On June 13, 1986 Activision bought Infocom and until recently hasn't really done much with the label (the next wave of Infocom games from Activision are multimedia CD-ROM adventures with titles like Return to Zork, Leather Goddesses of Phobos II, Planetfall: The Search for Floyd, and Zork Nemesis).
In 1991 Activision released The Lost Treasures of Infocom, a collection of 20 classic Infocom games. After the success of Lost Treasures I, Activision released a second anthology which contained 11 more games (plus a coupon to purchase The Leather Goddesses of Phobos. The only games missing were the last three Infocom titles to be made: Shogun, Journey, and Arthur. These were included only in the CD-ROM version of Lost Treasures.
It appears that Applied Computers (who used to have copies of both CDs of Lost Treasures) is now sold out. Roger Long tells me that Lost Treasures I and II and Masterpieces can be found at http://www.cdromsonline.com/infocom.htm. They claim to ship anywhere in the world.
G.B. fans can try
contacting Lacegem.
LTOI I costs 29.95ukp and LTOI 2 costs 25.95ukp (including VAT). The
address, etc. is
Lacegem (or Interdata Developments)
6 Okeover Road
Salford
Manchester
M7 4JX
Tel: 0161 7922871 Fax: 0161 7922114
Even if you can't find Lost Treasures you're not out of luck. Activision rereleased the games sometime in early 1995. This time in themed packages called The Infocom Collections (Mystery, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Adventure, and Comedy). Leather Goddesses, Shogun, Journey, and Arthur were not included in these collections.
Just as the Collections were getting harder to find Activision once again released (re-re-re-released) the games on a single CD called Masterpieces of Infocom. This one CD contains 33 games (only Hitchhiker's Guide and Shogun are not included - probably due to licensing hassles), all the documentation, hints, and maps in Adobe Acrobat format, plus 6 winning games from the SPAG Interactive Fiction Contest. The CD contains versions for Mac and Dos/Windows. This is probably the best buy since Activision is pricing the disc rather low (CDROMs Online has it for US$21.99).
You can also get Zork I (for PC and Mac) for FREE from Activision as part of the promotion for Zork Nemesis.
If you can't find or afford The Lost Treasures of Infocom, or The Infocom Collections, or Masterpieces you are still not completely out of luck. The source code for the original mainframe version of Zork, called Dungeon, is available from ftp.gmd.de in Fortran source or C source. This version contains most of Zork I, about half of Zork II, and a teeny bit of Zork III.
If you are interested in ordering any of the above titles you can contact
directly at:
Activision/Infocom
