Deadline (1982 video game)
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (May 2009) |
Deadline | |
---|---|
Mystery, Interactive fiction | |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Deadline is an
Deadline was Infocom's first mystery game, their first non-
Plot
The player's character in Deadline is an unnamed police
The suspects, who walk around the estate pursuing their own agendas during your investigation, are:
- Leslie Robner, the victim's wife
- George Robner, the victim's son
- Mr. McNabb, the gardener
- Mrs. Rourke, the housekeeper
- Mr. Baxter, Robner's business partner
- Ms. Dunbar, Robner's secretary
Gameplay
New
There are only two ways for the player to die,[3] but Infocom gave Deadline a difficulty rating of "Expert", largely due to the abundance of evidence and false leads to be sorted out within a short timespan.
Development
While writing Deadline, Marc Blank was strongly inspired by the 1930s out-of-print books written by
Blank couldn't include all of the game's text in the limited 80KB of disk space. Working with a newly hired advertising agency, Infocom created physical items to provide information not included within the digital game itself. These items were:
- A police folder in a pouch containing an Inspector's Casebook[2]
- A plastic bag with 3 white pills found near Marshall Robner's body
- Notes from police interviews with Leslie and George Robner, Mr. Baxter, Ms. Dunbar, and Mrs. Rourke
- corpus delicti (summary of findings from the coroner's examination)
- A letter from Mr. Coates, Marshall Robner's lawyer, to the Chief of police
- An official memo from G.K. Anderson of the Lakeville, Connecticut police department
- A lab report on the teacup Robner drank from before his death
- A photo of the murder scene, complete with white chalk outline
In later "grey-box" editions of Deadline, many of these documents were incorporated into the Casebook, rather than existing as separate papers.
Reception
Although
The game received an award for "Best Computer Adventure" at the 4th annual
Reviews
- The V.I.P. of Gaming Magazine #3 (April/May, 1986)
See also
- The Witness (1983)
References
- ^ Maher, Jimmy (July 11, 2012). "Deadline". The Digital Antiquarian. Retrieved January 24, 2023.[self-published source]
- ^ a b "Putting Fiction on a Floppy", Time, December 1983, archived from the original on 2011-11-06
- ^ "Hot Gossip". Computer Games. February 1985. p. 8. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
- ISBN 1-55622-912-7.
- ^ Maloy, Deirdre (July–August 1982). "MicroReviews: Deadline". Computer Gaming World. Vol. 2, no. 4. p. 34. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
- ^ Morgan, Chris (December 1982). "Deadline". BYTE. Vol. 7, no. 12. pp. 160–161. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
- PC Magazine. Vol. 1, no. 8. p. 110.
- ^ Rothstein, Edward, Reading and Writing: Participatory Novels, The New York Times Book Review, May 8, 1983.
- ^ Morris, Anne (February 1984). "Deadline". K-Power. No. 1. p. 60. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
- ISSN 0147-8907.
- ^ "150 Best Games of All Time". Computer Gaming World. November 1996. pp. 64–80. Retrieved 25 March 2016.