If I Don't, Then I Know A Man Who Does or The Lost Treasures of Infocom Found An article from James Johnston Very recently I moved from the Atari to the PC. When I disposed of my Atari equipment and programs, I could not bring myself to part with my small collection of Infocom adventures. Playing them had been such a pleasure and the 'way out' packaging was an added bonus. Who else would supply the following with your game (Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy) 1. Tin badge - Bright red with 'Don't Panic' on it. 2. Small plastic envelope containing 'a piece of fluff'. 3. A very small plastic envelope containing 'a microscopic space fleet'. 4. A pair of 'peril sensitive' glasses. 5. No Tea. 6. A Local Council Property Destruction Order to make way for a by-pass. 7. An Intergalactic Destruction Order for the removal of Earth. When I finally gave them to a close friend for safe keeping, it was the end of an era. I had made my computing way, by way of the ZX81, Sparky printer, Spectrum (Squishy), Micronet, Microdrives, Spectrum+, Spectrum 128, +D drive, Amstrad 486, Amstrad 6128, Atari STF, Atari STFM, Atari STE. All these machines I had great pleasure using as the systems used by the designers seemed to encourage you to experiment, and this added greatly to the hobby. Inevitably the day arrived when the PC took over. I didn't, and still don't, like it! When the Speccy 'crashed', you knew it, the screen filled with coloured squares or it crashed back to the copyright/start screen. A quick reset and everything was back to normal, ready to reload/restart. The PC freezes ... It just sits there and looks at you. You fiddle about but nothing happens - drastic measures are called for. Being a Spectrum person, naturally I reset the computer by switching off and on !!! (NOTE this method is not recommended as the switch off causes the hard disc read/write head to dig a small lump out of your hard disc. I now have 6 no go areas (faulty) on my hard disc). I am now reliably informed that I must find my way back to the desktop by way of the keys ALT, CTRL, Delete pressed simultaneously. Then close everything on the desktop and using the supplied program, close and restart the computer ... (Spit! Spit! Spit!). However, as I am using my PC as a Spectrum Emulator, the crashing of the Spectrum is dealt with by a recall of the emulator from the keyboard. While I enjoyed my PC Spectrum, I still hankered for my Infocoms and the other adventures I had enjoyed on the Atari. I replaced Sue's 'Oklib's Revenge' with the PC version and added 'The Second Pit'. Grueknapped has both Atari and PC versions on the disc, so thanks again to Neil Shipman. There are plenty of PD adventures available for the PC and I admit to having a few but no Infocoms ... And then the gods smiled ... I was wandering round one of our local 'Boot Sales' (Flea Markets, Garage Sales, Blanket Sales etc.) when I spied a couple of PC games boxes. Closer examination showed them to be Scrabble, Tetris and Treasures. Still closer examination (hands on) of Treasures and I found I was holding a copy of "The Lost Treasures of Infocom" for the PC. Twenty of the old adventures including Hitchhiker's Guide, on 5 floppy discs along with a pile of maps and two thick books - Manual and Hints Book. I did a 'dry mouthed' deal for 'seven quid the lot' and ran for home ( I was so excited, I forgot to ask if there was any more at home!!!) Back at H.Q ... I installed Scrabble and Tetris - No problem! I carefully followed the instructions for 'Treasures' and got nowhere. It kept returning to the desktop. Help was obviously required so I handed the installation over to my grandson (William McCole) and sat back. After some mumbo jumbo and patter he managed the installation and a menu on screen asked you to make your choice from 20 Infocom adventures - All the Zorks, Hitchhikers Guide ... Too many to list. First choice - Hitchhiker's Guide - It worked beautifully! Seven pounds for 20 Infocom Adventures. What a bargain !! Put on Zork 1 ... Zork 1 loaded but there were additional characters printed on the screen at 'TURNS', INPUT, etc. Thus while the game played, these 'stupid' characters were repeated with every input. We tried all we knew. Reread the instructions, Reinstalled the program but no improvement. Young Wills was convinced that the discs were OK and it was either a minor fault in the configuration or a Windows 95 compatibility problem. This especially as the installation program sarcastically asked him to upgrade his DOS to 3.5 (My current DOS is around version 7). At this point Wills suggested that we contact 'a man who knows' -- - The Grue. The Grue and Wills spoke for some time on the phone and The Grue suggested that it was probably the 'ANSI file' (character file) that was causing the trouble and that the discs were OK. The Grue also offered further practical help, if required, if we would come along to his lair around lunch time. Thanking him, we set out to examine the 'ANSI file' but finished up with another unsatisfactory installation. At this point I was for cutting my losses. The Hitchhiker's Guide worked perfectly and that more than covered my outlay. However, after checking all the adventures, we found that Zork Zero, Beyond Zork and Hitchhiker's Guide all worked perfectly and transferred them to individual floppy discs. Wills was not a happy lad, as he takes part success as a form of failure. The only hard fact was that the adventures not in '.data form' worked which brought it straight back to the interpreter (and ANSI file). As the evening wore on I suggested that we leave it till tomorrow when fresh minds and additional help would be available. Wills agreed but started looking up international times. He found that our time of evening was 3 p.m.. on the American West Coast, where the main Infocom help (Activision) lived. After a slight delay over a phone number change and a slow process through various buttons on the phone, he was talking to 'Dan' at Activision. Dan, though he did not know himself, quickly contacted the right people and was able to confirm the problem was that the system file was not using the ANSI file. The correcting line was given, as were our thanks in return. Once this minor modification was carried out, the whole 'shebang' worked on cue - 20 beautiful Infocom adventures all working perfectly and all those lovely maps .... not to mention hint books ... etc ... etc. If ever the expression "I don't but I know a man who does" was seen in operation, this was surely it! It brought home to me how much we owe to people like 'The Grue', SynTax, Probe, etc., and all the others who offer help in various ways, free of charge, to us, the adventurers ... Lang May Their Lum Reek!!! I am not a shiny-eyed sentimentalist by any means, more of a disillusioned old crumbly but I'm glad I know a man, who if he doesn't know, knows a man who does !!!!!!! The People Who Know The Grue - The Ultimate Infocom Helpline 01695 573141 Mon to Fri, 7.30 p.m. to 9 p.m. or write to - 64 County Road, Ormskirk, West Lancs. L39 1QH Probe - Adventure Probe 0151 280 5616 Afternoons and Evenings or write to - 52 Burford Road, Liverpool. L16 6AQ SynTax - Sue Medley 0181 302 6598 at any reasonable time. or write to - 9 Warwick Road, Sidcup, Kent. DA14 6LJ Infocom - The Activision Helpline 001 301 255 2050. It is in California somewhere. They are 8 hours behind us and only work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon to Fri. In our time, that is 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. in the morning ! Be Warned - using the Activision helpline involves a wait of some 10 minutes and moving to various sections by button presses before you reach your planned destination. However, it does contain everything including Spycraft, Mechwarrior etc. - o -