The guidebook for winning adventures. (book reviews) Russ Lockwood.

The Guidebook for Winning Adventures

Warning: this book can be hazardous to your adventuring health. Once you read the explicit instructions for solving puzzles, you may lapse into bouts of self-mutilation as you kick yourself for not figuring out the answer sooner.

This book provides all the help you will ever need to solve six of those marvelous Infocom text adventures: Enchanter, Infidel, Planetfall, Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III. It details each step down to the exact commands; lists treasures, objects, and spells; provides a beginning-to-end summary of play; and gives you a complete set of maps to all six games.

Best of all, the clues are in code. This prevents you from accidentally seeing too much too soon. Of course, you must learn to use this book only as a last resort. Otherwise, you may give in to temptation and rely on the book rather than your own deductive powers for all the answers.

We looked at the clues for Zork I: how to enter Hades, how to wind through the maze, how to obtain the bauble. In short, the clues are accurate and helpful.

David and Sandy Small, no strangers to Creative Computing readers, deliver an excellent guide to beating selected Infocom adventures. If you are stymied, frustrated, or otherwise baffled by a particular puzzle in any of the six titles listed above, buy this book.

Review Grade: A