Panak Strikes!

Ballyhoo

Steve Panak

BALLYHOO
by Jeff O'Neill
INFOCOM
125 CambridgePark Drive
Cambridge, MA 02140
48K Disk $39.95

You wander slowly among the milling throng of the curious... and the curiosities. The fat lady, the man/woman and other "freaks" excite morbid fascination in the crowd. The daredevils -- tightrope walkers and trapeze artists -- move about, too, with children pointing out their favorites...

Except one small child, who's missing, kidnapped in what soon turns out to be a circus festering with crime. There's gambling, kidnapping and, yes, murder.

That's how it seems to outsiders. To those behind the scenes (a group you'll join shortly), there's a different story -- one less happy than that the clowns portray.

In Infocom's newest work of interactive fiction, you're drawn into a crime committed in an otherwise joyous place. Like Deadline and Witness before it, this game is a mystery.

Infocom's interactive fiction falls into categories: mystery, science fiction, or fantasy, to name a few. They're not for everyone. Still, even though I'd prefer a good sci-fi thriller, this predisposition doesn't keep me from enjoying a well written whodunit.

While not exactly a sequel, Ballyhoo continues Infocom's now-legendary tradition of producing the highest quality software. It's a standard level game, so its puzzles will perplex you for twenty-plus hours.

More important, its characters and prose will stay with you for months. You won't be able to forget the various circus mutants, even if you try. To make things worse, Ballyhoo adds original (twisted) Infocom humor to the experience.

I really don't want to ruin the gags by giving them away. Like all great humor, its basis is surprise, but... After a particularly clumsy attempt at a dangerous maneuver, you're told: You have died. Well, not quite died. The doctors do what they can, but, as the debts rise and the prognosis dips, you take the only avenue left and sell yourself to the circus. As the Human Armadillo, you enjoy top billing as a popular midway attraction.

And, once you discover the secrets here, permanently joining the circus will be the farthest thing from your mind. It's a sleazy circus, where unwanted, late-staying curiosity seekers are lovingly referred to as "lotlice." Your very discovery will excite the cretins to anger (at least), usually peppered with an unhealthy dose of violence.

What elevates this game above most other text-based adventures is the sheer range of responses. All logical choices at any point precipitate unique and entertaining replies. Its smart, abrasive, taunting attitute can push your ire past the brink of rationality; its prose will never bore you.

The huge vocabulary minimizes the number of "clone" responses, such as I don't recognize the word "alien." Red herrings abound. Usually the "solution" you try first will fail; your final choice will succeed. Sometimes I got the feeling that pauses for disk loads had been adjusted in length and timed for dramatic effect.

The program performs nearly perfectly, following Infocom tradition. Extensive prerelease testing has exterminated most bugs, although I found one minor problem.

When saving a game, if you fail to insert the story disk properly, the program halts and displays an error message, rather than prompting the now irritated user to insert the disk correctly.

As usual, the Infocom package is more than a simple game disk. The manual is a circus souvenir program. In addition to describing fully how the game's played (without giving away any of the secrets within), it supplies background data on some of the big top's fabulous characters.

Rounding out the package is a balloon, an admission ticket and a card detailing Dr. Nostrum's Extract (a circus snake oil). As always, Invisiclues are only an order blank (and $7.95) away.

There are imitators and innovators. With each new work, Infocom again falls into the latter category. Built on the firm Zork foundation, Ballyhoo fills yet another wing of the incredible Infocom library. For those who enjoy their visits to its hallowed halls, this is a wing they should explore.

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