I did read some people didn’t think it was one of Infocom’s better games, and I think I read it got negative reviews along with Cutthroats at the time. Admittedly, I didn’t really like it when I tried it. I just hate to think I can’t solve a supposedly juvenile-level game.
I didn’t mean to suggest feelies were hints. I assumed only children would need the feelies, and adults would be able to figure it out, but it seems I was completely mistaken about that game being beatable without feelies – either I was wrong about what I read, or whoever posted that didn’t know what s/he was typing about.
I actually had already checked that. While difficulty is subjective, I always figured most games had a pretty good consensus enough to rank with relatively similar results. If it varies that much, then I guess the Infocom rankings were just the opinions of whoever assigned them to the games although I’ve also read that they might not always represent difficulty so much as how suitable the labeled game would be for someone new to Infocom (I’ve read that AMFV is easy despite being rated advanced because it doesn’t have many puzzles, but I’m guessing the nature of the game would render it not as advisable a choice as a standard game for a newbie).
I was led to believe Infocom games were known for their difficulty, and I figured their idea of “introductory” was probably tougher than games like Gateway, so I’m very surprised to learn that some Infocom games might not be any worse than that – I actually beat Gateway without outside help in eight days (one of which I didn’t play at all, so I guess seven) although I did luck upon a few things through trial and error, and didn’t always see what to do immediately. Which games did you find less challenging than Gateway? I’d love to see how I would handle them. Since I’ve played Planetfall a little, I can tell you that simulating the life of a janitor at the beginning was a bit tedious/patience-trying, and dropping items after trying to pick up too many was a bit of a pain (I know a similar limit is in the Spellcasting games). I haven’t really accomplished anything more than arriving, picking up some items, finding Floyd, and sleeping one night (I’m not even sure I did everything I needed to do before sleeping, so I didn’t save after that).
I think I used maybe frotz, I forget, when I downloaded a few IF like Lost Pig and Photopia. I have Zork I-III, Zero, Beyond Zork, and Planetfall from the Zork Anthology from GOG, so I just played Zork I and Planetfall (haven’t tried the others yet) through whatever GOG prepared (seemingly DOSbox). I was wondering what the best way to play the Infocom games was like if certain releases were better than others (apparently, the Lost Treasures collections aren’t the best for feelies).
The games seem to have multiple versions. I think I read Cutthroats was buggy, so I’m guessing different updates/releases resolve such issues. Are the most recent versions the ones to go after, or are their certain games where a later release might be inferior for any reason? I figured the CD releases like those collections might be a convenient way to get the games set up although I do have a USB floppy drive and an Xtra 486 computer with DOS.
Which Infocom games, or even any other IF are most similar to Legend’s? Thanks for all the input – it’s really interesting to learn from discussions like these. I guess the next step would be either to finish Planetfall (I’ll have to start over since my first game was on a harddrive that was damaged), put that game on hold and look into Wishbringer, or perhaps play another fanmade IF first…