Nord and Bert Couldn’t Make Head or Tail of It is an absolutely intriguing work of interactive fiction that was written by Jeff O’Neill and published by Infocom in the late eighties. It is an oldie, but a one of a kind goodie. It was designed for a single player, and also saw time on the Amiga, Apple II, Atari, Macintosh, and Commodore 64, making it a very often played game. The game is very unique and centers around word play and puns instead of rollicking action and button mashing.
Nord and Bert Couldn’t Make Head or Tail of it is so singularly unique that it is difficult to even describe. The game is divided into several chapters, and each one seems to be a study in a different sort of play on words. Each one comes with a short story, and the first seven chapters can be played in any order, since their stories do not have to be completed chronologically to make sense…which this game does very little of. After completing each of the seven chapters, the user will be given a password, and all seven passwords are required to begin the eighth chapter. All of the stories revolve around the reality, or conception of it, surrounding the town of Punster. Because the
plot involves altered reality, the designers had license to get as weird as they wanted, and they took full liberty. Idioms, clichés and puns begin manifesting by coming to life and the user has to fix everything and put the town back together again.
The chapters of this odd game include a grocery store (where the center is on word homonyms); a play on the word “jack” (which is very unfocused and challenging); a farm that focuses on clichés (which may be difficult for younger gamers who are unfamiliar with some antiquated sayings); a restaurant (where the gamer uses idioms to insult and compliment people at the same time); a sitcom where the user does slapstick humor and offers knock-knock jokes; a manor filled with weird rooms and puzzles (most similar to an actual adventure game); a tower built on spoonerisms; and finally a meeting with the mayor, which is a duke’s mixture of everything the gamer just completed.
In retrospect, Nord and Bert simply has to be downloaded to be understood. The game is very surreal. It is fun and challenging, but does not take to description well. It is recommended that Nord and Bert be downloaded and experienced for yourself.
