Games, v7(2)

~2 minute read

Feb 1983

Games & Books

Deadline

Stephanie A. Spadaccini

Deadline (Infocom, available on disk for Apple II Plus, Atari 800, IBM PC, NEC PC-8000, CP/M, and PDP 11; requires 32K; $49.95)

As this unusual computer game opens, you are standing on the grounds of a large estate. The owner, a wealthy industrialist named Robner, has died under suspicious circumstances, and you, the detective, must investigate.

Besides the floppy disk, your game kit includes copies of interviews with all the suspects (characters that seem to have come right out of an Agatha Christie story), lab reports, a photograph of the scene of the crime, and even a few tablets of the drug that did poor Mr. Robner in. Since the game is text rather than graphics, you'll need to visualize the rest of the clues.

As you move about the house and grounds, the computer tells you whom and what you see. You can question suspects, check for fingerprints, examine objects, and even try to eavesdrop. The game is highly interactive, in that your actions directly influence those of the suspects. (If you're not careful, you can even become the killer's next victim!) You must solve the crime within a certain time, or start over. The game is often as frustrating as it is intriguing. Even after you've learned what types of questions the computer will and will not allow you to ask —- this alone may take several tries —- you'll find yourself racking your brain for ways to discover new information —- only to meet with exchanges like the following. Player: Examine mud. Computer. The spots are all of some sort of dried dirt or mud. They are not arranged regularly but are bunched in the area between the balcony and the desk. Player: Pick up mud. Computer: Surely you jest. Player: Analyze mud. Computer. Sgt. Duffy appears with a puzzled look on his face. "With all respect, I don’t think I can take that to the laboratory."

If you feel your investigation is getting nowhere, there's a newsletter that provides hints for this and other computer games. For information, write: ZORK User Group, Box 20923, Milwaukee, WI 53220.

This article appeared in
Games
Feb 1983

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