Infocom 1987

Language:

English

Authors:

Douglas Adams , Michael Bywater

Systems:

ZIL

Platforms:

Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, C64/128 , PC , Z-Machine

Genres:

Humour

Entered by:

Alex, Dorothy, Eriorg, Gunness, Mousey, Mr Creosote

Added:

10-05-2010

Edited:

04-12-2022

Synopsis

Plot

Once upon a time, a man moved from one apartment in London to another. He dutifully notified everyone of his new address, including his bank; he went to the bank and filled out a change of address form himself. The man was very happy in his new apartment. Then, one day, the man tried to use his credit card but couldn't. He discovered that his bank had invalidated his credit card. Apparently, the bank had sent a new card to his old address. For weeks, this man tried to get the bank to acknowledge his change of address form. He talked to many bank officials, and filled out new forms, and tried to get a new credit card issued, but nothing worked. The man had no credit, and the bank behaved like, well, a bank.

It's a sad story, one that gets replayed every day for millions of people worldwide. Of course, sometimes it's not a bank at fault: sometimes it's the postal service, or an insurance company, or the telephone company, or an airline, or the Government. But all of us, at one time or another, feel persecuted by a bureaucracy.

Notes

After the tremendous success that was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Infocom were set on starting work on the sequel.
However, Adams was more keen on writing a game based on his real-life experience with government bureaucracy after moving to a new address, and thus, Bureaucracy was born.

Initially Adams intended for Marc Blank to co-write the game, but as he was busy and Adams himself increasingly lost interest in the game, a long succession of Infocom staffers (10+) worked on it before it was completed by Michael Bywater. The game, originally slated for a 1985 release, was delayed for two years. This background story was revealed in an in-game easter egg.

More info can be found on IF-Wiki.

Commodore version is C128 only.

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Solution

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Further Info:

• Review at The Good Old Days
• Search at Atari Legend
• Search at Gamebase64
• Search at IFDB
• Search at Lemon Amiga
• Search at Museum of Computer Adventure Game History

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