It's Bureaucracy Part 1

Douglas Adams is my hero, and have endeavored to follow his example in my own life. Unfortunately, I have only gotten as far as working a series of bizarre and terrible jobs. Anyhow, I've decided to experience one of his lesser-known works, the 1987 Infocom game, Bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy is a nasty piece of work from a man who thinks that having the player buy a cheese sandwich at the beginning of the game and feed it to a dog with no prompting so that they won't be eaten by that dog while aboard a passing microscopic space fleet near the end of the game is a puzzle. Still, I am determined to play it without any outside help, other than the feelies that were originally packaged with the game.

A brief note on feelies for those not savvy with how text games in the late '80s rolled: games were packaged with additional materials, usually small items found in the game or pamphlets and documents in some way related to it. They added an element of immersion and were often required to solve puzzles in the game as an early sort of copy protection. It was DRM made fun!

Why am I doing this? I remember a time not so long ago when I didn't have to make progress to enjoy a game. I was content to wander the Great Underground Empire in Zork or explore Maniac Mansion for hours without really getting anything done. Losing wasn't a problem, it was a learning experience. Games aren't like that for me anymore and I find that very sad.

So, before firing up the game, I took the time to familiarize myself with the documents and forms included with the game. This is important since, as I recall, you aren't really given any direction in the game itself. Now I know that I got an awesome new job and am being flown to Paris for training/vacation, and I have to cash my $75 money order which has been mailed to the wrong address before the flight leaves. Is this interesting blogging? Who cares! The game is afoot!