11 All the Gnus Weather: State of the That Fit, We Print" 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, master has been turned into an sorcerers rule the land, creating amphibian! All, that is, but the spells needed to do everything yourself . and a shadowy cloak­ from making bread to taming ed figure who slips quietly out wild animals. Your position as a the door. leader of the Circle of Enchanters Thus begins Spellbreaker,. ·the has earned you respect from all riveting conclusion to lnfocom's others :in the kingdom. Enchanter series (including En­ But now a crisis has fallen. chanter and Sorcerer'") and the Magic itself seems to be failing. final chapter in the story of a Spells go strangely awry or cease magician's rise from novice to to work altogether. The populace mage. is becoming restive, and rum­ Spellbreaker was written by blings are heard concerning Dave Lebling, co-author of the Enchanters. A great conclave is held, con­ Marathon: p. 2 vening all the guildmasters in the land. One by one, they step for­ Zork® trilogy and Enchanter and A Froboz.z. Magic Magic Equipment Catalog, an Enchanter's Guild pin, and six ward, describing the devastating author of StGicrosSE' and Suspect'!' Enchanter trading cards are included in eveiy Spellbreaker package. effects of the diminished magic. According to Lebling, "You don't Beer tastes like grue bathwater, have to have played the other breaker also contains technical while crackerjacks will find their pastries are thick and greasy, games in our fantasy series in innovations, such as allowing skills tested by the most huntsmen are unable to control order to enjoy this one, although you to add some words to the challenging puzzles ever con­ wild beasts. that makes it more fun. People already large vocabulary. cocted by Infocom. Suddenly, in the midst of a who have played Enchanter and Although Spellbreaker is an Each Spellbreaker package in­ discourse on the difficulty of Sorcerer will find familiar expert-level game, it's very non­ cludes a copy of the Frobozz writing poetry without magical moments, and lots of things you linear, giving you plenty of Magic Magic Equipment Catalog help or the rhymes, the Guild­ found in the Zork series are in geography and paraphernalia to (Special Crisis Edition) , a master of the Poets undergoes a here." enjoy without having to actually mystical Enchanters' Guild pin, bizarre transformation. Looking There are more characters than solve all the puzzles. Less­ and a set of Enchanter trading in shock around the room, you in Enchanter and Sorcerer, each experienced players can still have cards. It will retail for $49.95 for find that each and every guild- with a distinct personality. Spell- fun exploring the environment, most systems. E3 wizard Malifestro. The book is school children. 11 (Don't panic vaguely interactive in the sense yet . Infocom has a smaller Zork Banned! that the reader is given options following than Jim Jones, the Hari which will affect the outcome of Krishnas, or Reverend Moon! As we sit in Steve's office plan­ phone in a huff. I under:stand. We the story - it's a "pick-a-path" O.K., scratch Reverend Moon, ning the fate of Europe for the have decisions to make. Wars to book. As with Zork I, the reader but definitely smaller than either next few years, Steve and I have fight. Countries to conquer. (player?) runs the risk of having of the other two.) little concern about develop­ Diplomacy r,ID is a time­ his or her throat cut with a stilet­ When asked to co=ent on ments in the New World, espe­ consuming business. It was a to. What Ms. Leary missed is that the proposed ban, Meretzky said cially not about grumblings in a good thing it wasn't my boss on just like the games, you can that at least Leary, who calls small town on a skimpy piece of the phone. I have no business in restart the book and come up herself a ''kamikaze for Jesus,'' is land on something called ''The Meretzky's office! with a better decision on your not so fanatical about removing Cape.'' Just as I convince Steve to When the May l 6th issue of second pass. Darwin from the schools. Leary, not invade Belgium in exchange The Register (a small newspaper In the words of The Register, in kamikaze-like fashion, said, "I for some foggy city in England, serving a few towns on Cape Cod) "She sees the relationship be­ will fight this book with my dy­ the phone rings. Steve answers landed on my desk, I learned who tween violence in the book and ing breath." Meretzky is quick to the phone. Some disgruntled per­ the disgruntled customer was. Jan violence coming from kids as deny the rumor that upon utter­ son is calling from the New Leary was, in fact, not a customer fact, not just a possibility. 11 Her ing these words, Leary was World, the Cape specifically (a at all. She was a parent who was son had purchased the book at a enveloped in a cloud of sinister town called South Dennis), and very concerned about the subject school fair; Leary has since ap­ black fog. Leary, however, temporarily ensnares Steve in an matter of a book by Steve called proached the school to ban the mysteriously couldn't be reached argument. I note that Steve Zork: The Malifestro Quest. The book from its library and future for co=ent. (She probably has seems disturbed by what sounds book, loosely based on the Zork fairs, purporting that "such since discovered Zork I and is like a complaining customer empire, has two heroes trying to reading promotes demonic wor­ having trouble getting into the wasting his time. He gets off the save the empire from the greedy ship and glorifies violence for house!) E3 PAGE2 THE NEW ZORK TIMES FALL 1985 Floyd was so eager to please Infidel Call the Exterminator that he would get the shiny Remember the famous con­ fromitz board for you over and tainer bug from Zork F. Well, it's over and over .... If in Infidel. Try putting the knap­ Even with our intensive testing, can refill it to the brim by saying you thought you had escaped the mutants and pressed the sack in the silver chalice and some bugs manage to slip TAKE WATER, no matter where elevator button at the bottom of vice-versa. They both disappear. through our Quality Control you are. That's a pretty neat the shaft, you were probably sur­ This bug will not be in any future Department. In past issues of the variation on the decanter of prised when the elevator door Infocom games (or so our testing NZT we listed some of those bugs endless water. for the Zork series, · Stmcross, closed just as the mutants were department promises) . about to reach it. (Mutants are Deadline~ Sorcerer, Infidel? and If you put the beam in the Sorcerer almost as ubiquitous as grues ... PlanetfalP.We received a tremen­ niches and then go back to the or bugs.) dous response from our NZT For you magicians, if you want barge and say GET BEAM, you readers, who reported bugs that to finish the game with all the fall into a pit of rats (oops). Those they had found. Here are some points, don't open the chest with The Witness® pesty rat pits seem to be more embarrassing (and the rezrov spell. You won't get For those of you who like to everywhere. sometimes hilarious) bugs from the 15 points you should get if drink, you can GET A DRINK For the mathematically inclin­ our releases, as reported by our you had opened it the mundane anywhere, including outside the ed, try calculating the weight of outside bug hunters. way. house. the beam assuming a density Note of warning: if you haven't In earlier versions, gaspar An old bug that was fixed were finished one of the games below, . didn't work properly in the Coal equal to that of water. (See the places and objects you could get you might not want to read the Mine. Also, you could re-create end of the article for the answer, into but could not get back out of. associated paragraphs. any .scroll by typing TAKE THE Hercules.) AIMFIZ SCROLL [for example). If you got into the shower or the For Wendy's fans, you can ask Enchanter These bugs have been fixed. broken window and then tried to the question: WHERE'S THE For those careless few who got get out, the program just told you If you send the turtle into the BEEF? If you're lucky, you'll get their spell books wet (a definite that you would do better to stand temple, the game acts ·as ·if you the response "It's right here!" no-no with gnusto-sensitive up (thinking you were in the. had gone in instead, and you end Take that, competitors! paper), did you notice that the wooden chair). up dying. The ASPCA must ha:ve Here's an embarrassing con­ scrolls that got wet weren't ruin­ Here's an interesting series of slipped that one in the game to ed? If we can track down the for­ responses: tradictory description. With the give some protection to turtles. mula for that batch of scroll water in the silver chalice type: If you guncho the magic rope paper, we could make a fortune in >MAKE LOVE TO MONICA FILL SILVER CHALICE WITH that protects the jewelled box, the spell book market.