324:, Shay Adams highlighted the high level of difficulty of the game. Adams praised the game's story, calling Rodney Smith's humorous writing a successful mix of object and communication-related puzzles. He noted that while other companies had made giant advances in their game parsers, the BTZ parser showed no improvement from previous games; Adams was critical of this, saying that two years after its development, the BTZ parser still required precise inputs instead of analyzing intuitive player behavior. He also criticized the frequent copy protection query as "annoying".
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seven Lau who are supposed to perform the ritual are attacked on the surface of Borg by "Breakers" – intergalactic smugglers who conduct their business through an orbiting space station operated by the United Mining
Combine. The Breakers kill six of the seven Lau, but are then surprised by a squad of Gaks, the security forces of the United Mining Combine. In the course of the fighting, the surviving seventh Lau – the character controlled by the player – loses consciousness and wakes up in orbit on the space station.
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The planet Borg is threatened by a telepathic collision with a mysterious twin planet, a collision that cannot be proven using scientific methods. The planet's inhabitants, the Lau, will not survive the collision unless one of them performs a ritual requiring several artifacts called "elements". The
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stated that this game's "labyrinthine" plot offered a very puzzling and difficult opening scene, but that the game was enjoyable thanks to the advanced parser, communicative NPCs, and its writing style that was clearer than previous games. The magazine gave the game an average rating of 7 out of 10
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The player must first become familiar with the social network of the residents of the space station, take sides in a dispute between enemy smugglers and uncover cases of drug and human trafficking. The player also has to deal with the question of why United Mining
Combine operates the space station
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was not based on the work of a well-known author, but on a 40-page novella written by Rodney Smith, an acquaintance of several
Synapse employees. A booklet containing Smith's novella was included with the game, and served as an introduction to the game. It also provided the copy protection for the
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Successful independent game developer
Synapse Software ran into financial difficulties in 1984 and was bought by Broderbund. Broderbund subsequently used Synapse to produce games for a short-lived trend called "Bookware". This synthesis of analog books and computer games reached its height of
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was released in 1986, there was little media coverage of the game, and sales were disappointing. Following this, Broderbund decided to leave the "bookware" genre, and
Synapse Software was closed. Several games under development by Synapse remained unpublished.
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in orbit at Borg, sometimes in high secrecy, even though all raw material deposits from the planet have already been depleted. The object of the game is to recover the ritual "elements", return to the planet Borg and successfully perform the ritual.
294:, hence the name "Better Than Zork". However, by 1986 Infocom had spent considerable resources improving their parser technology, while Synapse had not made any significant improvements to BTZ. The result was that Infocom's
193:. The game was the last of Broderbund's "Electronic Novels" series, and was not a commercial success. Critics complimented the complex storyline, but found the game's parser had not kept pace with other game developers.
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and saw in the 40-page printed introduction of the game an "allusive, thought-provoking (...) invitation to science fiction myth formation," giving the player an immersive insight into the myths of a fictional people.
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The game starts from this point. The Lau is considered a
Breaker by the Gaks and is confined to a single bar on the space station. The other Breakers in the bar also consider the Lau one of their own.
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a "story about identity work", and said the technique of communicating with NPCs was reminiscent of interrogations.
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game — at various points during the game, the player would be asked for a specific word from the novella.
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used the BTZ ("Better Than Zork ") engine, which had been developed in 1982 by
Synapse programmers
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popularity between 1984 and 1986 with the release of numerous literary text adventures such as
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and Steve Hales. This engine's parser understood about 1200 words, almost twice as many as
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and director of the university's Games
Institute, analyzed the literary content of
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514:"Determining Literariness in Interactive Fiction"
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591:Video games developed in the United States
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327:Neil Randall, English professor at the
264:Like its Synapse Software predecessors
243:Unlike other literary text adventures,
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233:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
465:(4th ed.). Placet Solutions.
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488:"Breakers: Borg under a Bad Sign"
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312:American computer game magazine
169:video game published in 1986 by
486:Addams, Shay (September 1986).
300:, released at the same time as
173:, which was then a division of
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541:Interactive Fiction Database
518:Computers and the Humanities
463:The Inform Designer's Manual
586:Science fiction video games
430:Maher, Jimmy (2014-12-04).
398:Maher, Jimmy (2013-09-10).
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536:Breakers (1986 video game)
320:In the video game journal
177:. It was released for the
556:1980s interactive fiction
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436:The Digital Antiquarian
404:The Digital Antiquarian
512:Randall, Neil (1988).
329:University of Waterloo
377:(41): 24. March 1987
227:Dragonriders of Pern
432:"Bookware's Sunset"
167:interactive fiction
149:Interactive fiction
576:Commodore 64 games
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561:1986 video games
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163:science fiction
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19:1986 video game
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16:1986 video game
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566:Apple II games
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529:External links
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472:978-0971311909
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459:Nelson, Graham
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439:. Retrieved
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187:Commodore 64
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122:Commodore 64
89:Rodney Smith
52:Publisher(s)
40:Developer(s)
213:Development
105:Platform(s)
550:Categories
520:(22): 186.
441:2020-01-23
409:2020-01-23
400:"Bookware"
381:2020-01-23
371:"Breakers"
354:References
260:Technology
175:Broderbund
71:Joe Vierra
57:Broderbund
581:DOS games
375:Computist
346:, called
314:Computist
308:Reception
274:Mindwheel
266:Brimstone
85:Writer(s)
461:(2001).
348:Breakers
333:Breakers
317:points.
302:Breakers
278:Breakers
253:Breakers
245:Breakers
238:Breakers
183:Atari ST
179:Apple II
165:-themed
158:Breakers
144:Genre(s)
117:Atari ST
112:Apple II
25:Breakers
539:in the
501:(9): 1.
297:Trinity
286:Infocom
221:Amnesia
135:Release
469:
344:Inform
272:, and
230:, and
191:MS-DOS
189:, and
127:MS-DOS
95:Engine
491:(PDF)
270:Essex
251:When
161:is a
467:ISBN
291:Zork
197:Plot
138:1986
99:BTZ
552::
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450:^
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
