 ![[U. S. A.]](Infocom_files/usa.gif) Infocom
For more information about Infocom, see the files gameinfo.txt
and fact-sheet.txt.
In a message dated 1999-02-20 to the rec.games.int-fiction news
group, Brian 'Beej' Hall (beej@ecst.csuchico.edu) showed a message
from Activision regarding the Infocom games:
Brian: I recently purchased Masterpieces of Infocom,
and think it's great. (I knew I would.) And I thought it was a
great gesture when you guys did Zork: The Undiscovered Underground
and released it for free. Furthermore I thought it was great that
you released the Zork trilogy for free.
See a pattern emerging?
I think it would be utterly fantastic if you would release the
other Infocom games for free (unsupported) download. You would be
making tens of thousands of people very very happy.
I would appreciate it if you would forward this memo to the
appropriate people.
Activition: It probably wouldn't surprise you to know
that you are not alone in having these sentiments. While there's
no official word on this happening yet, with the lowering prices
of these titles, and the increasing pervasiveness of the Internet,
none of us would be surprised to see them put those out there.
While I can't give you an answer, take heart in knowing that your
sentiment has already been conveyed.
Thanks again for writing,
Justin Mills
Activision Customer Support
There are inofficial sites about Infocom: They are or have been distributed by Activision, Inc, Commodore, Softsel and Mastertronic.
For more information, see Personal Software, Commodore, Legend, Interplay Productions, First Row Software, Accolade, Cascade Mountain Publishing, A. N. A. L. O. G. Computing, LucasArts and Westwood Studios.
The Zork Series
The Zork series of games comes originally from the mainframe
Zork. This game was then split up into three parts and
converted to a commercial product marketed by Personal Software. They only
got to the first part before Infocom took over and marketed the
games themselves, bringing the series up to three games, in total
more or less corresponding to the original mainframe Zork. Later,
Infocom also released Beyond Zork and Zork Zero set in the same
world but adding some new features (on-screen mapping in Beyond
Zork, graphics in Zork Zero).
Later, after Activision took
over Infocom they began releasing new graphical Zork games.
Activision has made the Zork games freely availbale. You can get
them here.
For more information, see Mainframe adventures.
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Type: Text only
Written 1980 by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling.
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Type: Text only
Written 1981 by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling.
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Type: Text only
Written 1982 by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling.
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Package blurb: An old, oddly youthful man turns toward you slowly. His long,
silver hair dances about him as a fresh breeze blows. "You
have reached the final test, my friend! You are proved clever
and powerful, but this is not yet enough! Seek me when you
feel yourself worthy!"
ZORK III: THE DUNGEON MASTER draws you into the deepest and
most mysterious reaches of the Great Underground Empire.
Nothing is as it seems. And the one responsible for the
shadow and darkness - the Dungeon Master - embodies the
greatest mystery of all.
In this test of wisdom and courage, you will face countless
dangers. But what awaits you at the culmination of your
odyssey is well worth risking all.
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Type: TO (with on-screen map)
Written 1987 by Brian Moriarty.
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Type: Bitmap graphics
Written 1988 by Steve Meretzky.
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The Enchanter Trilogy
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Type: Text only
Written 1983 by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling.
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Package blurb: When the wicked power of the Warlock subjugates this land,
his magic defenses will recognize all who have attained the
Circle of Enchanters.
So, to a novice we speak - one yet unproven who has the heart
to challenge and the skill to dare.
Sealed inside, you will find such wisdom and guidance as we
can provide. Stealth, resourcefulness, and courage you must
find within yourself. You are the sole hope of this land,
young ENCHANTER.
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Type: Text only
Written 1984 by Steve Meretzky.
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Package blurb: A cryptic diary is all that remains in the sanctum of Belboz
the necromancer, grand and powerful leader of the guild of
enchanters. It is feared that he is in thrall to evil
sorcery. If so, the freedom of the land and the very
existence of the circle of enchanters could be forfeit. To
rescue the kingdom and locate your mentor in the treacherous
mists of time, you must gain the powers and cunning of a true
SORCERER.
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Type: Text only
Written 1985 by Dave Lebling.
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Type: Text only
Written 1982 by Marc Blank.
Runs on:
Package blurb: When you take on DEADLINE, you're not just pitting yourself
against a 12-hour time limit to solve one of the cleverest
and most baffling cases in the detective genre. You're
encountering a totally original concept in interactive
adventure that literally puts the case in your hands. Working
from an actual dossier on the crime and piecing together the
myriad clues along the train, you face a challenge so
sophisticated that your suspects possess independent,
flesh-and-blood personalities. And some of those
personalities are so treacherous that, should you make the
wrong move, one of them may do you in.
Type: Text only
Written 1982 by Dave Lebling.
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Package blurb: STARCROSS, Infocom's mindbending science fiction first,
launches you headlong into the year 2186 and the depths of
space. And not without good readon, for you are destined at
that point in time to rendezvous with a gargantuan starship
from the outer fringes of the galaxy. Upon docking with the
strange craft, you must succees in gaining entry to its
mysterious interior. Once within, you will explore as
startling, complex and engaging a world as any in Infocom's
universe, and come face to face with other-wordly beings,
both helpful and harmful. But the great starship serves a far
larger purpose than mere cultural exchange. It conveys a
challenge that was issued eons ago, from light-years away -
and only you can meet it.
Type: Text only
Written 1983 by Michael Berlyn.
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Package blurb: They said you would sleep for half a millenium - not an
unreasonable length of time, considering you'd be in limited
cryogenic suspension. Your body would rest frozen at the
planet's nerve center, an underground complex twenty miles
beneath the surface. Your brain, they told you, would be
wired to a network of computers; your mind would continue to
operate at a minimal level, overseeing maintenance of
surface-side equilibrium. And you would not awake, so they
promised, until your five hundred years had elapsed -
barring, of course, the most dire emergency.
Good morning.
In SUSPENDED, you will strategivally manipulate six robots.
Each has a distinct perception of the world, and offers you
specific abilities. For instance, one specializes in sight, a
second in hearing, and a third in accessing information from
computer memory banks. Through them, you will solve an
intertwined myriad of realistic and original problems. Should
you find yourself baffled by some of the more intricate
puzzles, you may wish to consult the underground complex's
built-in advisory peripheral for hints.
The first time you play SUSPENDED will not be your last. It
continually challenges you to hone your strategies and
develop new ones, to explore new areas and interactions, and
in so doing to improve your score each time you play. And
even if you succeed in mastering the first level of play, an
advanced second level waits in the program to test your
mettle again and yet again. In fact, the game is so designed
that you can alter conditions at will before starting,
effectively allowing you to customize the game into a new
kind of SUSPENDED whenever you desire.
Type: Text only
Written 1983 by Stu Galley.
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Package blurb: Dead: one gilt-edged society dame. And now it looks like some
two-bit grifter is putting the screws to her
multi-millionaire old man. All in all, a pretty typical
Angeleno clan for these days. But then the shakedown turns
ugly, and you're left with a stiff and a race against the
clock to nail your suspect ... if, that is, you don't cash in
your chips ahead of time!
February, 1938. FDR's New Deal is finally rolling. Hitler's
rolling too; this time, through Austria. But as Chief Police
Detective for a quiet burgh on the outskirts of L. A., you've
got other fish to fry. Working from a clue-laden police file
and battling a 12-hour time limit, you're up against your
toughest case to date: a sordid family affair that may land
everyone from the knockout heiress to the pokerfaced Oriental
butler in the slammer before it's over. Ahead of you is a
Gordian knot of motives and alibis to untangle, and the only
testimony you can trust is that of your own eyes - because
you are The WITNESS.
Type: Text only
Written 1983 by Steve Meretzky.
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Package blurb: "Join the Patrol, and see that Galaxy!" You'd taken the
poster's advice, bait and all, and marched right over to the
recruitment station near your home on one of Gallium's
backwater moons. A youth's dream of exotic worlds, strange
and colorful aliens, and Deep Space heroics, had danced in
your head as you signed the dotted line. Ninety-five
millichrons later, you'd emerged with a buzz-cut scalp and a
permanent layer of de-licing spray covering your body. Also,
there was a mop in your hand. You'd been commissioned Ensign
7th Class, Code KP8: licenced to swab. And since that day,
the closest you've come to Deep Space heroism was scrubbing
down the radioactive leper colony on Ishmael-3.
But suppose that jumbo fortune cookie you got at Qwang's
Take-out Asteroid last shore leave was right, and your luck
does take a turn for the better. Mayby you will indeed
narrowly escape disaster. Perhaps you really are about to
take an unexpected journey, and meet a short, mysterious
stranger. It's even possible that you'll actually travel to
an unknown corner of the universe, where you'll save a doomed
planet - or die in the attempt. In fact, we'll guarantee it -
every last crumb of it. Because that's just the way the
cookie crumbles, here in the next dimension.
Type: Text only
Written 1983 by Michael Berlyn and Patricia Fogleman.
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Package blurb: There's an old Egyptian fable that tells how a sacrilegious
camel once dined on a high priest's pocketwatch, only to
awake in the morning with a bellyful of ticks. The moral,
needless to say, is that one should never bite off more than
one can can stomach.
Evidently, you failed to heed this wisdom - else why would
you, a small-time explorer, dare to brave the smouldering
heart of the Egyptian Desert in search of a greaat lost
pyramid? Now, too lats, you suspect that your boldness has
been your undoing, for at this very moment you find yourself
marooned by your followers, pursued by the vultures of death,
and sustained only by the faint hope that you can somehow
survive to reach the pyramid - where the skullduggery,
pitfalls, and cliffhanging adventures will really begin.
What indomitable inner resource is it that drives you ever
onward against such desperate odds? Pride? Unflinching
devotion to the cause of archaeological science? Or could it
possibly be the prospect that the treasures concealed within
the tomb are worth enough on the open market to keep you
rolling in filthy lucre for the rest of your born days? We
leave the question open, with this footnote: Your quest
transcends mere fortune. Here, amid the shifting sands of
eternity, dignity and self-esteem are at stake. For you are
branded INFIDEL.
Type: Text only
Written 1984 by Stu Galley and Jim Lawrence.
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Package blurb: There's something down there, something terrifying. Now
you've got to face it... because now only you can save the
Aquadome - the world's first undersea research station.
The alarm sounds and your submarine, the Scimitar, stands
waiting. But not so fast - you haven't even tested the
Scimitar in deep water, and the crew at the Aquadome may have
a traitor in its ranks. So be careful! You have terrifying
possibilities to consider, mysteries to unravel,
life-and-death decisions to make.
Success won't come easily. It may not come at all - because
if you challence the deep without all your wits, you just
might wind up as shark bait.
Type: Text only
Written 1984 by Michael Berlyn and Jerry Wolper.
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Type: Text only
Written 1984 by Douglas Adams and Steve Meretzky.
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Notes: Based on the book of the same name by Douglas Adams
Type: Text only
Written 1984 by Dave Lebling.
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Type: Text only
Written 1985 by Brian Moriarty.
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Type: Text only
Written 1985 by Steve Meretzky.
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Type: Text only
Written 1985 by Jeff O'Neill.
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Type: Text only
Written 1986 by Brian Moriarty.
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Type: Text only
Written 1986 by Steve Meretzky.
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Type: Text only
Written 1986 by Stu Galley and Jim Lawrence.
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Type: Text only
Written 1986 by Dave Anderson and Liz Cyr-Jones.
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Type: Text only
Written 1987 by Douglas Adams et al.
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Type: Text only
Written 1987 by Steve Meretzky.
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Notes: Sequel to Planetfall.
Type: Text only/Sound
Written 1987 by Dave Lebling.
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Type: Text only
Written 1987 by Jeff O'Neill.
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Type: Text only
Written 1987 by Amy Briggs.
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Type: Text only
Written 1987 by Marc Blank.
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Type: Text only/Sound
Written 1987 by Bob Bates.
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Type: Bitmap graphics
Written 1989 by Dave Lebling.
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Notes: Based on the book of the same name by James Clavell.
Type: Bitmap graphics
Written 1989 by Marc Blank.
Runs on:
Type: Bitmap graphics
Written 1989 by Bob Bates and Duane Beck.
Runs on:
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Zork I: The Great Underground Empire
Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz
Zork III: The Dungeon Master
Beyond Zork
Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz
Enchanter
Sorcerer
Spellbreaker
Deadline
Starcross
Suspended
The Witness
Planetfall
Infidel
Seastalker
Cutthroats
The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Suspect
Wishbringer: The Magick Stone of Dreams
A Mind Forever Voyaging
Ballyhoo
Trinity
Leather Goddesses of Phobos
Moonmist
Hollywood Hijinx
Bureaucracy
Stationfall
The Lurking Horror
Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It
Plundered Hearts
Border Zone
Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels
James Clavell's Shogun
Journey
Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur