Infidel Goes Wild

The game Infidel, released in a public version, was the focus of the reporter's latest investigation. The reporter spent several weeks meticulously examining the game, only to stumble upon an exceptionally elusive bug. This bug, undetectable through ordinary gameplay, was identified as the first of its kind to be discovered by the reporter during their exploration of Infidel.

Described as a wild pointer bug, the issue involves the unintended alteration of memory, a phenomenon that C programmers consider a grave offense. Furthermore, the bug stems from a compiler error, which adds to its complexity. It is worth noting that this analysis pertains to the Macintosh version of Infidel, specifically the updated release (serial 840522), as opposed to the original release (serial 830916). Both versions exhibit the same bug, albeit with slightly different memory addresses.

The game's setting is the Egyptian desert, where players start in a camp. The Nile lies to the west, while nine desert locations, arranged in a 3x3 grid, are positioned to the east. The nine locations include one buried pyramid that players aim to discover. If players venture beyond the mapped desert areas or leave their camp, they are considered lost in the desert. The game allows players to traverse the desert indefinitely, but ultimately, they will succumb to sunstroke.

The game employs a trick originally seen in Enchanter, where a single room called ENDLESS-DESERT represents all unmapped desert locations. When players move outside the mapped desert, they are redirected to ENDLESS-DESERT. The game maintains the player's latitude and longitude, making the desert environment seem more convincing.

Objects dropped in ENDLESS-DESERT are recorded in the DESERT-TABLE array, which keeps track of their coordinates. When players return to those coordinates, the game retrieves the objects from the array and presents them to the player.