Re: Infocom and the Test of Time

[Second April <dns361@merle.acns.nwu.edu>]

> Nord & Bert - Pretty damn bad. Of course this is not a traditional game, and
> since english isn't my first language I might not appreciate all of the humour
> in it. But I thought the whole concept was uninteresting, and rather silly.
> I ended up using the hints for the entire last chapter...

A lot of the humor in Nord & Bert turns on cliches or idioms that you
might not have recognized, particularly in the "Buy the Farm" and "Eat
Your Words" sections; I found those parts pretty funny, though others were
less inspired ("Act the Part," I always thought, was particularly weak).
It's an uneven effort, but the high points are quite good if you're
familiar with the wordplay.

> Seastalker - Ok, this is aimed at beginners, and might be a good game for
> younger people. But it's very short, really. If you know what to do you can
> get through it in 15 minutes.

It is pretty short, and the middle section seems almost comical--lots of
characters come running up to you and say "Gee, Fred, there's a problem in
the C sector! Do you suppose I should take the obvious steps to solve it?"
"Okay, done!" But I'd hold this to a lower standard.

> Sherlock - One of the better ones, although you can solve many of the problems
> 'by accident', that is, you can solve problems before you know you have to.
> In a detective story, the fun should be to see the plot unfold, but this is
> more a treasure hunt than anything else.

I found this one somewhat disappointing--and I played it when it was first
released--though it has a few nice puzzles. I don't remember solving
puzzles before I knew I had to, though.

> Plundered Hearts - Well, being male, maybe I have a bit of a problem
> identifying with a girl falling for a dashing pirate...all in all, it's an ok
> game, although the story doesn't do much for me. Once again, it strikes me
> as very short...my memories of the old Infocom games was that they were huge,
> but that may have been compared to the other IF games around at that time...

I think Plundered Hearts is shorter than most--perhaps because the
designer spent more time and memory fleshing out NPCs than coding puzzles.
(There are more, and better, NPCs than in most Infocom entries.)

> Having said all of the above (which is very IMHO, of course), I must say that
> about ten years ago, I was a huge fan of Infocom. I bought Planetfall,
> Stationfall, Hollywood Hijinx, Ballyhoo, Starcross and Cutthroats for my C64,
> and loved them...(well, maybe not Ballyhoo, that had some strange ideas in
> it..)

Interesting, since Cutthroats (sorry, Mike, but it's true) and Hollywood
Hijinx are often considered substandard by Infocom fans. (I've played 
them and I have to agree.) Don't discount the effects of the feelies,
including the packaging, and the cognitive dissonance aspect of paying a
good deal for one game--you may have been more inclined to consider them
good games because you paid $30 or $40.

> I think part of it is that the genre has evolved since then. There are many
> games in the if-archive that are at least as good as Infocom ever was, and a
> few that is better.

True. (Remember, however, that Infocom was dealing with space and memory
limitations that don't plague current game authors.) Even in the best of
the best--Spellbreaker in particular--there's plenty of unimplemented
scenery, which would earn those games some bad press today but which was
no big deal then. I played some of the Infocom titles when I was a wee
lad, and the only one I remember being really disappointed in was
Moonmist--and at the age of 12, I was probably getting a little old for
that one anyway. When I tried others recently for the first time, I found
several not quite up to par--for that matter, when I went back and looked
at some that I _had_ played long ago, I thought they didn't all measure
up. (Sorcerer in particular, and Zork I is pretty clunky in some ways.)
But the good ones--Enchanter, Spellbreaker, Trinity, Beyond Zork,
Infidel--well, they're still pretty good. (And I played Starcross,
Suspended, and Deadline for the first time in the last year or so and was
favorably impressed.)

There's a range in quality of Infocom games, in short. The best still look
good, even after GMD has changed the scene; the others are now average at
best.

Duncan Stevens
d-stevens@nwu.edu
773-728-9721

Love in the open hand, no thing but that,
Ungemmed, unhidden, wishing not to hurt,
As one should bring you cowslips in a hat
Swung from her hand, or apples in her skirt,
I bring you, calling out as children do,
"Look what I have!--And these are all for you."

--Edna St. Vincent Millay