| ___. .___ _ ___. | |
| / _| | \ / \ / ._| | |
| \ \ | o_/ | | | |_. | |
| .\ \ | | | o | | | | | |
| The |___/ociety for the |_|romotion of |_|_|dventure \___|ames. | |
| ISSUE # 15 | |
| Edited by Magnus Olsson (zebulon SP@G pobox.com) | |
| October 11, 1998. | |
| SPAG Website: http://welcome.to/spag | |
| SPAG supports the 1998 IF Competition (http://www.ifcompetition.org) | |
| SPAG #15 is copyright (c) 1998 by 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. | |
| REVIEWS IN THIS ISSUE ----------------------------------------------------- | |
| The Awakening | |
| BJ Drifter | |
| Bloodline | |
| Enchanter | |
| Firebird | |
| Knight Orc | |
| A Mind Forever Voyaging | |
| Saied | |
| Sorcerer | |
| Spellbreaker | |
| There's a Hole In Your Bucket | |
| EDITORIAL------------------------------------------------------------------ | |
| OK, you don't have to tell me: it's been a long time since the last | |
| issue, partly because of the intervening summer, of course, but I'd | |
| actually planned to release it a whole month ago, in early September. | |
| Unlike earlier, you won't have to listen to any pathetic excuses | |
| from me this time: I've actually got an explanation. The problem is | |
| only that I'm not at liberty to tell you everything yet, so the | |
| following may sound slightly less than believable. It is the truth, | |
| though. | |
| As I wrote above, I had planned to release this issue in early | |
| September, so I set a deadline in late August. However, some very | |
| interesting contributions had a string attached: I had to promise not | |
| to publish them until given permission. | |
| The problem was only that the permission was delayed, and delayed, and | |
| delayed... I've still not received the go-ahead. Since I feel that the | |
| time for a new issue is long overdue, I've decided to drop the secret | |
| contributions from this issue, and publish now, before angry mobs of | |
| torch-bearing subscribers start turning up at my door. | |
| So, here it is, a somewhat slimmed-down SPAG 15. I still intend to | |
| publish the dropped material, as soon as I'm allowed to do so. I'm | |
| sorry I can't say anything about when this will be - it could be next | |
| week or next year. Keep your fingers crossed. | |
| In the meantime, here's a number of excellent reviews of both old and | |
| new games. Enjoy! | |
| NEWS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| The entries in the 1998 IF Competition have been released, and voting | |
| is underway. For more details (and instructions on how to download the | |
| games), see the official competition site at | |
| http://www.ifcompetition.org | |
| The games can also be downloaded from | |
| ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/competition98 | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| In addition to the "big" Competition, a number of mini- and | |
| micro-competitions have been held on the newsgroups this year. More | |
| details, and all the participating games, are available from | |
| ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/mini-comps/. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| There is now a new official SPAG web site (the old one, at afn.org, | |
| was partially lost in a disk crash this spring). The URL is | |
| http://welcome.to/spag | |
| Thanks to Joe DeRouen at Sparkynet for donating the web space! | |
| 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 | |
| reluctant to accept any more reviews of Infocom games (though | |
| exceptions happen). | |
| 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/ | |
| and at http://welcome.to/spag | |
| REVIEWS 1: NEW GAMES ----------------------------------------------------- | |
| From: Chantikell SP@G aol.com | |
| NAME: The Awakening | |
| AUTHOR: Dennis Matheson | |
| E-MAIL: Dennis_Matheson SP@G compuserve.com | |
| DATE: 1998 | |
| PARSER: Inform | |
| SUPPORTS: all Inform ports | |
| AVAILABILITY: Freeware (GMD) | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/infocom/awaken.z5 | |
| VERSION: Release 1 | |
| Considering that "The Awakening" by Dennis Matheson is a rather small | |
| game, I was pleasently surprised by both plot and atmosphere of the | |
| game. | |
| The game starts out with the player finding himself in an old, | |
| decaying churchyard during a thunderstorm, not knowing how he came | |
| there nor who he is. But both the fact that he's originally located in | |
| an earth pit and the name of the adventure lead up to some | |
| suspicions... | |
| Besides, the author mentions to have been inspired by the works of | |
| Lovecraft, so for me the setting of the game was, if not outright | |
| obviously, so at least in all probability, part of the Lovecraftian | |
| Universe, with strange and malovelent forces at work. | |
| During the course of the game I found this to be true, and by and by | |
| learnt more about my surroundings, and the goal I had to achieve, | |
| until I was able to defy these forces and win "freedom". | |
| The atmosphere, especially during the first part of the game, is quite | |
| dense. Especially, once I was inside the church, I felt like an | |
| intruder, at a place where some tradegy had already occured, trying to | |
| make sense of the remnants. | |
| But the end of the game came as something of an anti-climax to me: I | |
| had no problems to win against my antagonist, and no final explanation | |
| was offered to fill a few gaps I had noticed, just a plain | |
| ***You have won*** message. | |
| But, as I said before, "The Awakening" is a short piece of interactive | |
| fiction, and therefore due to lack some fleshing out that a bigger | |
| game perhaps would have had. For its length it's really a fine example | |
| of the art, capturing in its story, and convincing in its atmosphere. | |
| I've totally forgotten to mention the technical side, and that's | |
| probably because I found no flaws there, no bugs or parser problems, | |
| which of course heightened the pleasure of playing "The Awakening". | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Jarvist Frost (BOBFROST SP@G compuserve.com) | |
| NAME: Bloodline, An Interactive Coming-of-age | |
| AUTHOR: Liza Daly | |
| E-MAIL: gecko SP@G retina.net | |
| DATE: 1998 | |
| PARSER: Slightly below Inform Standard | |
| SUPPORTS: Z code 5 interpreters | |
| AVAILABILITY: Freeware (GMD) | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/mini-comps/games/bloodline.z5 | |
| VERSION: Release 1 | |
| Bloodline is a game based abound its NPC's. The entire game takes | |
| place in the basement of a friend's house. You (female) are playing a | |
| board game called bloodline which involves chasing after the fortune | |
| mentioned in a will, battling with all the other relatives. This | |
| appears to have been a way of fulfilling the criteria for the mini | |
| comp rather than a central game piece. You are playing against the Boy | |
| of Your Dreams (tm) and the ultimate decision is to either use your | |
| special card and win the game or let the boy beat you. Your decision, | |
| either way, ends the game. There is no movement and interaction with | |
| the NPC's is kept to a bare minimum (you're too distracted by the | |
| boy's eyes to even think of talking to him). I thought that the TV was | |
| an excellent touch, the slasher movies caused me to come back to the | |
| game time after time. | |
| If a Crinkly were to review this then they would complain about the | |
| blunt humour, absence of puzzles, obsession with the boy etc. As a | |
| teenager I found this to be a fun short piece of IF. My only problems | |
| with this game was the way that I had to be female and a few weird | |
| parser problems cropped up. In particular I liked the introduction, | |
| this is the 'reading of the rules' (essential for all board | |
| games). After reading the premise.txt I was expecting a serious game | |
| and the introduction confused me for a moment until I realised it was | |
| a 'tongue in {his} cheek' game. This game captures the style of | |
| teenage sleep overs, right down to the passing of notes. | |
| As an example of a parser problem I give you this: | |
| >examine randy's game piece | |
| I only understood you as far as wanting to examine Randy's game piece. | |
| Weird or what? | |
| There is no movement and no real manipulation of items. The game will | |
| automatically end in 25 moves if you can't reach a decision. The game | |
| would generally be solved in 20 moves or under. There are no real | |
| actions that you can do, you just have to admire the scenery until you | |
| have to make the Ultimate Decision on which your future teenage | |
| happiness is based. Apart from examining and reading objects, there is | |
| nothing much that you can do. The ending that would appear to bring | |
| the most satisfaction to the girl that you are playing seems to give a | |
| rather un-feminist view of live, you have to let the male win so that | |
| he likes you. | |
| All in all, this game was a fun five minute piece of vagely | |
| interactive fiction. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| NAME: Firebird | |
| AUTHOR: Bonnie Montgomery | |
| E-MAIL: firebird SP@G pobox.com | |
| DATE: 1998 | |
| PARSER: TADS standard | |
| SUPPORTS: TADS interpreters | |
| AVAILABILITY: Freeware (GMD) | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/tads/firebird.gam | |
| VERSION: Release 1.0 | |
| PLOT: Charming, appropriately fairy-tale (1.4) ATMOSPHERE: Appropriate | |
| (1.3) | |
| WRITING: Strong, often amusing (1.6) GAMEPLAY: Uneven at times (1.1) | |
| PUZZLES: Not too hard, some a bit random (1.2) CHARACTERS: Amusing (1.4) | |
| MISC: Whimsical and very playable (1.5) | |
| OVERALL: 6.9 | |
| Some genres of literature have become common stomping grounds for IF, | |
| but fairy tales are not among them: the dearth of children's stories | |
| in the IF library means that Firebird attempts something distinctly | |
| new, and the Russian themes make it all the more unique. Though many | |
| traditionally fairy-tale tropes are present, including evil wizards, | |
| captured princesses, and a series of marriages at the end, the author | |
| gives the work more than enough humor and creativity to carry it off | |
| successfully. | |
| For what it's worth, you're the third son of a tsar, and you've been | |
| chosen to bag the Firebird of the title, which has been stealing the | |
| golden fruit from your father's orchard. Once you do catch the bird, | |
| you get sent on a Quest to defeat the Evil Nasty Guy, overcoming scary | |
| obstacles along the way and even getting Useful Social Guidance as | |
| well, namely that you should be kind to animals. (Moreover, everything | |
| seems to come in sets of three, a common number--along with seven--in | |
| these stories.) Russian folk tales are not, it appears, drastically | |
| different from those of Western Europe, such as the Brothers Grimm and | |
| Hans Christian Andersen, certain not in their hallmarks. But there is | |
| also plenty of humor along with the stock scenes and characters, | |
| fortunately: a series of dimwitted guards, even if repetitive (you | |
| defeat all of them with the same ploy), is sufficiently comic to make | |
| the idea feel fresh. There is plenty of absurdity as well: you get | |
| help from an army of Japanese cooks at one point, who attack with | |
| pepper grinders (really), and kissing a frog turns it into...an axe | |
| murderer. The humorous bits and the small size of the game keep the | |
| game moving along despite the more time-worn elements. | |
| The authenticity of the references to actual Russian stories cannot be | |
| verified, but judging from the bibliography and the footnotes | |
| sprinkled here and there, the author seems to have done plenty of | |
| homework along the way, which helps reduce the sense that this is a | |
| generic fairy tale. At one point, you encounter two peasants swapping | |
| jokes which, somehow, feel just bizarre enough to be real Russian | |
| jokes; at another, you encounter "three times nine" knights, which, as | |
| the author explains, really means, in Russian folk tale parlance, | |
| 27. There is more than enough of this sort of thing to keep the story | |
| feeling fresh, though it's more the author's wit than the stories | |
| themselves that gives the game its appeal. (My favorite reference of | |
| all, actually, was the Firebird's tendency to "whistle the greatest | |
| hits of Stravinsky.") My one real objection is that women are more | |
| often than not reduced to helpless playthings or decorative objects, | |
| admittedly more the fault of the genre (and, maybe, the culture that | |
| inspired the story) than the author but still a mite irritating. (And | |
| ironic, since the author is one of very few women currently writing | |
| IF.) | |
| As noted, the puzzles are straightforward enough that they shouldn't | |
| slow the player down much, though there are some slightly unfair | |
| bits--notably, having to wait around for 15-20 turns before someone | |
| comes along and drops an item that turns out to be useful later | |
| on. There are some clues to the possibility of that event, but they're | |
| not particularly strong. There are some other bugs, but not many, and | |
| they don't impede the game all that much, and the end of the story is | |
| appropriately climactic and easy to figure out. Moreover, even the few | |
| moments where puzzle solutions are not entirely obvious are | |
| decipherable on fairy-tale terms; since the genre demands some | |
| suspension of logic anyway, thinking in fairy-story mode is usually | |
| the best way to move things along; though one solution might be better | |
| suggested by the context in that respect, it's certainly not | |
| unfair. The relative ease of the puzzles also makes this an appealing | |
| possibility for younger players, though some of the references--such | |
| as the baba yaga--might require explanation. The real fly in the | |
| ointment is a large maze; it doesn't seem like the game would lose | |
| much if it were cut down or eliminated. | |
| The writing is excellent, though there's rather a lot of it at certain | |
| key points, often several screens' worth, and several descriptions are | |
| a bit on the skimpy side--though most locales are standard enough that | |
| they don't need extensive writing to come across. Appropriately for | |
| the story and the age group, the writing gives more attention to plot | |
| than to drawn-out description: events and action get long chunks of | |
| text, not images. Still, it's worth noting that the author rarely | |
| slips into fairy-tale excess--not every woman is breathtakingly | |
| beautiful, not every obstacle is horribly dangerous, etc.--though one | |
| occasionally wishes for more details than the author | |
| provides. Moreover, as with most good fairy tales, the scale starts | |
| small and then builds--you start out doing menial tasks for your | |
| father--so that, when the author does lay on superlatives, they don't | |
| feel tired. | |
| Though the plot won't exactly throw anyone for a loop, Firebird is a | |
| quick, enjoyable game that might herald something new, namely IF | |
| grounded in a specific cultural tradition; Sound of One Hand Clapping | |
| and Pesach Adventure are the only other examples I can think of. If | |
| Firebird encouraged more research into backgrounds of games, and more | |
| innovative settings, it might lead to more creative games, never a bad | |
| thing. In its own right, it's a worthy effort. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: "Paul O'Brian" <obrian SP@G ucsu.Colorado.EDU> | |
| NAME: Firebird | |
| AUTHOR: Bonnie Montgomery | |
| EMAIL: bkm SP@G pobox.com | |
| DATE: March 1998 | |
| PARSER: TADS standard | |
| SUPPORTS: TADS ports | |
| AVAILABILITY: Freeware/Charityware (GMD) | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/tads/firebird.gam | |
| VERSION: 1.0 | |
| When Def Leppard's "Pyromania" album came out in 1983, it was a good | |
| album and a big hit, but it never made it to #1 on the American | |
| charts. Why? Because Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was perched there; | |
| for months the Def Leppard album sat at #2, then sank, never reaching | |
| the top spot. What does this have to do with IF? Hold your horses, I'm | |
| getting to that. In the spring of 1998, Bonnie Montgomery suffered a | |
| similar fate -- she put out an excellent game which never got the | |
| recognition it deserved, because it was overshadowed by a concurrent | |
| release, Andrew Plotkin's masterful "Spider and Web." (Hmmm, perhaps | |
| this comparison isn't so good after all. I'm not sure how much | |
| Plotkin wants to be the Michael Jackson of IF, let alone how thrilled | |
| Montgomery is to be called its Def Leppard. Plus, now I've outed | |
| myself as a fan of 80s heavy metal, not to mention an incurable | |
| parenthetical rambler. I should probably just delete this whole first | |
| paragraph, but knowing my Piers Anthony-like inability to erase | |
| anything I've written, I probably won't. Magnus, I leave it up to | |
| you.) | |
| This review is meant to partly make up for the unwarranted neglect | |
| "Firebird" has suffered. The game is cleverly written and well-coded, | |
| with a number of design and puzzle strengths as well. Not only that, | |
| it includes the command "WEAR THE CLAW"! How could I resist anything | |
| that makes reference (though probably not consciously) to my own | |
| one-game contribution to the world of IF? In fact, oddly enough, | |
| "Firebird" has several resemblances to "Wearing the Claw": both | |
| feature a circular wall with a plaque mounted upon it, each of which | |
| has "hints of honey" inside, and both games have a section where the | |
| parser prevents travel for three attempts. Now, of course I'm not | |
| suggesting that "Wearing the Claw" was somehow the inspiration for | |
| "Firebird" -- I doubt Ms. Montgomery has even played my game -- but I | |
| did find it interesting that our games had so many specifics in | |
| common. I'm inclined to think that these two games, taken together | |
| with some others such as Infocom's "Arthur" and Whizzard's "Lesson of | |
| the Tortoise", are taking steps towards creating a basic vocabulary of | |
| puzzles and devices for folk-tale-oriented IF. | |
| Whether or not this is the case, "Firebird" stands on its own as a | |
| remarkable piece of interactive fiction in its own right. Its clear, | |
| elegant prose is a pleasure to read, and in spots becomes quite clever | |
| indeed. For example, early on in the game our hero Ivan must pass by a | |
| gaggle of overeager female admirers wearing beeswax lipstick (to which | |
| Ivan is allergic). The women are described thus: "They're swarming | |
| everywhere, their constant chattering an irritating drone to your | |
| ears." However, if Ivan fails to pass, the death message says "You | |
| are swarmed by these eager noble honeys. Much as you feared, their | |
| lipstick-tainted kisses cause hives to cover the entire surface of | |
| your skin. A severe allergic reaction ensues and you succumb." In a | |
| few quick sentences, Montgomery manages to work in "swarm" "drone" | |
| "hive", and "honey"; death by allergy has never been described with | |
| such wordplay and wit! The combination of humor and action is | |
| characteristic of "Firebird," and gives it a lighthearted tone which | |
| works quite well. Though the deeper structure of the game has a number | |
| of fairly serious elements, Montgomery finds a way to inject humor | |
| into most of the scenes, sometimes spilling over into outright | |
| hilarity. That this mix of humor and action creates balance rather | |
| than confusion is a testament to Montgomery's writing skills. | |
| As strong as the writing is, the design is just as good. The game | |
| provides multiple solutions to many of the puzzles, solutions which | |
| often are so well thought-out in themselves that it's rewarding to | |
| play through the puzzle each way, just to see how imaginatively the | |
| game approaches the problems. "Firebird" is flexible enough to handle | |
| lots of different kinds of thinking, and there were many times when I | |
| thought I'd made a game-killing mistake and later found out that | |
| although I had created a problem for myself, the game provided for a | |
| way out of it as well. Moreover, when critical junctions do come up, | |
| the game gently suggests that you think about "praying to save your | |
| soul." If you acquiesce to this suggestion, the interpreter's "save" | |
| function is invoked, and you now have a bookmark just behind the | |
| critical point. There is only one place in which Montgomery's very | |
| player-friendly design approach breaks down, which is the inclusion of | |
| a fairly large, irritating maze. The maze, as far as I could | |
| determine, is of the bad old variety to which there is no alternative | |
| but slow, tedious mapping. Nonetheless, even if you hate mazes, it's | |
| worth it to slog through this one, just because the last part of the | |
| game is so rewarding. "Firebird" has several excellent climactic | |
| scenes (which one you see depends on what you've done up to that | |
| point) and it handles multiple endings in a number of highly creative | |
| ways. | |
| Finally, in addition to the big-picture factors, "Firebird" includes a | |
| number of nicely done, subtle touches. For instance, the author (who | |
| is married to Unkuulian implementor Chris Nebel) manages to sneak in a | |
| very sly reference to that series by naming a nearby tavern "The | |
| Cheese and Pig Inn." Neat coding effects abound as well; at one point | |
| Ivan is given a list of items he'll need in the next portion of the | |
| story. The initial contents of this list vary depending on what Ivan | |
| is holding when he receives it, and as he collects the items | |
| necessary, the corresponding list items are checked. Another example | |
| of clever coding is that the game not only frequently sends Ivan | |
| tumbling to the ground, but it counts the number of falls he's taken, | |
| and responds accordingly: "Just a reminder, this is the third time | |
| today that you and the ground have had an abrupt meeting." Puzzles are | |
| also soundly executed: not too difficult, well-clued, and | |
| strategically dispersed to keep the narrative at a steady pace. At | |
| this writing, the game still has several bugs, one or two of which can | |
| in fact render the game unwinnable. I have forwarded these bugs to the | |
| author, and she assures me that they will be fixed in the next | |
| release. If version 1.0 of "Firebird" was this good, it will be even | |
| better when all the niggling problems are repaired. | |
| "Firebird" proves beyond a doubt that the intersection between folk | |
| tale and IF is a fertile one. At the risk of making an overreaching | |
| generalization, I would contend that folk tales often tend to have a | |
| strong sense of structure, a distinct "best" ending, somewhat "flat" | |
| characters who mainly serve as ciphers for the plot, and frequent | |
| appearances by riddles or somewhat artificial puzzles, all of which | |
| are perfect for adaptation into conventional-form IF. The strengths of | |
| interactive fiction, on the other hand, include exploration of exotic | |
| landscapes, a strong sense of score/progress, and participation in | |
| structured narratives, factors which can combine to give us new ways | |
| to experience very ancient stories. What's more, the global audience | |
| of interactive fiction means that no matter in what tradition an IF | |
| folk tale is written, it will serve to teach at least some of its | |
| players about cultures outside their own. Here's hoping that others | |
| follow in the trail that "Firebird" has blazed. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Jarvist Frost (BOBFROST SP@G compuserve.com) | |
| NAME: Saied | |
| AUTHOR: Robb Sherwin | |
| E-MAIL: robb_sherwin SP@G juno.com | |
| DATE: 6/8/98 | |
| PARSER: Slightly below Inform Standard | |
| SUPPORTS: ZCODE interpreters | |
| AVAILABILITY: Freeware (GMD) | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/mini-comps/chicken.zip | |
| VERSION: Release 1 | |
| { Editor's note: this was one of the entries of the 1998 Chicken Comp | |
| (see the NEWS section above), hence the reference to chickens crossing | |
| the road. The file chicken.zip contains not only this game, but the | |
| other entries as well. } | |
| In this game you play the role of the spurned lover (male). Your Ex | |
| has left you for someone else 18 months ago (while you were standing | |
| there at 3am waiting for her in the freezing cold). Now, she has | |
| phoned you and asked you to come round and comfort her since she has | |
| just been arguing with her new lover, your replacement. You start this | |
| game in your bed, and have to get up and decide whether you are going | |
| to respond to your Ex's call for help. | |
| This game has more bugs than a tropical swamp. Instead of typing | |
| 'stand' or 'get out of bed' you have to type 'pump it up' to get out | |
| of bed. The direction of your door (the only exit from your apartment) | |
| is not actually mentioned in the room description and so you have to | |
| guess wildly by typing in directions at random until you realise that | |
| it is towards the east. This game hardly recognises any of the items | |
| mentioned in the room description. The main way that the story | |
| progresses is through people phoning you up. After you finely decide | |
| to get out of bed and exit the house you find yourself faced with a | |
| decision (which will, either way, end the game). Should you go to your | |
| Ex lover's house you should you cross to the other Saied to see your | |
| close (female) friend? | |
| This game had some _very_ infuriating parser problems. The two items | |
| (of which only 1 can be picked up) served no purpose other than to be | |
| looked at. Only the second of the 2 locations contains any information | |
| about the exits from it. The telephone calls are hard wired in, where | |
| ether you are, you still get the telephone calls (which occur at 'so | |
| many turns'). | |
| >From the last two paragraphs of complaints you would expect the | |
| writing to be terrible and the game to be boring, frustrating and | |
| excessively hard to understand. It wasn't. The writing was of a very | |
| high standard throughout and both endings seemed very fitting, in | |
| particular I liked the joke about why the chicken crossed the road | |
| (and no it isn't "to get to the other side"(TM) but it is something | |
| similar). | |
| As a whole, this game was good fun and I would heartily recommend it | |
| to anyone with experience with bad parsers (i.e. all you Speccy Ifers | |
| out there). Once the parser bugs have been navigated, this game turns | |
| into a fun, short game and I found it well worth the download time. I | |
| will certainly look forward to the 1998 i.f. competition entry from | |
| Robb Sherwin. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Audrey De Lisle <adelisle SP@G earthlnk.net>, <rad SP@G crl.com> | |
| NAME: There's a Hole In Your Bucket | |
| AUTHOR: Karen Tyers | |
| EMAIL: <karvic SP@G tesco.net> | |
| DATE: 1998 | |
| PARSER: PAW (Professional Adventure Writer) | |
| SUPPORTS: Spectrum and emulators | |
| AVAILABILITY: Adventure Workshop, 36 Grasmere Road, Royton, Oldham, | |
| Lancs, OL2 6SR, England | |
| Also: Adventure Probe Magazine, | |
| 52 Burford Road, Liverpool, L16 6AQ, England | |
| Other games may be had for C64 and Amiga, inquire of author. | |
| Price: A small fee for postage and handling to the Workshop | |
| or an optional donation to Adventure Probe magazine if emailed by Karen. | |
| Adventure Probe is a small, hand assembled magazine published by Karen | |
| Tyers. It contains reviews, hints and a walk-through each month. | |
| Most of the games are for the C64 or Amiga, but some are pc. Its | |
| listed price is two pounds sterling (in England). There is no | |
| provision for foreign money. The February issue has 50 pages, 6"x | |
| 8.5". For those in UK, there is a telephone help line and solutions | |
| can be downloaded. | |
| BUCKET is a charming small game based on a folk song, "I've Got A Hole In | |
| My Bucket, Dear Liza". The player first learns that his wife, Liza, wants | |
| some water to wash the windows and there is none. During his search for | |
| a water source and a bucket, he finds the duck pond is empty and the ducks | |
| are miserable. Blossom, the sow, is most unco-operative and the chickens | |
| are hungry. By frequent use of the LOOK command coupled with BEHIND, IN, | |
| or UNDER, the player's search is rewarded with objects leading to success | |
| in achieving this goal. Besides the farm area, there is a five room house. | |
| Liza does not contribute much, but is an npc. The only HELP is a reminder | |
| to follow the words in the song. | |
| Emulators: the Lunter Z80 emulator (registered) is used by the author | |
| with Win 95 and she reports that it works fine. OTOH, I use DOS and | |
| found that the Lunter emulator (shareware) did not work well with the | |
| pentium/60MHz, but does work well with a 486/30MHz. I downloaded the | |
| other pc emulator and it does work with the pentium, but not .z80 | |
| files. Of course, that may just be my pentium. I was playing with | |
| the PAW .z80 file and not with a .sna file. The author now has a | |
| proper .sna file ready. At some future time, she hopes to have pc | |
| versions written with Inform or TADS. | |
| The song: There's a hole in my bucket dear Liza, dear Liza. | |
| There's a hole im my bucket, dear Liza. | |
| Well, mend it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry. | |
| Well, mend it dear Henry, mend it. | |
| With what shall I mend it, dear Liza? (etc). | |
| With some straw, dear Henry (etc) | |
| But the straw is too long, dear Liza, (etc) | |
| Well, cut it, dear Henry (etc) | |
| With what shall I cut it, dear Liza? (etc) | |
| With an axe, dear Henry (etc) | |
| But the axe is too blunt, dear Liza (etc) | |
| Well, sharpen it, dear Henry (etc) | |
| With what shall I sharpen it, dear Liza? (etc) | |
| With a stone, dear Henry (etc) | |
| But the stone is too dry, dear Liza (etc) | |
| Well, wet it, dear Henry (etc) | |
| With what shall I wet it, dear Liza? (etc) | |
| Try water, dear Henry (etc) | |
| In what shall I fetch it, dear Liza? (etc) | |
| In a bucket, dear Henry (etc) | |
| I prefer not to rate games. I enjoyed playing this one or would not | |
| offer a review. There were two 'hunt the verb' problems; one easily | |
| resolved, but the other could be a sticker. However, this could be a | |
| difference in culture, so Americans might have more trouble than | |
| others. I am not sure younger players with no experience with C64, RS | |
| Color Computers, Spectrum, etc, would be interested. These games do | |
| not resemble MYST, et al, but are great for older players. | |
| REVIEWS 2: OLD GAMES ----------------------------------------------------- | |
| From: Gerhard Peterz (peterz SP@G mags.net) | |
| NAME: A Mind Forever Voyaging (AMFV) | |
| Author:Steve Meretzky | |
| EMAIL:???? | |
| DATE: 1985 | |
| PARSER: Infocom Standard | |
| SUPPORTS: Infocom Ports | |
| AVAILABILITY: LTOI 2, MSTRPCS. | |
| URL:????? | |
| SUPPORTS:Infocom ports | |
| PUZZLES: Good, ranging from easy to hard. | |
| CHARACTERS: Great. | |
| ATMOSPHERE: Very well done. | |
| DIFFICULTY: Medium - Hard | |
| You are PRISM. A super computer able to "live" in simulations in the | |
| future. RIght now, the world were you were created is slowly being | |
| pushed into chaos. Schools are becoming violent. Suicides are up. | |
| Overpopulation and food shortage threaten the world. A Senator Richard | |
| Ryder has proposed a plan that everyone is willing to follow. But | |
| there is one thing that stands between the plan's finishing stage. | |
| You. It is your mission to simulate the future of the plan and hurl | |
| yourself far into the future. A land of wonders and peace, or one of | |
| cruelty and death? Only you can decide if the plan shall fall through. | |
| Overall, AMFV is a great game. The plot is really intriguing and | |
| Rockville, the city that the simulations take place, is a vast area of | |
| exploration throughout the time periods. The writing is good quality | |
| and excellent. It draws you into the game. The best points of this | |
| game are: 1) The writing is just superb. 2) The ability to visit and | |
| compare the same city in 10 year intervals. 3) The amount to explore | |
| and see. | |
| A few weak points: | |
| 1) The library feature doesn't really need to be used. | |
| 2) You have to wait a bit, but sleep mode takes care of most of the time. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Second April <dns361 SP@G merle.acns.nwu.edu> | |
| NAME: Enchanter | |
| AUTHOR: Marc Blank | |
| E-MAIL: Beats me | |
| DATE: 1983 | |
| PARSER: Infocom Standard | |
| SUPPORTS: Infocom ports | |
| AVAILABILITY: Commercial | |
| URL: N/A | |
| VERSION: Release 29 | |
| Enchanter, as most Infocom fans know, is the first in a fantasy series | |
| intended to complement the Zork trilogy, a set of games where success | |
| depends both on wits and on judicious use of magic. (By implication, | |
| the adventurer in the Zork trilogy is a sort of grunt by contrast, | |
| using combat skills as opposed to spell-casting, which isn't really | |
| true--but the blend of the two in Beyond Zork lends credence to the | |
| idea that it was supposed to be a resolution to both trilogies.) The | |
| player's use of magic in this series is based on a simple system of | |
| copying spells into a book and then memorizing the spell each time it | |
| is cast, an approach that has earned much criticism over the years but | |
| which I still enjoy and find realistic (well, realistic on | |
| fantasy-game terms, anyway). It feels more natural to have known | |
| spells in a book than floating around in one's head constantly, | |
| somehow, even though it can become a form of inventory | |
| management. Part of the fun of this magic system, moreover, is the | |
| humor value inherent in casting certain spells on inappropriate | |
| objects (and the funny responses Infocom provided, of course). | |
| Anyway, the plot of Enchanter is a fairly standard save-the-world | |
| deal, wherein you, the novice enchanter, are sent into Krill's castle | |
| because your powers are minimal enough that he won't bother to get rid | |
| of you. (Why it wouldn't be worth his while to smush someone prowling | |
| around his castle isn't wholly clear to me, but oh well.) The layout | |
| of the plot is rather "wide," in design parlance, meaning that almost | |
| the entire territory and most of the puzzles are available early in | |
| the game; it's up to you to figure out what can be solved at any given | |
| time. Wide games can be irritating if the puzzles must be solved in | |
| one particular order, but 'tisn't so in "Enchanter", fortunately; | |
| quite a few of the puzzles are solvable very near the beginning of the | |
| game. | |
| The puzzles themselves are mostly good, and not especially difficult, | |
| with one exception--one vital action is without motivation and relies | |
| on a somewhat obscure hint. There is another instance of a verb I | |
| didn't expect the game to recognize and spent hours upon hours | |
| devising alternative solutions to the puzzle--and no, my copy was not | |
| pirated; I just didn't think to look at the verb list, I guess. There | |
| are a few other mildly unfair elements--the effects of a spell expire | |
| after a small number of moves, but there's no way of knowing that (and | |
| no sign when it happens) and it might seem at first like that spell | |
| doesn't have the desired effect. Another puzzle, while the idea is | |
| fairly obvious, requires considerable trial and error for success--and | |
| there are some incorrect solutions, for which the game gives a fairly | |
| obvious warning. As an introduction to the use of magic in puzzles, | |
| Enchanter succeeds admirably; you use almost all of your spells at | |
| least once, often in creative ways. If there's a weakness here, it's | |
| that virtually everything you do turns on magic; whereas the other two | |
| installments in the series called for more puzzle-solving and less | |
| trying spells, Enchanter is largely solvable by pulling out a spell | |
| for every occasion. It's not a major drawback, but it's not optimal | |
| either. | |
| Enchanter's plot, as noted, is not especially innovative, and is beset | |
| by contradictions, primary among them that Krill would not bother to | |
| notice when you acquire the means to defeat him (and that said means | |
| is sitting around in his own castle). That said, though, the | |
| atmosphere and the setting are quite well done--the abandoned village, | |
| the view of the castle from the Lonely Mountain, and the spread of the | |
| effect of Krill's spell, characterized thus: "Everything you see is | |
| gray and lifeless, as though covered with a veil of ash. Sound is | |
| muted and there is a faint acrid odor." Room descriptions change as | |
| well as the spell spreads, deteriorating from reasonably tidy | |
| abandoned castle to something altogether more sinister; it reminded me | |
| of the Nothing from Neverending Story. The effect is to lend some | |
| urgency to the plot, even though the time allotted to accomplish the | |
| mission is far more than needed, and to make the game something more | |
| than a collection of puzzles. There is humor as well, though: possibly | |
| the high point of the game is the arrival of the "adventurer," who | |
| seems to be you in the Zork trilogy (though it does, sadly, assume | |
| that said adventurer is male), and who plays on all the sillinesses of | |
| Zork and its genre, from illogical "wonder what happens if I do this" | |
| actions and their snappy responses ("The adventurer attempts to eat | |
| his sword. I don't think it would agree with him.") to classic | |
| vacuum-cleaner adventurer behavior--put the adventurer in a room and | |
| watch him pick everything up. In that and in a few select instances--a | |
| ludicrously overguarded door, for instance, and the arrival on the | |
| scene of the Implementors, meaning the game authors--Infocom manages | |
| to get in a few digs at the swords-and-sorcery universe, even while it | |
| invokes many of its cliches. | |
| It's interesting, though, that as a fantasy game, Enchanter plays | |
| everything much more conventionally than the Zork series did. The | |
| parody elements largely address adventure games themselves, not of the | |
| fantasy world; the evil warlock, the good sorcerer, the friendly | |
| animals are all reliable fantasy elements, and Enchanter doesn't do | |
| much with them--whereas the Zork trilogy derived its humor value from | |
| making fun of fantasy itself. The feel, moreover, is less lighthearted | |
| than the Zork trilogy (at least, less than I and II; III was a | |
| departure in that respect); the adventurer's pratfalls aside, the | |
| onset of the "veil of ash" and the way it takes over the game has a | |
| sinister quality that doesn't fit well with the humorous | |
| aspect. Krill's sidekicks are more menacing than any enemies from the | |
| Zork series, since they're not given foibles or funny lines (no lines | |
| at all, actually); even when the thief in Zork I was intent on killing | |
| you, it was hard to actually be afraid of him because the game took | |
| pains to play up the "gentlemanly" aspect. Here, though, when | |
| "guttural voices seem to be coming in your direction," there's a | |
| genuinely ominous feeling. An early description sets the tone: | |
| To the east, far away, can be seen a great castle at the edge of | |
| the Sea. Three turrets it has; two, old and still majestic, lie | |
| on either side of a third, cold, black as night and squat as a | |
| toad. An evil smoke seems to emanate from this tower, shrouding | |
| the others in a darkening fog. A small mountain trail leaves the | |
| peak and descends to the south into a small village far below. | |
| Obviously, there isn't a lot that's new here; the ideas and images | |
| could have come directly from Tolkien or from one of his | |
| imitators. But the writing is restrained enough that these and other | |
| atmosphere moments work well--the game builds up to your final | |
| encounter with Krill by giving more and more space to the | |
| looming-menace aspect. It's hard to explain why it works well, but it | |
| does--though you start in a bucolic natural setting, as the game | |
| progresses, your discoveries bring you closer to the heart of the | |
| castle, and the atmospheric changes are calculated to reflect that | |
| progress. Likewise, your accomplishments as an enchanter build on each | |
| other: you move from minor triumphs in the beginning to more | |
| significant or daring uses of magic later in the game. The point is | |
| that Enchanter does quite a lot with a sparely written plot and its | |
| few puzzles, and the cliched aspect doesn't prevent the story from | |
| being effective. | |
| On the whole, Enchanter works, and while there are problems--I wish | |
| the authors had rethought the insistence on hunger, thirst and sleep, | |
| for example--this is an example of one of Infocom's more solid early | |
| efforts. Though it takes a very different approach to its fantasy | |
| element than does Zork I, it's no less entertaining for that. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Second April <dns361 SP@G merle.acns.nwu.edu> | |
| NAME: Sorcerer | |
| AUTHOR: Steve Meretzky | |
| E-MAIL: Good question | |
| DATE: 1984 | |
| PARSER: Infocom standard | |
| SUPPORTS: Infocom ports | |
| AVAILABILITY: Commerical | |
| URL: N/A | |
| VERSION: Release 15 | |
| RATING: | |
| ATMOSPHERE: A bit inconsistent (1.2) GAMEPLAY: Very strong (1.7) | |
| WRITING: At times too jokey (1.5) PLOT: Save-the-world (1.3) | |
| CHARACTERS: Few, not central (1.1) PUZZLES: Good, two excellent (1.8) | |
| MISC: Style doesn't work as well as it might, but entertaining and | |
| satisfying, with lots of very funny Easter eggs (1.3) | |
| OVERALL: 7.0 | |
| Sorcerer, the second entry in the Enchanter trilogy, begins | |
| arrestingly enough... | |
| You are in a strange logation, but you cannot remember how you got | |
| here. Everything is hazy, as though viewed through a gauze... | |
| Twisted Forest | |
| You are on a path through a blighted forest. The trees are sickly, | |
| and there is no undergrowth at all. . One tree here looks | |
| climbable. The path, which ends here, continues to the northeast. | |
| A hellhound is racing straight toward you, its open jaws | |
| displaying rows of razor-sharp teeth. | |
| That may be the best hook of any of Infocom's games--no desultory | |
| "west of a white house" here. Escaping from the hellhound leads to a | |
| attack of locusts, a crumbling riverbank, a pit of snakes, a rotted | |
| drawbridge...the danger comes thick and fast. Unfortunately, it soon | |
| turns out that the landscape in question is a dream--a dream that | |
| exactly predicts the middle of the game, true, but still just a dream | |
| and unrelated to one's performance in the game. I spent quite a while | |
| trying to figure out what exactly I was supposed to be doing in that | |
| dream, and only grudgingly concluded that it was a long, elaborate red | |
| herring. | |
| Steve Meretzky is among Sorcerer's authors, and his influence is | |
| clear: his earlier Planetfall was crammed with red herrings, and the | |
| jokey approach to NPCs (distinctly different from the other two | |
| entries in the series) also echoes the earlier game. The role of red | |
| herrings in a game is a matter of taste--though this reviewer doesn't | |
| care for it, he can't unequivocally declare that a large percentage of | |
| irrelevant objects and locations makes for a bad game. He can, | |
| however, warn the potential Sorcerer player to set aside the "anything | |
| this complex must be useful somehow" assumption and not to spend too | |
| long on any given problem or object, since chances are good that | |
| Meretzky is up to his old tricks. (Lord knows, I spent hours in some | |
| of those areas that proved irrelevant, trying to figure out why they | |
| were in the game.) | |
| Also notable in Sorcerer is the introduction of magic potions, absent | |
| in Enchanter and Spellbreaker--though, typically, only some of the | |
| potions that you find are relevant. Some of the potions have effects | |
| that are limited in duration, and one is permanent (it still seems to | |
| be in effect in Spellbreaker, in fact)...and Meretzky's goofball side | |
| is evident in the responses when you drink one potion while the | |
| effects of another are still ongoing--e.g., "Uh oh. Your left ear | |
| turned into a poisonous toad and ate your brain." Still, even if not | |
| especially innovative, the addition of magic potions give the magic | |
| another dimension. | |
| Meretzky's forte as a writer is humor, and Sorcerer's genre is | |
| wizardry/fantasy, not humor--and though the writing is far from | |
| disappointing, the atmosphere hardly approaches that of Dave Lebling's | |
| or Brian Moriarty's games. Too often, Meretzky is content to tell | |
| rather than show the player what to think--for example, in reading | |
| Belboz's journal at the beginning of the game: | |
| "The last three entries are strange and frightening, written in a hand | |
| quite different from that of Belboz, and in a language totally | |
| unfamiliar to you." | |
| Yes, fine, we can understand what has happened--but how more | |
| skillfully might the sense of unease have been heightened by dropping | |
| the "unfamiliar" part and actually reading bits from the journal, bits | |
| that imply something sinister! Compare the discovery of the | |
| alterations to your paper at the beginning of Lurking Horror; Lebling | |
| gives us all sorts of suggestive little tidbits ("there is something | |
| about a 'summoning,' or a 'visitor'...") in order to let our | |
| imagination roam. On the whole, there is little mood to Sorcerer; the | |
| dangers are so often vaguely ludicrous that it is hard to generate | |
| much in the way of tension. (Killer vines? A slot machine that crushes | |
| you with coins?) There are many, many locations like this: | |
| Highway | |
| This is a wide road winding away to the east and west, perhaps a | |
| relic of the Great Underground Empire you read about in history | |
| class. A passage leads up to the north. | |
| This could be in any game; the "history class" reference is typical of | |
| Meretzky in the way it shatters the description. That approach works | |
| brilliantly in Leather Goddesses and in other humorous games, but | |
| Sorcerer is not as free for humor in that respect, and contrasted with | |
| the skillful atmosphere in the rest of the series, the writing in | |
| Sorcerer feels a bit flat. (The lack of atmosphere is illustrated by | |
| the inclusion of the amusement park--how strange and inappropriate | |
| would that have felt in Enchanter or Spellbreaker?) Though the | |
| abandoned equipment and empty rooms in Planetfall became wearying, | |
| they did create a world of sorts; the world of Sorcerer feels | |
| thoroughly incoherent. | |
| All that said, though, there is much in Sorcerer to enjoy, including | |
| two of the better puzzles in the Infocom library. I enjoyed the glass | |
| maze immensely, even if it required considerable trial and error (and | |
| I never thought to take the easier solution); the idea felt so | |
| innovative that I was willing to put up with the aggravation. And the | |
| coal mine/time paradox puzzle is justly famous, and well worth the | |
| effort required to reach it; though I've knocked Meretzky's writing, I | |
| must admit that the tension I felt when trying to get through the mine | |
| in time was considerable. I don't particularly approve of the | |
| inclusion of the maze in the coal mine--it felt like an artificial way | |
| to make the puzzle more difficult--but the nature of the puzzle itself | |
| was so absorbing that I could forgive that. (And there's something | |
| vastly entertaining about being told "You cease to exist!...If you had | |
| continued to exist, your score would have been..." when you violate | |
| the confines of the loop.) As a mind-bender, the coal mine puzzle is | |
| one of the best--consider sometime where the knowledge of the | |
| combination originated--and the feel of ultimately getting through is | |
| indeed rewarding. (I always felt like the character's need for sleep | |
| once that puzzle is completed is intended to mirror one's own relief | |
| at being out of danger at last.) Minor annoyances--the maze, | |
| Meretzky's insistence on "Wheeeee!" in the coal chute--aside, this | |
| puzzle is clearly the highlight of the game (it makes the final few | |
| puzzles--fairly "duh"-worthy puzzles--feel wildly anticlimactic, | |
| though). Sorcerer is not especially hard--it was rated "advanced" | |
| under the rating system at the time, but there are few if any | |
| genuinely difficult puzzles (though figuring out what to solve takes a | |
| good deal of energy, of course). | |
| For fans of Enchanter, Sorcerer is worth playing; it continues the | |
| inventive use of magic to solve puzzles, and there is a genuine sense | |
| of accomplishment at the end. Though, particularly in the writing, it | |
| doesn't quite equal the standard set by Enchanter, it is well worth | |
| the time of any fantasy-game enthusiast. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Second April <dns361 SP@G merle.acns.nwu.edu> | |
| NAME: Spellbreaker | |
| AUTHOR: Dave Lebling | |
| E-MAIL: I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you | |
| DATE: 1985 | |
| PARSER: Infocom standard | |
| SUPPORTS: Infocom ports | |
| AVAILABILITY: Commerical | |
| URL: N/A | |
| VERSION: Release 87 | |
| RATING: | |
| ATMOSPHERE: Rich, surreal (1.8) GAMEPLAY: Outstanding (1.8) | |
| WRITING: Excellent (1.9) PLOT: Absorbing (1.9) | |
| CHARACTERS: Few, strange (1.6) PUZZLES: Good, but very hard (1.9) | |
| MISC: Absorbing in way that belies plot, humorous, diverse settings, | |
| slightly disappointing ending (1.8) | |
| OVERALL: 9.2 | |
| The culmination of Infocom's Enchanter trilogy came in 1985 with | |
| Spellbreaker, and quite a culmination it was; the final installment in | |
| the trilogy was far harder than the previous two, and far more | |
| satisfying as a game. Authored by Dave Lebling (who chose to leave his | |
| personal insignia in a thoroughly unlikely -- and slightly macabre -- | |
| place in the game), Spellbreaker puts the player at the head of the | |
| Circle of Enchanters at a moment when magic itself appears to be on | |
| the wane -- a plot borrowed from Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea Trilogy, to | |
| be sure, but no less compelling for that. Gone is the semi-slapstick | |
| feel of Sorcerer -- the humor is subtler here -- but the mood here is | |
| also darker and lonelier; you encounter some humans along the way, but | |
| many sections of the game feel deserted -- at least, no longer | |
| populated by humans -- and Lebling's talent for atmosphere is | |
| evident. One room description begins this way: | |
| This is a ruined temple to a forgotten god. Black basalt | |
| pillars reach to the ceiling, but some are broken and lie in | |
| huge fragments on the ground. The air is stale and filled | |
| with the odor of decay. Bats roost in the rafters, the only | |
| remaining worshippers. | |
| Though the plot of the game amounts to, as with the first two entries, | |
| "save the world from an evil force through your use of magic", there | |
| is far more going on here -- and the plot is much more integrated into | |
| the game as a whole. The initial development/hook, though very | |
| different from the device in Sorcerer, has considerable shock value -- | |
| and, incidentally, serves to draw the player into the story rather | |
| than sounding a false alarm. Learning the "rules" of the game takes | |
| some time, and there are numerous opportunities to make the game | |
| unwinnable, many more than in Enchanter or Sorcerer (including one | |
| juxtaposition early in the game that seems like a "pull-my-finger" | |
| joke of sorts) -- but the unconventional nature of the story makes | |
| every new development a new discovery in a way that cannot be said of | |
| your average collect-the-treasure cave quest. | |
| Spellbreaker was given an "Expert" difficulty rating under the system | |
| at the time, a label only somewhat accurate. The bulk of the game's | |
| puzzles are fairly standard use-the-proper-spell affairs, though some, | |
| naturally, rely on wits rather than magic -- but up until nearly the | |
| end, Spellbreaker could just as well be an "Advanced" game. The last | |
| few puzzles, though -- certainly two of the last three, and a few | |
| others from near the end as well -- are vastly more difficult; I will | |
| candidly admit that I needed a substantial push. (In fact, I didn't | |
| even get the premise of one of them without assistance -- one that | |
| amounts to a variation on a mathematical problem -- and I suspect I | |
| was not alone in that respect.) That factor increases the frustration | |
| level of Spellbreaker considerably; intuitive leaps are needed at the | |
| end that were simply not necessary earlier, and the unwary player | |
| might well assume he or she has missed something that would make the | |
| last few puzzles less baffling. | |
| It should also be said that, considering the intricacy of the | |
| puzzle-solving required to get there, the great climactic ending is | |
| something of a letdown -- one short paragraph, in effect, hardly | |
| longer or more resounding than any of the many deaths one can die. The | |
| nature of the ultimate ending does, in a way, explain that -- but it | |
| still feels like a letdown (I wondered for a while whether there was | |
| another, "better" ending).Despite frustration, though, there is an | |
| elegance to many of Spellbreaker's puzzles that the player can only | |
| admire; Lebling manages to shake the feel of "put the octagonal key in | |
| the octagonal hole" or "give the food to the animal blocking the door" | |
| that plagues many games. (The implications of one puzzle in particular | |
| are either completely absurd or supremely logical -- either way, they | |
| might give you a headache trying to sort it out.) | |
| In a sense, the puzzles reflect the plot -- on occasions, magic ceases | |
| to help the player at all; there are areas and situations where no | |
| amount of spellcasting will set things right, a subversion of the | |
| "spell for every occasion" feel of the first two games. In other | |
| instances, though, the player's magical powers circumvent the rules of | |
| the game's universe in ways that the first two games (in the temple | |
| and the coal mine, respectively) had only hinted at. The effect is | |
| occasionally a bit dizzying -- in that the geography is largely | |
| non-contiguous, the player jumps between realms and situations, and | |
| types of dilemmas, rather abruptly -- but the final confrontation ties | |
| things together, for the most part. | |
| Spellbreaker's plot has been described, and criticized, as "narrow" | |
| and "linear," which usually means that the amount of exploration | |
| possible before the player is confronted with another puzzle is small | |
| -- and hence that only one or two puzzles are available at a given | |
| time. Critics of such an approach claim that it makes a game too easy | |
| -- but Spellbreaker should give the lie to that; even though the | |
| difficulty increases toward the end, as noted, there are few puzzles | |
| that could be considered obvious. Moreover, after the first few | |
| puzzles are solved, the game opens up considerably, to the extent that | |
| it is often possible to have five or six unsolved puzzles at | |
| hand. (And there are also a few dummy puzzles, or what seemed so to | |
| me, and a few that require specific tools that don't come until well | |
| after the problems are first encountered.) | |
| Granted, the freedom of the player is limited; the amount of variation | |
| in a winning game of Spellbreaker is minimal (as in, there are only a | |
| few puzzles or tasks whose order of solving or accomplishment can move | |
| around -- and not very far, at that -- whereas very few of the puzzles | |
| in Sorcerer, say, were in sequence) -- but that is part of why the | |
| game was, in fact, rated "Expert"; of the several puzzles available | |
| for head-scratching over at any given moment in Spellbreaker, it is | |
| likely that only one will be solvable. The feel of the game lends to | |
| the sense of narrowness, true -- for the uninitiated, the player | |
| follows a trail of sorts of mysterious cubes that transport him/her | |
| between a series of apparently disconnected locations, and the surface | |
| area that each cube provides to explore is limited to one or two rooms | |
| in a few cases. But it is possible to have several cubes whose | |
| possibilities are not fully explored at any given time -- one cube, by | |
| my count, has six distinct puzzles associated with it. The point is | |
| that Spellbreaker avoids the usual problems associated with linearity | |
| (in a way that, say, the recent "Time: all things..." does not), and | |
| provides one important advantage inherent in narrow games -- the sense | |
| of a storyline that the player discovers/is drawn into, rather than a | |
| bunch of problems to solve. (The cubes, suffice it to say, have a | |
| significance beyond their ability to transport you hither and yon -- | |
| and once you realize that significance, the plot of the game becomes | |
| much more intriguing.) | |
| The writing, as in most Lebling games, is controlled and skillful, all | |
| the more so considering the nature of the game's world -- the sheer | |
| surreality of your surroundings as the game progresses. (Try to | |
| picture this scene, for example: | |
| This place is odd indeed. Nothing that you look at is what it | |
| seems. If you look at something carefully enough it turns out to | |
| be something entirely different. The room is cluttered with | |
| objects and obviously hasn't been cleaned in a long time. The | |
| floor is overgrown with grass and weeds, and rabbits have chewed | |
| them. There are bird nests around the ceiling and droppings here | |
| and there. A very untidy and unsettling place. Much of the walls, | |
| ceiling and floor is covered in mirrors. There are empty, | |
| mirrorless square areas at north and south and a round black | |
| emptiness to the east. | |
| If you can visualize that scene at all, your imagination is better | |
| than mine.) There are, of course, defensible reasons why Lebling chose | |
| to have that particular room appear that particular way -- but it is | |
| also true that the atmosphere is sometimes more baffling than | |
| evocative of anything in particular. But though the nature of your | |
| travels allows Lebling to give you scenes like this... | |
| Light Room | |
| This place is bright and glaring. The very materials of which it | |
| is made blaze with light so bright that their forms are | |
| obscured. There are glowing archways to the west and south. | |
| ...or this... | |
| No Place | |
| There is nothing here. You are here, but there is no here where | |
| you are. You see nothing. Your senses are vainly trying to find | |
| something, anything to work on. You can know your body is there, | |
| but you can't truly sense it to confirm the suspicion. Your mind | |
| is alternately drawn in three "directions" (or at least what seem | |
| like directions): east, west and south. There is something | |
| slightly different about the nothing in those directions. | |
| ...the sense that the author is Telling You A Big Cosmic Important | |
| Tale is mostly absent, thankfully, and the game manages to take you | |
| into realms several degrees removed from the average landscape without | |
| losing the feel of the adventure-game romp, no small feat. Those who | |
| have finished the game might do well to consider the nature of what | |
| Spellbreaker was purporting to describe, and the restraint with which | |
| Lebling carries it out; that much of the game seems prosaic is, in a | |
| way, high praise. The humor in the game is essential to its | |
| enjoyability, in that respect -- in the plain scene, notably, in the | |
| merchant's patter, and in the very nature of the idol puzzle -- and | |
| the absurdities (and acknowledgment of same) help keep the game from | |
| becoming portentous. | |
| Spellbreaker and Trinity have been mentioned in the same breath, and | |
| for good reason -- their plots have much in common, and there is a | |
| deft interaction between puzzles and story in each game that makes | |
| them just as absorbing for the narrative as for the challenge of the | |
| puzzles. A resounding conclusion to a somewhat uneven series, | |
| Spellbreaker deserves to be considered one of Infocom's very best. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| From: Robb Sherwin (robb_sherwin SP@G juno.com) | |
| NAME: Knight Orc | |
| AUTHOR: Level 9 Computing | |
| E-MAIL: | |
| DATE: 1987 | |
| PARSER: name unknown, excellent | |
| SUPPORTS: DOS, , Amiga, ST, C64, Apple, Amstrad | |
| AVAILABILITY: Commercial | |
| URL: N/A (ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/wadster/level9art.htm) | |
| VERSION: IBM PC | |
| Level 9 released "Knight Orc" in July of 1987 and soon thereafter | |
| changed what I felt entertainment software could be. While Knight Orc | |
| falls short of becoming a classic on the merits of pure art through | |
| this medium (unlike, say, "Sentinel" or "The Space Under The Window") | |
| it nonetheless does hold up eleven years later due to the strength of | |
| its atmosphere, gameplay and sheer indifference it shows to the | |
| player. | |
| Knight Orc was one of the first games to give a voice to a "villain." | |
| The player assumes the role of an orc named Grindleguts, abandoned by | |
| his buddies after a night of hard drinking. The orcs, caught in an | |
| inebriated stupor by a pack of foppish human knights, arrange for a | |
| "Contest of Champions" to take place in the morning. Which is all well | |
| and good, as they have no plans on sticking around for it. The orcs | |
| tie Grindleguts (completely passed out and in no position to argue) to | |
| a horse and give him a lance. The knights, bound by their code can do | |
| nothing but watch as the roving evil horde skulks off into the | |
| darkness. Much like the Baltimore Colts leaving for Indianapolis, | |
| really. The orcs then destroy the bridge and make good on their | |
| escape. | |
| (The backstory is related in a novella that accompanies the game | |
| entitled _The Sign of the Orc_ by Peter McBride. Having purchased | |
| hundreds of computer games throughout my life I maintain to this day | |
| that the story is the finest ever to accompany a piece of computer | |
| software. It's very clever and funny and somehow manages to convey | |
| warmth and stunning brutality all within paragraphs of one another.) | |
| The interface to Knight Orc is much like that of the typical Magnetic | |
| Scrolls wares. Text dominates the bottom of the display, while painted | |
| visuals (that unfortunately lost quite a bit in digitization on my IBM | |
| version) are displayed on top. While the PC version did not allow | |
| manipulation of the image size, much more text is present than on the | |
| default settings for the Magnetic Scrolls games. Knight Orc's parser | |
| is excellent -- objects can be located using a FIND command -- | |
| regardless of whether or not you have seen them (this does not work | |
| for special items you will learn about, and the command will not do | |
| any problem solving for you). It will understand virtually anything | |
| you throw at it, or give you helpful reasons why it doesn't. | |
| So, then. You're an orc trapped in human country. While attempting to | |
| apick up some rope to cross the river you will encounter the first bit | |
| of magic the game has to offer: the characters. I have never witnessed | |
| a greater collection of thugs, losers, egomaniacs and self-important | |
| motos than I have in this game. The descriptions offered by the | |
| parser as to the wandering characters are cruel -- | |
| The gripper: "he is a squinty, rat-like youth, with an orcish squint." | |
| Kris the ant-warrior: "she is a muscle-bound champion, armoured with | |
| plates of giant ant cuticle and wearing a strange ant-head helm. She | |
| looks a lot like an ogre-sized fried roach." | |
| Denzyl: "he is a right gullible and stupid-looking person." | |
| Fungus the boggit-man: "he is a lanky, twitchy-fingered, | |
| nicotine-addict." | |
| -- but a riot. Efffing genius. | |
| Furthermore, there are plenty of hapless denizens just waiting to have | |
| horrible things happen to them. I offer the following story as to why | |
| this game works so well: During one stretch on the first episode I was | |
| being identified as an orc rather easily. When a character recognizes | |
| an orc, her or she will attack. While getting thumped by the Green | |
| Knight (arguably the most powerful character in the episode till you | |
| solve his puzzle), a do-nothing slacker named "Sam the Grey Earl" | |
| jumps into the fray for a bit. After dying, I restored the game. I | |
| take a different route around, and Sam follows me for a little bit | |
| when I happen upon a cemetery. For whatever reason, Sam is lapping | |
| along like a puppy. I find the vampire for the first time, who offers | |
| me a spell in return for a victim. And guess who just happens to walk | |
| into the tomb? Sam is sucked down just for being in the wrong place | |
| at the wrong time and because the little bastard couldn't leave me | |
| alone he is slain. And I get the spell. Justice. Absolute justice. | |
| (Such an event is completely impossible to reproduce. The denizens in | |
| the game seem to have some "goals," like picking up treasure and | |
| killing orcs, but while Sam never followed me again I can not say that | |
| the characters in the game really move in completely random patterns. | |
| Somehow, Level 9 were able to create an environment filled with rich | |
| characters leading their own lives all while not creating an | |
| impression of headless chickens running around in a maze. ) | |
| The last two episodes of Knight Orc are interchangeable -- without | |
| giving away too much, the end game involves a story of revenge and | |
| escape against those that tormented you -- and yet, reading the | |
| novella and playing the first episode does not begin to prepare | |
| you. (I should note that it ties into Level 9's earlier "Silicon | |
| Dreams" trilogy. Very, very nice.) | |
| The puzzles, jokes, characters and parser are all up to par with the | |
| best that Infocom had to offer. I suspect that this game did not | |
| receive the props that it should have due to its subject manner -- | |
| playing the "bad guy" didn't really become in style until "Syndicate." | |
| While Grindleguts is a greedy, violent, angry little pit he is also a | |
| character worthy of our respect. Especially among the piles of spods | |
| he's running around with. I suspect that the background characters in | |
| Knight Orc are set to mirror the kind of individuals we (the gaming | |
| community) can't -- in theory -- stand or relate to in real | |
| life. Jocks, Girls, urchins, soldiers... one can make the argument | |
| that when they are in our world (a game) they should be the | |
| outsiders. Knight Orc describes them with as much distaste as we | |
| normally get in "their" environments. Bloody fabulous. | |
| If you take the time to enjoy this game -- to smell the roses -- | |
| Knight Orc will return your attention with an incredible amount of | |
| pleasure. If Knight Orc were a woman, it would be the very cute, very | |
| sarcastic, yet seemingly shallow girl who melts like butter for you | |
| when you steer the pillow talk completely in her direction... and you | |
| then fall in love with her depth. | |
| REVIEWS 3: RISQUE GAMES -------------------------------------------------- | |
| { Editor's note: The following review is of a game which will possibly | |
| be rather offensive to many people. As with all SPAG reviews, the views | |
| expressed in the review are those of the reviewer. } | |
| From: Joe DeRouen (jderouen SP@G sparkynet.com) | |
| Name: Blow Job Drifter | |
| Author: Big Al | |
| Email: al_biggone SP@G hotmail.com | |
| Date: 1998 | |
| Parser: Inform | |
| Availability: Freeware (GMD) | |
| URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/incoming/if-archive/bj.z5 | |
| Version: Release 3.0 | |
| Plot: Who needs plot? (1.0) | |
| Atmosphere: Cinemax soft porn (1.0) | |
| Writing: Better than most in the genre (1.2) | |
| Game play: Way too much "guess the verb" (0.6) | |
| Characters: Typical Penthouse Forum fare (1.0) | |
| Puzzles: A good mix (1.2) | |
| Overall: Cheesy, but fun nevertheless (1.1) | |
| Blow Job Drifter. The name doesn't automatically conjure up great | |
| images of Interactive Fiction, does it? This is definitely an "adult" | |
| text adventure, but just because it falls into that category doesn't | |
| necessarily make it a bad or sloppily done game. | |
| The object of the game, if you haven't already guessed, is to "score" | |
| orally (and we're not talking about giving speeches here, buddy) with | |
| as many different women as you can. | |
| The game starts out in your apartment. You're naked and, for some | |
| reason that I've yet to fathom, you have absolutely nothing in your | |
| home to wear. Your first mission, then, is to find some clothes. | |
| After you've managed that fairly simple task, the whole city (and | |
| beyond) awaits your lecherous advances. There are over a dozen | |
| different female targets in BJ Drifter. Because the game is fairly | |
| linear, however, you'll have to go through most of them one by one. | |
| Despite way, way, way too many instances of "guess the verb", the game | |
| is a fun play. BJ Drifter doesn't take itself too seriously and thus | |
| serves as a parody of sorts to the more "serious" adult IF out there. | |
| The writing is surprisingly well done, the puzzles clever if a bit | |
| off- the-wall (when you get to the fish stuck in the woman's mouth, | |
| you'll know what I mean,) and the sex scenes . . . well, those you'll | |
| have to judge for yourself. But aside from being obviously misogynist | |
| (the game is from a male point of view, after all) they're pretty | |
| darned good. | |
| This is the first adult IF game I've played in years. In fact, I | |
| think my last such game was something called "Farmer's Daughter", | |
| which I played on the Commodore 128 way back in the mid-eighties. BJ | |
| Drifter is heads (and, dare I say it, tails) above that one, and | |
| manages to be fun and "adult" without being too offensive. Of course, | |
| if you're easily offended, you're probably better off staying away | |
| from BJ Drifter. For the rest of us, though, it's a great Sunday | |
| afternoon diversion that just may (bad pun alert!) keep you up all | |
| night. | |
| READER'S SCOREBOARD --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| As mentioned before, the scoreboard is now up to date! More ratings | |
| are welcome, especially for the games with a small number in the | |
| "#Sc." column. | |
| 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 Issue Notes: | |
| ==== ====== === === ==== ============== | |
| Aayela 8.6 1.6 1.7 1 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Adventure (all variants) 6.6 0.7 1.0 7 8 F_INF_TAD_ETC_GMD | |
| Adventureland 4.0 0.5 1.5 1 F_GMD | |
| Adv. of Elizabeth Highe 3.1 0.5 0.3 2 5 F_AGT | |
| Afternoon Visit 4.1 1.0 0.8 1 | |
| Alien Abduction? 7.9 1.7 1.7 1 | |
| All Quiet...Library 4.7 0.8 0.7 4 7 F_INF_GMD | |
| Amnesia 7.8 1.5 1.7 2 9 C_AP_I_64 | |
| Another...No Beer 2.4 0.2 0.8 2 4 S10_IBM_GMD | |
| Arthur: Excalibur 8.0 1.3 1.6 4 4,14C_INF | |
| Awakened 7.7 1.7 1.6 1 | |
| Awe-Chasm 2.4 0.3 0.6 1 8 S?_IBM_ST | |
| Babel 8.2 1.8 1.6 1 | |
| Balances 6.5 0.9 1.4 4 6 F_INF_GMD | |
| Ballyhoo 7.7 1.8 1.5 4 4 C_INF | |
| Beyond the Tesseract 3.7 0.1 0.6 1 6 F_I_GMD | |
| Beyond Zork 8.1 1.6 1.9 4 5 C_INF | |
| BJ Drifter 7.3 1.5 1.5 1 | |
| Border Zone 7.3 1.4 1.4 6 4 C_INF | |
| Broken String 3.1 0.5 0.6 1 x F_TADS_GMD | |
| BSE 6.6 1.0 1.0 1 | |
| Bunny 6.6 1.0 1.4 1 | |
| Bureaucracy 7.5 1.6 1.3 6 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 | |
| Castle Elsinore 5.3 1.0 1.2 1 | |
| Change in the Weather 7.2 0.9 1.4 6 7, 14 F_INF_GMD | |
| Chicken under Window 6.9 0.0 0.0 1 | |
| Christminster 8.4 1.7 1.6 5 F_INF_GMD | |
| Corruption 7.8 1.6 1.1 3 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 8.4 1.3 1.7 9 2 F_INF_GMD | |
| Cutthroats 6.4 1.4 1.2 5 1 C_INF | |
| Dampcamp 6.0 1.0 1.4 1 | |
| Deadline 6.9 1.2 1.3 6 x C_INF | |
| Delusions 8.4 1.8 1.6 1 | |
| Deep Space Drifter 5.5 1.4 1 3 S15_TAD_GMD | |
| Delusions 7.4 1.3 1.5 2 14F_INF_GMD | |
| Demon's Tomb 7.4 1.2 1.1 2 9 C_I | |
| Detective 1.0 0.0 0.0 5 4,5 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Detective-MST3K 6.1 0.8 0.1 4 7,8 F_INF_GMD | |
| Ditch Day Drifter 7.1 1.2 1.6 1 2 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Dungeon 7.4 1.5 1.6 1 F_GMD | |
| Dungeon Adventure 6.8 1.3 1.6 1 4 F_SEE REVIEW | |
| Dungeon of Dunjin 5.8 0.7 1.4 3 3, 14 S20_IBM_MAC_GMD | |
| Edifice 7.7 1.6 1.7 2 | |
| Electrabot 0.7 0.0 0.0 1 5 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Emy Discovers Life 4.1 1.0 1.0 1 | |
| Enchanter 7.1 0.9 1.4 6 2 C_INF | |
| Enhanced 5.0 1.3 1.3 1 2 S10_TAD_GMD | |
| Eric the Unready 6.9 1.5 1.5 2 x C_I | |
| Everybody Loves a Parade 7.3 1.2 1.3 1 | |
| Fable 2.0 0.2 0.1 1 6 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Fear 7.6 1.5 1.6 1 F_GMD | |
| Firebird 8.1 1.7 1.6 1 | |
| Fish 7.6 1.2 1.7 3 x C_I | |
| Foggywood Hijinx 7.6 1.7 1.7 1 | |
| Forbidden Castle 4.8 0.6 0.5 1 x C_AP | |
| Frenetic Five 5.1 1.2 0.2 1 | |
| Friday Afternoon 6.3 1.4 1.2 1 13 F_INF_GMD | |
| Frobozz Magic Support 8.0 1.6 1.7 1 | |
| Gateway 7.5 1.6 1.5 1 x C_I | |
| Glowgrass 7.4 1.6 1.5 2 13 F_INF_GMD | |
| Great Archaelog. Race 6.5 1.0 1.5 1 3 S20_TAD_GMD | |
| Guardians of Infinity 8.5 1.3 1 9 C_I | |
| Guild of Thieves 7.3 1.2 1.6 3 x C_I | |
| Gumshoe 6.3 1.3 1.1 2 9 F_INF_GMD | |
| Hitchhiker's Guide 7.6 1.4 1.5 8 5 C_INF | |
| Hollywood Hijinx 6.4 0.9 1.6 7 x C_INF | |
| Horror30.zip 3.7 0.3 0.7 2 3 S20_IBM_GMD | |
| Horror of Rylvania 7.7 1 1 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Humbug 7.0 1.7 1.5 2 x F_GMD | |
| Ice Princess 6.2 1.1 1.6 1 | |
| Infidel 6.9 0.0 1.4 9 1,2 C_INF | |
| Inhumane 3.6 0.2 0.7 1 9 F_INF_GMD | |
| I-0: Jailbait... 8.0 1.7 1.3 4 F_INF_GMD | |
| Jacaranda Jim 7.0 1 x F_GMD | |
| Jeweled Arena 8.0 1.5 1.5 1 x ? | |
| Jigsaw 7.7 1.3 1.4 6 8,9 F_INF_GMD | |
| Jinxter 6.4 1.1 1.3 2 x C_I | |
| John's Fire Witch 7.1 1.1 1.6 6 4 S6_TADS_GMD | |
| Journey 7.8 1.6 1.3 3 5 C_INF | |
| Jouney Into Xanth 5.0 1.3 1.2 1 8 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Kissing the Buddha's... 8.1 2.0 1.2 1 | |
| Klaustrophobia 6.7 1.2 1.3 5 1 S15_AGT_GMD | |
| Leather Goddesses 7.1 1.3 1.5 8 4 C_INF | |
| Legend Lives! 8.9 0.9 1.6 2 5 F_TADS_GMD | |
| Lessen of the Tortoise 8.1 1.6 1.6 1 F_TADS_GMD | |
| Lethe Flow Phoenix 6.8 1.4 1.5 3 9 F_TADS_GMD | |
| Light: Shelby's Addendum 8.3 1.8 0.9 2 9 S?_TADS_GMD | |
| Lists and Lists 7.5 1.5 1.8 1 | |
| Losing Your Grip 8.2 1.3 1.4 2 14S_TADS_GMD | |
| Lost New York 8.2 1.6 1.6 1 | |
| Lurking Horror 7.3 1.4 1.4 10 1,3 C_INF | |
| MacWesleyan / 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 4.3 0.7 1.1 2 F_INF_GMD | |
| Matter of Time 1.4 0.3 1.4 1 14F_ALAN_GMD | |
| Meteor...Sherbet 8.5 1.6 1.9 1 F_INF_GMD | |
| Mind Electric 5.1 0.6 0.8 3 7,8 F_INF_GMD | |
| Mind Forever Voyaging 8.4 1.3 0.8 7 5 C_INF | |
| Moist 8.4 1.7 1.6 1 | |
| Moonmist 5.7 1.2 1.0 10 1 C_INF | |
| Mop & Murder 5.0 0.9 1.0 2 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 | |
| New Day 5.5 1.3 0.9 1 13 F_INF_GMD | |
| Night at Museum Forev 4.2 0.3 1.0 4 7,8 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Nord and Bert 6.1 0.8 1.3 4 4 C_INF | |
| Odieus...Flingshot 3.3 0.4 0.7 2 5 F_INF_GMD | |
| One Hand Clapping 6.9 1.2 1.4 3 5 F_ADVSYS_GMD | |
| One That Got Away 6.7 1.3 1.2 3 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 6.5 1.0 1.2 1 x C_I_AP_64 | |
| PC University: See MacWesleyan | |
| Perseus & Andromeda 3.4 0.3 1.0 1 x ? | |
| Phred Phontious...Pizza 5.2 0.8 1.3 1 19 F_INF_GMD | |
| Planetfall 7.4 1.6 1.5 9 4 C_INF | |
| Plundered Hearts 7.2 1.3 1.1 5 4 C_INF | |
| Pyramids of Mars 6.0 1.2 1.2 1 | |
| Quarterstaff 6.1 1.3 0.6 1 9 C_M | |
| Ralph 7.3 1.7 1.5 1 | |
| Reruns 5.2 1.2 1.2 1 | |
| 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 1.2 0.9 6 4 C_INF | |
| Shades of Grey 8.0 1.3 1.4 4 1,2 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Sherlock 7.3 1.4 1.4 3 4 C_INF | |
| She's Got a Thing... 7.8 1.8 1.8 2 13 F_INF | |
| Shogun 7.1 1.5 0.5 1 4 C_INF | |
| Sins against Mimesis 7.7 1.7 1.6 1 | |
| Sir Ramic Hobbs 5.0 1.0 1.5 1 6 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Small World 5.9 1.4 0.9 1 | |
| So Far 8.6 1.5 1.8 2 F_INF_GMD | |
| Sorcerer 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 1.6 0.4 0.3 5 3 S60_AGT_GMD | |
| Space under Window 7.3 0.0 0.0 1 | |
| Spellbreaker 8.3 1.2 1.8 5 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 | |
| Spider and Web 8.3 1.7 1.6 2 14F_INF_GMD | |
| SpiritWrak 6.7 1.3 1.1 2 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 | |
| Stiffy - MiSTing 4.2 0.1 0.1 1 | |
| Sunset Over Savannah 8.3 1.3 1.5 1 13 F_INF_GMD | |
| Suspect 5.8 1.2 1.0 3 4 C_INF | |
| Suspended 7.2 1.3 1.3 5 8 C_INF | |
| Tapestry 6.9 1.2 0.7 2 14F_INF_GMD | |
| Tempest 5.6 1.0 0.6 1 13 F_INF_GMD | |
| Theatre 7.0 1.1 1.3 5 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 6.4 1.2 1.3 4 7 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Tossed into Space 3.9 0.2 0.6 1 4 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Travels in Land of Erden 6.2 1.5 1.5 1 | |
| Treasure.zip 0 3 S20_IBM_GMD | |
| Trinity 8.6 1.4 1.7 10 1,2 C_INF | |
| Tryst of Fate 7.1 1.4 1.3 1 | |
| Tube Trouble 3.3 0.5 0.4 1 F_INF_GMD | |
| Uncle Zebulon's Will 7.0 0.8 1.3 7 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 1.2 1.6 7 1 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Unnkulian Unventure 1 7.1 1.2 1.6 6 1,2 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Unnkulian Unventure 2 7.2 1.4 1.5 4 1 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Unnkulian Zero 9.0 1 1 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Veritas 7.9 1.6 1.7 1 | |
| Waystation 5.7 0.7 0.9 2 9 F_TAD_GMD | |
| Wearing the Claw 6.8 1.1 1.1 2 F_INF_GMD | |
| Wedding 8.0 1.7 1.6 1 | |
| Wishbringer 7.4 1.4 1.3 7 5,6 C_INF | |
| Witness 6.9 1.6 1.2 7 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 | |
| Zanfar 2.6 0.2 0.4 1 8 F_AGT_GMD | |
| Zero Sum Game 7.5 1.7 1.2 1 13 F_INF_GMD | |
| Zork 0 6.3 1.1 1.4 5 14C_INF | |
| Zork 1 6.3 0.8 1.5 12 1,2 C_INF | |
| Zork 2 6.5 0.8 1.5 8 1,2 C_INF | |
| Zork 3 6.1 0.7 1.4 6 1,2 C_INF | |
| Zork Undisc. Undergr. 6.5 1.0 1.2 1 14F_INF | |
| -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- | |
| The Top Five: | |
| 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. | |
| Since the last issue, "Trinity" has taken back its first place, and | |
| the previous number 1, "Christminster" has been passed by one more game: Graham Nelson's "Curses". | |
| 1. Trinity 8.6 10 votes | |
| 2. Curses 8.4 9 votes | |
| 3. Christminster 8.4 5 votes | |
| 4. Mind Fvr Voyaging 8.4 7 votes | |
| 5. Spellbreaker 8.3 5 votes | |
| CLOSING REMARKS ------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Following the tradition, I plan to devote an entire issue of SPAG to | |
| this year's Competition entries. So reviews of the Competition games | |
| are very welcome indeed! | |
| Another thing that would be welcome is game ratings for some of the | |
| games which I know are very popular, but which have only been rated | |
| once or twice (or not at all) on the Readers' Scoreboard. Please | |
| remember that a game is only eligible for a place on the Top Five if | |
| it's been rated by at least three persons... | |
| Until the next issue: happy adventuring! | |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Thank you for helping to keep text adventures alive! | |
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