James Clavell's Shōgun

It was Infocom's thirty-third game.

• Title — James Clavell's Shōgun • Developer — Infocom • Publisher — Infocom • Designer — Dave Lebling • Artist — Donald Langosy • Engine — Z-machine • Released — Mac March 14, 1989 Amiga March 21, 1989 Apple II May 10, 1989 MS-DOS July 6, 1989 • Genre — Interactive fiction, adventure • Modes — Single-player • Platforms — Amiga, Apple II, MS-DOS, Mac

The game reproduces many of the novel's scenes, few of which are interconnected in any way. The player assumes the role of John Blackthorne, pilot-major of the Dutch trading ship Erasmus. During a voyage in the Pacific Ocean in the year 1600, the Erasmus is shipwrecked in Japan. Blackthorne must survive in a land where every custom is as unfamiliar to him as the language. After learning some of the society's ways, he is drawn into a political struggle between warlords and falls in love with a Japanese woman. Eventually, he embraces Japanese life and is honored as a samurai.

James Clavell contributed little to the design of the game, although he and Dave Lebling met several times. He treated the game as a traditional licensing agreement rather than a collaboration. Consequently, the game contains many scenes from the novel presented verbatim or made thinly interactive. Dave Lebling has said that he considers Shōgun the worst game he was ever responsible for overall, although he is proud of several of the timing puzzles.

The Shōgun packaging includes two physical objects: a map representing John Blackthorne's "known world" of 1600, and The Soul of the Samurai, a booklet describing the history and significance of samurai swords.