® “All the Gnus Weather: State of the That Fit, We Print” The New Zork Times atmosphere VOL. IV....No. 4 —FALL 1985— INTERFLUVIAL EDITION SPELLBREAKER IS HERE! The Exciting Conclusion to the Enchanter Trilogy In a world founded on magic, guildmaster has been turned into an sorcerers rule the land, creating the amphibian! All, that is, but your- spells needed to do everything from self... and a shadowy cloaked figure making bread to taming wild who slips quietly out the door. animals. Your position as a leader of Thus begins Spellbreaker, the the Circle of Enchanters has earned riveting conclusion to Infocom's you respect from all others in the Enchanter series (including En- kingdom. chanter and Sorcerer™) and the final But now a crisis has fallen. Magic chapter in the story of a magician's itself seems to be failing. Spells go rise from novice to mage. strangely awry or cease to work Spellbreaker was written by Dave altogether. The populace is becom- Lebling, co-author of the Zork® ing restive, and rumblings are heard concerning Enchanters. Marathon: p. 2 A great conclave is held, con- vening all the guildmasters in the trilogy and Enchanter and author of A Frobozz Magic Magic Equipment Catalog, an Enchanter’s Guild pin, and land. One by one, they step forward, Starcross® and Suspect™. According six Enchanter trading cards are included in every Spellbreaker package. describing the devastating effects of to Lebling, "You don't have to have the diminished magic. Beer tastes played the other games in our fantasy such as allowing you to add some will find their skills tested by the like grue bathwater, pastries are thick series in order to enjoy this one, words to the already large vocabu- most challenging puzzles ever and greasy, huntsmen are unable to although that makes it more fun. lary. concocted by Infocom. control wild beasts. People who have played Enchanter Although Spellbreaker is an Each Spellbreaker package Suddenly, in the midst of a and Sorcerer will find familiar expert-level game, it's very non- includes a copy of the Frobozz discourse on the difficulty of writing moments, and lots of things you linear, giving you plenty of geogra- Magic Magic Equipment Catalog poetry without magical help on the found in the Zork series are in here." phy and paraphernalia to enjoy (Special Crisis Edition), a mystical rhymes, the Guildmaster of the Poets There are more characters than in without having to actually solve all Enchanter's Guild pin, and a set of undergoes a bizarre transformation. Enchanter and Sorcerer, each with a the puzzles. Less-experienced Enchanter trading cards. It will retail Looking in shock around the room, distinct personality. Spellbreaker players can still have fun exploring for $49.95 for most systems. you find that each and every also contains technical innovations, the environment, while crackerjacks greedy wizard Malifestro. The book children." (Don't panic yet ... is vaguely interactive in the sense Infocom has a smaller following than Zork Banned! that the reader is given options which Jim Jones, the Hari Krishnas, or will affect the outcome of the Reverend Moon! O.K., scratch As we sit in Steve's office planning off the phone in a huff. I understand. story — it's a "pick-a-path" book. As Reverend Moon, but definitely the fate of Europe for the next few We have decisions to make. Wars to with Zork I, the reader (player?) runs smaller than either of the other two.) years, Steve and I have little concern fight. Countries to conquer. the risk of having his or her throat When asked to comment on the about developments in the New Diplomacy® is a time-consuming cut with a stiletto. What Ms. Leary proposed ban, Meretzky said that at World, especially not about business. It was a good thing it missed is that just like the games, least Leary, who calls herself a grumblings in a small town on a wasn't my boss on the phone. I have you can restart the book and come up "kamikaze for Jesus," is not so skimpy piece of land on something no business in Meretzky's office! with a better decision on your second fanatical about removing Darwin called "The Cape." Just as I convince When the May 16th issue of The pass. from the schools. Leary, in Steve to not invade Belgium in Register (a small newspaper serving In the words of The Register, "She kamikaze-like fashion, said, "I will exchange for some foggy city in a few towns on Cape Cop) landed on sees the relationship between fight this book with my dying England, the phone rings. Steve my desk, I learned who the disgrun- violence in the book and violence breath." Meretzky is quick to deny answers the phone. Some disgruntled tled customer was. Jan Leary was, in coming from kids as fact, not just a the rumor that upon uttering these person is calling from the New fact, not a customer at all. She was a possibility." Her son had purchased words, Leary was enveloped in a World, the Cape specifically (a town parent who was very concerned the book at a school fair; Leary has cloud of sinister black fog... Leary, called South Dennis), and temporar- about the subject matter of a book by since approached the school to ban however, mysteriously couldn't be ily ensnares Steve in an argument. I Steve called Zork: The Malifestro the book from its library and future reached for comment. (She probably note that Steve seems disturbed by Quest. The book, loosely based on fairs, purporting that "such reading has since discovered Zork I and is what sounds like a complaining the Zork empire, has two heroes promotes demonic worship and having trouble getting into the customer wasting his time. He gets trying to save the empire from the glorifies violence for school house!) PAGE 2 THE NEW ZORK TIMES FALL 1985 socket. >ASK MONICA ABOUT LOVE Call the Exterminator Floyd was so eager to please that "That's between Mother and me." he would get the shiny fromitz board for you over and over and over.... Even with our intensive testing, water jug filled. As long as you have If you thought you had escaped the Infidel some bugs manage to slip through some water in it, you can refill it to mutants and pressed the elevator Remember the famous container our Quality Control Department. In the brim by saying TAKE WATER, button at the bottom of the shaft, you bug from Zork I? Well, it's in Infidel. past issues of the NZT we listed no matter where you are. That's a were probably surprised when the Try putting the knapsack in the silver some of those bugs for the Zork pretty neat variation on the decanter elevator door closed just as the chalice and vice-versa. They both series, Starcross, Deadline®, of endless water. mutants were about to reach it. disappear. This bug will not be in Sorcerer, Infidel®, and Planetfall®. (Mutants are almost as ubiquitous as any future Infocom games (or so our We received a tremendous response grues ... or bugs.) Sorcerer testing department promises). from our NZT readers, who reported For you magicians, if you want to If you put the beam in the niches bugs that they had found. Here are finish the game with all the points, and then go back to the barge and some more embarrassing (and some- ® don't open the chest with the rezrov The Witness say GET BEAM, you fall into a pit times hilarious) bugs from our spell. You won't get the 15 points For those of you who like to drink, of rats (oops). Those pesty rat pits releases, as reported by our outside you should get if you had opened it you can GET A DRINK anywhere, seem to be everywhere. bug hunters. the mundane way. including outside the house. For the mathematically inclined, Note of warning: if you haven't In earlier versions, gaspar didn't An old bug that was fixed were try calculating the weight of the finished one of the games below, you work properly in the Coal Mine. places and objects you could get into beam assuming a density equal to might not want to read the associated Also, you could re-create any scroll but could not get back out of. If you that of water. (See the end of the paragraphs. by typing TAKE THE AIMFIZ got into the shower or the broken article for the answer, Hercules.) SCROLL (for example). These bugs window and then tried to get out, the For Wendy's fans, you can ask the Enchanter have been fixed. program just told you that you would question: WHERE'S THE BEEF? If If you send the turtle into the For those careless few who got do better to stand up (thinking you you're lucky, you'll get the response temple, the game acts as if you had their spell books wet (a definite were in the wooden chair). "It's right here!" Take that, competi- gone in instead, and you end up no-no with gnusto-sensitive paper), Here's an interesting series of tors! dying. The ASPCA must have did you notice that the scrolls that responses: Here's an embarrassing contradic- slipped that one in the game to give got wet weren't ruined? If we can tory description. With the water in some protection to turtles. track down the formula for that batch >MAKE LOVE TO MONICA the silver chalice type: FILL If you guncho the magic rope that of scroll paper, we could make a SILVER CHALICE WITH WATER.