For some of you that have been here a while, you know I've got this odd yet hard core soft spot for Infocom text adventures. They are virtually the "anti Amiga" game when you consider what they offer compared to what the Amiga provides.
But I do love them.
Like any book, the Infocom text adventures force us, the player, to use our own minds to paint the pictures instead of literal pixel representations. And when you really get deep and lost into them, in my opinion they are hard to beat - regardless of the lack of graphics. Most are completely soundless, too - like books. I must admit that when I played Lurking Horror for the first time, I was so unprepared for audio that when it started chanting (on the Amiga version) the hairs on my arms and back of my neck literally stood straight up! Can a movie ever beat your personal memory of a beloved book? Most games can't, either.
Infocom created a unique, imperfect yet deeply compelling, intersection of the two.
And so I collect these old games. I don't try and collect all of them, but I have had certain ones in my sights. And as of right now, I'm nearly finished.
Wishbringer has required a very, very long search. No joke it's been over two years at least. Oh sure, there's always some joker willing to sell one between $100 and $300 (or more). I'm not completely crazy, you know.
But when it comes to Amiga Infocom games, they really are hard to find. And so while I object to the prices, I'm not surprised by them. These really are limited edition. Infocom just didn't do very well on this platform - and rightly so! It's an audio/video powerhouse machine. Who wants a text adventure? They are pretty scarce by their very nature and basic economics of supply and demand.
So when I saw this specimen - the classic IF (interactive fiction) game designed by the legendary Brian Moriarty (Trinity, Beyond Zork, Loom) - my radar nearly cracked and exploded.
Here we had a boxed version of the game that had never been opened. Ever!
The magnetic pull of Wishbringer is easy to explain: it's not considered nearly as hard as most (it's for beginners!) and it was very well-received by critics. By most accounts, it is considered one of the greatest introductions to text adventures ever created.
And mine is still in the original, amazing, shrink-wrap.
Wish fulfilled.