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“All the Grues ® The History of Zork — p. 6 That Fit, We Print” InfoNews Roundup — p. 9 The New Zork Times Puzzle — p. 12 VOL. 4. .No. 1 WINTER 1985 INTER-ATOMIC EDITION Cornerstone: “The Hottest New Business Product of 1985” On November 1st, at a press confer- games. ence in New York City, Infocom Cornerstone also simplifies data announced Cornerstone™, the first in entry. Whenever you've entered a new line of interactive business sufficient characters for Cornerstone software. to know what you want, it will Cornerstone is a full-featured complete the rest. Cornerstone will relational database management also check that your input meets system. Data management programs specified constraints (such as have traditionally fallen into two minimum or maximum values). And distinct camps: simple-to-use at any point, you can press the programs with very limited capabili- OPTIONS key to see a list of all ties, and full-featured programs that allowable data values. (A lexicogra- require the user to have program- pher in a cage?) ming skills (or to hire a consultant who does). Cornerstone was Why Business Products? designed to put all the power of this See page 6 second group into the hands of non- programmers. The other mainstay of Cornerstone With Cornerstone you can design, is flexibility. You're never locked build, and use sophisticated data into one way of doing things. If you management applications without need to look at your information in a writing a single line of code. These new way, you can create a new applications could be almost report in seconds (with no limit to anything — a personnel system, a the number of reports). If you need client-tracking system, or a roster of to add a third phone number for current Stellar Patrol assignments. Uncle Morris (he always tries to Once you've designed your database, keep one step ahead of the police), you can use Cornerstone for five Cornerstone opens up more room in major activities: storing large quan- his record — without adding wasted Cornerstone: The sophisticated database system for the non-programmer. tities of data, selecting data meeting space for everyone else. In fact, all specified criteria, sorting data in a information in Cornerstone is of particular order, calculating new variable length, so there's never a data, and reporting the data. In addi- need to specify how long anything Infocom Brings Hitchhiker’s tion, Cornerstone can convert data to will be. The ultimate test of flexibil- Back to Public Radio or from many other software ity is the ability to redefine your programs, such as word processors database. With Cornerstone you can We are proud to announce that Info- considered this radio serial the best and spreadsheets. do that at any time. com has now made it possible for all rendition of The Hitchhiker's Guide. In true Infocom tradition, Corner- Cornerstone comes with a wide radio listeners to pick up Hitch- If you have never heard it, you will stone is special in its style of interac- variety of tools to make it easy to hiker's! Before it was an interactive find it funny, outrageous, mind-bog- tion. But in contrast to the games, learn and to use. There's a Beginner's story, before it was a TV show, gling, and well worth listening to. Cornerstone is designed to make Guide with ten interactive lessons. before it was converted into four Beginning in January 1985, every decision clear and simple. There's an Owner's Handbook that phenomenal best-selling books, The episodes will be made available to ™ Most of the time, all you have to do explains, in clear English, all the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was public radio stations across the coun- is select an option from a menu. Cor- features of the program. There's even a twelve-part radio serial on Britain's try for inclusion in their schedules. nerstone then responds with a new a ready-to-use Client Tracking BBC. Now Infocom is sponsoring a Check local program listings for menu, or tells you that it's ready to system database, designed to keep rebroadcast of the entire serial on times — each station puts together execute your command. For all other client histories, generate mailing National Public Radio (NPR). its own schedule independently. If activities, Cornerstone displays a labels, and maintain a directory of This is radio as you've never heard your local public radio station is not form for you to fill in. At any point, names and addresses. All these mate- it before. Conceived and written by carrying the show, call to point out if you're not sure what to do, you can rials come in a unique box that Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's that it is available and that you are press the HELP key. This will give continues Infocom's tradition of Guide radio serial is hilarious and interested in it (phone calls are you a detailed description of your award-winning packaging. The box contains some of the best sound surprisingly effective). So tell your exact position and all your current is made of heavy molded plastic; its effects ever produced. Before the friends ... and don't forget your options. It's like having your very top swivels down to double as a interactive story came out, many towel. own programmer in a cage. There's workstation, and is capable of hold- more text in these HELP screens ing an open manual. Who’s broadcasting? than in two entire interactive fiction ...more Cornerstone on page 9 See “Listen Up” on page 4 PAGE 2 THE NEW ZORK TIMES WINTER 1985 involved in running a business: sales staff, product support staff, and the costs EDITORIAL involved in getting information (ads, press conferences, trade shows, sales literature, newsletters...) to the retailer and consumer. This overhead easily Thoughts on Software Piracy adds another $5 to $10 in cost per unit. Adding all these costs together results in games that cost the manufacturer $13 to $24 to produce. Since the manu- facturer receives an average of 40%, a retail price of between $32 and $60 is At Infocom, we take an unusual approach to the prevention of software required for the product to break even. You can easily see why prices are piracy. Rather than spending large amounts of time, effort, and money on what they are and why most software companies still can't seem to make a go designing ever-better anti-piracy techniques (our games come virtually of it. unprotected on a number of machines), we spend our time improving the Ironically, software piracy hurts not only the companies whose games are games and the packaging in order to make them more of a value. Our think- pirated but all of today's honest consumers who will have fewer good titles ing is that a game which provides a lot of enjoyment will be worth spending from which to choose. In short, piracy threatens to destroy the industry, some money on, and we feel that our games are somewhat less likely to be pulling down the good companies and the bad companies alike. The person pirated on that account. who feels a game is too expensive can do what the rest of us do when faced We are in a fortunate position. Our technology allows us to create sophisti- with the same problem — vote with his wallet and not buy it. How many of cated works of interactive fiction in less time than others might take. In us would steal a car (even with the keys in the ignition) simply because it's addition, our "machine independence" — our ability to develop a game that overpriced? will run on dozens of microcomputers — allows us to spread our very large Software and its documentation are subject to copyright protection; nearly development costs (over $300,000 per game) over a larger number of total every country in the world provides this protection of "intellectual property." units to be sold. And lastly, consumers consider our interactive fiction to be Without it, there would be little incentive to invest time and effort in writing the best on the market. games, books, movies, or music. The copyright promotes these activities by Unfortunately, most of the other companies in our industry don't have it so assuring those who undertake them that they will be able to reap their rewards easy. They tend to buy their products from independent developers, who get (if any). Penalties are clear: violators are subject to fines of up to $50,000 and an advance against royalties and a percentage of the revenues; they have trou- prison terms of up to 5 years. Since violations are a federal offense, the FBI ble differentiating their products from competing ones, increasing advertising has become increasingly involved in the enforcement of the laws. costs; and they must translate each product from machine to machine if they Earlier this year, Infocom was instrumental in the formation of the Software are to sell large volumes, which is both costly and time-consuming. All of Publishers Association (SPA). A prime concern of the SPA has been to com- this has led to the present sad state of affairs in which very few software bat piracy. We ask our consumers to help Infocom, the rest of the industry, companies are profitable. The end result of this trend will be fewer new titles and software consumers in general, by reporting flagrant violations of the law released, more me-too products, and less innovation, none of which are in the to us directly or to: Software Publishers Association, Suite 1200, 1111 19th consumer's best interest.