Gold Machine: Wishbringer (Update: Tuesday, September 13)

In this last post, I root around in the Zork gray box material to find connections between Zork and Wishbringer. A conversation likely to continue with Spellbreaker!

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Why is there a platypus in the image? Is this meant to imply that Wishbringer is set in Australia? Maybe the great ‘underground’ empire is actually the great ‘down under’ empire.

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There’s no in-game explanation for the platypus imagery in The Legend of Wishbringer feelie or on the postage stamp affixed to the ransom letter. Both add a bit of out-of-place whimsey to what would otherwise be tragic or ominous texts.

If Brian Moriarty has ever publicly discussed his addition of the Platypus Kingdom to the Zork universe, I’ve neither seen nor heard him do so. They’re back in Beyond Zork, so he must not have changed his mind about them. So far as I recall, platypuses don’t turn up in other Infocom-published Zorks, though I’m not as sure about Zork Zero.

Perhaps the “island kingdom of Antharia” (the setting of Wishbringer) reminded him of Australia. Or perhaps Australia reminded him of Antharia!

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Re the heading " Wishbringer (Update: Monday September 13)"

Not sure which year your calendar is for but the 2022 version I have definitely shows Monday as the 12th and Tuesday as the 13th. (Today being Wednesday the 14th 8:03pm)

So, I’m revisiting the first episode of gold microphone, because in the articles you mentioned “if you listen to the podcast episode” and I… WHERE IS THAT CHAPTER!? It took me a moment to notice that it was the very first… anyway. I found it pretty funny how upset you were about the magic dissonance of the game. This proves how differently each other approach art, and of course IF games.

Also, it is quite funny that you are the whole program telling “my favorite moment of the game… my favorite moment of the game” in different parts of the program and for different parts of the game. Well, the game is just sooooo good.

Finally, I want to ask: if you don’t ask for wishes the stone is entirely useless till the end game, isn’t it?

The only platypus I could find in any other Infocom game than WIshbringer and Zork Zero is the one in Ballyhoo. And surely that one is just a coincidence?

ballyhoo

Well, for clarity’s sake, I was annoyed when I was an 11-year-old boy because I thought wishing sounded like fun (it still does!), but getting high scores sounded like fun, too. Nowadays, well, I certainly hope I haven’t given the impression that Wishbringer upsets me. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I think in the podcast I say that we can briefly see “behind the curtain,” that calling attention to the score emphasizes Wishbringer’s “videogaminess” in a way that the rest of the game does not.

It really is! One of Infocom’s best games that shines especially brightly among its post-Cornerstone brethren. Of that lot, I think I would only rate AMFV, Trinity, Plundered Hearts as comparable or better. It’s without question the best Zork game outside of the big six. Actually, I prefer it to Sorcerer and Spellbreaker, too.

Well, it’s a light source, but there’s another oner available anyway. So yes: to the disappointment of countless 11 year-old boys, the answer is “yes.”

Well, that’s an interesting question. I’m sure most of us who follow Infocom discourse closely know that Implementors have occasionally turned up in Jimmy Maher’s comment section. Brian Moriarity once remarked there that, “Jeff [O’Neil] and I lived with a handful of other guys in a Concord farmhouse during the Infocom years.” Were platypuses an inside joke? Did Moriarty just think they were cool? Did the guys crack platypus jokes around the house?

According to the Infocom Fact Sheet, Ballyhoo was released in February 1986 (I’ve seen other dates but trust the Fact Sheet). Since Wishbringer released nine months before, I’d guess that there is a non-zero chance that O’Neil playtested it at some point.

Nice catch! I only recall the “human armadillo!”

Back when I first played Ballyhoo, I assumed those stage names were randomized. But it turns out they’re not. They depend on how you “die”, though I’m not sure I quite see the pattern from a quick glance through the source code.

Anyway, the possible stage names are The Human Platypus, Eelworm, Croissant, Corkscrew, or Armadillo.

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What luck! Callie and I are recording the Ballyhoo podcast this morning. I’ll be sure to mention this! Thanks.