''Enchanter'' is an

interactive fiction Interactive fiction (IF) is software simulating environments in which players use text Command (computing), commands to control Player character, characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narrati ...

game written by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling and published by

Infocom Infocom, Inc., was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerston ...

in 1983. The first fantasy game published by Infocom after the ''

Zork ''Zork'' is a text adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson (programmer), Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company ...

'' trilogy, it was originally intended to be ''Zork IV''. The game has a

parser Parsing, syntax analysis, or syntactic analysis is a process of analyzing a string of symbols, either in natural language, computer languages or data structures, conforming to the rules of a formal grammar by breaking it into parts. The term '' ...

that understands over 700 words, making it the most advanced interactive fiction game of its time. It was Infocom's ninth game. The game was followed by a 1984 sequel, '' Sorceror''.

Plot

Krill, a powerful evil warlock, is spreading chaos and destruction. None of the more experienced members of the Circle of Enchanters dare to attempt to stop him. In desperation, the player, a novice Enchanter with only a few weak spells in his spell book, is sent in hopes that Krill will either fail to detect him or dismiss him as harmless. More powerful spells can be found on scrolls hidden in various locations, but as the player becomes more of a threat, Krill will respond accordingly.

Gameplay

This game has a new spell system based partially on

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( ; Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantas ...

's '' Earthsea'' series and partially ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

Vancian spell system, where spells must be prepared through "memorization" before being cast. As in the Earthsea series, each spell is represented by some nonsense "magic word" which is treated as a verb by the game's text

, so that one can use the FROTZ spell (which causes objects to glow and give off light) by typing FROTZ BOOK, in exactly the same way as one might type PICK UP BOOK or READ BOOK.

Notes

In the game '' Zork III'', a device slowly cycles through "scenes" from each of the Zork games as a number is displayed above it. A depiction of the sacrificial altar from the then-unreleased ''Enchanter'' appeared under the number "IV". Creators Dave Lebling and Marc Blank decided during the game's design that the magic system made it a standalone product. It became the first game of its own trilogy, usually referred to as "The Enchanter Trilogy". The others in the series are 1984's '' Sorcerer'' and 1985's '' Spellbreaker''. Infocom rated ''Enchanter'' as "Standard" in difficulty. ''Enchanter'' is the only game in the Zork universe where lurking grues, although they still exist, are not mentioned by name; the game doesn't even know the word "grue". The game has 17 ways to die.

Legacy

Robin Wayne Bailey's 1989

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

''Enchanter'' is a companion rather than a novelisation. In 1993, about ten years after the original ''Enchanter'', a remake of the game with graphics was developed and published by Japanese software development company SystemSoft for the NEC PC-9801, entitled . Frotz, a modern open-source interpreter for Infocom games (as well as independently written interactive fiction) draws its name from a spell ("cause object to glow with illumination") in ''Enchanter'' and its sequels. Another spell,

Blorb Blorb is a package format for interactive fiction games. Many such games incorporate resources such as sound effects, music, or pictures. Blorb's purpose is to bind these together into one file. The format was devised by Andrew Plotkin and is ...

("hide an object in a strongbox"), provides the name for a standard wrapper for interactive fiction multimedia resources. Several other IF tools have also been named after spells from the series.

Reception

Released in September, 1983, Infocom sold about 50,000 copies of ''Enchanter'' by the end of 1984, and 75,000 over its lifetime or as part of the ''Enchanter Trilogy''. ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

''s Scorpia praised the game as "typically excellent" and up to the standards expected of Infocom games. '' Ahoy!'' wrote that "''Enchanter'' is filled with the usual Infocom doses of wit, red herrings ... twists, turns, and surprises". It stated that while beginners would enjoy it, experienced text adventure gamers "may be disappointed. There didn't seem to be a whole lot to do. I solved the game in record time, for me; it left me wanting more ... The very moniker "Infocom" may be raising my expectations too high". John J. Anderson wrote in '' Creative Computing'', "With Enchanter, they have scored again ... Enchanter is full of the delightful little touches we have come to expect from Infocom." '' Compute!'' stated that ''Enchanter'' had "nothing strikingly original about it, but you'll appreciate its high level of challenge and meticulously maintained continuity". It stated that "some of the humor lacks, well, subtlety", citing the name Dimwit Flathead as example, and that "the narrative won't win any literary awards, either". The magazine concluded that it "is an excellent game for adventure freaks". Ron Boerger reviewed ''Enchanter'' in '' Space Gamer'' No. 73. Boerger commented that "''Enchanter'' is ..a lot of fun, and if you're into the all-text, no-picture sort of roleplaying, I heartily recommend it."

References

External links

Packaging
at the Gallery of Zork

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