~2 minute readAsk Jennifer
Jennifer is one of the dedicated Customer Support representatives who answer Infocom's Technical Hotline, providing support for users who need immediate assistance on technical matters. This month, Jennifer provides answers to some of the most common questions and problems that she receives calls about. Hopefully, dealing with the most common problems in this forum will help thousands of users avoid expensive long-distance phone calls. However, if you have a technical problem other than one of those listed here, don't hesitate to call the Technical Hotline, (617) 576-3190. But try not to call between 2:30 and 3:00; that's when Jennifer is taking her nap.
Why do I get a "fatal error" when I try to boot my disk?
My daddy told me that these errors are caused by little goblins. Some of these goblins live in the disk drive, and some live in the disk itself. If you send me your disk, I'll give it to Tommy here at Infocom, and he'll tell me whether there are any goblins living in your disk. If there are, we'll send you a brand new disk without any goblins in it. If there aren't, I'll send you back your disk. Then you'll have to take your disk drive to the store where you bought it, and have them kick out the goblins.
One of the things that was supposed to be in my game package wasn't in it.
Oops, sorry! Occasionally, workers on the assembly line goof when they're making up a package. In fact, I was working on the assembly line just last month [see story on page 3 — Ed.] assembling Deadline™ packages, and I realized after doing around 700 that I was putting in pieces of my bubble gum instead of "Pills Found Near the Body." I didn't tell anyone, though, 'cause I was afraid they'd spank me.
Anyway, just send me a letter with some proof of purchase, like the sales slip from the game, and I'll send along the missing piece. It might take me a while, though, 'cause a lot of the pieces are kept on top of a cabinet and only the grownups can reach up there.
Save and Restore aren't working in my game.
That's goblins again.
I found a bug in the game.
I don't like to hear about bugs; they're really scary. In fact sometimes at night in bed in the dark you can hear them scurrying around on the floor and you have to keep your eyes closed absolutely tight with your blanket completely wrapped around you or else they'll attack and eat you up. But if you call me or send me a letter, and tell me the bug and the name of the game and the release number, I'll pass it along to someone who isn't so afraid of bugs.
Can you give me a hint?
No! I can't and I won't. And if you don't stop asking me, I'll throw a tantrum! I'm only here for important tek ... tek ... technikul matters. If you need help playing the game, you can order a hint booklet by calling (800) 262-6868. By the way, hint booklets are printed in invisible ink which you get to develop yourself — they're really neat!
This article appeared in
New Zork Times, The
Jan-Mar 1985
These historical, out-of-print articles and literary works have been GNUSTOed onto InvisiClues.org for academic and research purposes.
