Activision Macintosh Quadra 605 (25MHz 68LC040) N/A Infocom Collections Reviewed by: Jon Ostenson North of House You are facing the north side of a white house. There is no door here, and all the windows are boarded up. To the north a narrow path winds through the trees. >look at the house The house is a beautiful colonial house which is painted white. It is clear that the owners must have been extremely wealthy. >go north Forest Path This is a path winding through a dimly lit forest. The path heads north-south here. One particularly large tree with some low branches stands at the edge of the path. >climb up the tree Up a Tree You are about 10 feet above the ground nestled among some large branches. The nearest branch above you is above your reach. Beside you on the branch is a small bird's nest. In the bird's nest is a large egg encrusted with precious jewels, apparently scavenged by a childless songbird. The egg is covered with fine gold inlay, and ornamented in lapis lazuli and mother-of-pearl. Unlike most eggs, this one is hinged and closed with a delicate looking clasp. The egg appears extremely fragile. If the above snippet (from the game Zork) looks familiar to you, you'll no doubt be interested in Activations re-release of the original Infocom classic adventure games. Back in the days of 8-bit computers and before the likes of Myst, Infocom was king--their text adventure games challenged thousands (myself included). Infocom has since disappeared, and Activision now owns the rights to these games. In their re-release, they've placed most of Infocom's original games on five CD-ROMs divided by genre (Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery, Comedy, and Science Fiction). These games (over thirty in all) will take you just about anywhere: from being a deck-swabbing ensign aboard an interstellar cruiser to an intrepid explorer in the Great Underground Empire to a detective struggling to unravel the twisted motives and clues behind a grisly murder. The stories range from serious drama to lighthearted poking fun at the government. No matter what your preferences, there's sure to be a game in this collection that will strike your fancy. Gameplay & Interface Since these games were created during the era of the 8-bit computer, you won't find dazzling 3D graphics and effects, nor is there any mouse-driven navigation. Gameplay takes place by means of a command-line interface; you "communicate" with your on-screen alter ego through conversational sentences and commands (i.e., "Take the bottle then give it to the hobo"). Infocom developed a remarkable parser that understands more than you'd imagine (sometimes, too, more than you'd want it to understand). The parser makes navigating through areas and manipulating objects relatively easy, although it does have its limits. Communicating with the game can sometimes be frustrating if you don't know exactly what the parser expects you to type. While these games may seem austere and backwards by toady's standards, the stories are as complex and challenging as the best games on the market today. Each game is sure to keep you involved for hours as you try and find your way to a solution. One of the keys to succeeding at text adventure games like these is making maps and reading every single word that the computer spits out at you. You will consult your map quite frequently, as exploration is also vital to completing these games. If you do remember the days when these games came from Infocom, you'll also remember Infocom's clever packaging. Make-believe ID cards, parchments, and even "Don't Panic!î buttons were standard fare. Unfortunately, Activision has not reproduced exactly these ingenious extras. Documentation is not sparse, though, and each game's original manual has been reproduced along with as many accouterments as possible. Most games also include maps to aid you in navigating through the game's complex story. Difficulty & Replayability Infocom's games are well-known for being difficult. Each game presents a nice combination of difficult and less-difficult puzzles that provide nice variety throughout the game. The nice things about these games, since they are quite old, is that hints and solutions are readily available on the Web. While you probably won't get stuck too often, there are bound to be a few puzzles in each game that are just stumpers but that's all a part of the fun!). The stories are all basically linear (with only a couple of exceptions), so there isn't really any opportunity for replayability. Conclusion If you remember the original Infocom series, these games are worth it just for nostaligia's sake. But even if the concept of text adventures is new to you, you'll find a depth and complexity to these stories and your ability to interact with them that is rarely found in today's more graphical adventures.