External Links
- Invisiclues Hints
Hints for "Bureaucracy", adapted (with permission) from Infocom's original Invisiclues hint books. - 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.
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About the Story
IMPORTANT! Our records show that you do not have a license to operate this software. Normally, you would be required to complete a License Application Form and mail it (with proof of purchase) to our Licensing Department, and then wait the customary four to six months for processing.
Luckily, for your convenience, we have, at the last minute and at great expense, installed a remarkable new on-line electronic application form on this very disk, which will be processed by our modern 24-hour computer service moments after you fill it in.
Bureaucracy! Everyone, at one time or another, feels bound up in an endless swathe of red tape. In Bureaucracy, best-selling humorist Douglas Adams draws on his own battles with beadledom to create a hilarious misadventure. You'll find yourself in the midst of a bureaucratic muddle so convoluted that you can't help but laugh.
You've just landed a great new job and moved to a spiffy house in a nice little town. You're even being sent to Paris this very afternoon for a combination training seminar and vacation. What could possibly go wrong? The answer, of course, is everything. When the bank refuses to acknowledge your change-of-address form, you'll find yourself entangled in a series of bureaucratic mishaps that take you from the feeding trough of a greedy llama to the lofty branches of a tree deep in the Zalagasan jungle.
The distinctive humor that made The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a runaway success will keep you in stitches as you confront a series of bureaucratic puzzles and experience the thrill of outsmarting the powers that be.
Ratings and Reviews
| Average Rating:   Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 1 |
Finally, a bank (and game) you can trust!, May 18, 2019While it would be hard to argue objectively that Bureaucracy is the best Infocom title, I believe it is the funniest and ergo my favorite. Hell, even before you play the game there's several laugh-out-loud moments just perusing the feelies, my favorite being the triplicate credit card application that is different on every page.
On start-up, you're asked to fill out personal information (to identify the character you'll be playing) and you'll be ridiculed (and your information will be misrepresented anyway, bureaucracy and all that). By this point if you're not hooked you probably won't be.
What ensues is comic madness, and unless you are a very good puzzle-solver, it will lean towards madness. As your blood pressure rises while playing the game, so does the character’s. There’s a blood pressure gauge in the status bar that goes up for every mistake you make. And yes, you can have a heart attack and die if it gets too high.
I did need a few hints to win this one, but even I was amazed at my persistence with some of the puzzles. The game’s tightly developed plot and brazen humor kept me away from the hint book several times. While there are a couple of instances where the game seems unfair, with one walking dead situation, if you persist you will be duly rewarded with the genius that was Douglas Adams.
1 Off-Site Review
SPAG
This game has become the standard by which almost all tongue-in-cheek games about real life are measured, and has been imitated many times, but seldom equalled. The atmosphere is not surprisingly, very much like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but is in many ways funnier since it hits areas that the gamer will have experienced firsthand.
-- Graeme Cree
See the full review
Tags
Game Details
Current Version: Unknown
License: Commercial
Development System: ZIL
Forgiveness Rating: Cruel
| IFIDs: | ZCODE-86-870212 |
| ZCODE-116-870602 | |
| ZCODE-116-870602-FFBC | |
| ZCODE-160-880521 | |
| ZCODE-1-220319-91E0 |
Makes reference to Zork I, by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling
Makes reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams and Steve Meretzky
Bureaucracy on IFDB
Recommended Lists
Bureaucracy appears in the following Recommended Lists:Infocom (in personal favourite order) by Max Fog
Order of my favourite Infocom games, top being favourite.These are only of those i have played.
Rather Old IFDB Games by HoneySpeck
These are games that fit into the category of 'rather old', i.e. they were released before 1990.
My List Of Most Fun Games Ever by Rotonoto
(in purely alphabetical order)
Polls
The following polls include votes for Bureaucracy:Programming/command-line games? by autumnc
What are some games that either include computer programming as a game mechanic, elements that simulate computer programming, or include some sort of command-line or terminal interface? This could include parser games, choice-based...
ZCode games with non-standard status lines by Dannii
I'm interested in finding ZCode (primarily those written in Inform, though Infocom games could be ok too) which have a non-standard status line. Whether it's with colours, maps, arrows, or more! With such a list I can investigate what...
Games that show everyday life by Sam Jackson
I'm looking for preferably short games that focus on part of someone's life in our world and preferably our time. I would like games with an emotional focus.
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This is version 15 of this page, edited by JTN on 29 April 2025 at 4:45pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page
