Publisher: Infocom
Developer: Tom Snyder Productions
Coder: Steve Meretzky
Graphics: Doug McCartney, Robert Thibeault
Cinematography: Dave Kaemmer, Omar Khudari
Year: 1988
Price: $12 (US Release Only?)

Lane Mastodon vs The Blubbermen was the first of 4 interactive comic books (Infocomics) that were released in 1988. The 3 others were Gamma Force: Pit Of A Thousand Screams, Zork Quest I: Assault On Egreth Castle, and Zork Quest II: The Crystal Of Doom.

It's not possible to die and the only interaction comes at junctures where you have the option to view the story from another character's perspective. A flap appears and you have roughly a 10 second window to switch character by pressing Return. In theory having this option improves replayability value. Given this is a unique edit I've removed the flap to keep the story flowing better.

To compile this video I played through the game many times using all available characters then stitched and cut everything together trying to get the most cohesive storyline and timeframe. There might be moments which appear disjointed but after days of editing, re-editing, and re-watching this will have to suffice! Consider this a heavily edited Director's Cut. Playing the game yourself would provide a much shorter experience and not resemble what you see here.

The game runs very slowly almost to the point of being unwatchable. This video features over 1000 edits to improve speed, and that doesn't include rejigging of scenes within scenes which took equally as long. Had I appreciated this from the outset it would never have reached 1st base, but there is a sense of achievement having now completed it. Just don't expect another Infocomic!

Steve Meretzky also wrote Leather Goddesses Of Phobos, which included a 3D comic where Lane Mastodon first appeared. You may note this reference during the story.

Infocomics were ultimately a commercial failure, the most likely reason being that they were interactive stories, rather than games. After the 4th Infocomic they cut their losses and moved on.