The Witness
| Implementers |
Stu Galley |
| Release Year | 1983 |
| Genre | Mystery |
| Difficulty | Standard |
FEBRUARY 1938, LOS ANGELES. FDR's New Deal is finally rolling. Hitler's rolling, too; this time through Austria. But as Chief Detective for a quiet burgh on the outskirts of L.A., you've got other fish to fry.
One gilt-edged society dame is dead. And now it looks like some two-bit grifter is putting the screws to her multi-millionaire old man. Then you step in, and the shakedown turns ugly. You're left with a stiff and a race against the clock to nail your suspect...unless you get nailed first!
Nobody said a sordid family affair like this was going to be a cinch. Everyone from the knockout heiress to the poker-faced butler may end up in the slammer before it's over. Ahead of you is a Gordian knot of motives and alibis. And the only testimony you can trust is that of your own eyes -- because you are The WITNESS.
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From the Library (9 articles)
The Witness Review
Everything about The Witness reflects the style of the pulp detective magazines of the late thirties and early forties â history, rather than science fiction, from our perspective. And all the era-relevant details of the game and the package have been carefully researched for accuracy. . . .
~3 minute read
They're writing as fast as they can: Witness News
Infocom's long-awaited second mystery game is finally announced, and it was worth waiting for. The advance word is that it tops the highly acclaimed and tremendously popular Deadline. . . .
~1 minute read
Infocom Does It Again... And Again Review
With each new release, each new venture into a genre they have made famous, the people at Infocom, authors of Zork and, Deadline, seem to reaffirm a commitment to a level of quality and innovation that has guaranteed them not only a fiercely loyal following, but also an undisputed position at the forefront of the computer adventure market. . . .
~7 minute read
The Witness Review
Monica could have shot her father, Freeman Linder. She had every reason to â- her mother had said in her suicide note that she just couldn't take Freeman anymore. Coincidentally, Monica is now the heiress to his fortune, and besides, she left the house only a few minutes before the gunshots shattered the window and Linder died. . . .
~5 minute read
Infocom releases detective mystery News
INFOCOM have released a new game called Witness, based on a detective mystery. . . .
~1 minute read
The Witness Review
I can understand Marlowe's lament now that I've played The Witness, the second prose murder-mystery game from Infocom. I logged a considerable number of hours trying to crack this programmed puzzler, but the case remains unsolved, wide open, no good leads, no evidence that sticks. This is one mystery-game review you can read without worrying about the solution being revealed. . . .
~6 minute read
How the Witness Came to Be Feature
I got hooked on interactive fiction in early 1982, when I tested a preliminary version of Deadline. I had seen Zork and thought it was interesting, even fun, but the fantasy theme and the arbitrary nature of the puzzles did not excite me personally. But Deadline was different: it had a realistic setting, a realistic and coherent puzzle to solve, and a semblance of plot in its events and movements. So when, in the summer of 1982, I got the opportunity to work on a sequel, I took it! . . .
~7 minute read
The Witness Review
The date: February 1, 1938. The time: 8:00 p.m. The place: The Linder estate on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The crime: Murder. The detective: You. The task: Obtain enough proof to arrest and convict the guilty party within 12 hours of game time. You are The Witness. . . .
~2 minute read
Disk-Drive Detectives Feature
Half the fun of reading a mystery novel is trying to figure out "whodunnit" before you finish the book. Disk-drive detective games are even more fun because they transport you inside the story to solve a crime. Instead of passively reading about how a detective shrewdly digs up evidence and solves the mystery, you become the detective and actively participate in the drama. Cracking a case on your own â and you can't just flip to the last chapter to see who killed the butler â delivers a singular sense of accomplishment. Another important difference is that a novel's events always unfold in a fixed order set by the author. But many events in a detective game hinge on your decisions; arriving at the scene of the crime, you might choose to walk in the front door or sneak around back to look for footprints. And though they differ in presentation, the plot twists in disk-drive detective stories are often as surprising as those in a tale by Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler. . . .
~11 minute read
In the Box (21 images)
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Historical Sales Data
Weekly Sales Ranking
Top weekly ranking: #20
Weeks in top 20: 1
Source: Billboard's "Top Computer Software" charts, ostensibly prepared from retailer-provided sales data. Billboard began publishing software charts on 8 October 1983 and published the charts weekly until 31 August 1985, then biweekly or monthly beginning 14 September 1985. Billboards editors considered computer games a vulgar art and never took them seriously, making many typographical and factual errors in the retail charts, eventually discontinuing them on 27 September 1986.
Units Shipped By Year
| 1983 | |
| 1984 | |
| 1985 | |
| 19862 | |
| 87-893 |
Total units shipped: 76,550
Overall ranking: 12 of 33
Accounts for 3% of units sold
2 Data for 1986 includes units shipped through June 1986 only
3 Data for April 1987 - March 1989
Source: (1981-1989) Internal Infocom documents, archived by Steve Meretezky
Editions (3 formats)
Folio (1983-1984)
Outer game sleeve (cardstock)
Evidence folio (cardboard, brown)
Game disk in grey Infocom sleeve (no sleeve for 3-1/2" disk)
"Nat'l Detective Gazette" magazine
"The Register" newspaper page
Western Union telegram
Suicide note
Brass Lantern matchbook
System-specific reference card
Warranty registration card
Product catalog
Invisiclues order form OR ZUG flyer
Grey Box (1984-1987)
Game box, plastic cover over contents
Game manual and "Nat'l Detective Gazette" (bound into box)
Game disk in grey Infocom sleeve (no sleeve for 3-1/2" disk)
"The Register" newspaper
Western Union telegram
Suicide note
Brass Lantern matchbook
System-specific reference card
Warranty registration card
Product catalog
Invisiclues order form
Trilogy (1987-1989)
Game box, plastic cover over contents
Game manual and "Nat'l Detective Gazette" (bound into box)
Game disk in grey Infocom sleeve (no sleeve for 3-1/2" disk)
"The Register" newspaper
Western Union telegram
Suicide note
Brass Lantern matchbook
No marketing inserts
Bundled with Suspect and Moonmist Grey Box editions in a slipcase. Identical to the Grey Box edition, but does not include marketing inserts (in the Suspect box only)
