James Clavell's Shogun

James Clavell's Shogun is the computer game adaptation of the famous novel Shogun by James Clavell. The game was created by Infocom and released in 1989 for Amiga. Apple II, MS-DOS, and Macintosh.

The title is known as the first Infocom text adventure that includes graphics. Infocom was, in fact, well known for the classic adventures purely based on text, also known as interactive fictions, like Deadline, Starcross, and, of course, Zork: The Great Underground Empire.

Technically speaking, the game is flawless: the images are stunning, perfectly in line with the Japanese art of the 16th century, and contribute to creating a great atmosphere; the parser, being an Infocom adventure, is highly flexible and very advanced.

The only problem with this game is that James Clavell had nothing to do with the conversion. Infocom was luckier on other occasions: for example, Douglas Adams himself contributed to the game design for the conversion of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But this didn't happen with Shogun, so the game designer, Dave Lebling, had to stick to the novel; he could not add, change, or write new subplots. The result is simple: if you have read the novel, you can complete the adventure quite easily, while if you didn't read the book, some of the puzzles are almost impossible.

On the other hand, the quality of the writing is superb, considering that most of the game text is copied directly from the book, which is an absolute masterpiece. And, as already mentioned, the graphics are a great addition.

In short, James Clavell's Shogun is a fantastic novel and an excellent text adventure to play if you are a fan of the genre, but if you are looking for more original adventures, check the other Infocom titles.