Features

Zork. Remember it? I think I hear a mixture of, “What the hey?” and “Oh, yeah! Wow, that brings back memories.” For the former group, Zork was a text-based adventure game from INFOCOM — one of the the first interactive computer games. It resembles the Choose Your Own Adventure books only instead of flipping pages, you enter the command and the story continues.

Play interactive fiction again (or try it out) with the series from Malinche Entertainment. After a glitch — five times over — I got the game working. It was the luck of the draw as I had a bad CD and then instructions that could be read several ways. No one’s fault except for CD problem. The First Mile is available in several versions: PC ($19.95 by download) and iPod ($9.95).

In the PC version, you enter the commands and tell the game what you want to do in the story while the iPod / cell phone version provides you with a few choices and you select what you want to do.

Want to see what it’s like to get involved with the story? Malinche offers a training academy — beware the side effect of training the academy… addiction.

The First Mile is horror fiction, perhaps something torn out of Stephen King’s notebook. As soon as the game begins, my heart thumps harder with each move I make as I encounter a body, hear a hellhound growling, and see many empty buildings and homes. Am I the only person in Dead Rock? Could this be Twilight Zone?

I try to calm my nerves by playing music while living the game, which is possible to do on the iPod and PC. Not even music or a baseball field brings comfort. I shall stop here as it’s all I can take for the time being. At least, I did this much — me who has never read Stephen King nor have I watched horror films at the slumber parties I attended as a teen.

If you can’t get your teen to read a book and she constantly plays video games, sneak this into her computer, iPod, or Smartphone and she’ll convert and read without hesitance. Good news. When she finishes the game, there are more available from Malinche Entertainment. Heck, this works on spouses, friends, and family, too.

Tips:

• The First Mile is a large story. To start back at the beginning, hold down [Menu] and the center click button at the same time — keep holding till you see the screen blink to the Apple logo, then you can let go. It takes at least six seconds for the logo to appear.

• There isn’t any way to quit and pick up where you left off due to the limitations of the current iPod software. Watch this Web site for updates. Malinche Entertainment has asked Apple to consider adding a “Bookmark” feature.