Sorcerer (computer game)
| Sorcerer | |
|---|---|
.jpg&filetimestamp=20160814114458&) | |
| Studio | Infocom |
| Publisher | Infocom |
| Senior Developer | Steve Meretzky |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1984 |
| platform | Amstrad PCW , Apple II , Atari 8-Bit , Atari ST , Commodore 64 , Commodore Amiga , CP / M , DEC Rainbow 100 , Kaypro II , Mac OS , NEC APC , Osborne 1 , MS-DOS , Schneider CPC , TI-99 / 4A , TRS-80 |
| Game engine | ZIL |
| genre | Text adventure |
| Game mode | Single player |
| control | keyboard |
| medium | diskette |
| language | English |
| Current version | Release 18 |
| copy protection | Feelies |
Sorcerer (English for "magician") is a fantasy text adventure from Infocom from 1984. It takes place in the Zork universe and is the second part of the Enchanter trilogy. The other two parts are Enchanter (1983) and Spellbreaker (1985).
action
After the player had defeated the evil sorcerer Krill in Enchanter , he was rewarded with a seat in the Circle of Enchanters (German: Zirkel der Zauberer ). He also made friends with his mentor Belboz, the chairman of the circle. Said Belboz has been acting strangely for days and suddenly disappears, possibly due to kidnapping. It turns out that he is under the control of the demon Jeearr. Now it is up to the player to find out the fate of his friend and to save him. For this he travels part of the Great Underground Empire, the game world of the fictional Zork universe, including an extensive forest area, a castle ruin, a historic fort, an amusement park, an abandoned mine and an extensive, underground cave system. As part of a riddle, he encounters an older version of himself and has to travel through time in order as his own doppelganger to help the now younger version of himself solve the riddle. After Belboz is finally found and freed from the demon's presence, the old wizard declares his resignation, and the player is appointed as the new chairman of the circle.
Game principle and technology
Sorcerer is a text adventure , which means there are no graphic elements whatsoever. Environment and events are displayed as screen text and the player's actions are also entered as text via the keyboard. The parser of Sorcerer understands more than 1000 words, 300 words more than in the previous Enchanter . There are no graphic elements. The magic system was taken over from the predecessor Enchanter and supplemented with magic potions that can only be used once. The playing time is about 30 hours.
As supplements ("Feelies"), Sorcerer's early publications contained an issue of the (fictional) Popular Enchanting magazine and the Field Guide to the Creatures of Frobozz , which also served as copy protection through a listing of color codes .
Magic in Sorcerer
The system of magic spells is based partly on the Earth Sea saga by Ursula K. LeGuin and partly on the Vancian system of the role-playing game rules Dungeons & Dragons . As with Vance, spells must first be "stored" in the mind before they can be used, and as with LeGuin, a spell is represented by a nonsense term. This term can then be used as a verb in the game. For example, the spell "FROTZ" makes objects glow; Entering> FROTZ BOOK lights up a book accordingly. The spells that can be used are:
- AIMFIZ - Teleports the caster to the vicinity of the target.
- FROTZ - Makes the target shine.
- FWEEP - Transforms the caster into a bat.
- GASPAR - Prepares to revive the caster.
- GNUSTO - Transfers a spell to the caster's spellbook so that the spell can be learned multiple times.
- GOLMAC - Makes the caster travel through time.
- IZYUK - Makes the caster fly.
- MALYON - Brings dead matter to life.
- MEEF - Wilts plants.
- POWDER - Dehydrates liquids.
- REZROV - Opens physically or magically locked objects.
- SWANZO - Uses the target one excommunication against obsession .
- VARDIK - Protects the target from evil spirits.
- VEZZA - lets the caster see into the future.
- YOMIN - Makes the caster read the mind of the target.
- YONK - Increases the effectiveness of some spells.
Production notes
In 2019, the source code of the game was published on the software development repository GitHub .
reception
| ||||||
Adventure Classic Gaming praised the consistent game world, the puzzles and the parser. The banal plot and two unfair dead ends in the game were criticized. The SPAG magazine highlighted the innovative puzzles and the successful magic system and criticized the humorless and the reader little room for own ideas transmitting storytelling by author Steve Meretzky . The Zzap! 64 magazine praised u. a. quirky characters, "highly original sequences" and "excellent package inserts" triggered by experimenting with the magic spells and stated a "great atmosphere" and high potential for addiction, but criticized the high price of the game. The US magazine Computer Games praised the extensive game world, Meretzky's "inimitable sense of humor" and his ability to "conjure up convincing parallel worlds".
Frotz, a Z-machine emulator, got its name from one of the magic spells from Sorcerer .
Web links
- Sorcerer at MobyGames (English)
- Fact Sheet on Resonant.org
- Packaging and goodies on GUETech.org
- complete solution
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Personal Software, July 1984, p. 77 ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ GitHub.com: Sorcerer by Steve Meretzky (Infocom). Retrieved April 18, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Zzap! 64 June 1985, p. 64: Sorceror (sic). Retrieved August 4, 2016 .
- ↑ Sorcerer on AdventureClassicGaming.com
- ↑ Review in SPAG magazine
- ↑ Computer Games 4/1984, p. 50: Sorcerer. Retrieved August 15, 2016 .
