zlacker

The modern-ish Zorks (i.e. the ones available for a range of home computers, Zork 1/2/3, not mainframe Zork) can be done almost entirely without clues (and have no external frob based copy-protection). I remember vividly finally having to seek help in Zork 3, as the phrase "Hello, sailor" was not part of the typical 12 year-old's lexicon, but that was the only time I completely tapped out.

There are some pretty nutty things buried in the game, though - there's a spot in Zork 1 where by typing "temple" or "treasure" at the appropriate location you can teleport from one to the other - the supposed hint for this is they both have a granite wall. WTF?

I believe at the time, as a teenager, I finished most of the Infocom games available without using clues - it can be done. I think I never got the optimum outcome for Deadline.

I recently (this year) finished Starcross without hints or clues, aside from the copy-protection "map" at the start.

>>glangd+(OP)
> I finished most of the Infocom games available without using clues - it can be done.

IIRC, both Witness and Bureaucracy had physical stuff in the box that didn't look like copy protection, but without which it wasn't possible to finish the game - e.g. There was no way to figure out some things in Bureaucracy unless you read the included copy of "Popular Paranoia".

>>beagle+Pa2
Yup. Starcross was similar; I meant clues rather than copy-protection under another name. I played store-bought versions of these game (on my old Commodore 64) and never bought "invisiclues" so the line between these categories was quite clear. I don't recall what the medium of my final "tap out" in Zork 3 was - but recall being stuck for months and finally looking up the "hello sailor" bit.

This might not have been such a problem if I had played the Zorks in order, but I bought Zork 3 before Zork 1 because that was what they had in the shop. Otherwise I might have seen the verse in Zork 1:

"Oh ye who go about saying unto each, "Hello sailor", Dost thou know the magnitude of thy sin before the gods?"