''The Witness'' is an

interactive fiction '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

video game published by

Infocom Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerstone''. ...

in 1983. Like Infocom's earlier title '' Deadline'', it is a

murder mystery Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

. ''The Witness'' was written in the ZIL language for the Z-machine, which allowed it to be released simultaneously on many systems. It is Infocom's seventh game.

Plot

The game takes place in Cabeza Plana, a quiet and

fictional Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, ...

(the name is Spanish for "Flathead", from Zork mythology) suburb of

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in February 1938. Freeman Linder, a local millionaire, has begged the police for protection from a man named Stiles. The player's character is a detective assigned one evening to check out the wealthy man's claims: is Linder seriously in danger or just another rich eccentric? Before the player can decide, a window explodes and Linder collapses, dead. The case of possible harassment has just become a murder, with the player as the only witness. With the help of Sgt. Duffy (last seen in ''Deadline''), the player has until sunrise to solve the mystery. Motive, method, and opportunity must all be established to secure a solid arrest and the optimal ending. There are two ways for the player to die.

Development

Enjoying playing '' Deadline'' more than '' Zork'', Stu Galley decided to write another mystery game as its counterpart; while ''Deadline'' is set in the eastern United States on a summer day, ''Witness'' is set in the West Coast at night. For authenticity, he obtained a 1930s

Sears catalog Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

and researched contemporary slang; the radio plays the programs that aired on the day the game occurs in.

Release

Included in each package of ''The Witness'' were the following supplementary items: *Virginia Linder's suicide note addressed to her daughter Monica *A telegram from Freeman Linder pleading for protection from Stiles *A matchbook from The Brass Lantern Chinese restaurant *A February 1938 issue of the fictional magazine ''National Detective Gazette'' *Two pages of a real issue of the Santa Ana newspaper ''

The Register ''The Register'' is a British technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee, John Lettice and Ross Alderson. The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "''Biting the hand that feeds IT''." Their primary focus is information tec ...

'', with two articles added about Virginia and Freeman Linder

Reception

Creative Computing ''Creative Computing'' was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from October 1974 until December 1985, the magazine covered the spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format th ...

'' wrote "Infocom has come up with another fine game with Witness ... If you have ever longed to work with

Philip Marlowe Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiel ...

, Miss Marple, or Lord Peter Wimsey, Witness is the next best thing."

Dan Gutman Dan Gutman (born October 19, 1955) is an American writer, primarily of children's fiction. His works include the '' Baseball Card Adventures'' children's book series that began with '' Honus & Me'', and the '' My Weird School'' series. Early li ...

in '' Compute!'' stated that "''The Witness'' is the latest in Infocom's masterful series in all-text adventures, and it may be their best one yet". He praised the game's feelies and period-accurate prose style, and said that the addition of Duffy avoided ''Deadline''s tendency to "bog down". Gutman cautioned, however, that only those who enjoyed intricate puzzles would like ''The Witness''. ''

BYTE The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...

'' agreed on the game's difficulty, and stated that author Stu Galley "apparently read enough of the ard-boiled mysterygenre to emulate the style without mocking it", with "quick but thorough and evocative" descriptions. The magazine praised the feelies, and concluded that "Galley and the Infocom staff have succeeded in designing what

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

would call a 'three-pipe problem.'" ''

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

'' gave the game 11.0 points out of 12. It stated that the quality of the text parser and intricate plot balanced the "scant" 28 locations in the game. ''The Witness'' received the award for "1984 Best Computer Adventure" at the 5th annual

Arkie Awards An electronic game is a game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as pro ...

where judges warned those who thought text adventures were "passe" that the game had "run away with the Arcade Award" just as Infocom's previous text adventure, '' Deadline'', had the previous year.

References

External links

* *
Photo gallery of feelies included with ''The Witness''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Witness, The 1980s interactive fiction 1983 video games Adventure games Amiga games Amstrad CPC games Amstrad PCW games Apple II games Atari 8-bit family games Atari ST games Classic Mac OS games Commodore 64 games Detective video games Infocom games Single-player video games TI-99/4A games TRS-80 games Video games about police officers Video games developed in the United States Video games set in 1938 Video games set in Los Angeles