Puszka Pandory

Development

The game originated as an experiment with text compression in ZX Spectrum, where one byte of memory could store more than one letter.

The game was developed entirely in machine code.

In a 2020 interview (in Polish), Marcin Borkowski briefly discussed the development. Translation follows:

[...] There was basically no idea for the game. At the beginning I played around with implementing a map, walking around it, then I kept adding new pieces, made it so you could find stuff, and so it all kept growing, until the tape got eaten by the recorder and everything was gone.

However, what I had, although it was done in a guerrilla style, still had some kind of shape and gave me a lot of fun — the same kind, I suspect, that Will Crowther had while exploring his colossal cave ;) And a few months later I sat down to work a lot more systematically. The version of the game that everyone knows took me an entire summer.

Inspiration

The plot was partially inspired by the sci-fi short story Głowa Kasandry by Marek Baraniecki.

Re-release

A limited, collector's edition of the game was available for purchase on the Poznań Game Arena fair in 2012. The edition was released on cassette tape hidden within a metal can (a reference to the game's title, which literally means "Pandora's can" in Polish.) It also included a manual with the developer's autograph, as well as a link to a website with tape images available for download and instructions as to how to run them on an emulator. Only 100 copies were produced.

Review

Several years after release, the game was reviewed in the Polish "Bajtek" magazine (April 1989 issue) by one "Karol B. Mirowski". A map of the game world was published alongside the review. In fact, "Karol B. Mirowski" was the game's author himself, Marcin Borkowski (note the almost-anagram name), who was by then employed in "Bajtek". In a 2020 interview (in Polish), Marcin Borkowski explained the origin of the review. Translation follows:

Interviewer: "Puszka Pandory" saw a number of reviews — including one in the cult classic "Bajtek". It was written by one Karol Mirowski. Did the people in the editorial office know that Karol Mirowski and Marcin Borkowski are the same person?

Borkowski: I didn't want to, Marcin Przasnyski [who ran Bajtek's game section] ordered me to do it! Okay, "ordered" is a strong word. I brought the map to the office and gave it to [Marcin Przasnyski], figuring he may want it for the games section. And he said that they (he and Luke, who ran the games section) have no idea what's it all about, they don't know the game, they've never played it, and if I know the game, it's better if I write something about it myself. But I felt embarrassed to sign with my own name. Hence the "Karol".