Page 8 - The Status Line - Fall 1987
Copyright (c) 1987 Infocom, Inc.
Upper Sandusky: No, it's not on Lake Erie and there isn't a Joe's
By Steve Meretzky
May 1 was a red letter day for me. I turned thirty, finished writing
_Stationfall,_ and began the vacation that my wife and I had been
planning for months and dreaming of for years: a multi-week
cross-country drive. Boston to San Francisco. Eleven National Parks.
The awesome beauty of the American West.
Betty, my wife, was able to get away from work for only two weeks, so
I left a week earlier. She would be flying to Rapid City, SD, to meet
me. In Pittsburgh, I picked up Jerry Wolper, former Infocommie and
co-author of _Cutthroats,_ who would be accompanying me through
Minneapolis.
As we departed the Smoky City, the vast farmlands of Ohio beckoning,
we decided to take a mild detour in order to visit that small town
where _Leather Goddesses of Phobos_ begins: Upper Sandusky, Ohio.
Although I had chosen Upper Sandusky as the starting point for
_Leather Goddesses,_ I'd never been there and knew virtually nothing
about it. After I finished writing _Leather Goddesses,_ I wondered if
I would get letters from Infocom fans in Upper Sandusky, delighted to
see their town immortalized in the annals of interactive fiction.
After six months, no such letters had appeared.
We approached Upper Sandusky from the south. About five miles outside
town, in the middle of the flat Ohio farmland, a large billboard
assaulted our view. "Upper Sandusky," it read, "The place to be!"
Below, the billboard listed the features of the town, adding, "No,
it's not on Lake Erie!" This last line was presumably a reference to
the larger and more well-known city, Sandusky. (Sandusky lies on Lake
Erie, at the mouth of the Sandusky River. Upper Sandusky is in
central Ohio, fifty or a hundred miles upriver.)
Upper Sandusky, occupying a few square blocks around the intersection
of routes 199 and 30, is a sleepy little town, reminiscent of Andy
Griffith's Mayberry. We had two goals for the visit: seeing if there
was a Joe's Bar in town (since that's where the opening scene of
_Leather Goddesses_ takes place), and finding a computer store.
While buying postcards at the old-fashioned drugstore/newsstand in the
center of town, we borrowed a telephone directory (about the size of
an _InvisiClues_ booklet). First the bad news: of the four taverns in
Upper Sandusky, none were named Joe's Bar. The good news: There WAS a
computer store, on the outskirts of town -- a block away, that is.
It was now a few minutes past 5pm, and Computers Plus of Ohio had a
sign on the door saying CLOSED. The door was unlocked, however, so
(being good adventurers) we entered. It was a tiny place, with
several computers, a magazine rack, and a small pegboard of software.
Most of it was business software; there were only two entertainment
products, and everything seemed sort of, well, sort of faded. A young
woman appeared from the back room.
YW: I'm sorry, we're closed. I'm only here because I'm still backing
up the computers.
SM: I'm not really a customer. We're from Infocom, and we were
driving through town, and I was wondering what the Upper Sandusky
computer store was like.
YW: Info...what?
SM: Infocom. I wrote a game that was set in Upper Sandusky...
YW: (trying to look interested) Oh, really...?
SM: Infocom. It's owned by Activision...
YW: Acti...what?
SM: Well, we'll be going now...
So, that was Upper Sandusky. No brass bands, no key from the Mayor,
no banners proclaiming "Welcome, Author of _Leather Goddesses of
Phobos._" Why does reality have to intrude on life so often?
[Editor's epilogue: Steve Meretzky wasn't the only one interested in
Upper Sandusky, and don't expect this to be the last you've heard of
Upper Sandusky. The story continues on a steamy afternoon when Mike
Dornbrook was being interviewed for an article in _The Wall Street
Journal_ (6/11/87 pg. 27). Reporter Dave Sullivan, of the _WSJ_
Pittsburgh office saw the article, and, like Steve, wanted to find out
Upper Sandusky's response to _Leather Goddesses._ After doing heavy
research into his story, he found, as did Steve, that Upper Sandusky
had no response to _Leather Goddesses._
Mayor Don Hall of Upper Sandusky found out about Infocom's hit game at
this point, and was perplexed by the apathy. He contacted Debbie
Baumann, of the Upper Sandusky _Daily Chief-Union,_ and asked her to
find out more about Infocom, Steve, and _Leather Goddesses,_ and to
write a story on it. Keep your eyes peeled.]
