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nfocom was a software company formed by former students and staff from M.I.T. in 1979. They were primarily known for games, or more specifically, text adventure games or Interactive Fiction. Zork was bought by Activision in 1986 and they technically shut down the division in 1989 though the name would be used on occasion in the 1990s.
Infocom became famous for Zork, which was originally released in 1980, and its sequels. Part of the success of Zork was due to the fact that it was released on a huge number of platforms over the years. Wikipedia lists 17 platforms for the original Zork. This was made possible by the way Zork was implemented. Zork as well as its sequels and most other Infocom games were written in Z-Code for the Z-Machine virtual machine that Infocom created. The ‘Z’ standing for ‘Zork’. Once the Z-Machine was ported to a platform, any of Infocom’s games could be made to run on that platform with little or no effort. Game play was pretty straightforward. A textual description of your location and what was happening is presented to the player. The player can then type in words and simple phrases to do things. For example, “open door” might open a door, “Take sword” would let you pick up the sword, etc.
Enchanter was released in 1983 and was the next game Infocom published after the Zork trilogy was finished, starting a new trilogy. In it, the player plays the role of a novice Enchanter sent to stop a powerful evil warlock. It is thought by the Circle of Enchanters that you are so weak that the warlock won’t notice or pay attention to you thereby giving you an opportunity to defeat him. Other than adding a spell system, the game played pretty much the same way as the Zork games. However, if you were a fan then you couldn’t get enough.
Sorcerer was the second game in the Enchanter Trilogy and was released the following year in 1984. In this game you have progressed from being an apprentice to being a member of the Circle of Enchanters. The head of the circle starts acting strangely and then disappears leaving a mystery for you to solve. Sorcerer added potions to the mix but otherwise plays similarly to Enchanter.
Finally, Spellbreaker was released in 1985 to close out the trilogy. This one is considered to be somewhat harder than the others. Spellbreaker is set 10 years after the previous game. Magic itself seems to be failing and in a meeting on the topic, the leaders of all the guilds have gathered. All suddenly turn into newts or frogs or other creatures except for yourself and another mysterious person you see running away. Another mystery for you to solve. In this game you will learn new and powerful spells that must be used in unique ways. Unfortunately , since magic is failing, they won’t always work.
While text adventures are not as popular as they once were (or at all) these days, everybody should give one a try. Zork is a great entry point but then so is Enchanter. Once upon a time, these games were hugely popular. Fortunately, the Z-Machine has been ported to a variety of modern platforms so it is possible to play these games today without too much difficulty. Of course, if you want the full effect, find some original floppies for the Commodore 64 or your vintage platform of choice so that you have the anticipation created by disk loading times.
