Deadline

About

Deadline is a 1982 interactive fiction mystery where you play an unnamed detective investigating the apparent suicide of a wealthy industrialist. Set in a New England estate, the case starts as a locked-room overdose but quickly spirals into something more sinister. You have 12 in-game hours to interview suspects, examine clues, and piece together the truth. Sergeant Duffy acts as a guide, but the heavy lifting falls on your ability to ask the right questions and spot inconsistencies. The game hinges on logic puzzles and deduction, with outcomes shaped by how thoroughly you gather motive, method, and opportunity. Deadline is often praised for its tightly written narrative and clever red herrings. Though one of Infocom’s earliest titles, it showcases the company’s knack for crafting engaging mysteries with branching consequences. Community archives highlight its layered character interactions and the satisfaction of unearthing a solution hidden in plain sight. While the 12-hour timer adds urgency, the true challenge lies in avoiding assumptions, what seems like a cut-and-dry case is anything but.

Storyline

A wealthy industrialist, Mr. Marshall Robner, locked himself in the upstairs library of his New England colonial estate one night and committed suicide by taking a lethal overdose of anti-depressants. Or did he? You are the Chief of Detectives. You’ve been asked by Robner’s attorney to make a thorough investigation of the case, simply to “quash the suspicions which are inevitable” when a moneyed man dies a sudden and unnatural death. The Medical Examiner found nothing unusual, and interviews with family members and family associates are consistent with the idea that Robner committed suicide. Everything fits neatly—maybe too neatly. You smell foul play, and you have 12 hours to crack the case. If you arrest someone, you’d better have the three traditional ingredients to an ironclad case for the prosecution: the accused must have had a motive, a method, and ample opportunity to commit the crime. There are many possible endings to this case, and the one you reach is determined by your actions and by the deductions you draw from the evidence you gather. But one ending fits the facts better than any other, and you will know it when you reach it.