Gold Machine

Gold Microphone: Enchanter

January 21, 2022

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Is Enchanter the best Zork?

Our week-long Enchanter extravaganza starts with a new episode of the Gold Microphone podcast. This episode includes some thoughtful and thought-provoking listener mail, a discussion of Enchanter‘s new magic system, and further wrestles with deep matters of lore (!).

Gold Microphone is available on all major streaming platforms. If it isn’t on your platform of choice, let us know and we’ll try to get it added. If you’d like to hear it directly from its webhost, find it here.

eNCHanter: Show Notes

Spell books, talking turtles, Eand the end of the world: Join Callie and Drew as they discuss one of their all-time favorite games–Enchanter!

As discussed in the podcast, here are some links.

A Note on Resources and Methods: links and advice for playing classic Infocom games
Enchanter folio in poor condition (but still awesome!)

Get in touch:

email: golmac@golmac.org
contact form at https://golmac.org
twitter: @GolmacB
Facebook (limited activity, but always updated with new posts)
Interactive Fiction Community Forum thread

3 responses to “Gold Microphone: Enchanter”

David Rheingold

February 20, 2022 at 10:38 pm

My biggest quibble with fantasy as a genre is the tendency of authors to use magic as a crutch in lieu of problem-solving. As the science-fiction writer Jerry Pournelle put it: “A story in which anything goes puts the reader on the edge of his chair—nodding with sleep. That’s why you must construct your most far-flung universe with the cement of logic, and make the most incredible events credible.” Too many magic spells (see: Rowling, J.K.) may make the reader wonder why the characters do not use them at other points in the story. Which is not to sound like a sourpuss—I enjoy Harry Potter as much as the next person; my point rather is that interactive fiction as a medium demands greater consistency than books, film, or TV. Game writers must anticipate how spells would act on any object in the game, and structure their puzzles accordingly.

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1. Drew Cook
  
  February 21, 2022 at 2:00 pm
  
  How do you think Enchanter fared in those terms? I think that, in terms of future technology and/or magic, I am interested in rules that can be logically applied and extrapolated from.
  
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David Rheingold

February 21, 2022 at 3:18 pm

Superbly! It’s funny, I don’t read or watch much fantasy, but Infocom’s fantasy titles were all among my very favorites. I loved the entire Enchanter and Zork series, and thought “Beyond Zork” made a perfect sendoff of sorts. Of course I’d rather have seen Infocom stay around and continue to produce all-text adventures. I realize they needed to take gaming to the next level, but I was more impressed with their developments in function (e.g., “Border Zone”) than graphics (“Shogun”).

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