembered by many. Myself, I am slowly trying to accumulate a complete collection of the original packages. It's more expensive, and slower going, but I feel it's worth it to get all the great packaging that Infocom included with their games. Contents: LTOI 1 (20 Games): Ballyhoo Beyond Zork Deadline Enchanter Hitchhiker's Guide Infidel Lurking Horror Moonmist Planetfall Sorcerer Spellbreaker Starcross Stationfall Suspect Suspended The Witness Zork Zero Zork 1 Zork 2 Zork 3 LTOI 2 (11 Games): A Mind...Voyaging Border Zone Bureaucracy Cutthroats Hollywood Hijinx Nord & Bert Plundered Hearts Seastalker Trinity Sherlock: Crown Jewels Wishbringer ------------------------------------------------------------------ Thank you for helping to keep text adventures alive! - o -