Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!Germany.EU.net!mcsun!sunic!news.lth.se!news.lu.se!magnus
From: magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson)
Subject: Wishbringer (was Re: Best & Worst)
Message-ID: <1993Mar4.000144.14229@nomina.lu.se>
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Organization: Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Sweden
References: <1993Feb17.174952.1@acad.drake.edu> <1993Feb18.023714.20263@julian.uwo.ca> <1mgbifINN3p@meaddata.meaddata.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 00:01:44 GMT
Lines: 64

In message <1mgbifINN3p@meaddata.meaddata.com>,
chuckg@meaddata.com (Chuck Greenwald) writes:

>I think you're being unfair to WISHBRINGER -- it's a lot better than the
>other 'introductory' level games (like 'MOONMIST') and had several really
>cool features:
>
>  o zork references (the house, grus)
>  o the little mailbox that follows you (a la Floyd)
>  o the best 'red herings' Infocom ever built
>   
>The puzzles weren't very hard, but the mood and atmosphere writing
>was great, and the red herings keep you going in the wrong direction
>for a long time.  The result is a good, but pocket sized, game.

Your article made me so interested that I just *had* to try the game,
and I _really_ liked it. OK, so the puzzles aren't very hard (in fact,
there wasn't a single hard puzzle in the entire game), but I think
it's a very good piece of IF.  The story is developed very
consistently and with a good sense of both humour and drama.  I
especially liked the sense for detail in making Witchville (and its
inhabitants) such an exact "evil mirror image" of Festeron (has
anybody got any idea of why the village has such a strange name?).  No
other game event has filled me with such horror as the transformation
of Festeron. The Zork references were quite nice, too: I never thought
I'd actually see a grue and live to tell about it!  And both the
mailbox and the platypuses are quite hilarious. 

Although the puzzles were all quite easy, they're not _too_ easy; I
still got the sense of satisfaction from most of them that one gets
from succesfully solving a good puzzle (but of course not to the
extent as when I first disarmed the wizard of Frobozz, or got the
Babel fish).  I especially liked the twisted logic of the fuzzy room
in the tower...

There were some things which I thought would play an important part,
but I couldn't find out what to do with them, and I still managed to
finish the game with maximum score, so I suppose they are the red
herrings you speak about.  Still, I might be mistaken, so if anyone
knows the answer to the following questions I'd happy to hear about
it. 

(Possible spoilers ahead)

Is there any use at all for the grue milk, the chocolate bar, the
horseshoe, the umbrella, or the conch shell?

Can I play the "Leather Goddesses of Phobos" game in the arcade?

Does it really matter if I save the poor seahorse or not? (I didn't
have the heart to let it perish, but I never found any practical
consequences of saving it either).

Is there any reason to enter the graveyard at night?

Do the animated mailboxes, and their mutual destruction, have any part
to play in the drama? 


              Magnus Olsson                | \e+      /_
    Department of Theoretical Physics      |  \  Z   / q
        University of Lund, Sweden         |   >----<           
 magnus@thep.lu.se,  thepmo@selund.bitnet  |  /      \===== g
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