Replaying Sorcerer (spoilers)

I've never been a big fan of replaying games, but I played Enchanter
again a while back because I had never finished it. It got me itching
to have a second look at Sorcerer, so I ran through it this week.

I remember Sorcerer seeming short and easy the first time I played it.
This time it seemed bigger and harder, though I remembered enough to
get through it in a couple days, only cracking into the Invisiclues in
the Lagoon area.

I think I might have actually enjoyed it more the second time, having
more IF context and a geeky interest in the back-patched hodgepodge of
Zork mythology.

Right off the bat, I had a great time with the Encyclopedia
Frobozzica. One of the things that has made IF more enjoyable for me
lately is that I've got a consistent skein-inspired system for naming
save files (e.g. c02encyclopedia.sav: a letter representing a thread
followed by two digits representing a sequence number followed by a
word describing the situation; any time I branch from an earlier point
in the thread I increment both the letter and the number from the last
save file.) So I saved the game right at the encyclopedia and had fun
going back to it throughout the game and when reading the "amusing" at
the end.

Sorcerer introduced the gaspar spell, which I think might have been a
way of avoiding saves and removing some of the out-of-world quality of
saving. It certainly could be used this way, but I think saving is
still more convenient. One of the reasons is that I never bothered to
examine the workings of gaspar: Does the effect wear off when you
sleep? (no) Does it deduct from your points? (no) Where do you get
resurrected? (The last place you cast it, usually). What happens to
your possessions? (I think you keep them) Most of the time it does
just what you would want, although you can get stuck if you cast it in
a dark place (you can always frotz yourself, I guess) or somewhere
that has been blocked off, or if the events of your death involved
using up a resource. I've often wondered if there was a way to
discourage players from saving so much and increase their level of
immersion, but it seems like the only effective method is to convince
them they can never get stuck.

And in Sorcerer there are definitely ways to get stuck. Using up
scrolls and potions, dropping things in the Glass Maze, and of course
a million ways to die. I can't think of any game I've played where
there are so many ways to die. Some of them seem reasonable, but a lot
just sound like poor excuses for keeping the story on track (if you
"aimfiz servants," you catch them drinking on the job and they slit
your throat!) Some of them are just annoying - it seems like you have
to izyuk yourself every other step in order to avoid chasms, mudslides
and bridge collapses. To a certain extent, the ubiquitous danger above
ground emphasizes the strength of Fort Griffspotter's defenses, but
the need to avoid them throughout the first half of the midgame is
wearing. Because of my packrat tendencies (even on a replay!) and the
lack of a carryall, I found myself retracing my steps a lot to juggle
items.

Why are red herring objects always big and heavy? It seemed reasonable
to me that the floor waxer could be used to check for pits in the
Glass Maze. The flag could have been used to wrap up your belongings -
wouldn't that have been clever? Since it seems like you need to sleep
every couple of hours, you're constantly dealing with carrying limits
"in light of your exhaustion." I know sleep is important for resetting
your spells, but it just seemed weird to have to "sleep" in the middle
of whatever task you're working on. There is some compensation,
though: Steve finally gave us a chance to use the timber.

I just noticed from Peter Pears' review that the ruins of Castle
Egreth is the same place as in Enchanter, nominally. Wow, things have
changed a lot since you were here last! Oh well.

Several reviewers have complained about the way Meretzky changed the
tone of the Zork/Enchanter series. I've never quite seen it that way -
although Sorcerer does lack the emotional power of the other two in
the trilogy, I see it more as a step backwards; the humor and the
jumble of incongruous objects and locations falls in line with the
original Zork trilogy. Try "aimfiz wizard of frobozz" to see what I
mean...