External Links

Play Online
Story File
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
User's Manual
To view this file, you need an Acrobat Reader for your system.
Salvaged Copy
The source files and a precompiled ZMachine storyfile of this adventure were recovered from a salvaged "Infocom hard drive", and made publicly available on GitHub in an effort to preserve them.

Have you played this game?

You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in.

The Witness

by Stu Galley

1983
Mystery
ZIL

(based on 27 ratings)
5 reviews52 members have played this game. It's on 42 wishlists.

About the Story

February 1938, Los Angeles. FDR's New Deal is finally rolling. Hitler's rolling, too; this time through Austria. But as Chief Detective for a quiet burgh on the outskirts of L.A., you've got other fish to fry.

One gilt-edged society dame is dead. And now it looks like some two-bit grifter is putting the screws to her multi-millionaire old man. Then you step in, and the shakedown turns ugly. You're left with a stiff and race against the clock to nail your suspect... unless you get nailed first!

Nobody said a sordid family affair like this was going to be a cinch. Everyone from the knock-out heiress to the poker-faced butler may end up in the slammer before it's over. Ahead of you is a Gordian knot of motives and alibis. And the only testimony you can trust is that of your own eyes - because you are The Witness.

Difficulty: Standard

Ratings and Reviews

5 star:
(4)
4 star:
(5)
3 star:
(13)
2 star:
(4)
1 star:
(1)
Average Rating: based on 27 ratings
Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 5
Write a review

3 Most Helpful Member Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Early noir murder mystery, August 18, 2010
by ZUrlocker (Traverse City, Michgian)

This was one of Infocom's early games, following in the footsteps of Zork and the earlier mystery Deadline. Given Deadline's reputation for being quite difficult, some might find Witness too easy. I thought it was a good game with quite a few interesting twists. It's your basic murder mystery with several suspects, some interesting clues and a few red herrings. There are a few things that need to be pieced together and sometimes you have to wait for someone or something to happen. Still, I admit I was tempted by the InvisiClues! In case it's not clear, the inspiration for the title is that you're the witness to a murder that you then need to solve.

Given the relatively primitive state of computers back in 1983 when Witness was written, it's an impressive game. Maybe by modern standards, it's a little sparse. Back then, infocom games clocked in at an impressive 128k, so there isn't a lot of verbose writing. As a result the number of rooms, people and objects is limited. Still, Stu Galley does a good job of capturing the "hard-boiled" detective feel of '30s pulp-era fiction even if it's more of a novella than a full blown novel. Still, Witness and Stu Galley's later games defined the golden age of Interactive Fiction that inspired many more authors to come.

This game is available as part of the Lost Treasures of Infocom series. If you like mysteries, you should seek this one out. The feelies in the original game are quite cool including a telegram, suicide note "Detective Gazette" and more. You can also find versions of the InvisiClues for download at http://www.waitingforgo.com/invisiclues/main.html

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | View comments (2) - Add comment 

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A Disappointing Follow-Up to Deadline, September 3, 2021
by Drew Cook (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

Stu Galley was, perhaps, Infocom's chief internal evangelist. He was the author of the idealistic "Implementor's Creed" and deeply believed in the potential of interactive fiction. To him, making IF was more than a job; it was a calling. Beyond Galley's significant technical contributions--he performed a late-Infocom rewrite of their parser--he was an important contributor to Infocom's culture, a needed source of aspirational seriousness that leavened the company's wisecracking Zorkiness. I feel both admiration and gratitude for Galley's contributions to the history of interactive fiction.

The opening of Stu Galley's first game, The Witness, is marvelously atmospheric. Take, for instance, this initial description of the victim's daughter: "Monica stops talking and looks at you sharply. She is a woman in her mid-twenties. Her grey eyes flash, emphasizing her dark waved hair and light but effective make-up. She wears a navy Rayon blouse, tan slacks, and tan pumps with Cuban heels. She acts as though you were a masher who just gave her a whistle." The feelies include a VERY authentic newspaper--game specific articles share pages with actual articles culled from the 30's. An included matchbook with a phone number written on it is another nice touch.

Between the feelies and the opening, it really seems that we players are in for a deliciously noir story. But when we find ourselves sitting in a chair, attempting to speak with a character who has little to say about a small number of topics and nothing to say about everything else, it is clear that something is wrong. With nothing else to say or do, the player is obliged to idle in a room with a person who invited them over to have a serious, life and death conversation while repeatedly typing "z," waiting for something to happen.

I take no pleasure in saying so, but there's nothing else for it. The Witness is a bad piece of interactive fiction. There are only four characters to talk to, and nearly all of their responses to your questions are one or two sentences long. They hardly react when caught lying. In fact, the murderer hardly reacts to being caught. Anyone who enjoyed Infocom's previous mystery, Deadline, will be baffled and disappointed by the complete lack of complex character interaction here. There are few clues to find and many empty locations that you will never have a reason to visit. The wonderful opening is like a rainbow lying atop a greasy puddle--there is little worthwhile underneath.

That certain Infocom polish, working in concert with excellent feelies, earns The Witness two stars. I can only recommend it for Infocom and/or mystery completionists.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Its biggest flaw was its price, June 21, 2020

The Witness has a reputation for disappointing customers. Having waited for a new Infocom release and plunked down dozens of early-1980s dollars, they expected a bigger and more challenging game. One that would keep them up late at night for days on end, playing and replaying key sequences trying to build up a godlike understanding of a clockwork world, much as Deadline had offered them.

Instead, what they got was something players would stridently demand just a decade or so later: a game that was compact enough, and fair enough, to be solved without feeling like one should have earned college credit while doing so.

Although derivative, the feelies lean in deep and hard to the 1930s detective potboiler and pulp mystery markets. The character roster is indeed shallow but at least it's easy to keep track of who-means-what-to-whom. Galley's tweaks to standard parser responses mostly work to build the illusion. The variations in results for accusing and arresting suspects give enough teases and nudges to encourage playing again if you didn't reach the optimum solution.

So, at commercial release? This game definitely rates one star lower. The criticism from contemporary players and press was totally deserved. Without the big-ticket investment and pressure for this game and this game alone to offer several dozen hours of digital engagement? It's quite good. (The gaming market was tiny compared to the virtually limitless choice of the 21st century.)

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

See All 5 Member Reviews

Tags

- View the most common tags (What's a tag?)

(Log in to add your own tags)
Search all tags on IFDB | View all tags on IFDB

Tags you added are shown below with checkmarks. To remove one of your tags, simply un-check it.

Enter new tags here (use commas to separate tags):

Game Details

Language: English (en)
First Publication Date: May 24, 1983
Current Version: Unknown
License: Commercial
Development System: ZIL
IFIDs:  ZCODE-22-840924-D5B7
ZCODE-22-840924
ZCODE-21-831208
ZCODE-20-831119
ZCODE-18-830910
ZCODE-13-830524
ZCODE-23-840925
TUID: 6963a47vqgms8wi0

Referenced in Sergeant Guffy's Day, by TheDefiant

If you enjoyed The Witness...

Related Games

Other members recommend this game for people who like The Witness:

Make It Good, by Jon Ingold
Average member rating: (82 ratings)
The call comes through. Of all the dicks; you get the call, sitting in the front seat of your car, hands shaking on the steering wheel. An urgent call; but all you were thinking of was the bottle in the liquor store and so that's where...

Suggest a game

Recommended Lists

The Witness appears in the following Recommended Lists:

The Canonical Infocom Games by wfaulk
This is a list of the canonical Infocom games in order of release, as according to the Infocom Fact Sheet.

Detective and mystery games by MathBrush
These are games where you play a detective or someone else investigating a mystery. Most of them are realistic games which I am splitting off of my realistic list. Some are more magical or science fi-ish.

Murder Mysteries by Walter Sandsquish
Text-adventure games ask players to solve puzzles, so asking them to also solve a murder mystery is quite common. Figure out who-done-it in the following games.

See all lists mentioning this game

Polls

The following polls include votes for The Witness:

Must-Play IFs for learning to write IFs by Tondo
So I'm fairly new to IFs in general, but I've been enjoying reading some of the IFs on this site. Now I want to get my feet wet a bit, and try writing my own IF. ...

Cool Murder Mystery/Detective Games by Christopher Caesar
Hey everybody. I am looking for a murder mystery text game. I finished An Act of Murder a while ago and want to play more games like that, where to get to solve the murder yourself. If you could tell me some of your recommendations that...

New Game Challenges by tggdan3
User-made challenges for existing IF games meant to make the game harder/more fun

See all polls with votes for this game

RSS Feeds

New member reviews
Updates to external links
All updates to this page


This is version 11 of this page, edited by Dan Fabulich on 13 August 2024 at 9:53pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page