4.2

Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It

Release Date calendar
1987
Platform joystick
Apple II
Game Type type
Released
Max Players players
1
Overview

Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It is an interactive fiction computer game written by Jeff O'Neill and published by Infocom in 1987. It was released simultaneously for several popular computer platforms of the time, such as the PC and Commodore 64. Nord and Bert was unique among Infocom games in that it was highly surrealistic, centering on word play and puns. It is Infocom's twenty-seventh game. Nord and Bert defies easy description, and in fact almost seems to have been created in an effort to be as strange as possible. For example, the title and front box illustration (two farmers staring at an animal that consists of two cows' rear halves fused together) have nothing to do with the game. Rather, Nord and Bert revolves around several different kinds of wordplay, with a "chapter" of the game dedicated to each style. The first seven chapters can be played in any order, since each exists as an independent "short story" unrelated to the other chapters; to begin the eighth, however, the player must provide seven "passwords" provided by completing each of the other sections. The only effort made to interlink the separate parts of the game is as follows: reality has somehow been altered around the town of Punster. Idioms and clichés are suddenly manifesting themselves quite literally, and it falls to the player, as it always does, to sort things out.

Alternate Names

No information available

Cooperative

No

ESRB

Not Rated

Genres
Adventure
Developers
Infocom
Publishers
Infocom
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