Норд и Берт: Игра слов от Infocom

1987 video game

Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It is an interactive fiction video game written by Jeff O'Neill and published by Infocom in 1987. It was released simultaneously for MS DOS, Commodore 64, and other platforms. Nord and Bert was unique among Infocom games in that it used the game engine to present wordplay puzzles rather than an adventure story. It was Infocom's twenty seventh game.

The Nord and Bert packaging includes Home on the Range, a physical booklet of wordplay themed cartoons drawn by Kevin Pope (who also illustrated the front and back of the game package). The cartoons illustrate several of the types of puzzles in the game, with each cartoon corresponding to a section of the game.

Computer Gaming World described Nord and Bert as "a sophisticated game for mature people who like wordplay". Its reviewer did not enjoy Nord and Bert as much as the "more complete" previous Infocom games, stating that the game often did not accept seemingly valid word play responses. He suggested that the game might be used to teach word play to students. Compute! more favorably reviewed the game, praising its humor, the puzzles' creativity, and the fact that individual games could be finished in a brief period. Compute! 's Gazette also liked the wordplay, stated that the game "should appeal to most everyone", and especially recommended it to those who avoided other text adventures. Antics reviewer was critical, stating "I cannot recommend this game" because puzzles could not be solved by logic alone. He concluded, "I give Infocom an A for originality but will spend my money on something else".