Infidel goes wild
A developer provides a technical analysis of a memory corruption bug found in the classic Infocom game 'Infidel'. The author explains how a 'wild pointer' bug in the game's code causes unintended memory overwrites, despite rarely impacting the actual gameplay experience.
Why it matters
It serves as a deep dive into software preservation and the technical history of early interactive fiction programming.
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Planetfall was yesterday's public release, but of course I've spent the past few weeks concentrating on Infidel . A couple of days I came across the most egregious bug I've yet seen in an Infocom game.
This bug is extremely difficult to detect by playing the game. I must the first person to notice it, just because I'm the first person to play the game with (the equivalent of) a memory-level debugger.
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