Infocom has produced
many popular pieces of interactive fiction, from pieces like Zork, Hitchhikers
Guide to the Galaxy, and Deadline. Be advised that with these games from
Infocom we will need a z-machine to be able to play them (mac download - pc download). Deadline in a
way is different then other pieces of interactive fiction. You are creating your
own story by trying to figure out a problem, but you only have a certain amount
of time to complete you task. Can you master this challenge?
Deadline, the intensive detective
interactive fiction game. You have twelve hours to solve a death, was it a
murder or a suicide? At the beginning of
deadline, you start of on the South Lawn of the Robner estate. Before playing
the game it is helpful to get some background info about Deadline,
where it gives you autopsy reports, interviews, and evidence about Marshall
Robner. The cause of his death was an apparent suicide with an overdose of Ebullion,
but was it more then that? Did someone have a reason to actually kill Mr.
Marshall? This is what you will have to figure out in your adventure around the
estate.
After reading the background
information on this case you start to think if it was really a suicide or if it
was a murder. You get the sense that wife was the one who did it, because of
the interviews with different suspects and the her over reaction about Mr.
Robners death. This is what I had to figure out. This piece of interactive
fiction caught my eye because it was a giant puzzle that you had find the piece
then put it together. When first interacting with ‘Deadline’ I was a little
frustrated because it almost seemed like there was to much going on with
everyone always walking around. One thing that I was really frustrated by was
when you can here the telephone ring but you don’t know what room it is in and
you have to find it, but bye the time you do it is to late for me.
Later on in the second story of the
estate I found the library that was the scene of where Mr. Robner had died. The
description for in the library was a lot longer then any other area of the house.
Looking around I saw that there was mud on the floor where Mr. Robner had died.
According to the interviews, Mr. Robner always kept the door locked when he was
working, so this means the only way someone could have entered would have been
throw the balcony. I left the library and just out of curiosity I tried an “arrest”
command and to my surprise the game was over because I arrested the wrong
person.
This piece of interactive fiction
was by far my favorite. I wished I was able to figure out more clues before
arresting someone. This piece really makes you think about how the clues
connect to each other. Defiantly recommended to anyone who likes a challenge or
mystery!
