InvisiClues were hint booklets sold by Infocom to help players solve puzzles in their interactive fiction computer games.

Before Infocom's games exploded in popularity, players could request hints by mail and receive a type-written sheet in response. When the number of requests proved unmanageable, the Zork Users Group began a pay-per-hint telephone system. The invention of InvisiClues replaced this system and was revolutionary: a player could often buy a hint book at the same time and at the same location as the game itself.

Questions relating to the game were printed in the book, for example, the InvisiClues for Zork I contained the question "How can I kill the songbird?" A series of "empty" boxes located below or following the text contained the answers, printed in invisible ink. The contents of each box could be revealed by using a highlighter-like marker that came with the book.

For a short time, The Status Line, the Infocom Game newsletter, included "Visiclues". These were just select InvisiClues questions from a couple of newer games, with answers written in a simple cryptogram.

InvisiClues books were almost always packaged with the navigation map for the same given game.

Though InvisiClues, like the games themselves, are no longer available, a few Internet sites have recreated the booklets. Typically, either all the answers are printed normally on the site or the user must "highlight" a section by clicking and dragging the mouse to reveal the hints.

The InvisiClues were included in a hint booklet packaged with The Lost Treasures of Infocom. However, the InvisiClues packaged with the Treasures were not produced to Infocom's high standards:

  • The clues were not written in invisible ink, which made it easy to accidentally get answers to puzzles.
  • Some of the hints were missing
  • There were many errors, such as misspellings, mis-capitalizations, formatting issues, and punctuation errors.

The clues were not included with The Lost Treasures of Infocom II. However, there was a pay-per-minute card included. In the Solid Gold line, typing "HINT" twice would allow you to access Invisiclues from in-game.

See also

  • Decoder pen
  • Sierra Entertainment sold similar "hint books" for their titles using the decoder pen concept.

References

  • The Infocom Gallery, a site with InvisiClues to some Infocom games