Border Zone (video game)

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Border Zone
Single player

Border Zone is an

Macintosh. Unlike most other purely text-based games, Border Zone incorporates real-time aspects of gameplay. It is also Infocom's thirtieth game.[citation needed] Its tagline is "Action and international intrigue behind the Iron Curtain
."

Plot

Mirroring the real-world tension of the

spy
become entangled in the assassination plot and efforts to either stop it or ensure its success.

The tension is increased by the introduction of real-time events in the game. Unusual for a text adventure, game time continues to pass even as the computer waits for the player's next input. Certain actions, such as sneaking past a guard post, must be timed carefully to succeed.

Feelies

Besides the high quality of their interactive fiction games, Infocom was also known for

feelies: extra items included in each game package related to the story, and sometimes used as copy protection
. The Border Zone feelies included:

Notes

The game's working title was Spy.

Around the time of Border Zone's release, Infocom stopped assigning difficulty ratings to its games. Players generally consider Border Zone to correspond to either Infocom's "Standard" or "Advanced" level of difficulty[citation needed].

Border Zone was the only game Infocom ever published in the "Espionage" genre.

Infocom's experiment with real-time interactive fiction was not entirely successful. Many players enjoyed what had previously been a hallmark of Infocom's games: the total irrelevance of "real-world" time. Formerly, if a player had to leave the computer to eat, go to school, run an errand, etc., the game would still be in the same state as before. Border Zone removed that certainty. Additionally, this was the first Infocom game in which a speedy typist could theoretically be more successful than a slower one.

Reception

PC Magazine stated that the game "has hit upon exactly the right scenario for an interactive novel" and praised the feelies' "rich detail".[3]Compute! also praised the feelies, and stated that the real-time game play and playing three different characters distinguished the game from other text adventures.[4]

References

  1. Newspapers.com
    .
  2. ^ Scorpia (January 1988). "Border Zone". Computer Gaming World. No. 43. pp. 20–21, 23. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  3. ^ Venditto, Gus (1988-03-29). "The Leading Role in a Spy Thriller: Border Zone Presents Three Possible Missions". PC Magazine. p. 374.
  4. ^ Thomas, Scott (May 1988). "Border Zone". Compute!. p. 60. Retrieved 10 November 2013.

External links

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