James Clavell's Shogun
| James Clavell's Shōgun | |
|---|---|
James Clavell's Shōgun cover art
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| Developer(s) | Infocom |
| Publisher(s) | Infocom |
| Designer(s) | Dave Lebling |
| Artist(s) | Donald Langosy |
| Engine | ZIL |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, Apple II, DOS, Macintosh |
| Release date(s) |
Macintosh: March 14, 1989 Amiga: March 21, 1989 Apple II: May 10, 1989 DOS: July 6, 1989 |
| Genre(s) | Interactive fiction |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Macintosh: March 14, 1989
Amiga: March 21, 1989
Apple II: May 10, 1989
James Clavell's Shōgun is an interactive fiction computer game written by Dave Lebling and released by Infocom in 1989. Like most of Infocom's games, it was released for several popular computer platforms of the time, such as the Apple II and PC. As the title indicates, the game is based on the book Shōgun by James Clavell. It is Infocom's thirty-third game.
The game reproduces many of the novel's scenes, few of which are interconnected in any way. The player assumes the role of John Blackthorne, pilot-major of the Dutch trading ship Erasmus. During a voyage in the Pacific Ocean in the year 1600, the Erasmus is shipwrecked in Japan. Blackthorne must survive in a land where every custom is as unfamiliar to him as the language. After learning some of the society's ways, he is drawn into a political struggle between warlords and falls in love with a Japanese woman. Eventually he embraces Japanese life and is honored as a samurai.
Infocom continued its tradition of feelies, or extra items included in the game package. The feelies included with Shōgun were a map representing John Blackthorne's "known world" of 1600, and The Soul of the Samurai, a booklet describing the history and significance of samurai swords.
By 1989, Infocom no longer categorized its games according to estimated difficulty level. Shōgun could be said to fall anywhere from Infocom's former "Standard" level to "Expert". Players who are intimately familiar with the novel, of course, may find the game to be much easier than those who have not read the book.
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