Infidel

aka: Pyramid
Moby ID: 62
PC Booter Specs
Included in

Description official descriptions

You've been marooned by your crew in the vast wasteland of the Egyptian Desert. The burning heat causes you to think you are a brave explorer of fortune, but you have already been branded an Infidel. You are more likely to starve to death than finding the gold and riches that are hidden in the pyramids.

Difficulty Level: Advanced

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (PC Booter version)

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 72% (based on 7 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.4 out of 5 (based on 64 ratings with 2 reviews)

Entertaining and clever, but far from Infocom's best.

The Good
The puzzles were interesting and unusual, especially since many of them involved decoding hieroglyphics. Because it was a text game, all the hieroglyphics were managed with punctuation symbols: #$%@ and so on.

The setting and quest were a nice change from science fiction and fantasy. Some (but not most) aspects of the game were accurate to real Egyptology, too.

The Bad
There were effectively no other characters at all, you spent the entire time alone. That's OK but not nearly as interesting as interacting with people as in The Witness and Deadline. Since it's about exploration, maybe that's inevitable; but it didn't really push the boundaries.

The ending made a win feel like a loss. It was intended as a kind of comment by the designer, but if so it was a trivial one and rather offensive to the player's feelings.

Worst of all, however, was the dumbest trial-and-error puzzle in any game I've ever seen. 24 possible combinations; no clues at all to the solution; and each time you got it wrong, you died and had to reload. On a floppy-based PC, this was exceedingly annoying. (This was a one-off, most of the other puzzles were OK.)

The Bottom Line
Worth playing for the setting and puzzles. Real pyramids don't have a complicated maze of rooms inside -- it was a cross between pyramid, tomb in Valley of the Kings, and Egyptian temple. But that's OK, it used the stereotype cleverly and the location made for some interesting puzzles. Moderately amusing writing, but not laugh-out-loud funny; comedy wasn't really the point. Play it for a bit of light entertainment, but if you're serious about interactive fiction, look elsewhere.

DOS · by Ernest Adams (126) · 2004

One of the most despised games, but will suprise you!

The Good
Moving through an pyramid, solving puzzles. Good atmosphere, good puzzles. A solid game.

The Bad
The ending is awful. I cannot give away much without spoiling the game. Needless to say it is an very interesting idea in interactive fiction, but MAN did it bum me out, as well as just about everyone else who played it!

The Bottom Line
A good adventure game, but don't cry to me about the ending!

DOS · by Tony Van (2803) · 1999

Trivia

Copy protection

Copy protection for the game required the user to dig at a specific set of coordinates and translate hieroglyphics. The map and brief primer made these two tasks considerably easier, although it is possible to muddle through the game without them.

Statistics

(From The New Zork Times Vol.3 No.2 Spring 1984)

Some statistics about Infidel:

  • Apparent number of rooms (those seen by the player): infinite (The Desert seems infinite, but internally it's actually just 10 rooms)
  • Number of rooms: 77
  • Number of different ways to die: 40
  • Number of words in vocabulary: 613
  • Number of takeable objects: 49

Title

(From The New Zork Times, Vol.3 No.1, Winter 1984)

Infocom's first Tale of Adventure might have been called Pyramid. Though uninspired, it was used through the game's initial testing and had a loyal following due to its descriptive nature. Infocom's ad agency, Giardini/Russell, was unimpressed and suggested Infidel. Infocom was unimpressed: it sounded more like something from the Crusades than an exploration for a lost pyramid. But in combination with its distinctive logo and the proposed package design, Infocom relented. They even changed the game a bit to make it work better.

Information also contributed by Chris Mikesell

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Related Sites +

  • Infidel (video game) - Wikipedia
    Here you can find all sorts of info about the game.
  • Infocom homepage
    At this site you can find information on ALL of Infocom's interactive games, Infocom related articles, sample transcripts, InvisiClue hints, walkthroughs, maps and information on buying Infocom games today.
  • The Commodore Zone
    All about Infidel - introduction, images, related links and comments area.
  • The Infocom Gallery
    High-quality scans of the grey box package and manual of Infidel.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 62
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Brian Hirt.

TRS-80, TRS-80 CoCo added by Slik. Apple II added by Droog. Amstrad CPC added by Kabushi. Atari 8-bit added by Martin Smith. Commodore 64 added by Jacqke. Amiga, Macintosh added by Terok Nor. Atari ST added by Belboz.

Additional contributors: Dietmar Uschkoreit, Belboz, Nélio, mo , c64fan, Patrick Bregger.

Game added March 1, 1999. Last modified March 8, 2024.