External Links

Commercial game not available for download.
Walkthrough and maps
Verbose walkthrough and maps by David Welbourn.
Salvaged Copy
The source files and a precompiled ZMachine storyfile of this adventure were recovered from a salvaged "Infocom hard drive", and made publicly available on GitHub in an effort to preserve them.

Have you played this game?

You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in.

Playlists and Wishlists

RSS Feeds

New member reviews
Updates to external links
All updates to this page

Trinity

by Brian Moriarty

Fantasy, Time Travel
1986

(based on 99 ratings)
8 reviews

About the Story

You're neither an adventurer nor a professional thrill-seeker. You're simply an American tourist in London, enjoying a relaxing stroll through the famous Kensington Gardens. When World War III starts and the city is vaporized moments after the story begins, you have no hope of survival.

Unless you enter another time, another place, another dimension.

Escaping the destruction of London is not the end of your problems, but rather the beginning of new, more bizarre riddles. You'll find yourself in an exotic world teeming with giant fly traps, strange creatures, and other inconveniences. Time and space will behave with their own intricate and mischievous logic. You'll visit fantastic places and acquire curious objects as you seek to discover the logic behind your newfound universe.

And if you can figure out the patter of events, you'll wind up in the New Mexico desert, minutes before the culmination of the greatest scientific experiment of all time: the world's first atomic explosion, code-named Trinity.


Game Details


Awards

10th Place - Interactive Fiction Top 50 of All Time (2011 edition)

32nd Place - Interactive Fiction Top 50 of All Time (2015 edition)

4th Place - Interactive Fiction Top 50 of All Time (2019 edition)

21st Place - Interactive Fiction Top 50 of All Time (2023 edition)

Editorial Reviews

Adventure Classic Gaming

Though there is not much of a story in Trinity, there is a strong ambience. There is no plot to drive you on through the game, just your own curiosity and the challenge of the puzzles. The hole that is supposedly filled by a story is instead occupied by a message, maybe just a feeling. Strangely, it seems that if you play the game well and solve the puzzles without dying or fumbling about too much, then you may actually miss the significance of a site and thus miss out a chunk of that message.
-- David Tanguay
See the full review

Gaming Enthusiast
The game is quite though-provoking without shoving the message right into your face. What’s more, it’s well-written, entertaining and with hard, but rewarding puzzles.
-- Toddziak
See the full review

SPAG
Trinity has something for everyone: it's not too hard for novices, but is well-suited for experienced adventurers as well. It is exciting, engrossing, well-written, and, unlike too many other works of interactive fiction, lives up to the hype.
-- Matthew Amster

The plot revolves around the stages of development and construction of the atomic weapons used to destroy you in the game's opening. Eventually, if you are clever and utilize all of your brain cells to their utmost, you might get the chance to go back in time and change history for the better. The ending of this game is in my opinion truly spectacular, a fitting reward for the amount of work you'll have to put in.
-- Molley the Mage
See the full review

SynTax
When I first played Trinity two years ago I got completely absorbed in Brian Moriarty's story and rated it the very best of the ten Infocom titles I'd then seen. I've since played it twice more and on each occasion I found that it had lost none of its original appeal. Having now worked my way through all the Infocom adventures available on the ST I can honestly say that it is one of my three favourites. If you haven't played it then you've got a real treat in store. If you have, why not dust it off and take another look - you won't be disappointed.
-- Neil Shipman
See the full review

Tags

- View the most common tags (What's a tag?)

(Log in to add your own tags)
Tags you added are shown below with checkmarks. To remove one of your tags, simply un-check it.

Enter new tags here (use commas to separate tags):

Member Reviews

5 star:
(67)
4 star:
(21)
3 star:
(9)
2 star:
(2)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 8
Write a review


Most Helpful Member Reviews


9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
A surreal journey, July 17, 2015
by Form 27b-6 (Southern California)

It's been a while since I played an Infocom for the last time but the release of the Lost Treasures of Infocom for the iPad was the opportunity to dive back into these worlds that shaped my memories of old gamer.
I just completed Trinity and it compelled me to register to the IF database just to write this review. Rarely have I felt so immersed in a game, and so touched by its surreal atmosphere. In that regard, Trinity is a true testament to the power of Interactive Fiction in the hands of talented writers.

Trinity doesn't have a very defined plot. It's more a loose connection of metaphoric experiences, with the historical breakthroughs that led to the atomic bomb at its center. You travel through time and places in an effort to change the course of history, trying to understand the meaning of the events in order to alter their outcome. There's a strong and somewhat foreboding sense of ineluctability, with puzzles often forcing you to race against the clock.

The puzzles are perfectly imbedded into the surreal ambience of the game. It's like trying to decipher someone's dreams, and to make sense of the logic that governs them.
It's to me one of the great qualities of this game. Even though strange and sometimes downright twisted, the world of Trinity always feel coherent, giving you a fair chance of solving its many mysteries.

Still, the game is tough, with multiple opportunities to render it unsolvable, and a pretty complex timed endgame. I made a point to beat the game without help, but it took me long hours, and a couple of times I was close to throwing the towel. But that's what makes a great IF game in my opinion; Trinity strikes a perfect balance, which makes it very rewarding to play. I will not spoil the ending of course but I want to note that it may feel a little unfulfilling for some players, even though I personally think it's beautiful and suits the game perfectly.

I had a great time with Trinity. I felt a stranger in a strange world, discovered many wonders, and even made some friends, like my buddy the roadrunner.

A great achievement by Brian Moriarty.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | View comments (2) - Add comment 

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
If you've never played this Classic, hunt it down, March 24, 2008
by Grunion Guy (Portland)

This is one of the very few Infocom text adventures I solved by myself and without hints way back in the Apple IIe days. That isn't to say the game isn't challenging -- it is -- but that the story is so well written that it kept me coming back and continually thinking about how to get past the next problem. The game would sit for days when I finally thought I'd reached an insurmountable obstacle yet my mind kept returning to the problem and mulling over the possibilities. I'd continually find myself back in this fascinating world and happily getting past some of the most satisfying puzzles in Interactive Fiction. The ending, more so than any other Infocom game I'd played, left me absolutely satisfied and actually proud of the protagonist and his actions.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
A Truly Original Work, December 7, 2007
by Matt Kimmel (Cambridge, MA)

This was one of the most abstract and speculative works published by Infocom--and, in my opinion, one of the most difficult to solve as well. It managed to combine an Alice-in-Wonderland feel with a story about the invention of the Atomic Bomb, with some time, space, and interdimensional travel thrown in to boot. It also managed, as few games at the time did, to make some social commentary in the process. Overall, a unique and challenging game, and one that will make you think--not just about the puzzles, but about life and the consequences of our actions.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

See All 8 Member Reviews

If you enjoyed Trinity...

Related Games

Other members recommend this game for people who like Trinity:

rendition, by nespresso
Average member rating: (38 ratings)
They caught Abdul during an insurgency in the east. He tried to take out a regiment with some home-made explosives strapped to his chest. They didn't explode, so pretty soon the coalition had a real live terrorist in their clutches. But...

Suggest a game

Recommended Lists

Trinity appears in the following Recommended Lists:

Games I'd like to play by Atropos

Favorite Fours From Industrious Implementors, 1G by Walter Sandsquish
Some IF writers write more than others. Here are my favorite four games from authors who've released at least half-a-dozen games to date. This list covers 1st-generation text-adventure implementors, who published the bulk of their work...

The Canonical Infocom Games by wfaulk
This is a list of the canonical Infocom games in order of release, as according to the Infocom Fact Sheet.

See all lists mentioning this game

Polls

The following polls include votes for Trinity:

Solved without Hints by joncgoodwin
I'm very interested in hearing truthful accounts of at least somewhat difficult games (or games that don't solve themselves at least) solved completely without recourse to hints, walkthroughs, etc.

Best IF Titles by Fredrik
No doubt you have played some great games with great titles, or been disappointed to find games with great titles that did not hold up to expectations. What are the best titles of IF? They can be funny, elegant, evocative, or whatever...

Must-play games by Jeff Sonas
I am looking for the games that, in your opinion, you simply must have played in order to really call yourself an IF aficionado. Or if someone wanted to play N number of IF games in order to get as good an overview of the IF classics...

See all polls with votes for this game




This is version 14 of this page, edited by Petter Sjölund on 27 September 2021 at 9:41am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page