Deadline (video Game) - Feelies

Feelies

When writing this game, Blank couldn't include all of the game's text in the limited 80KB of disk space. Working with a newly hired advertising agency, Infocom created the first feelies for this game: extra items that gave more information than could be included within the digital game itself. These materials were of very high quality and their inclusion with a computer game was unprecedented. Critics and fans hailed Infocom's pioneering move and gushed over the feelies' high quality and the immersiveness they added to the game. The feelies included:

• A police folder in a pouch containing an Inspector's Casebook
• A plastic bag with 3 white pills found near Marshall Robner's body
• Notes from police interviews with Leslie and George Robner, Mr. Baxter, Ms. Dunbar, and Mrs. Rourke
• Corpus Delicti (summary of findings from the coroner's examination)
• A letter from Mr. Coates, Marshall Robner's lawyer, to the Chief of Police
• An official memo from G.K. Anderson of the Lakeville, Connecticut police department
• A lab report on the teacup Robner drank from before his death
• A photo of the murder scene, complete with white chalk outline

(Note that in later "grey-box" editions of Deadline, many of these documents were incorporated into the Casebook, rather than existing as separate papers.)

These materials were very difficult for end-users to copy or otherwise reproduce. They included information which was essential to completing the game. So, as a side effect, the feelies acted as a deterrent to software piracy. Infocom thus started including feelies in their subsequent releases, though not every game required the use of the included feelies.