"In this interactive 'Dream Kitchen' players stumble through leaky borders in the sterile 3D world to find that beneath the surface runs a parallel universe populated with inspirited objects."
(Source: Back of container)
System requirements: Macintosh: iMac/G3; 300 MHz; 64 MB RAM; 24 speed CD drive; display, 640 x 480 pixels, 24 bit. PC: Windows 95/98/NT4.0; Pentium II 300 MHz; sound card; 64 MB RAM; 24 speed CD drive; display, 640 x 480 pixels, 24 bit.
Nord and Bert was unique among Infocom games in that it was highly surrealistic, centering around word play and puns. It is Infocom's twenty-seventh game. Nord and Bert defies easy description, and in fact almost seems to have been created in an effort to be as strange as possible. For example, the title and front box illustration (two farmers staring at an animal that consists of two cows' rear halves fused together) have nothing to do with the game. Rather, Nord and Bert revolves around several different kinds of wordplay, with a "chapter" of the game dedicated to each style. The first seven chapters can be played in any order, since each exists as an independent "short story" unrelated to the other chapters; to begin the eighth, however, the player must provide seven "passwords" provided by completing each of the other sections. (Wikipedia)
Planetfall is a science fiction interactive fiction computer game written by Steve Meretzky, and the eighth title published by Infocom in 1983. Like most Infocom games, thanks to the portable Z-machine, it was released for several platforms simultaneously. The original release included versions for the PC (both as a booter and for DOS) and Apple II. The Atari ST and Commodore 64 versions were released in 1985. A version for CP/M was also released. Although Planetfall was Meretzky's first title, it proved one of his most popular works and a best-seller for Infocom; it was one of five top-selling titles to be re-released in Solid Gold versions including in-game hints. Planetfall utilizes the Z-machine originally developed for the Zorkfranchise and was added as a bonus to the "Zork Anthology".
The word planetfall is a portmanteau of planet and landfall, and occasionally used in science fiction to that effect.
The book Planetfall written by Arthur Byron Cover, uses the game image on the cover, and is marketed "In the bestselling tradition of THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY.
A sequel, Stationfall, was released in 1987.
(Wikipedia)
Thomas M. Disch's Amnesia is a text adventure computer game created by Charles Kreitzberg's Cognetics Corporation, written by award-winning science fiction author Thomas M. Disch, and programmed by Kevin Bentley using the King Edward Adventure game authoring system developed by James Terry. The game was acquired and produced by Don Daglow and published by Electronic Arts (EA) in 1986 for the MS-DOS PC and Apple II systems. A version for Commodore 64 was released in 1987. The game begins as the player's character awakens in a midtown Manhattan hotel room with absolutely no memory. He has no clothes and no money, and doesn't even remember what he looks like. The player soon discovers he is engaged to a woman he cannot remember, a strange man is trying to kill him, and the state of Texas wants him for murder. From here, the player must unravel the events in his life that led him to this point. In addition to being a text adventure, the game's major innovation was simulating life in Manhattan. Disch's model covered every block and street corner south of 110th Street. A hard-copy map of the streets and subways of Manhattan was included in the packaging. Players moved from place to place on foot, and had to reach destinations at the correct time of day to initiate plot developments. Stores opened and closed at the correct times, street lights went on, and other aspects of New York City life were simulated. Almost 4000 separate Manhattan locations, including 650 streets, were part of the game. In this aspect, along with the player's freedom of movement (most of the time), Amnesia can be seen as a forerunner of the sandbox game. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesia_(video_game))
Enchanter is a 1983 interactive fiction computer game written by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling and published by Infocom. It belongs to the fantasy genre and was the first fantasy game published by Infocom after the Zork trilogy (it was originally intended to be Zork IV). The game had a parser that understood over 700 words, making it the most advanced interactive fiction game of its time. It was Infocom's ninth game. (Wikipedia)
The player's character has been embedded within a facility that controls vital systems, such as moving public transportation belts and weather control, for an Earth-settled planet called Contra. During the player's five-hundred-year tenure, the player would normally be kept in stasis while his sleeping mind serves as the Central Mentality for the largely self-maintaining systems. As the game opens, however, he is awakened by severe error messages; something is going wrong. The facility has suffered catastrophic damage from an earthquake, and the Filtering Computers are shutting down or becoming dangerously unstable. The inhabitants of the city assume that the Central Mentality has gone insane and is purposely harming the city, as a previous CM had done. The player's task is to repair the damage and restore the systems to normal states before a crew arrives at the facility to "disconnect" his mind, killing him, to be replaced with a clone. (Wikipedia)
The player's character is a self-styled adventurer and fortune hunter. He's bitter because he thinks his boss, Craige, should treat him as a partner instead of an assistant. A call comes in while Craige is out checking equipment: a woman, Rose Ellington, wants to sponsor an expedition to discover the pyramid that her archeologist father never found. Egotistical and greedy for fame, the assistant tells Rose that he's capable of taking the job and decides to cut out Craige altogether. (Source: Wikipedia)
