🧭 THE ARCHIVES

Quote of the day

You climb into the bed. It is soft and comfortable. After a few moments, a previously unseen panel opens, and a diagnostic robot comes wheeling out. It is very rusty and sways unsteadily, bumping into several pieces of infirmary equipment as it crosses the room. As the robot straps you to the bed, you notice some smoke curling from its cracks. Beeping happily, the robot injects you with all 347 serums and medicines it carries. The last thing you notice before you pass out is the robot preparing to saw your legs off.

-- Planetfall

Factoid of the day

One of the main characters in the Infocomic ZorkQuest: Assault on Egreth Castle is named Gurthark, an apparent reference to the spider-like alien creature from Starcross: "The spider tells you his name is 'Gurthark-tun-Besnap,' (or something more-or-less that)."

*Infocom introduces four new games. One really smells.*
Oct 1986

Computer Entertainer, v4(10)

~2 minute read

Jan 1986

CRITICALLY SPEAKING..

A Mind Forever Voyaging

A MIND FOREVER VOYAGING (NA / ⭐⭐⭐⭐) is called "Interactive Fiction Plus" by Infocom for its greatly increased vocabulary and ease of communication. (This comes at a price, however, since the program runs only on computers with at least 128K RAM.) Written by Steve Meretzky, this story of the 21st century casts you as PRISM, the world's first truly sentient computer. Society in the United States of North America, and indeed the entire world, seems to be on a downward spiral. (Take all of the worst that is happening in today's world, magnify it many times, and that is the dreary picture painted in this scneario of the year 2031.) Enter the Plan for Renewed National Purpose, the drastic solution proposed by one Senator and a group of society's leaders. Everyone wants to believe the Plan will work, but there is only one way to be sure. PRISM will embark on a simulation of the future, ten years hence, to test the effects of the Plan. Now YOU are the mind of that sentient computer on a mission to save humanity from itself.

Life As a Computer

Being a computer, you (as PRISM) can operate in any of five different modes: Communications, Library, Interface, Sleep, and Simulation. Of these, Simulation is the most similar to other interactive text games because you can move around and manipulate objects in the environment. This is the mode where the structure of the Plan is tested: PRISM essentially records the future as it would be after enactment of the Plan. Other modes allow PRISM to explore databases for information (very useful), rest its mind, and interact with other devices. Puzzles are kept to a minimum in this program where exploration of the future is the key, and the visions are fascinating. The concept of the program is riveting -- perhaps because it's so totally believable. Science fiction fans will barely come up for air once they become immersed in this game. (Solo play; Keyboard.) Available for Amiga, 128K Apple II, Atari ST, IBM PC/PCjr, 512K Macintosh.

Recommended. (MSR $44.95)

These historical, out-of-print articles and literary works have been GNUSTOed onto InvisiClues.org for academic and research purposes.