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The Status Line See Page 8 Volume VI Number 4 Formerly the New Zork Times Winter 1987 Wait No More… It's Beyond Zork Ten Years Ago, in June of 1977, Zork Was Born

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The Status Line See Page 8 Volume VI Number 4 Formerly the New Zork Times Winter 1987 Wait No More… It's Beyond Zork Ten Years Ago, in June of 1977, Zork Was Born “Lurking” sound 20,000 Zorkmid for the Amiga Pyramid See page 3 The Status Line See page 8 Volume VI Number 4 Formerly The New Zork Times Winter 1987 Wait no more… it's Beyond Zork Ten years ago, in June of 1977, Zork was born. Since that time, it has been played and enjoyed by literally mil- lions of people in the United States and abroad. The three Zork sagas are con- sidered true classics in the field of en- tertainment software. During these intervening ten years, we have advanced our technology by making our parsers smarter, our usable The three handsome gift packs include the Science Fiction Classics, the vocabularies larger, and our game- Classic Mystery Library and the Enchanter Trilogy. Great gift ideas, huh? playing methodologies more flexible and fun. We have introduced many Three gift packs just right for the new and exciting games which have been met with critical acclaim both Have you ever seen an Ur-grue? holiday season ahead (hint... hint) from you and from our peers in the There's one waiting for you inside this industry. But it has always been Zork and every Beyond Zork package. It's a fantasy we all share: finding hundreds of hours of matchless pleas- that has drawn the most favorable and The Ultimate Gift. A gift that stuns ure. A gift that establishes you as the evocative comments. The phrase “give name had better be able to deliver a the lucky recipient with its tasteful- epitome of generous gift-giving while us another Zork” has appeared in level of puzzle invention, storytelling, ness and high quality. A gift that actually saving you a bundle, because countless correspondence and conver- and technical expertise that matched comes in various styles to suit all it's sold at a bargain price. How many sations. the original and then went a step tastes. A gift whose handsome appear- hours have you spent searching for However, we have been cautious further. We are now confident we have ance stands out amongst more com- such a thing? about writing a new Zork game, with taken that step. Therefore we give you mon offerings. A gift that provides Please turn to page 10 the feeling that any game with the Zork Please turn to page 5 Real time spy intrigue with Border Zone 17:51 17:54 In Border Zone, William Huttinger, who led the Allied >GO EAST >E Infocom's first in- forces during the liberation of Litzen- You leave the side of tracks and head You leave the teractive spy burg in 1945. The assassination of such into the forest. The darkness is deeper roadway come to story, the chal- a beloved national hero would severely here, as less moonlight reaches the for- a dank area at the lenge of a spy undermine the Litzenburgers, destabi- est floor. The snow crunches under edge of a swamp. mission in an lizing this key neutral territory. But just your feet, and you pause after moving a Putrid sulphurous Eastern bloc such a plan is underway. hundred or so yards into the forest. vapors fill your country is made Speeding towards the border through The sound of barking dogs echoes lungs as you step all the more grip- the Eastern bloc country of Frobnia are into the night. They've moved closer to the edge of the ping by the addi- an easy-going American businessman, now, perhaps not more than a few hun- noisome waters. tion of real time. an ambitious young American spy, and dred yards to the northwest. The sounds of Unlike other Info- a ruthless KGB agent. All three are dogs barking com stories in soon to become entangled in the assas- 17:52 madly and sol- which time pro- sination plot, their lives intertwining as >RUN EAST diers barking gresses only with each carries out his perilous assign- You emerge from the thick forest and orders are close Border Zone, by Marc Blank (of Zork each input, time ment. come to a roadway running from north upon you. A mud- fame) is our first spy thriller game. passes in Border You’ll see the story from three view- to southwest. dled explosion—a Zone according to points, as you step into the shoes of a The sound the dogs is much louder signal flare lightens the sky with a a real clock which ticks on regardless of different major character in each of the now; and you can hear the shouting red-orange glow. Before you can react, your actions. As you pause to decide three chapters of Border Zone. In Chap- voices of the guards they accompany. you are spotted! Brilliant white search- which way to go, the guard dogs keep ter I, you're an Average Joe traveling They can’t be more than a hundred lights are aimed upon you, blinding you on coming. The result is a pulse- through Frobnia on business. When the yards to the west. long enough for more soldiers and bor- pounding adventure that’s far more injured American spy asks you to de- der guards to arrive. With no hope of suspenseful than any spy thriller you’ve liver a top-secret document to a contact 17:53 escape, you surrender to the guards, ever read. at the border, you must act carefully to You can hear the guard dogs within 50 and are led away, handcuffed, to the The story begins on the train to avoid arousing suspicion both on the yards! Their voices reach a fevered border station. Litzenburg, a peaceful country just train and at the border station. pitch—a guard calls out—a muffled When you’re a spy trapped behind outside the Iron Curtain. In the town of Chapter II puts you in the role of explosion—the night sky is lit by a by a the Iron Curtain, timing is crucial. Mo- Ostnitz, huge crowds gathering for Topaz, the American spy. You’ve es- single red-orange flare. ments lost or precautions not taken Constitution Day festivities. An hon- caped the KGB by jumping from the result in arrest, exposure… or worse. ored guest is the American ambassador, Please turn to page 5 Page 2 The Status Line Winter 1987 >Read the letters to the editor Gentlemen, made my a) day b) month c) year with Stationfall. If you ever need a lawyer, just write; my dad's a Alas, I wish to report a “bug” in my Seastalker disk. Planetfall was the first Infocom game that I played, lawyer. Keep up the good work and don’t Zork The program asks me to type in my last name. As and is still my favorite (and I've played every single around. soon as I do, it acts like I want to save a game! I have- one of them!) Nathan Baumbach III n't even started it up yet! What's up? I'm a microcomputer consultant and educator spe- Indianola, NE Yours Frustrated, cializing in accounting software (yeah, I know, Joe Restore zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... even I nod off sometimes—it's a To Whom It May Concern. Phoenix, AZ dirty job but somebody's got to do it.)... I am sending this letter and my half-finished puzzle [Joe, you're not alone, we have received a similar Now if you could come out with a game every in formal protest of The Status Line's latest puzzle. letter from Bob Restart.] month (or week) you could make my life complete. [Puzzle #14 - Ed.] I own seven of your titles (that's I'm convinced that Infocom games run a close second $280 worth of software, folks) and consider myself Dear Status Line (Formerly The New Zork Times), to sex (there may even be days when the order is re- fan/supporter/maniac. Therefore, you can how dis- After reading Alan M. Taren's list of 8th dimen- versed)! traught I was to discover that in order to finish the sional games (TSL Summer 87) I realized that Mr. I've played most of the adventure games on the mar- puzzle, you needed to own all the games! Is this a Taren's counterpart left out several games. ket... but yours are the only ones I can't do without. marketing ploy? Absolutely desperate for a T-shirt, I Feel free to publish this in TSL, but please don't It’s worse than being addicted to drugs. was on the verge of rushing out to buy the other make real games out of these without paying me lots Paula K. Wallace games before I came to my senses (such as they are). of real Japanese currency so I can exchange it for even Novato, CA In the future could you only have puzzles that you more real U.S. currency. p.s. I love The Status Line! You are all warped, just need to own some of the titles for? I'm loyal, I'm de- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Freeway—You're my kind of folks. voted (I haven't bought any other brand of game for taking your driver's test on an LA freeway when you three years) but I refuse to spend $400 to win a $10 T- realize you forgot to bring your gun.... Dear Sirs [sic], shirt! Please be sympathetic to my plight. Snark III, revised—Finish Snark III and you get to I wish you would create more spy and mystery Yours in impending poverty, buy the Snark Trilogy because we forgot to put an games...After all, who wants to fight thieves, wizards, Nina Karp essential game piece in the Snark III package but trolls, and Dungeon-masters, anyway..
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