| ___. .___ _ ___. | |
| / _| | \ / \ / ._| | |
| \ \ | o_/ | | | |_. | |
| .\ \ | | | o | | | | | |
| The |___/ociety for the |_|romotion of |_|_|dventure \___|ames. | |
| ISSUE # 11 | |
| Edited by Magnus Olsson (zebulon SP@G pobox.com) | |
| September 16, 1997. | |
| SPAG Website: http://www.afn.org/~afn55673/spag.html | |
| Contest Website: http://www.afn.org/~afn55673/contest/ | |
| SPAG #11 is copyright (c) 1997 by G. Kevin Wilson and Magnus Olsson. | |
| Authors of reviews retain the rights to their contributions. | |
| All email addresses are spamblocked -- replace the name of our magazine | |
| with the traditional 'at' sign. | |
| EDITORIALS----------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Magnus Olsson is the new editor of SPAG. It's been real. Be nice to | |
| him. Take it away, Magnus. | |
| G. Kevin Wilson | |
| "Whizzard" | |
| Thanks, Whizzard. You've done a great job so far for re-vitalizing | |
| text adventures. Let's hope I can contribute a little to the cause as | |
| well. | |
| This issue was mostly prepared by Whizzard; I've just finished the | |
| formatting and added a few comments of my own. Readers will not notice | |
| any big differences in this issue. If you have any comments or | |
| suggestions, please email them to me at zebulon SP@G pobox.com. | |
| Oh, and it's time to start thinking about reviews for the next | |
| issue. If you run out of new games to review, there's a whole bunch of | |
| golden oldies that have been given a new lease of life - see the | |
| "new games" section below. | |
| Finally, let's give Whizzard a big hand for his work. | |
| Magnus Olsson | |
| SUBMISSION POLICY ---------------------------------------------------------- | |
| SPAG is a non-paying fanzine specializing in reviews of text adventure | |
| games, a.k.a. Interactive Fiction. This includes the classic Infocom | |
| games and similar games, but also some graphic adventures where the | |
| primary player-game communication is text based. | |
| Authors retain the rights to use their reviews in other contexts. We | |
| accept submissions that have been previously published elsewhere, | |
| although original reviews are preferred. At the moment, we are _not_ | |
| accepting any more reviews of Infocom games. | |
| LETTERS -------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Hey! | |
| Great to see that people are still writing magazines with the IF | |
| audience in mind! Brings back memories of the New Zork Times and the | |
| Status Line. I just happened upon SPAG in the if-archive at ftp.gmd.de, | |
| and was really impressed with what you're doing. Keep up the good | |
| work!! | |
| I have a question for you, a couple actually. First, have you ever | |
| reviewed a game called "Crisis in Dersenia", by Tech-12 Software? I've | |
| got it off of ftp, and I've prowled that site, and rec.arts.int-fiction, | |
| for someone who knows the solution to it. I was wondering if you | |
| happened to know someone who has solved it, or if you have reviewed it | |
| yourself (I haven't had time to go through all the issues of SPAG, yet). | |
| My second question is more technical. Do you know which drawing program | |
| was used by Magnetic Scrolls to produce to beautiful graphics in The | |
| Pawn, and in Guild of Thieves? I'm thinking of writing my own IF (one | |
| to my credit already, using STAC - ST Adventure Creator), and I thought | |
| it would be neat if I could work towards producing graphics of a similar | |
| quality. | |
| Anyhow, I just thought I'd drop you a line, to say that there are some | |
| of us in Ottawa who love IF, and want to see more!!! | |
| Geoff Gander <GANDERG SP@G tc.gc.ca> | |
| { "Crisis in Dersenia" has not been reviewed yet. Does anybody | |
| feel like reviewing it? -- MO } | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| Thank you for your review of Awechasm which featured in issue 8 of | |
| SPAG. Notwithstanding the justified comments regarding the weakness | |
| of the parser, I would like to suggest that the critique was (in my | |
| albeit biased opinion!), rather harsh. | |
| When I wrote the Awechasm, I was trying to create a game that would | |
| appeal to a certain sense of humour - probably best described as | |
| "British Saucy Seaside Postcard humour" (30's style cartoons with | |
| saucy images and/or crude speech/thought bubbles) with occasional | |
| drifts of very obvious toilet humour. The sense of humour that sees | |
| Awechasm, reads Orgasm, and sniggers! | |
| This style of humour is obviously not compatible with everyone, | |
| including the reviewer, and (in more recent times,) myself. However, | |
| over the years, I have received a great many letters from grateful | |
| adventurers who appreciated both the sense of humour and the bizarre | |
| tendencies displayed in Awechasm. Amongst these: a staff army officer | |
| posted in Split, Croatia during the troubled times - asking for any | |
| more adventures I had written because his staff were constantly | |
| occupied with Awechasm, and an elderly blind gentlemen (a speech | |
| synthesiser communicates the text output from the adventure) who made | |
| a second request for help with Awechasm after I initially put him off | |
| by telling him that it might be too rude. | |
| Snatch and Crunch (Awechasm part 1) was an ST only adventure - | |
| authored in STAC. It wasn't necessarily a masterpiece, but I | |
| thoroughly enjoyed creating it AND some people enjoyed playing | |
| it. That is the important thing. It featured in magazine shareware | |
| advertisements in the UK for a couple of years before it disappeared | |
| into obscurity, much like Awechasm in fact! | |
| Apart from a lot of more recent work on multi user adventures ( with | |
| much improved parsers ;) ), The only other adventure I have ever | |
| created is "Everyday". I was honoured to have this adventure featured | |
| on the cover disk of "PC Today" magazine in the UK. Although it is a | |
| clean adventure, it employs the same (dated) game engine as | |
| Awechasm. If anyone is interested in playing (or reviewing) this | |
| adventure, it can be obtained from the if-archive on ftp.gmd.de. | |
| Keep up the good work, | |
| Tony Stiles <asgard SP@G aladdin.co.uk> | |
| { Let me just add that all reviews published in SPAG reflect the | |
| reviewer's opinions, nothing else, and that opinions on the | |
| same game can vary rather wildly. -- MO } | |
| KEY TO SCORES AND REVIEWS---------------------------------------------------- | |
| Consider the following review header: | |
| NAME: Cutthroats | |
| AUTHOR: Infocom | |
| EMAIL: ??? | |
| DATE: September 1984 | |
| PARSER: Infocom Standard | |
| SUPPORTS: Infocom ports | |
| AVAILABILITY: LTOI 2 | |
| URL: Not available. | |
| When submitting reviews: Try to fill in as much of this info as you can. | |
| Also, scores are still desired along with the reviews, so send those along. | |
| The scores will be used in the ratings section. Authors may not rate or | |
| review their own games. | |
| More elaborate descriptions of the rating and scoring systems may be found | |
| in the FAQ and in issue #9 of SPAG, which should be available at: | |
| ftp://ftp.gmd.de:/if-archive/magazines/SPAG/ | |
| NEW GAMES-------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| A bunch of new games have been released since the last issue. These | |
| include: | |
| _Aarbron Ascendant_ by S. Osborne, C. McPherson and D. Strand, | |
| _Lost Anaheim Hills_ by Adam Cadre, | |
| _Mercy_ by Chris Klimas, | |
| _Acorn Court_ by Todd S. Murchison, and | |
| _The Garden_ by Trevor Jay | |
| More information about these games, and other new releases, can be | |
| found on the SPAG homepage at http://www.afn.org/~afn55673/spag.html. | |
| Another important new development is Niclas Karlsson's _Magnetic_, a | |
| portable interpreter that lets you play the classic Magnetic Scrolls | |
| adventures (originally released for the C64 and the Amiga) on a | |
| variety of platforms. More information can be found in the _Magnetic_ | |
| distribution: | |
| ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/magnetic-scrolls/interpreters/magnetic/ | |
| -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- | |
| Editor's Pick of the Month: | |
| Those of you who haven't already played Adam Cadre's delightful little | |
| game "Jailbait on Interstate Zero", or "I-0" for short, should take a | |
| look at ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/infocom/I-0.z5. It's a small | |
| game, but full of amusing detail, and with quite a few alternative | |
| ways of winning the game. It's perhaps a bit risque in places, but all | |
| in good humour. | |
| REVIEWS---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| From: Graeme Cree <72630.304 SP@G CompuServe.COM> | |
| NAME: 2112 | |
| AUTHOR: Anonymous | |
| EMAIL: ? | |
| DATE: Some time after Rush released the song of the same name | |
| PARSER: Extremely poor | |
| SUPPORTS: IBM | |
| AVAILABILITY: Freeware | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/pc/2112.zip | |
| I should have been warned by Chris Forman's review of Zanfar in Spag #8, | |
| in which he points out that one author's trick to draw attention | |
| to a game is to give it a name that places it last in the alphabet, so | |
| that a person will always see it when doing a dir command. I | |
| downloaded 2112 for similar reasons; it is the first one listed in the | |
| games/pc library at ftp.gmd.de. I kept seeing it every time I went | |
| there, had never heard a word about it from anyone, and thought I | |
| would check it out. Silly me. | |
| 2112 is based on a song by the rock group Rush. It takes place in the | |
| typical Orwellian anti-utopian future. Since criticizing big | |
| government is not as fashionable now as in Orwell's day, this | |
| government is run by Priests. The game begins with you finding a | |
| guitar by the riverside, and taking this ancient relic of a forgotten | |
| time to the Priests, who confiscate it since music is outlawed. To | |
| retaliate and let off a little steam, you go on a minor killing spree, | |
| shooting the Priests, blowing up their computer (a la Captain Kirk!), | |
| and making your getaway before the government is overthrown by space | |
| aliens who destroy the city (possibly blowing away a few cops along | |
| the way, although this is not required). As a rock song, this is the | |
| sort of thing that could inspire parental protests at the record | |
| company. The I-F player however would be better advised to protest | |
| the quality of the game. | |
| The parser is almost worthless; two words only, and no synonyms. The | |
| puzzles are strictly "guess the word" and "struggle with the parser". | |
| Actions are intended to be taken in a specific order. Altering the | |
| order can make the game very confusing. One example: after you have | |
| surrended the guitar, you are supposed to go to your home where you | |
| will have a dream in which you see an old friend at the prison who | |
| aids you in finding materials you need to win the game. You will have | |
| this regardless of whether or not you have already seen him and gotten | |
| the aid. People can talk to you (and even kill you) after they are | |
| already dead, unless you have done everything in the right order. In | |
| some areas, you can still hear humming from the computer after you | |
| have destroyed it; in others you can't. There is a serious error at | |
| the end. Destroying the computer is also supposed to destroy the | |
| electric fence, opening up a way of escape. However if you arrive at | |
| the fence on the turn that it is shorted out, the new passageway you | |
| need will not be opened up at all, even though you can see the fence | |
| shorting out. Only if you are elsewhere on that turn will you be able | |
| to get through the fence. At least they can say that no playtesters | |
| were harmed during the making of this game. | |
| The atmosphere is heavily cliched, with lines like: "...policemen of | |
| the state lurk in the shadows. I hope you are conforming!" I | |
| personally think that the best treatments of the anti-utopian future | |
| since Orwell were done by Patrick McGoohan in "The Prisoner" and Terry | |
| Gilliam in "Brazil." This one comes across as more laughable than | |
| sinister, and presumably exists only so that we can shoot up the town | |
| (the real point of the game) without feeling guilty about it. | |
| There are some things to like about the game, however. At key points | |
| the game gives you a few bars of music from the PC speaker which help | |
| to set the mood. The game was not written with TADS, AGT, or one of | |
| the other kits, but programmed from scratch, which is of course much | |
| harder to do. I confess that I'm not a Rush fan, and if I were I | |
| might enjoy the game more. At a couple of points in the game, stanzas | |
| from the 2112 song are used in conversations by the characters, making | |
| the game look like a little like a Musical (which is something I've | |
| never seen in a text game before). | |
| Still, the negatives far outweighed the positives. Rush fans might | |
| want to play the game anyway, but others are advised to give it a | |
| miss. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Graeme Cree <72630.304 SP@G CompuServe.COM> | |
| NAME: Betty Carlson's Big Date | |
| AUTHOR: Betty Carlson | |
| EMAIL: ? | |
| DATE: ? | |
| PARSER: AGT Standard (originally a LADS adventure) | |
| SUPPORTS: All AGT Ports | |
| AVAILABILITY: Freeware | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/source/agt/bigd-src.zip | |
| Betty Carlson's Big Date is in essence Zork 1 transferred to a | |
| suburban setting. The player goes on a scavenger hunt for items which | |
| much all be brought to a specific location in order to win. | |
| The player is Betty Carlson, the author of the game, who is preparing | |
| to go on a date. Unfortunately, her three kids have gone on a rampage | |
| and have scattered the clothing she needs to wear all over the house. | |
| Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to gather up your | |
| clothes and deposit them in your trophy case...er, bedroom. One item | |
| needs a little repair work before it is usable. | |
| At least Ms. Carlson has come up with a reasonable explanation of why | |
| the treasures...er, clothes are scattered in the first place. In Zork | |
| 1 I could never understand how all those valuables could still be | |
| lying around when the Thief and the Troll got there long before you | |
| did. | |
| If only she had turned it into a full-blown Zork parody, and cast her | |
| kids in the role of the Thief. It would have been very funny to drop | |
| an item, make a move, and then hear something like "My, I wonder who | |
| left this fine necklace lying here," or something like that coming | |
| from the next room. As it happens though, neither the kids nor any | |
| other characters appear in the game. | |
| The problem with the game is that it just isn't very interesting. | |
| Grab a few items, wrestle with the parser a little, and that's it. | |
| There is little story, and very few item descriptions. Trying to | |
| examine something will usually respond with nothing more than "You see | |
| nothing special about the <item>." Even the clothes are nondescript. | |
| You can't even wear any of them, they are simply treasures to be | |
| brought to the designated area. | |
| Part of the problem may be that this was originally a LADS game. I've | |
| seen several LADS conversions, but never an original, so I don't know | |
| what the capabilities of the language are. The conversions I've seen | |
| have usually been not much more advanced than this one. The game may | |
| very well be a good one taking the LADS limitations into account. | |
| There are no serious bugs, and everything seems to work the way it is | |
| supposed to. The main technical problem seems to be a couple of | |
| poorly chosen item adjectives, such as the "a glue" and the "some | |
| earrings" (shades of Detective's "wooden wood"). It's also | |
| unfortunate that you can take the long ladder into your Chevette. | |
| Bottom line: there's nothing terribly wrong with the game, but not | |
| enough in the way of either story or puzzles to grab the player's | |
| interest. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Graeme Cree <72630.304 SP@G CompuServe.COM> | |
| NAME: Deena of Kolini | |
| AUTHOR: E. L. (Ev) Cheney | |
| EMAIL: ? | |
| DATE: c. 1986 | |
| PARSER: GAGS standard | |
| SUPPORTS: All GAGS and AGT Ports | |
| AVAILABILITY: Freeware | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/source/gags/deen-src.zip | |
| People who don't like the AGT parser should be made to play a few GAGS | |
| games some time. AGT looks like Virtual Reality by comparision. | |
| GAGS was the predecessor to AGT, and AGT is backwardly compatible | |
| enough to be able to use most GAGS source code. The big difference | |
| between the two is that GAGS does not allow any of the meta-commands | |
| that AGT does. As a result the parser is almost completely limited to | |
| Open/Close, Push/Pull, Turn, Touch, and a couple of others. All | |
| puzzles must be solved with these, and are pretty much restricted to | |
| killing monsters and opening locks. | |
| Deena of Kolini, by E.L. (Ev) Cheney looks like it wants to be more | |
| detailed, but it is held in bondage to the limitations of the GAGS | |
| system (considering the content of the game, this may be poetic | |
| justice). | |
| In the game, you play Deena, a warrior-maiden POW captured when your | |
| people were attacked by the lecherous Gendi. Tossed in a dark, damp, | |
| dank dungeon, your mission is to escape both your cell, and what was | |
| called "a fate worse than death" in Plundered Hearts. Along the way | |
| you must find and rescue a handsome but wounded Prince, not for | |
| romantic reasons, but because you need him to illuminate rooms that | |
| your torch cannot (don't ask me about this, I haven't got a clue | |
| either). Actually, according to the source code, the Prince is not | |
| only luminous but edible (!), which made me very thankful that GAGS | |
| doesn't permit any customized descriptions for this. | |
| It appears as though the author tried hard to flesh out the game as | |
| much as possible within the system. In the early days of GAGS and | |
| AGT, many authors did not bother to write item descriptions for many | |
| things, resulting in repetitious "You see nothing special about the | |
| <item>" messages whenever you tried to examine something (Even Zork 1 | |
| was guilty in this area). In this game, Ms. Cheney not only provided | |
| item descriptions for everything, but also accompanying graphics. The | |
| whip, the manacles, the red-hot poker, (no, I am NOT making this up) | |
| are all rendered in fairly good quality ASCII line drawings. My | |
| favourite one was the scrap of parchment, which should show you how | |
| boring I am. The author did not just throw this game together, she | |
| obviously worked hard. However, the technology of the day just wasn't | |
| enough to give more than a rudimentary result. | |
| One avoidable problem is in the game's spelling and grammar. The | |
| spelling errors can be very distracting at times, and there are | |
| several places where sentences have single words gouged out of the | |
| middle (i.e.: "The rawhide whip looks as if it could the skin off a | |
| dragon" [sic]). | |
| My biggest design complaint about the game is the decision to conclude | |
| the game with an escape through a maze. Actually there are two mazes | |
| side by side. One goes nowhere, but the author was kind enough to | |
| include an item that will at least point you towards the right one. | |
| I've always regarded mazes as being the I-F equivalent of | |
| rock-climbing. If that phrase sounds familiar, you've probably played | |
| Chris Forman's excellent Mystery Science Theater game where he makes | |
| the same comment about Detective's seemingly endless hallways. | |
| The reference is to the 1951 movie "Lost Continent", starring Cesar | |
| Romero and Hugh "Ward Cleaver" Beaumont. This was an early MST3K | |
| episode which featured a 12 minute sequence in the middle that showed | |
| nothing but the main characters rapelling up a rockface (not even on | |
| location). Basically, "rock-climbing" means "padding" (although in | |
| this game "padding" may also be poetic justice). | |
| [SIDE NOTE: For those who were wondering about the "Deep Hurting!!" | |
| reference immediately after the rock-climbing one in Chris's game, | |
| this is a reference to another MST3K movie (Hercules Against the Moon | |
| Men) that was supposed to top "rock-climbing" with a 15 minute | |
| Sandstorm scene, that was gloatingly guaranteed to cause "Deep | |
| Hurting!".] | |
| The maze was a legitimate puzzle (even a clever one) when it first | |
| appeared in Colossal Cave because no one had ever seen it before. | |
| Since then it has been primarily used like "rock-climbing"; to | |
| artificially pad the length of a game that would otherwise be a little | |
| short. There is no longer any puzzle; since everybody knows HOW to | |
| get through them. All that is left is the tedium of actually doing | |
| it. | |
| There are a few games which really add something new to the idea (For | |
| example, Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur's Badger Maze presents us | |
| with a genuinely new puzzle; how do you map a maze when you can't drop | |
| objects behind you?), but these are the exception rather than the | |
| rule. | |
| Nothing against the maze in general. I loved the Babel Fish puzzle in | |
| Hitchhiker's Guide, but I wouldn't want half the games in circulation | |
| to have the same identical puzzle in them. (It could be worse though. | |
| Suppose everybody tried to imitate the Baseball Diamond maze in Zork | |
| 2!? Yuck!) | |
| Not to single Ms. Cheney out for criticism, but it's so annoying to | |
| pick up an ostensibly new game only to find the same old boring | |
| time-consuming puzzle poke its head up time after time after time. | |
| You know the old much-lampooned bumper sticker that said "I Brake for | |
| Animals"? I'm going to get one that says "I Scream for Mazes." | |
| Well [climbing off the soapbox], back to the game at hand. It also | |
| features some of the more common (but avoidable) quirks of the | |
| GAGS/AGT system, such as having to use one specific weapon to kill | |
| each creature, but not others. For example, the dagger will kill one | |
| (non-magical) person, but the sword will not. Where's the sense in | |
| that? | |
| One non-avoidable problem is that in GAGS/AGT, creatures must be | |
| classified as either friendly or hostile, and all hostile ones will | |
| block your path and try to kill you. As a result, the lecherous old | |
| man who fondles you in the stairwell but does not attack you, must be | |
| classified as friendly, and therefore if you attack him, you get the | |
| standard message that asks why you would want to attack such a | |
| harmless and inoffensive creature, and that it looks hurt and | |
| betrayed. | |
| There are a few rooms of Instant-Fate-Worse-Than-Death, but there are | |
| sufficient clues for them to be avoided. | |
| Ms. Cheney obviously put a lot of effort into her game, but the | |
| technology of 10 years ago just wasn't up to the task, even with the | |
| recent desire for games with female lead characters. She could have | |
| improved the final result with a little more proofreading and | |
| playtesting, but even so GAGS just doesn't have the proper...verbs for | |
| her little excursion into S&M to fly. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Christopher Forman <ceforman SP@G postoffice.worldnet.att.net> | |
| NAME: Frozen | |
| AUTHOR: Jeremy Farnham | |
| EMAIL: None given | |
| DATE: June 1996 | |
| PARSER: Inform | |
| SUPPORTS: ZIP Interpreters | |
| AVAILABILITY: Freeware, GMD | |
| URL: ftp.gmd.de://if-archive/games/infocom/frozen.z5 | |
| You're working late one night in the university computer lab when you | |
| notice that everyone around you has suddenly stopped what they were | |
| doing. Closer investigation reveals that your fellow students and | |
| professors have all been immobilized by some mysterious force. | |
| Perhaps that odd machine in the gradate students' lab could offer an | |
| explanation...? | |
| My first impression of this game was that it was strongly influenced | |
| by "The Lurking Horror" -- the setting and early descriptions were | |
| very reminiscent of Infocom's tribute to Lovecraft. "Frozen" is | |
| obviously a first attempt with Inform, containing numerous, albeit | |
| rather insignificant, bugs (such as being able to find objects by | |
| searching for them a second time), missing line-feeds in obvious | |
| places, a score that's always 0 out of 0 (is that good or bad?) and | |
| other nuances that give the impression of an unpracticed I-F | |
| programmer. | |
| These will hopefully be fixed as the author makes progress with the | |
| development system, because I see a lot of promise from his first | |
| work. "Frozen" sports three, count 'em, THREE different conclusions | |
| to the story, a prominent plus in my book ("The Path to Fortune" also | |
| features a trinity of endings). Occasional bits of writing are easily | |
| on par with "Lurking Horror" and the game has a genuinely mysterious | |
| feel throughout. | |
| Perhaps a bit too mysterious, in fact. My primary gripe about | |
| "Frozen" is the complete lack of resolution to the game's bizarre | |
| circumstances. Aside from the curious last-minute addition to the | |
| machine in the lab, no attempt at an explanation is even made. Why | |
| exactly did the students freeze up? Why wasn't I affected? How did | |
| my experiences act to reverse it? What exactly was that sphere on the | |
| machine, and why was it added? Whose body was that, burned at the | |
| stake? Two of the endings seem to suggest that everything was a | |
| dream, but all three of them are quite vague. | |
| Don't read this the wrong way -- unanswered questions fit in well with | |
| this type of story, and I like having to make educated guesses to put | |
| things together (and I'm a huge fan of "The X-Files", where the | |
| writers frequently and intentionally leave the loose ends for viewers | |
| to tie up), but I was hoping the author would give me a little more | |
| background to work with in this particular case. Perhaps the dust | |
| spirit could have offered a few clues, or perhaps there could have | |
| been more information about the graduate project. | |
| At any rate, I enjoyed "Frozen". Its size (the object code is only | |
| about 64K) would have made it a perfect short work for the | |
| Competition, but perhaps Jeremy Farnham is working on something else | |
| even as we speak... | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Cthulhu <patrickc SP@G direct.ca> | |
| NAME: Gateway | |
| AUTHOR: Legend Entertainment | |
| EMAIL: ??? | |
| DATE: 1992 | |
| PARSER: ALMOST but not quite Infocom | |
| SUPPORTS: IBM-PC's | |
| AVAILABILITY: The Lost Adventures. Or download it from their web page. | |
| URL: http://www.legendent.com/ | |
| I have seen the future of IF, and it is Gateway. It seems that just | |
| yesterday that Legend Entertainment released this masterful game; just | |
| yesterday that it went off the market before I had a chance to play | |
| it. Well Legend Entertainment has decided to bring it back. Free. As | |
| demoware for their Lost Adventures Collection. I went to their web | |
| page and downloaded the three lengthy files. | |
| Five hours later I had the privilege to see the future of interactive | |
| fiction. It's Gateway. Forget everything you've ever heard about text | |
| games being obsolete. Time has not killed the text adventure; it has | |
| not fallen victim to progress. Rather, time has finally allowed text | |
| games to reach their potential. Gateway is an Infocom game for the | |
| nineties, built with state-of-the art graphics and classic text. And | |
| that's not all. If you prefer you can remove the graphical elements | |
| and play the game eighties-style. | |
| Yes, it has a compass rose like all other hybrid games. And yes | |
| Virginia, it has a window for graphics and a window for text. And yes, | |
| it combines an Infocom-quality parser with stunning animations, | |
| incredible graphics, compelling sound, and literate text. The words | |
| and pictures complement each other perfectly rather than | |
| conflicting. Add to this mix the beautifully-rendered cut scenes, | |
| self-contained puzzles, tons-o space travel, an epic storyline and a | |
| galaxy-affecting plot. | |
| Oh yes, let's talk about the galaxy-affecting plot. But let's not talk | |
| about it too much, since I don't want to ruin anything for you. It's | |
| an excellent story. Years ago the universe had been peopled by a | |
| mysterious race called The Heechee. Mankind had discovered one of | |
| their artifacts and learned how to use it. Turns out that it was a | |
| space station containing starships that could cross the universe in an | |
| eyeblink. We know of destination codes to punch into the starship, but | |
| not how to read them. Each code can lead to riches beyond your wildest | |
| dreams... or it can lead to instant death. You are a prospector who | |
| arrives on Gateway in search of wealth, a young person eager to use | |
| the mysterious alien starships to chase dreams across the light | |
| years. Soon you will rise through the ranks, becomming wealthier and | |
| more powerful until you have an encounter with the Heechee's ancient | |
| enemy. | |
| The rich setting is one of the most well-developed in the history of | |
| adventure gaming. Gateway sticks in my mind for this reason. The | |
| milleau is revealed to you through the introduction, through | |
| conversations, via a handheld computer and through what amounts to an | |
| answering machine connected to the Internet(!). Most of this | |
| information is unnecessary and purely for background; it shows the | |
| lengths that the designers took to make this one of the best games | |
| ever written. I daresay that, even before making it to the middle | |
| game, you will have experienced a world richer even than in most | |
| Infocom games. | |
| Your starship will take off towards the various worlds that you have | |
| codes for. Don't worry, the designers have mercifully decided NOT to | |
| have any of them lead to an arbitrary death! Remember the time-travel | |
| scenes in Trinity and Jigsaw? Well Gateway's space-travel scenes are | |
| just as good. They begin and end with beautifully-rendered cut scenes | |
| put to dramatic music. These scenes are short and to the point, and | |
| you can skip them if you want to. Then the ship touches down, and you | |
| will get to explore the planet in search of Heechee artifacts. Of | |
| course, you'll untangle a lot of mystery and learn a lot about the | |
| world first. | |
| You wouldn't believe how well done these worlds are. Imagine a planet | |
| where molecular acid takes the place of water, and the spear- carrying | |
| humanoid which bathes in this acid. Try to imagine one with | |
| carnivorous anemones which clear in terror when a giant spider | |
| approaches. Try also one where jellyfish-like creatures inside a pond | |
| beam dreams to placate a primitive proto-human. I hope I haven't said | |
| too much! Every puzzle you encounter on these worlds, on Gateway, and | |
| throughout the game, are logical and self-contained. There are very | |
| few restore puzzles, and there are VERY few chances to put the game | |
| into an unsolvable state -- most of which are in the opening game. | |
| Does it have disappointments? Yes, but what game doesn't? The parser | |
| is not quite up to Infocom standards, althought it comes very close; | |
| you can't refer to POWER KNOB as POWER, for example. Most of these | |
| disappointments come in the final world you will explore (you can | |
| actually explore them in nearly any order, but I say final because its | |
| code is listed last). The graphics in this world are almost EGA-like | |
| and certainly not up to the quality in the rest of the game. There's | |
| also an old man who doesn't react much when you shoot his pet | |
| dinosaur(!). And BTW, what does this game have against innocent old | |
| men? Not only do you have to deprive one of his beloved companion, you | |
| also have to dupe another one out of his key! | |
| But all will be forgiven when you approach the endgame. You will | |
| experience Heaven and Hell, and live through the dark designs of an | |
| Assassin. Prepare to meet a Heechee artificial intelligence. | |
| Basically, get ready for surprise after surprise. I said "WHAT THE | |
| HELL?!" at least three times. Get ready for mental communication with | |
| a long-dead Heechee. You will escape from Heaven and the fires of | |
| Hell. And once you get back, there's a VERY shocking surprise waiting | |
| in store for you that I won't dream of giving away. Move on to the | |
| spectacular and apocalyptic ending sequence which will stay in my mind | |
| forever. | |
| Is the book this good? I don't know because I gave up on it some time | |
| ago. But after playing Gateway, I went to the library and picked it | |
| off the shelf. And they say that computer games are causing | |
| illiteracy! Oh yeah, and I'm absolutely sure that I've seen at least | |
| three of the illustrations previously-- in Omni magazine. Whoever | |
| illustrated this game is a professional artist and a very good one as | |
| well. | |
| { Fred Pohl's novel _Gateway_ and its sequels are very good indeed. | |
| Highly recommended. -- MO } | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Crispin Boylan <viewtronix SP@G easynet.co.uk> | |
| NAME: Humbug | |
| AUTHOR: Graham Cluley | |
| E-MAIL: ??? | |
| DATE: Aug 1991 | |
| PARSER: Above Average | |
| SUPPORTS: PC | |
| AVAILABILITY: Public Domain, GMD (v.4.8) | |
| URL: http://members.aol.com/gcluley (v 5) | |
| This game has been around for years, and is one of the more popular | |
| interactive fiction titles in Britain, and was, until recently, a | |
| shareware title which had to be registered (with the registered | |
| version you got a solution to the maze which was otherwise unsolvable, | |
| and you could also save and load games to disk). Times they are a | |
| changin' however, and now the game has been released into the public | |
| domain due to the author not having enough time to sell or support the | |
| game anymore. Cluley has actually produced this game without the aid | |
| of any of the text adventure creation languages, a huge feat for a | |
| game this size! | |
| Anyway that's the history out of the way, now to get to the meat of | |
| this review, the game itself. It all opens with you, Sidney | |
| Widdershins, arriving at your senile old grandads estate for a short | |
| stay during the Christmas Holidays. You planned to explore the old | |
| windmill in the grounds of Attervist Manor, but as you arrive you | |
| realise that something is amiss, especially when Grandad does not | |
| appear to be around! Closer inspection of the house reveals grandad | |
| sleeping in his armchair, seemingly unwakeable, he has a rather | |
| interesting document in his possession, a legal document asking for | |
| grandad to hand over the manor to his new neighbour, Jasper Slake, who | |
| will take proper care of the manor. It seems during that the old fool | |
| is broke, and has let the manor fall into a state of disrepair, and | |
| his mutterings to Jasper of secret treasure hidden in the grounds of | |
| the manor, and the 'wild woman of the hills' have done nothing to | |
| prove his mental stability! Grandad and Slake are bitter enemies, | |
| only recently, the letter explains, did Grandad plant a scale model of | |
| the Champs Elysee in Slakes garden! So, on discovering this news it | |
| is still unclear as to your mission, do you have to find the treasure? | |
| or maybe stop Slake? This is one of the best points of the game, you | |
| are constantly fed with small snippets of the plot, which is | |
| consistent, and of good quality. 20 | |
| There is one major feature of this game which makes it stick out from | |
| the rest, it is completely weird and surreal, you only have to look at | |
| the NPCs to see this, Kevin, a clockwork shark, built by Grandad as | |
| his contribution to the war effort; Sven, the viking, whose ship has | |
| been caught in the manors lake as it froze; and Horace the groundsman, | |
| who travels round the maze collecting any 'litter' in the form of | |
| objects, that you may have deposited, he also only talks to | |
| vegetables! Some of the NPCs are better than others, but all are | |
| likeable, apart from the villain, Jasper, of course. The NPCs, on the | |
| whole are not too talkative, but then again they really don't need to | |
| be. | |
| This game has a maximum score of 2000 points, so you can expect quite | |
| a few puzzles in this little gem, most of which are quite logical, but | |
| there are some very hard puzzles which you really have to think about. | |
| The game also has a bit of organisation needed, you must do the | |
| puzzles in a certain order or you won't be able to complete others, | |
| this is a bit annoying, but it is quite obvious, and easy to get | |
| around. To get the final few points you have to do a bit of verb | |
| searching, for example typing 'PRAY', earns the response 'A voice from | |
| below shouts, "I don't know how you've got the nerve!" ' and earns you | |
| 10 points, but does little else, my top score is 1920, so I still have | |
| to get those last few! 20 | |
| There are over 200 objects and 100 locations in this game, so it's | |
| pretty big, and the locations are varied, and when I say that I mean | |
| Varied with a capital V, there are such bizzare locations as a alien | |
| bar, a trip back in time, a fairies den, a junk yard, a bus stop, and | |
| all of this takes place in the manors cellars!! The parser's | |
| vocabulary is pretty extensive, but does it doesn't stretch to | |
| multiple commands in the same sentence, still I like it. | |
| This game is very funny, you can't help but laugh at some of the jokes | |
| that examining some objects brings up, and the whole thing is just so | |
| surreal! The atmosphere is very good and you can just imagine being | |
| there, the writing is on the whole very detailed and descriptive. As | |
| a player with a bit of experience (I haven't completed all the Infocom | |
| games, but I've played through a few) I found this game hard (I | |
| desparately needed the on-line hints), but very rewarding, just wait | |
| until you see the ending, its brilliantly funny, and you'll never | |
| guess it!!!! This is a great game, download it now, the public domain | |
| version is at Graham Cluleys own web page (address above), and is | |
| version 5, there is a version at ftp.gmd.de but it is only a shareware | |
| version (4.8), without the map solution or save ability. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Graeme Cree <72630.304 SP@G CompuServe.COM> | |
| NAME: The Lady in Green | |
| AUTHOR: D.F. Stone | |
| EMAIL: ? | |
| DATE: ? | |
| PARSER: AGT standard | |
| SUPPORTS: AGT ports | |
| AVAILABILITY: ftp.gmd.de | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/source/agt/lady.zip | |
| The Lady in Green is another from the Electrabot/Detective school of | |
| gaming, although it has more in the way of puzzles and story than | |
| either of those two. Like them, gameplay consists primarily of | |
| following a more or less straightforward path through the game area | |
| until you reach the end, at which point you win. Detective had no | |
| puzzles along the way and Electrabot only required you to match random | |
| weapons with the monsters that they killed. The Lady in Green goes | |
| beyond this with some genuine puzzles, but they are still very easy | |
| and buggy. A couple even solve themselves (literally). | |
| The story begins with you as a tired, bored businessman, returning | |
| home from a trip to your wife, kids, and unmowed lawn. At your hotel, | |
| you are captivated by a mysterious portrait of a sad-looking woman in | |
| a green dress that seems to be reaching out towards you. In true | |
| Twilight Zone fashion, you end up traveling through the portrait 200 | |
| years into the past into the (empty) bedroom of the lady in green. | |
| At this point, it appeared that the story would be either a | |
| time-travelling love-at-first-sight story, or some kind of | |
| reincarnation affair. It turns out to be neither. When you find the | |
| Lady in Green, it turns out that she just wants you to find her | |
| 13-year old son who didn't return home last night. You search for | |
| him, and find that he has been press-ganged into the British Navy as a | |
| galley slave (!). You must rescue him and return him home. | |
| The game is divided into several sections. A minor puzzle is usually | |
| required to get from one section to the next, and it is impossible to | |
| return to an earlier section until the end of the game. It is | |
| possible to get the game into an unwinnable state if you fail to | |
| obtain a necessary item in one section before leaving it. The game is | |
| so short and easy though that this is not a major inconvenience. | |
| Furthermore, the game comes with both an ASCII walkthrough file and | |
| the AGT source code, so the chances of getting stuck are zero. | |
| The puzzles are extremely easy, and as I said, there are some that | |
| solve themselves. In two instances, I merely entered the appropriate | |
| area while carrying the necessary item, and was automatically told | |
| that I had done the right thing with it. | |
| The game is still rather buggy. For example, the horse is needed | |
| twice during the game, however you are only allowed to ride it in two | |
| certain areas. Elsewhere you are simply told that you can't ride it | |
| at all. Unfortunately, the horse CAN be picked up and carried around (!). | |
| Since the horse is a part of the room description in the stables, | |
| you can still see it there when it really isn't. Of course, this | |
| could be fixed by changing one line in the source code. You can also | |
| be blocked from entering an area by a dog that really isn't there when | |
| you examine it. At one point there is a barrel that cannot be taken | |
| by saying TAKE BARREL. You need to solve a puzzle to get it. Or you | |
| could just say TAKE ALL, which will take everything including the | |
| barrel, obviating the puzzle. | |
| The characters are cyberphantoms; you're never sure whether they're | |
| really there or not, and not only the dog and the horse. When you are | |
| returning with the Lady in Green's son, you get the same descriptions | |
| you got on the way out. There is no creature (AGT's programming term | |
| for all entities other than yourself) accompanying you. You once or | |
| twice get a message that indicates that he is with you, but usually | |
| have no indication of it at all, and can neither see nor interact with | |
| him. The Lady in Green is similarly spectral (which may be | |
| appropriate). One turn after you enter the room with her, she gives | |
| you your mission and leaves with no chance for interaction (Know what | |
| I mean? Say no more. Nudge, nudge.) The game is over the next time | |
| you find her again. | |
| One interesting thing about the game is the ending, which gives you | |
| the option of staying in the past with the Lady in Green, or returning | |
| to your old life. Providing genuinely different endings is a rarely | |
| seen touch (Plundered Hearts being the only other example I can think | |
| of). However, in Plundered Hearts, one of the endings is described as | |
| being clearly superior to the others, where here, you are told that | |
| they are both valid, even though if you choose to stay, you are | |
| abandoning your wife and children in the present simply to run off and | |
| live in what the game calls a more exciting time. It's plain to see | |
| that D.F. Stone isn't female if he calls this a valid choice. I would | |
| have liked it much better if your character had been a bachelor | |
| returning home to a life of dirty laundry and ravioli eaten straight | |
| out of the can, who had no real ties to the present. | |
| This game won an honourable mention in the 6th AGT Game Writing | |
| Contest. | |
| { As far as I know, _all_ entrants in the AGT Game Writing Contest | |
| (that didn't win prizes) got honourable mentions. -- MO } | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Graeme Cree <72630.304 SP@G CompuServe.COM> | |
| NAME: Love's Fiery Imbroglio | |
| AUTHOR: Natasha Mirage | |
| EMAIL: ? | |
| DATE: 1988 | |
| PARSER: Multiple Choice | |
| SUPPORTS: PC and all AGT Ports | |
| AVAILABILITY: Freeware | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/pc/bigdate.zip | |
| ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/source/agt/rapture.zip | |
| Natasha Mirage definitely has the best nom de plume in Interactive | |
| Fiction, but judging her game, Love's Fiery Imbroglio, by normal | |
| standards is not entirely fair. Although it is a "text game", it is | |
| not interactive fiction as we know it at all. It is a computerized | |
| version of a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book, and as a result, things | |
| that would be considered to be bad form in a true I-F game (such as | |
| choices that kill you or end the game without warning), may be | |
| entirely appropriate here. | |
| If you've played a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book, you already know | |
| what this game is. You get about a screen full story at which point | |
| you are prompted to choose an action from a multiple choice list in | |
| order to get to the next screen. The story is primarily linear, with | |
| a few side diversions, and has some choices which can end the game | |
| completely, though you never actually die. | |
| For example, early in the game when you are called for the date and | |
| asked if 6:00 is okay, you can say that it is, say that it is too | |
| early, or say that it is too late. If you say that it is too early, | |
| then the caller will get distracted, forget about you until it is too | |
| late, and then spend the rest of his life in a monastary to atone for | |
| his behavior, thus ending the game. However, these are not nearly as | |
| irritating as the "Rooms of Instant Death" in games like Detective and | |
| Electrabot however because a) they are not entirely without warning; | |
| common sense and textual clues may help you avoid many of them, and b) | |
| the game has keys letting you back up any number of screens, meaning | |
| that you don't need to restart the game or save first to get back to | |
| where you were. Just as in a real book, you can simply turn back to | |
| the page where you were (and unlike a real book, you don't have to | |
| remember what page number it was!) | |
| The puzzles, such as they are, are primarily diplomatic ones. For | |
| example, at the restaurant, your gourmet date mentions being puzzled | |
| by the secret ingredient of his favourite dish. Suggesting that it | |
| may be salt, will hurt his feelings by implying that he couldn't | |
| identify something so simple. | |
| As for the plot...well, the title tells you all you need to know. It | |
| is probably the only romance novel game apart from Plundered | |
| Hearts. You are a lonely female, sitting around your apartment, trying | |
| not to think about your accumulating laundry pile when a friend of a | |
| friend calls and asks you for a date. The game consists of getting | |
| ready for the big evening, and handling yourself well during dinner | |
| (no bad puns, please!) A lot of the (supposedly) usual Romance novel | |
| elements are in there; i.e. date has a secret pain which you must find | |
| out about and help deal with. Yes, the Schlock Factor does ride quite | |
| high. | |
| However, the writing is where this game really shines. The repartee | |
| between author and player is quite entertaining. The game's | |
| atmosphere seems to repeatedly switch between "real" reality, Romance | |
| Novel reality, and fantasy in a very entertaining way. The tone | |
| manages to remain bouncy (ah ah ah, no jokes! I'm not having things | |
| getting silly!) and lighthearted at the appropriate times without | |
| slipping into pure comedy. | |
| Overall, this is a very polished and enjoyable product. The simple | |
| multiple-choice interface makes the parser completely trouble-free. | |
| The writing (the core of any product like this) is first class. | |
| Though I've never felt moved to read a Romance novel (and still | |
| don't), I found the writing and interactivity, coupled with the | |
| games's very reasonable length, to be adequate compensation for any | |
| schlockiness, and considered the game to be well worth the time spent | |
| playing it. | |
| It's also not a bad introductory game. I've always felt that intro | |
| games should be much more heavily weighted towards story than puzzles | |
| (as anyone who has played my own Lost in Space game can attest). | |
| Furthermore, these days a good introductory game should not do things | |
| merely better than graphics, but do things that graphic games cannot | |
| do at all. For example, imagine the climax of Leather Goddesses of | |
| Phobos (okay, you can make a joke about that). That isn't an | |
| introductory game, but you get the idea. That scene would be flatly | |
| impossible to reproduce in a graphics game. The same goes for this | |
| game. A person can't play it and say "that was good, but I wish it | |
| had been graphical rather than textual." (Superfluous) graphics could | |
| conceivably be added to this game, but could not possibly substitute | |
| for the text. | |
| The game was written with a system called Pinntale, which seems to be | |
| specially designed for Choose-Your-Own-Adventure games, however I | |
| don't know of any other games written with it. I uploaded this one to | |
| GMD myself about a year ago, and GMD has no others, nor does the | |
| person that I got it from. | |
| Recently the game was ported to AGT by Mike Ryan, where its title was | |
| changed to "Love's Fiery Rapture" (to which I object, as "Imbroglio" | |
| is a much cooler word and doesn't mean the same thing as rapture). | |
| The source code for this version does exist at GMD. The AGT version | |
| is inferior to the original in that it does not let you customize the | |
| character names, and does not seem to permit backwards page flipping | |
| (although both of these things could be implemented using AGT). It's | |
| primary value is as a programming model for others wishing to create | |
| this same type of adventure. | |
| On the face of it, Love's Fiery Imbroglio is a game written | |
| specifically for women. In fact, you have to claim to be a woman at | |
| the beginning or the game will tell you that you don't really want to | |
| play it, and that it's all about knitting anyway. But really it's | |
| done well enough to be of interest to people of all sexes. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Magnus Olsson (zebulon SP@G pobox.com) | |
| NAME: The Meteor, the Stone and a Long Glass of Sherbet - | |
| The Interactive Memoirs of a Diplomat. | |
| AUTHOR: Graham Nelson (writing as Angela M. Horns) | |
| EMAIL: graham SP@G gnelson.demon.co.uk | |
| DATE: September 28, 1996 | |
| PARSER: Inform Standard | |
| SUPPORTS: Infocom ports | |
| AVAILABILITY: Freeware, GMD | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/competition96/sherbet | |
| It seems as if any new game by Graham Nelson is destined to be an | |
| instant classic. This one is no exception; I had barely played past | |
| the title screen when I realized that this was something quite out of | |
| the ordinary. The title, to begin with: impossibly long for a computer | |
| game, with its slightly bizarre combination of subjects; and the | |
| slow-paced, introduction, with its Victorian atmosphere and hints of | |
| diplomatic intrigue made it impossible to stop playing. | |
| Unfortunately, the game doesn't quite live up to these promises of | |
| originality: once one has found the crucial action to upset the | |
| orderly progression of events and enter the game proper, the pace of | |
| the narrative slackens, and the plot turns into a traditional | |
| treasure-hunt. | |
| For traditional it is, following the oldest tradition there is in IF: | |
| like "Balances" by the same author, "Sherbet" is an Infocom pastiche, | |
| set in a copy of the "Zork" universe (though all names have been | |
| changed, probably for copyright reasons). Unlike the minimalist, | |
| sketchy "Balances", this game is very rich in detail, with some | |
| detailed background history and other commentary provided in the | |
| hints. | |
| But any complaints about the lack of originality are compensated by | |
| the sheer joy of playing the game, and of exploring its rich world | |
| (which is not at all a copy of "Zork", if my previous comments have | |
| made that impression, but rather some sort of parallel universe where | |
| things are hauntingly familiar). The writing is excellent and the | |
| atmosphere exceptionally vivid - the cedar cave, in particular, has | |
| etched itself into my memory as if I'd really been there. Above all, | |
| when playing Sherbet I felt the same sense of wonder as I remember | |
| from my first contact with "Zork"; a sense of wonder that's often | |
| missing from newer games, however sophisticated they may be. | |
| The puzzles are good; nothing extraordinary, perhaps, but not trivial | |
| either. Unfortunately, there are some "guess the verb" situations, and | |
| one or two cases where the room descriptions are a bit confusing. | |
| But these flaws are all very minor and do not detract from the general | |
| impression. A very worthy winner, and a game that surely will bear to | |
| be re-played over the years. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: jbarlow SP@G ipass.net (Joe Barlow) | |
| NAME: Perdition's Flames | |
| AUTHOR: Michael Roberts | |
| DATE: 1993 | |
| PARSER: TADS | |
| SUPPORTS: TADS ports | |
| AVAILABILITY: Freeware, GMD | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/tads/flames.zip | |
| ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/source/tads/flames_src.zip | |
| { This review was previously published in _Intelligent Gamer_, which | |
| explains the slightly different format. It is included here with the | |
| author's permission. -- MO } | |
| A couple of things about this review: please remember that it was | |
| written in 1994, before I knew anything about TADS [the Text Adventure | |
| Development System], which was used to create the game. I touted a | |
| couple of the features in PF as being very unique, such as the ability | |
| to dump a transcript of the game to a text file. Of course, that's a | |
| standard feature of all TADS games, but I didn't know it at the time. | |
| Also, at the time I reviewed it, the game was still commercial. | |
| Obviously, the comments about the game's copy-protection and all of | |
| the game's "included goodies" don't apply to the freeware version. I | |
| am leaving them in the review, however, because the final rating the | |
| game received was due in part to its extensive Infocom-like packaging. | |
| Even without it, though, this game is well worth a look, especially | |
| for FREE! | |
| "I'm too young to die...." | |
| It has been said that man's greatest journey is the one he makes at | |
| death, and with good reason. People have always been fascinated by | |
| what lies beyond our "mortal" world, and the book and film market have | |
| been quick to capitalize on this interest. Even the computer gaming | |
| industry has explored the concept, much to the delight and surprise of | |
| many gamers. More than one recent game has allowed players to explore | |
| the afterlife, including Sierra's King's Quest 6: Heir Today Gone | |
| Tomorrow, which offered would-be adventurers the chance to see the | |
| Realm of the Dead, complete with eerie background music and | |
| frightening graphics. Now, California-based software publisher High | |
| Energy has taken a look at the afterlife (with tongue firmly | |
| in-cheek,) and death will never be the same again. Let's face it: any | |
| game which opens with the message "*** You have died ***" can't be all | |
| bad! Quite the contrary, in fact: Perdition's Flames is a marvelous | |
| adventure game, and the best way I've yet found to explore Hell | |
| without leaving the comfort of my own home. | |
| As the game begins, the player's soul is drifting down a river on a | |
| yacht, along with several other newly deceased people. The player is | |
| free to wander around the ship, have a few drinks at the bar, chat | |
| with the crew, or just enjoy the scenery. This opening sequence is a | |
| fantastic way of familiarizing yourself with the "feel" of the game. | |
| Wander around and enjoy the atmosphere. Get used to being dead. | |
| You'll find out that it's not terribly different from the life you're | |
| used to. (Hmmmm. I wonder if that's significant.) | |
| After a short while, the ship will arrive at a dock leading to the | |
| Hell mainland. Once you leave the ship, you'll find yourself in the | |
| merry land of Hell, which is quite a bit different than most of us | |
| have been led to believe. If the player wishes, he or she may attend | |
| a welcoming seminar, during which various other new arrivals will ask | |
| some hilarious "newbie" questions, and receive answers from the Hell | |
| Welcoming Committee. | |
| From the seminar, the player learns that Hell has decided to update | |
| its image. Gone is the "Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter" sign that | |
| used to hang atop the main gate. Gone is the eternity of damnation | |
| and suffering that every church preacher in the history of the world | |
| has shouted and sweated about in his sermons. Now, Hell is just like | |
| any other nice place to live, with shopping malls, suburbs, and a | |
| Department of Motor Vehicles. (Somehow, we all knew that Hell would | |
| have one of these, didn't we?) | |
| What if a soul is uncomfortable in Hell? No problem! People are able | |
| to freely go back and forth between Heaven and Hell, staying as long | |
| as they like in either place. Transportation to and from Heaven is | |
| accomplished via an enormous elevator in the middle of town, provided | |
| one has a ticket. | |
| Just think of it as Sim-Hell... | |
| Perdition's Flames (PF) features incredibly detailed descriptions of | |
| rooms and objects. Its text-only interface recalls the greatness of | |
| Infocom (a software publisher from the late 1970s-late 1980s who wrote | |
| many text- only adventure games), without resorting to some of the | |
| shortcomings that were typical of even this mighty software giant. | |
| For starters, PF is "100% Certified Maze-Free!" For folks like me who | |
| still occasionally wake up screaming in the middle of the night | |
| because of Zork III's Royal Puzzle, this is a heaven-sent (no pun | |
| intended) gift. True questers will also be relieved to learn that | |
| it's quite impossible to get yourself in a position from which it's no | |
| longer possible to win. This was my only real gripe with Infocom's | |
| games: all too often, if you didn't do something trivial way back at | |
| the beginning of the game, you were unable to solve a puzzle much | |
| later in your quest. (The cheese sandwich puzzle from Hitchhiker's | |
| Guide comes to mind.) | |
| Hell on Wheels | |
| Moving around Hell is easy: the player simply types in which way he or | |
| she wants to go: "Go north," for example. More complicated sentences | |
| are also allowed: the player may type something along the lines of "Go | |
| north. Open the door then take the shiny gold coin." Players can | |
| keep track of the items they are carrying with the standard | |
| "inventory" command. One of the more unique features PF has that many | |
| other games do not is the ability to dump a transcript of the game in | |
| progress to a text file. Infocom's classics allowed transcripts to be | |
| dumped to a printer, so the tradeoff is a fair one. Even some of | |
| Infocom's more obscure commands like VERBOSE (turn on long descrip- | |
| tions) are present (and welcome) in PF. All in all, this game is | |
| something I wouldn't be surprised to find on a hypothetical Lost | |
| Treasures of Infocom Volume 3. | |
| Is it hot in here, or is it just me? | |
| What makes PF stand out above the countless other text games currently | |
| on the market is its wonderful sense of humor. The game makes some | |
| truly awful puns, pokes fun at everyone's notion of what Hell is | |
| "supposed" to be, and generally keeps you looking forward to coming | |
| back to Hell every time you have to leave the computer. If the player | |
| should find a pitchfork in a barn, for example, the game mocks: "Now | |
| if you only had horns and a tail, you'd own this place!" During your | |
| welcoming seminar, the player discovers that it is unwise to try and | |
| sue anyone in Hell because the Hell Judicial System is based on the | |
| one in the United States, and it will take an eternity (literally) for | |
| cases to come to trial. And hearing the woman in front of you answer | |
| questions in the Celestial Security Office will make you laugh out | |
| loud, in the style of Douglas Adams' Bureaucracy. | |
| PF was written using TADS (Text Adventure Development System), a | |
| programming tool also published by High Energy. TADS allows users to | |
| write games that are of Infocom quality, and, if PF is any indication, | |
| they ain't just whistling "Dixie" with this claim. | |
| "I may be going to Hell in a bucket, baby... | |
| but at least I'm enjoying the ride." - Grateful Dead | |
| PF's elaborate packaging is another way in which the folks at High | |
| Energy software have summoned the ghosts of Infocom. PF comes with a | |
| handsome map, a detailed, well-written manual, a hint book, a | |
| reference card, and "The Official Tourist Guide to Hell," an | |
| illustrated, side-splitting pamphlet that contains the game's | |
| copy-protection, in addition to many amusing items of interest. | |
| Let's talk about the quality of the game's prose. Although | |
| comparisons with Infocom are unavoidable when reviewing text | |
| adventures, the prose of PF is elegant, often funny and immensely | |
| enjoyable, equaling (and in some cases, even surpassing) many of | |
| Infocom's works. (It easily beats out the Zork trilogy, for instance, | |
| and is on par with Deadline or even A Mind Forever Voyaging in terms | |
| of the quality, if not intensity, of its writing.) | |
| I loved the non-linear nature of the game. Although by neccessity | |
| certain puzzles have to be solved before other puzzles can be reached, | |
| the game is tremendously flexible. You truly feel like you are | |
| PLAYING the game, rather than being sent to Location A to get Object B | |
| to take to Location C to exchange it for Object D, etc. (Indeed, this | |
| free-style type of play is neccessary, since the game's goal is not | |
| revealed to you until quite late in the adventure.) | |
| Finally, I enjoyed the difficult *BUT STILL LOGICAL* nature of many of | |
| the puzzles. While many Infocom games had brain-twisting challenges, | |
| the solutions were occasionally not very logical at all (I'm thinking | |
| particularly of the two Douglas Adams games here). There are two | |
| great head-scratchers that particularly stand out in Perdition's | |
| Flames: the Haunted House/Ring puzzle and the Lion-Headed Statue | |
| puzzle. These are two of the best puzzles I have ever seen in ANY | |
| interactive-fiction game, in both implementation and originality. | |
| Both of these obstacles were *very* difficult to solve, but in the end | |
| the solutions made sense, and I felt a sense of accomplishment after | |
| conquering them. | |
| System requirements for the game are tough to reveal: the review copy | |
| INTELLIGENT GAMER Gamer received from Michael Roberts (the author of | |
| the game) didn't list them, but they seem to be just about as minimal | |
| as you could expect. The program uses a swap file to run on machines | |
| with small amounts of memory, and a hard drive is recommended. The | |
| program ran equally well on my 286/12 and my 486/50. | |
| RATING: 9.5 out of 10. Perdition's Flames is an incredibly | |
| entertaining game with an original premise, and would be a bargain at | |
| twice the price. Fans of text adventure games will not want to miss | |
| this one. If, however, you don't think you'll be able to see past its | |
| lack of graphics, you should probably look elsewhere. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Magnus Olsson (zebulon SP@G pobox.com) | |
| NAME: Sir Ramic Hobbs and the Oriental Walk | |
| AUTHOR: Gil Williamson | |
| EMAIL: ? | |
| DATE: October, 1996 | |
| PARSER: AGT | |
| SUPPORTS: MS-DOS (runtime included), AGiliTy | |
| AVAILABILITY: Freeware, GMD | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/competition96/wok | |
| [ Note: There appears to be some confusion about the title of this | |
| game: is it the "Oriental Walk", as the title screen says, or the | |
| "Oriental Wok", as it's called in some of the docs? "Walk" probably, | |
| since there _is_ an "Oriental Walk" in the game, but no wok even in | |
| the kitchen :-). I suppose the "wok" is intended as a pun... ] | |
| One topic that has been the subject of much heated discussion on | |
| rec.arts.int-fiction is that of player characterization. How can you | |
| cast the player as a set character, perhaps totally unlike the | |
| player's ordinary character, and make him or her feel and act like | |
| this character? The prevalent view seems to be that most players hate | |
| when the game tells them what they feel and think, and that few things | |
| are as irritating as being told that your, perfectly reasonable, | |
| action is out of character. | |
| It is interesting to see that one of the less sophisticated games of | |
| the competition not only tries to do this, but succeeds at it. And, | |
| perhaps surprisingly, it does so by casting you in a far from | |
| flattering role: that of Sir Ramic Hobbs, an antihero in every sense | |
| of the word - or, to be frank, a bumbling, drunken buffoon. | |
| Or perhaps this is just why it manages to pull it off. For "Wok" is a | |
| farce, and you are the butt of the jokes. Not just you, Sir Ramic, but | |
| you, the player. Much of the humour lies in the player being misled, | |
| and the game pretending to misunderstand the player's confusion as Sir | |
| Ramic's stupidity. In some cases (such as the sudden darkness), the | |
| game leads the player completely up the garden path, thereby forcing | |
| him to act in character. | |
| As the reader may have guessed, "Wok" is a game that talks back to | |
| you. It even makes an attempt to explain who is doing the talking by | |
| giving a name to the "narrator": Prang, a disembodied wizard who takes | |
| orders from the player and guides him along. As a moderately | |
| experienced IF player, I found this slightly annoying at first, and | |
| then I forgot all about it. However, the documentation says that the | |
| game is aimed at beginners, who maybe will find this a help. | |
| Despite the fact that the game talks back to you, commenting on your | |
| every action, and making fun of many of the mistakes you're making, it | |
| is all very good natured (as opposed to a certain other competition | |
| game, that apparently made some people feel quite insulted). I never | |
| had the feeling that the author was making fun of me, but rather that | |
| we were sharing a joke. And Sir Ramic may be a buffoon, but he's quite | |
| a lovable buffoon. | |
| This is all very skillfully done. Apart from the writing, however, the | |
| game is quite unsophisticated. To start with, it has a rather | |
| primitive look-and-feel. To avoid fanning the ongoning religious wars, | |
| I won't speculate whether this is due to the game being written in | |
| AGT; it does have, however, the feel of a "typical, mid 80's, AGT | |
| game" - garish colours, rather minimalistic room descriptions, a | |
| simple parser, rather underdeveloped atmosphere, NPC's that are just | |
| animated obstacles. | |
| To be fair, however, these aren't very serious flaws. The parser, for | |
| example, is quite adequate (there is one glaring "guess the word" | |
| problem, but a better parser couldn't have remedied a lack of | |
| synonyms), one of the NPC's (the dog) is at least a bit more | |
| developed, and this is not the kind of game one plays for the joy of | |
| exploring a detailed fantasy world. | |
| The puzzles are fairly standard, but there are some interesting twists | |
| (and the series of transformations at the end is quite clever and | |
| entertaining). The obligatory maze adds nothing to the game and could | |
| have been advantageously removed. The eponymous puzzle, the "oriental | |
| walk", is clever, but far too tedious - and this is aggravated by the | |
| fact that saving is disallowed while solving the puzzle. Disabling | |
| saving is probably a way to prevent solutions by trial-and-error, but | |
| an unfortunate consequence of this is that a single mistake means | |
| having to start the puzzle all over again, with all the directions | |
| randomized. | |
| The online hints can be somewhat infuriating, since there is only one | |
| hint per room, but fortunately a walkthrough is provided. | |
| Unfortunately, the walkthrough is of no help in the "walk" - you'll | |
| just have to sweat it through (the endgame is worth it!). | |
| In conclusion, "Wok" is a game that lives by its wit and humour, which | |
| are more than enough to outweigh its shortcomings in other areas. In | |
| fact, I found it one of the funniest games I've played. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: "C.E. Forman" <ceforman SP@G postoffice.worldnet.att.net> | |
| NAME: Time -- All things come to an end | |
| AUTHOR: Andy Phillips | |
| EMAIL: pmyladp SP@G unix.ccc.nottingham.ac.uk | |
| DATE: October 1996 (Release 4) | |
| PARSER: Inform | |
| SUPPORTS: Version 8 ZIP Interpreters | |
| AVAILABILITY: Freeware, GMD | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/infocom/tatctae.z8 | |
| [This review contains minor spoilers for the beginning of the game.] | |
| It would seem to me that 1995-1996 was the Year of the Time-Travel | |
| Game. Over the past 12 months, we've witnessed the appearance of "A | |
| Night at the Museum Forever", "Jigsaw", and "Lost New York", heard | |
| rumors of Jon Drukman's not-yet-released "Forward into the Past", and | |
| are now faced with "Time: All Things Come to an End." | |
| Yes, "Time" is another time-travel game (!), and a more believable one | |
| than "Museum", but not quite up to the levels of realism attained by | |
| Graham Nelson and Neil deMause. It is well-programmed, and for the | |
| most part well-written (though there are a surprising number of run-on | |
| sentences, considering the author is from the U.K.). | |
| I personally found the introduction rather hard to swallow. As the | |
| game began, a brilliant scientist (me) was in danger of having his | |
| temporal translocator research project shut down due to lack of | |
| progress. Within 20 turns, however, I'd figured out how to power the | |
| machine, taking advantage of an overhead lightning storm. Considering | |
| that the storm is described as "typical English weather", the notion | |
| of it taking YEARS to get around to considering lightning as a power | |
| source seems positively ludicrous! ("Great Scott!" as Dr. Emmitt | |
| Brown himself might put it.) | |
| To be fair, though, once you get the machine working and are whisked | |
| into a cyberpunk-like dystopian future (perhaps the direct | |
| consequences of your meddling with the timestream?), suspension of | |
| disbelief kicks in, and "Time" becomes an enjoyable and surprisingly | |
| playable work of I-F. | |
| This came as quite a surprise to me, because the game itself is very | |
| linear. It's a single-path story with little room for | |
| experimentation, puzzles requiring a great deal of note-taking and | |
| foresight, and plenty of opportunities to become irrevocably stuck. | |
| Normally I dislike stop-and-start gameplay. For some reason, though, | |
| this didn't make me hate it, even after a dozen or so setbacks. I | |
| can't quite explain why: The writing is good but not spectacular; The | |
| settings aren't all that inspired; Most of the individual puzzles are | |
| no more clever than the average game. | |
| Yet for some reason it was very, very fun for me to play, and | |
| discussions with other players led to the same conclusion. There's | |
| something about the *way* the puzzles are presented -- never | |
| gratuitous, but as part of the story, giving the sense of plot | |
| unfolding before the player; layered, interwoven with one another; | |
| with virtually all reasonable actions accounted for -- that makes one | |
| want to keep trying, even after dying countless horrible deaths. Just | |
| when you think you've finally gotten somewhere, "Time" tells you that | |
| you don't. But you're close, you just know it. Maybe one more try... | |
| Unfortunately, if you're weary of games that make you use information | |
| gained from past lives, there's nothing I can do to disguise the fact | |
| that "Time" is one of those games. But I found it to be so enjoyable | |
| that this so- called "design flaw" didn't even matter. I recommend | |
| that even crusaders for "realistic" I-F give this one a try. You | |
| might be pleasantly surprised. | |
| Just save often. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Audrey DeLisle <rad SP@G crl.com> | |
| NAME: Treasure | |
| AUTHOR: James L. Dean | |
| EMAIL: ? | |
| PARSER: none really | |
| SUPPORTS: IBM PC | |
| AVAILABILITY: GMD | |
| { I can't find this game in the IF-archive. If anybody knows a URL | |
| for it, please let me know. -- MO } | |
| HISTORY: This game was written in 1980 and revised in 1987. It is | |
| based on an article in BYTE 7/79 by Roger Chaffee. The game has | |
| been compiled to play, but the BASIC file is in the zip. The BASIC | |
| file explains the algorithm used and has instructions to change the | |
| treasures and guardians. | |
| PARSER: The reason I say there is not really a parser is that the | |
| commands are limited to one letter: | |
| C = carry (get); L = leave (drop); P = points (score); R = repeat; | |
| I = Inventory; Q = Quit and the directions are N,S,E,W,U,D in the | |
| simple game, adding F (Forward), B (backward) in the expanded game. | |
| If you try to type something else, a help screen appears. | |
| This would be a good game for a child who can read a little or to be | |
| played with an adult to read the brief room descriptions and let the | |
| child input commands. The object is to find and return all the 15 | |
| treasures and pass through every room (100) in the fewest number of | |
| moves, but there is no comparison. You are asked for a game number, | |
| so perhaps you can get the same game again. This allows the game to | |
| be played over and over with different locations and it might generate | |
| a comparison for future games. Those who abhor treasure hunts or | |
| expect to 'save' and 'restore' should avoid it. | |
| Each treasure is guarded by a monster and the weapons must be found to | |
| vanquish each. The guardians do nothing. You are safe. You cannot | |
| die. Well, if you do, the game will resurrect you with no loss. You | |
| do nothing. If you have the correct weapon, C will work. | |
| There are two hazards: a pirate will steal your treasure if you don't | |
| return it to the Entrance soon enough and an ill wind will blow you to | |
| a random location. Neither is a serious problem. The treasure will | |
| be found somewhere and you can get oriented quickly. | |
| It is not possible to write a solution since each game is different. | |
| You can choose variations--limit to 3d, accept another dimension, etc. | |
| In the simplest version, the directions are N,S,E,W,U,D and there are | |
| few surprises. This is the one I played. I think the more advanced | |
| versions might be more fun, but might take longer. I finished the one | |
| game I played in about four hours. I decided a chart of directions | |
| was more useful than a typical map. I scored 100 points. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Tony Baechler <baechler SP@G primenet.com> | |
| NAME: Tryst of Fate | |
| AUTHOR: G. M. Zagurski | |
| AVAILABILITY: freeware gmd | |
| EMAIL: gmzagur SP@G qnet.com | |
| DATE: April 1997 | |
| PARSER: Inform | |
| PLATFORMS: Infocom | |
| VERSION: 104 970331 | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/infocom/tryst104.z5 | |
| For the most part, I really enjoyed this game. I thought that the | |
| writing was quite well done and at some points I was really drawn into | |
| the story. It would have rated higher but it had no online help, no | |
| hints, no walkthrough, and all I would get with help is the author's | |
| email address. Also, there were some rough edges, one being that I | |
| had to type single words when mentioning the word to open the door and | |
| talking to the horse. But, when answering the riddles, I had to use | |
| the say command. It would have been better if the author would have | |
| stayed consistent. | |
| But, I would not have guessed that the author spent so long creating | |
| the game based on the fine writing and the fact that the game worked | |
| as I would expect. It did feel a little odd in an old west setting | |
| since I would not expect a text adventure game to have anything to do | |
| with horses and ghost towns and mines. But, even so, it was still | |
| presented very well and I liked it. Also, a definite plus was that it | |
| was not that difficult, but there are many things that I would not | |
| have been able to guess because of the inconsistencies mentioned | |
| previously. | |
| I thought that the idea of gum ball transformation was neat and I kept | |
| hoping to find some more gum to take me to other places. An amazing | |
| amount of things could have been put into the game if one actually | |
| would have enough time and willingness to program them. The only real | |
| major disappointment I had was at the very end. It did not abruptly | |
| come to a stop but more text (and more of an end game in general) | |
| would have been nice. It is like I had come all that way and done so | |
| much and all I got was a gold watch and a thanks for helping out. I | |
| was also hoping to find more information about the woman that George | |
| seemed to like so much that helped to open doors, among other things. | |
| Too bad there were no new gum balls in his factory and I had to make | |
| my own. I could see a little bit of Zork, a small part of Trinity and | |
| some Colossal Cave in this game. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Cthulhu <patrickc SP@G direct.ca> | |
| NAME: Wormhole: The Beginning | |
| AUTHOR: Philip Dearmore | |
| EMAIL: morbeus SP@G eskimo.com | |
| DATE: 1995 | |
| PARSER: TADS | |
| SUPPORTS: TADS ports | |
| AVAILABILITY: Free but "discontinued" | |
| URL: http://www.eskimo.com/~morbeus/neotext.html | |
| ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/tads/wormhole.zip | |
| Wormhole: The Beginning is the "introductory" game from | |
| Neotext. According to its web page, it has been "discontinued." Well, | |
| what can I say? It's a game that succeeds very well despite its | |
| massive flaws. It's annoying and frustrating, hobbled by cliches and a | |
| completely substandard parser. On the other hand the plot is so | |
| compelling, so interesting, that I simply couldn't stop playing this | |
| game. | |
| It's the middle of the night. Your friend George Edfry, who lives in | |
| Virginia, wakes you up with a phone call. The description of the phone | |
| call, BTW, has got to be THE funniest moments in any game outside of | |
| the Space Quest series. So you go to his house. | |
| Morning. The game begins. You've left your keys in the ignition of | |
| your Honda after locking your door and exiting the car. Excuse me, but | |
| how the heck is that possible? Never mind, since that's the setup for | |
| one of the game's most interesting puzzle. There are also George's car | |
| and, for a sinister bit of foreshadowing, an unexplained Lincoln | |
| parked outside of his house. You can interact with neither of these | |
| cars in any way whatsoever. The author put in a brilliant surprise | |
| when I looked under the welcome mat, and.. I won't even dream of | |
| telling you! You soon get to a puzzle where, to progress any further, | |
| you have to deal with a hostile guard dog in exactly the same way that | |
| you dealt with the poodle in Wishbringer. | |
| Well, that was the opening game. Soon you will be discovering the | |
| fiendishly clever plot and brilliant surprises. It soon becomes | |
| obvious that one of George's experiments have gone horribly | |
| wrong. Food stains on carpets are replaced by blood as you | |
| progress. You will discover a rift into another dimension. And, | |
| eventually, you will find George himself in a state that came as a | |
| complete surprise to me. | |
| Fun, eh? Yep. but this game has serious flaws. There's a chimney that | |
| you can enter, shades of Curses, but you can't do anything in it! | |
| There's a flashlight in the game that works the same whether it's | |
| turned on or not. In short, the coding is awful. Nowhere is this more | |
| evident than in a room with a pool of mercury in it. Try ENTER THE | |
| POOL, GO IN THE POOL, JUMP IN THE POOL, and JUMP ON THE POOL -- three | |
| of them give a "you can't do that" message. You cannot put anything in | |
| the pool. You cannot put anything on the pool. You cannot look in it | |
| or under it. You can't drink it. And, even though it's specifically | |
| called a "reflection pool", it's utterly impossible to shine the | |
| flashlight on it. Towards the end the game has your character say a | |
| line (about moon-stones, for those who know) when he could not | |
| possibly know what he's talking about. And the final puzzle, that of | |
| finding the last moonstone, has got to be the most stupid and | |
| illogical one I've ever played because it requires George to be a | |
| moron almost beyond comprehension. | |
| I'm looking forward to playing Neosoft's second game, Urban | |
| Cleanup. Wormhole has promise. Perhaps Urban Cleanup will realize it. | |
| READER'S SCOREBOARD---------------------------------------------------------- | |
| { First, an apology: these ratings aren't quite up-to-date. If you've | |
| rated a game, and can't see your rating reflected in the scores | |
| below, don't panic: I'll go through the backlog for the next | |
| issue. } | |
| Notes: | |
| A - Runs on Amigas. | |
| AP - Runs on Apple IIs. | |
| GS - Runs on Apple IIGS. | |
| AR - Runs on Acorn Archimedes. | |
| C - Commercial, no fixed price. | |
| C30 - Commercial, with a fixed price of $30. | |
| F - Freeware. | |
| GMD - Available on ftp.gmd.de | |
| I - Runs on IBM compatibles. | |
| M - Runs on Macs. | |
| S20 - Shareware, registration costs $20. | |
| 64 - Runs on Commodore 64s. | |
| ST - Runs on Atari STs. | |
| TAD - Written with TADS. This means it can run on: | |
| AmigaDOS, NeXT and PC, Atari ST/TT/Falcon, DECstation | |
| (MIPS) Unix Patchlevel 1 and 2, IBM, IBM RT, Linux, Apple | |
| Macintosh, SGI Iris/Indigo running Irix, Sun 4 (Sparc) | |
| running SunOS or Solaris 2, Sun 3, OS/2, and even a 386+ | |
| protected mode version. | |
| AGT - Available for IBM, Mac, Amiga, and Atari ST. This does not | |
| include games made with the Master's edition. | |
| ADVSYS - Available for PC and Macintosh only, or so my sources tell | |
| me. (Source code available as well. So it can be ported | |
| to other computers.) | |
| HUG - Written with Hugo. Runs on MS-DOS, Linux, and Amigas. | |
| INF - Infocom or Inform game. These games will run on: | |
| Atari ST, Amiga, Apple Macintosh, IBM, Unix, VMS, Apple II, | |
| Apple IIGS, C64, TSR-80, and Acorn Archimedes. There may be | |
| other computers on which it runs as well. | |
| Name Avg Sc Chr Puz # Sc Rlvt Ish Notes: | |
| ==== ====== === === ==== ======== ====== | |
| Adventure 7.7 1.1 0.7 2 8 F_INF_TAD_ETC_GMD | |
| Adventure 350 6.5 0.0 1.5 1 x | |
| Adv. of Eliz. Highe 3.1 0.8 0.3 1 5 F_AGT | |
| All Quiet...Library 4.5 0.7 0.7 3 7 F_INF_GMD | |
| Amnesia 7.7 1.3 1.4 1 9 C_AP_I_64 | |
| Another...No Beer 2.4 0.2 0.8 2 4 S10_IBM_GMD | |
| Arthur: Excalibur 8.6 1.8 1.7 1 4 C_INF | |
| Awe-Chasm 2.4 0.3 0.6 1 8 S?_IBM_ST | |
| Balances 6.4 1.0 1.3 2 6 F_INF_GMD | |
| Ballyhoo 7.0 1.8 1.5 3 4 C_INF | |
| Beyond Tesseract 3.7 0.1 0.6 1 6 F_I_GMD | |
| Beyond Zork 8.1 1.5 2.0 3 5 C_INF | |
| Border Zone 6.7 1.4 1.4 4 4 C_INF | |
| Broken String 3.1 0.5 0.6 1 x F_TADS_GMD | |
| Bureaucracy 8.3 1.8 1.6 3 5 C_INF | |
| Busted 5.2 1.0 1.1 1 F_INF_GMD | |
| Castaway 1.1 0.0 0.4 1 5 F_IBM_GMD | |
| Change in the Weather 6.1 0.8 1.1 2 7 F_INF_GMD | |
| Christminster 8.6 1.8 1.7 3 F_INF_GMD | |
| Corruption 6.7 1.4 1.4 1 x C_I | |
| Cosmoserve 8.7 1.3 1.4 2 5 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Crypt v2.0 5.0 1.0 1.5 1 3 S12_IBM_GMD | |
| Curses 8.3 1.3 1.7 7 2 F_INF_GMD | |
| Cutthroats 6.4 1.4 1.2 5 1 C_INF | |
| Deadline 7.0 1.3 1.4 4 x C_INF | |
| Deep Space Drifter 5.5 1.4 1 3 S15_TAD_GMD | |
| Demon's Tomb 7.4 1.2 1.1 2 9 C_I | |
| Detective 1.1 0.0 0.0 4 4-5 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Detective-MST3K 6.0 0.6 0.1 3 7-8 F_INF_GMD | |
| Ditch Day Drifter 7.1 1.2 1.6 1 2 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Dungeon Adventure 6.8 1.3 1.6 1 4 F_SEE REVIEW Issue #4 | |
| Dungeon of Dunjin 6.2 0.5 1.5 2 3 S20_IBM_MAC_GMD | |
| Electrabot 0.7 0.0 0.0 1 5 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Enchanter 7.1 0.9 1.4 5 2 C_INF | |
| Enhanced N/A 0 2 S10_TAD_GMD | |
| Eric the Unready 7.4 1.5 1.4 1 x C_I | |
| Fable, A 2.0 0.2 0.1 1 6 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Fish 7.1 1.2 1.5 1 x C_I | |
| Forbidden Castle 4.8 0.6 0.5 1 x C_AP | |
| Gateway 7.5 1.6 1.5 1 x C_I | |
| Great Archaelog. Race 6.5 1.0 1.5 1 3 S20_TAD_GMD | |
| Guardians of Infinity 8.5 N/A 1.3 1 9 C_I | |
| Guild of Thieves 6.8 1.1 1.2 1 x C_I | |
| Gumshoe 6.3 1.3 1.1 2 9 F_INF_GMD | |
| Hitchhiker's Guide 8.0 1.6 1.6 5 5 C_INF | |
| Hollywood Hijinx 5.7 1.0 1.5 4 x C_INF | |
| Horror30.Zip 3.6 0.0 0.9 1 3 S20_IBM_GMD | |
| Horror of Rylvania 7.7 1 1 C20_TAD_GMD (Demo) | |
| Humbug 7.4 1 x S10_GMD (Uncertain) | |
| Infidel 7.0 1.4 7 1-2 C_INF | |
| Inhumane 3.6 0.2 0.7 1 9 F_INF_GMD | |
| Jacaranda Jim 7.0 1 x S10_GMD (Uncertain) | |
| Jeweled Arena, The 8.0 1.5 1.5 1 x ? | |
| Jigsaw 8.7 1.6 1.6 3 8,9 F_INF_GMD | |
| Jinxter 6.7 1.1 1.3 1 x C_I | |
| John's Fire Witch 7.2 1.1 1.6 5 4 S6_TADS_GMD | |
| Journey 6.9 1.3 0.8 1 5 C_INF | |
| Jouney Into Xanth 5.0 1.3 1.2 1 8 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Klaustrophobia 7.3 1.2 1.4 4 1 S15_AGT_GMD | |
| Leather Goddesses 7.8 1.4 1.7 5 4 C_INF | |
| The Legend Lives! 8.2 0.8 1.5 1 5 F_TADS_GMD | |
| Lethe Flow Phoenix 7.5 1.7 1.5 1 9 F_TADS_GMD | |
| The Light: Shelby's Ad. 8.0 1.6 0.5 1 9 S?_TADS_GMD | |
| Lurking Horror, The 7.1 1.4 1.3 5 1,3 C_INF | |
| MacWeslyan(PC Univ.) 5.6 0.7 1.0 1 x F_TADS_GMD | |
| Magic.Zip 4.5 0.5 0.5 1 3 S20_IBM_GMD | |
| Magic Toyshop, The 3.6 0.5 1.0 1 F_INF_GMD | |
| Mind Electric, The 5.1 0.5 0.8 2 7-8 F_INF_GMD | |
| Mind Forever Voyaging 8.5 1.4 0.6 4 5 C_INF | |
| Moonmist 5.9 1.4 1.3 5 1 C_INF | |
| Mop & Murder 4.9 0.5 1.0 1 4-5 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Multidimen. Thief 5.6 0.4 1.0 3 2,9 S15_AGT_GMD | |
| Mystery House 4.1 0.3 0.7 1 x F_AP_GMD | |
| Night at Museum Forever 4.1 0.0 1.0 3 7-8 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Nord and Bert 4.8 0.5 1.0 2 4 C_INF | |
| Odieus': Flingshot 3.3 0.4 0.7 2 5 F_INF_GMD | |
| One Hand Clapping 7.1 1.1 1.3 2 5 F_ADVSYS_GMD | |
| One That Got Away, The 6.4 1.2 0.9 2 7-8 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Oo-Topos 5.7 0.2 1.0 1 x C_AP_I_64 | |
| Path to Fortune 6.8 1.4 0.8 1 9 S_INF_GMD | |
| Pawn, The 6.5 1.0 1.2 1 x C_I_AP_64 | |
| Perseus & Andromeda 3.4 0.3 1.0 1 x ? | |
| Planetfall 7.5 1.7 1.6 6 4 C_INF | |
| Plundered Hearts 7.8 1.4 1.3 2 4 C_INF | |
| Quarterstaff 6.1 1.3 0.6 1 9 C_M | |
| Sanity Claus 9.0 1 1 S10_AGT_GMD | |
| Save Princeton 5.8 1.2 1.3 2 8 S10_TAD_GMD | |
| Seastalker 5.5 1.1 1.0 4 4 C_INF | |
| Shades of Grey 8.0 1.3 1.4 4 1-2 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Sherlock 8.2 1.5 1.6 2 4 C_INF | |
| Shogun 7.1 1.5 0.5 1 4 C_INF | |
| Sir Ramic Hobbs 5.0 1.0 1.5 1 6 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Sorceror 7.3 0.6 1.6 5 2 C_INF | |
| South American Trek 0.9 0.2 0.5 1 5 ?_IBM_GMD | |
| Space Aliens...Cardigan 1.8 0.5 0.4 4 3 S60_AGT_GMD | |
| Spellbreaker 8.2 1.2 1.8 4 2 C_INF | |
| SpellCasting 101 7.0 1.0 1.2 1 x C_I | |
| SpellCasting 201 7.8 1.5 1.6 1 x C_I | |
| SpellCasting 301 7.5 1.4 1.5 1 x C_I | |
| SpiritWrak 6.6 1.0 0.6 1 9 F_INF_GMD | |
| Spur 7.2 1.4 1.2 1 9 F_HUG_GMD | |
| Starcross 7.0 1.1 1.3 5 1 C_INF | |
| Stationfall 7.6 1.6 1.6 5 5 C_INF | |
| Suspect 6.2 1.3 1.2 2 4 C_INF | |
| Suspended 7.5 1.3 1.2 4 8 C_INF | |
| Theatre 6.8 0.9 1.2 3 6 F_INF_GMD | |
| TimeQuest 8.6 1.5 1.8 1 x C_I | |
| TimeSquared 4.3 1.1 1.1 1 x F_AGT_GMD | |
| Toonesia 6.3 1.1 1.2 2 7 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Tossed into Space 3.9 0.2 0.6 1 4 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Treasure.Zip N/A 0 3 S20_IBM_GMD | |
| Trinity 8.8 1.4 1.7 8 1-2 C_INF | |
| Tube Trouble 3.3 0.5 0.4 1 F_INF_GMD | |
| Uncle Zebulon's Will 7.6 0.9 1.3 3 7 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Undertow 5.2 1.0 0.8 1 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Undo 1.9 0.1 0.4 2 7 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Unnkulian One-Half 7.0 1.3 1.7 4 1 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Unnkulian Unventure 1 7.1 1.2 1.6 5 1-2 S10_TAD_GMD | |
| Unnkulian Unventure 2 7.2 1.4 1.5 4 1 S10_TAD_GMD | |
| Unnkulian Zero 9.0 1 1 C25_TAD_GMD (Demo) | |
| Waystation 5.7 0.7 0.9 2 9 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Windhall Chron. 1 - See Path to Fortune. | |
| Wishbringer 7.6 1.3 1.3 4 5-6 C_INF | |
| Witness, The 7.2 1.7 1.2 5 1,3,9 C_INF | |
| Wonderland 7.5 1.3 1.4 1 x C_I | |
| World 6.5 0.6 1.3 2 4 F_SEE REVIEW Issue #4 | |
| Zanfar 2.6 0.2 0.4 1 8 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Zork 0 7.1 1.3 2.0 2 x C_INF | |
| Zork 1 6.0 0.7 1.5 9 1-2 C_INF | |
| Zork 2 6.4 0.8 1.5 7 1-2 C_INF | |
| Zork 3 6.1 0.6 1.4 5 1-2 C_INF | |
| -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- | |
| The Top Five: | |
| I've decided that we finally have enough competitive entries on the | |
| scoreboard to have a Top Five instead of a Top Three. A game is not | |
| eligible for the Top Five unless it has received at least three | |
| ratings from different readers. This is to ensure a more democratic | |
| and accurate depiction of the best games. | |
| 1. Trinity 8.8 8 votes | |
| 2. Jigsaw 8.7 3 votes | |
| 3. Christminster 8.6 3 votes | |
| 4. Mind Fvr Voyaging 8.5 4 votes | |
| 5. Curses 8.3 7 votes | |
| Bureaucracy 8.3 3 votes | |
| ADVERTISEMENTS--------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Feeling a little paranoid? | |
| You will be. | |
| S C I M I T A R | |
| A new adventure from the author of "The Light: Shelby's Addendum" | |
| You'll never trust your mother again | |
| Coming in '96 | |
| from | |
| Illusory Mental Images | |
| "We know where you live!" | |
| -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- | |
| Start of a transcript of: | |
| YE OLDE INFOCOMME SHOPPE SHAMELESS PROMOTIONAL ADVERTISEMENT | |
| Your Own Private I-F Museum | |
| Each breath you take echoes hollowly off the vaulted marble walls of your | |
| museum of classic I-F paraphernalia. A crystal chandelier overhead casts | |
| refracted glares on the aisles of countless polished display cases. | |
| >EXAMINE THE DISPLAY CASES | |
| Your I-F collection is beautiful to behold, but woefully incomplete. Whatever | |
| will you do? Where can you possibly find out-of-print I-F games these days? | |
| >INVENTORY | |
| You are carrying the classified section of today's paper. | |
| >READ CLASSIFIEDS | |
| One ad catches your eye immediately: | |
| YE OLDE INFOCOMME SHOPPE | |
| C.E. Forman, proprietor. Est. 1996 | |
| Classic I-F paraphernalia bought, sold, traded. | |
| Infocom, Rainbird, Level 9, Broderbund, Sierra, I-F books and more! | |
| Appraisal, searches, waiting lists. Platform-specific copies w/ purchase. | |
| This month's specials: Buy 3, get 1 free! Buy 5, get free shipping! | |
| Take the "Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe" link at | |
| http://netnow.micron.net/~jgoemmer/ | |
| CLOSING REMARKS-------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| It's been swell folks, but nothing lasts forever. Good night, Mrs. | |
| Callabash, wherever you are! -- GKW | |
| While Whizzard is saying goodbye (as an editor - I hope we'll see more | |
| contributions from him here in the future), let me add that I'm | |
| looking forward to editing the next 11 issues! Keep the reviews | |
| coming! -- MO | |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Thank you for helping to keep text adventures alive! | |
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