magazines/SPAG/SPAG29

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The  |___/ociety for the |_|romotion of  |_|_|dventure  \___|ames.

                         ISSUE #29

           Edited by Paul O'Brian (obrian SP@G colorado.edu)
                       June 20, 2002

           SPAG Website: http://www.sparkynet.com/spag

SPAG #29 is copyright (c) 2002 by Paul O'Brian.
Authors of reviews and articles retain the rights to their contributions.

All email addresses are spamblocked -- replace the name of our magazine
with the traditional 'at' sign. 

ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ----------------------------------------------------

The SPAG Interview with Emily Short

REVIEWS IN THIS ISSUE -----------------------------------------------------

Depravity Bites
First Things First
The Tale of the Kissing Bandit
Voices

EDITORIAL------------------------------------------------------------------

When I first became the SPAG editor, I quickly realized that there were
two things I didn't like about it. The first is the name. "Society for
the Promotion [or Preservation, if you like] of Adventure Games" sounds
like the name of a club. What it does not sound like is the name of a
webzine. Plus, for me it's a reminder of these amazingly cheesy
commercials that used to be on television, with members of a made-up
"Seventies Preservation Society" hawking copies of K-Tel's latest
compilation of disco hits. Not exactly the image one yearns for. So
okay, maybe nobody ever thinks about what the letters stand for -- they
just use the abbreviation. SPAG. Really, "SPAG"? It's flat-sounding,
unpleasant, and just one letter away from "SPAM." But it's been around
for eight years now, is linked to all over the web, and is even
mentioned on the Masterpieces of Infocom cd. Plus, we've got that nifty
logo. So the name isn't changing, at least not anytime soon.

The other thing I didn't like was the scoreboard. Back when I was just a
SPAG reader rather than its editor, I would never, ever read the
scoreboard. Few things, it seemed to me at the time, could be less
interesting than trying to quantify the appeal of IF into little
categories, then compare wildly disparate games to each other based on
how three or four people rank those categories. In time, though, I
gained a little more appreciation for SPAG scores. I'm a music fan, and
I grew up listening to Casey Kasem's radio show "American Top 40", which
counted down the top singles on Billboard's Pop chart each week. Through
this practice, I acquired a bit of a fascination with the charts: why
some songs rose quickly and others not at all, the heights they
attained, the length of time they held on, the special cachet of
attaining the top spot, and all the fortunes of the other songs as they
arrived, rose, plateaued, perhaps fluctuated a bit, and finally fell.
After a while, it began to seem to me that the SPAG scoreboard had the
appeal of a Billboard chart, but applied to IF. It was rather fun to
watch new games like Varicella and Worlds Apart make their way onto and
off of the top ten, not to mention the (admittedly bogus) ego building
it let me do with my own games. ("Hey, according to this, Wearing The
Claw was better than Zork II!") And not only did the Top 10 listing make
me feel like Casey Kasem, it provided a handy reference point in those
"What are some good games?" discussions that come up all the time on the
newsgroups. 

Of course, there were still problems. Probably the biggest of these was
that there just isn't that much real data in those listings. Unlike the
Billboard charts, which are compiled from tons of different sources, the
SPAG scoreboard tended to average just under four votes per game, with
many scores set by just one or two voters, and lots of games having no
score at all for lack of any votes. The statistics lack much real
meaning, because the sample size surveyed is just far too small.
Moreover, the fact that voters are a self-selecting sample introduces
other problems, such as the guy who sent in scores of 0.0 for every Adam
Cadre game while rating his own "adult" IF game a 10.0. (Yes, I
discarded those scores.) There have been a few people who sent in lots
and lots of votes, trying to proffer a really representative portrait of
their views on IF, but there are many more who just send in a score when
they are moved by a particularly positive or negative reaction to a
game, thus preventing the scores on those games from truly reflecting a
community consensus. Not that I can blame anyone for this. Like I said,
before I was the editor, I had zero interest in the scoreboard, and
certainly never sent in a score myself.

Another of the scoreboard's problems was well-stated by Adam Cadre early
last year:

   SPAG's readers' scoreboard selects for games which attract some
   positive response and, more importantly, little negative response.
   It only takes a few low votes to drag a game off the leaderboard.

In point of fact, it only takes *one* low vote. Scores are calculated
according to this formula:

   (Old score * old # of votes + new score) / new # of votes

Because of that ongoing averaging, an especially low new score can take
a game down several whole numbers, while a high new score doesn't lift
it all that much. Several excellent games have fallen prey to this math,
sunk by just one or two strong dissenters.

Yet another hitch to the scoreboard is its categories: atmosphere,
gameplay, writing, plot, and "wild card". SPAG founder Kevin Wilson was
wise enough to make "puzzles" and "characters" optional categories from
the get-go, not affecting the final tally, but even the remaining
"mandatory" categories are enough to strangely bias the scoreboard's
results. For me, the textbook example of this is Ad Verbum, by Nick
Montfort. Ad Verbum is a tremendously clever game in the Nord And Bert
vein, but does it have much atmosphere? No. Does it have *any* plot? No.
Because it suffers in those categories, its scores are lower than it
deserves. "Gameplay" is another area in which some great IF suffers,
particularly if it's designed to be more literature than game.

Then there's the most telling evidence of all: SPAG's readers are
gradually losing interest in the scoreboard. Every issue I get fewer and
fewer votes; it's been down to a trickle for many months now. Between
that and the shortcomings I mention above, I've just about returned to
the disinterest level I had as a reader, but now I'm the editor, which
means I get to say this: the sun has set on the SPAG scoreboard. This
will be its last issue. It's been around for eight years, has been
useful or fun to some number of people for at least some of that time,
and I'm happy to have been a part of that, but it's time to move on. The
scoreboard will no longer appear in SPAG, though I will leave it on the
web page, minus the voting mechanism, along with a note explaining that
it now serves a historical purpose only. Please note, reviewers: you
should no longer include scores with your submitted reviews.

As Homer Simpson says, when told he's about to eat a poison eclair: "Eh,
I've had a good run."

NEWS ----------------------------------------------------------------------

NEW GAMES
It's been an amazingly fertile period for new game releases. In fact,
during one glorious week in April, we were seeing a new game *every two
days*. Among these fresh arrivals is Savoir-Faire, a feature-length game
by Emily Short, the subject of this issue's SPAG Interview. Another new
epic is Chip Hayes' Tinseltown Blues, a Hollywood-themed game several
years in the making. We've also got works by other promising newcomers
like Matt Rohde and Brandon Allen, as well as an international sprinkle
of non-English games. Behold:
   * Amissville by "Santoonie"
   * Katana by Matt Rohde
   * The Oracle by Brandon Allen
   * Unease by Brendan O'Brien
   * Savoir-Faire by Emily Short
   * Taipan (Z-abuse) ported to Z-machine by D. Jacob Wildstrom
   * The Land Of The Cyclops by Francesco Cordella
   * Der Angstbaum (in German) by Jens Bojaryn
   * Pecos Town (in Italian) by Tommaso Caldarola
   * Tinseltown Blues by Chip Hayes
   * Amishville by Jacob Amman

MOST COMP-LICATED
Along with our slew of new games (in fact, sometimes hand in hand with
it), we've had a slew of mini-comps. We had the IntroComp, which
challenged authors to come up with a compelling *beginning* to an IF
game, in playable form. (As opposed to last year's PrologueComp, whose
entries could simply be text.) First place was taken by Caleb Wilson's
"Hey, Jingo!". Then there were the IFLibraryComp and the Spring Thing,
both of which were experiments in altering the rules of the big Fall
comp, to see what would happen. The IFLibraryComp garnered three
entries, the highest-ranking of which was a game called Familiar, by
Papillon, author of Desert Heat and Triune. (To see the others, check
out http://www.iflibrary.com/default.aspx?pageid=Home&contentid=4.)
There was one entrant to the Spring Thing: the aforementioned Tinseltown
Blues.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF WEB PORTAL
Some of the people who remember actually going to a computer game store
and *buying* text adventures may have fond memories of "Portal", a C64
game by Rob Swigart about a deserted future world. Now those memories
can be relived for free, as Salim Fadhley has reconstructed the entire
thing on the web at http://portal.stodge.org.

NELSON AHOY!
One of the USA's goofiest holidays is Grouhdhog Day, whereupon the
country's attention centers on the burrow of one famous rodent, whose
shadow (or lack thereof) supposedly forecasts the next six weeks'
weather. We have a local equivalent on the IF newsgroups, on or around
April 30, the anniversary of the first release of Inform. Roundabout
this time, Graham Nelson will often make his annual newsgroup
appearance, heralding some exciting new development in the world of
Inform. This year, it was the unveiling of the fully-revamped, super-
helpful new Inform home page, at http://www.inform-fiction.org. This
page has tons of resources for the aspiring or experienced Inform
author, all presented in elegant Nelsonian style. 

BEGINNER'S LUCK
Speaking of nifty new web pages, Frederik Ramsberg has just debuted
IFGuide, a page specifically aimed at newcomers to IF. The page goes
through all the basics, from what IF is, to how to play, what to play,
and where to get it, and it's available at http://IFGuide.ramsberg.net.

STARVATION DIET
You may have noticed that SPAG has lost quite a bit of weight lately.
Don't offer it your compliments, though, because this loss is not a good
thing. Indeed, the event I always prophesied has come to pass: Duncan
Stevens' real life has finally prevented him from submitting SPAG
reviews, at least for this issue anyway. This is his first absence from
the zine since his debut in December of 1997, and as you can can see,
SPAG is a pale shadow of itself without him. This is your chance: step
up to the plate and rescue our beloved SPAG from Kate Moss hell. There's
certainly no dearth of games that need reviewing. Try, for example, one
of these:

SPAG 10 MOST WANTED LIST
========================
1.  Acheton
2.  Bad Machine
3.  Dr. Dumont's Wild P.A.R.T.I.
4.  Familiar
5.  Heroine's Mantle
6.  Katana
7.  The Oracle
8.  Savoir-Faire
9.  Tinseltown Blues
10. Unease

THE SPAG INTERVIEW---------------------------------------------------------

Emily Short has accomplished a prodigious amount in a short time and
shows no sign of stopping. Already a major figure in IF for such works
as Galatea and Metamorphoses, she has since cemented her reputation with
thoughtful articles, technical innovations, and the co-editorship of an
upcoming book on IF Theory, not to mention several other rockin' games.
Somehow, in the midst of all this, she managed to find time to answer a
few questions from us, too.

                               ---===---

   SPAG: When we last checked in with you, you were working on a Ph.D.
   in Classics and annoying your advisors with your passionate interests
   in other areas. How goes the degree, the travel, the cooking, the
   writing, the teaching, and the rest?

ES: I'm almost through my last set of exams; once that's done, I'll be
on dissertation status, which I've been looking forward to for a long
time. It'll still be another two or more years before I can leave with
degree in hand, but from now on I'll have a bit more freedom to pursue
my own set of interests. So that should be fun.

Otherwise, I've been a little too busy, and a little too broke (in the
way of all grad students), to do very much traveling, unfortunately. But
soon. I wound up with a free Alaska Airlines ticket at one point, so
I've been looking up exotic northern places on the web trying to decide
where to go with it.

   SPAG: A corollary question: how in the world do you manage to create
   so much IF work while still maintaining all those other activities?
   Do you have a $70 time machine, or is it just supreme time-management
   prowess?

ES: Ha. No, none of the above. It's more that I tend to neglect stuff
that I should be doing while I work on IF, and then I work rabidly on
academics for a while to make up for it.

This is not a recommended lifestyle for sane people.

   SPAG: Let's talk about your big new release, Savoir-Faire. The game
   is quite traditional in some ways, but it's set in a milieu we
   haven't seen before -- similar to 18th century France, but with the
   addition of magical elements. What inspired this choice of setting?

ES: It was chance more than deliberate thought. Sometimes out of boredom
I sit down and write the opening of a piece of static fiction or the
first room of an IF game with no planning or preparation; this is just
an exercise.

99% of the time the result is dreadful, and the opening room I wrote for
SF isn't an exception to that rule. It had a lot of randomly chosen
objects in it, and was kind of silly. (It was removed from the game long
before the final version.) But it did have some references to a
"Countess," along with Rococo furnishings, because those were the first
things that came into my mind.

In that first writing the furniture was extremely old and falling apart;
I intended it to be antique, and the game to be set in the late 19th or
even 20th century. Once I got serious about the game design, though, I
decided that I preferred to set it in the 1770s or 1780s. This wasn't a
conscious attempt to pick a setting we haven't encountered before; it
was more that the flavor of the game required this decadent yet (from
our point of view) technologically primitive setting.

   SPAG: Why did you choose to write a game with so many "old-school"
   elements, a treasure hunt with a hunger timer, look-under puzzles,
   and other such contrivances?

ES: Two reasons. One, I got into writing IF because of how much I liked
old-school games. I originally learned Inform because I wanted to
emulate something like Curses. And there's a certain effect of being
really wrapped up in a puzzle game for hours and hours that is just not
captured by a narrative 30-minute art piece. No matter how good the
latter is, it's just not the same experience.

The other reason is that people kept posting about how IF has gotten all
pretentious these days and no one can be bothered to write good
old-school IF the way it Used to Be. So I thought, well, ok, I'll try
that, then.

   SPAG: What is your process for creating these large games? Can you
   give us an idea of how such a project starts, and how it develops to
   fruition?

ES: As mentioned, SF began pretty haphazardly. Once I'd made the opening
room, I decided that the game needed as its central feature a magic
system we haven't encountered previously. I thought about something that
would involve composing spells from component pieces. I tossed this
around a bit with Dan Shiovitz, and he suggested that a) this has been
done before and that b) magic-as-programming is not sufficiently cool.

So the linking idea was my second concept. I worked out the basics of
how it would function -- I'd use a simulation that accounted for size,
shape, and material, lifted from Metamorphoses, and then allow the game
to determine linkability from there. A while went into developing this
system, which turned out to be a bit of a pain to code and require a lot
of special cases. I find that this is typical for my game design in
general: I get a bit of a feel for what the game will require, then
design the system or systems that are going to be the backbone of
interaction (conversation systems, simulation, whatever). Then I come up
with particular things to do with the system and build the rest of the
game.

The next stage for Savoir was brain-storming up a bunch of puzzles and
solutions, and then making a puzzle chart to show where they would occur
and which things would lead to which others. The brainstorming was fun:
I paged through the DM4 for different categories of puzzle. My basic
plan was: take the most cliche'd, bog-standard puzzles in existence, and
then force the player to solve them in a different way with the new
system.

Implementation ensued. This was the stage at which I developed the
backstory of the game. I'd stick in a reference to a character early in
the implementation process, and then I'd have to come up with a bunch of
supporting material -- who is this person? where did they live? what
were their interests? why did their relationship to the protagonist form
up the way it did?

I also did (a tiny amount of) research on the setting of the game -- a
couple afternoons' worth of looking at antiques websites and reading up
on the social situation just before the French Revolution. Of what I
came up with, I used very little: it seemed too artificial and ludicrous
for someone, even an aesthete like Pierre, to go around describing all
the furniture he encountered with an antique dealer's vocabulary. "Now
here is a nice rocaille console with a black-and-red marble top..."
Period paintings turned out to be a lot more useful -- they gave a sense
of how a whole room might have felt, as opposed to an image of a single
table isolated in a studio.

Then there was a lot of beta-testing. The main messages of the testing
were that I'd provided too little help early in the game (which led to
the addition of some simple early puzzles and extra ways to earn points)
and that it took a bit more than my estimated 2-3 hours to play. I
rounded this up to an estimate of 4 hours for the first release, and was
soundly mocked. Oops. (It took me about 300 turns to play through to
completion, so I figured: multiply that by 4, granting that someone who
hasn't played it before will look around more, and you get a game of,
say, 1200 turns. That doesn't really seem so big, right? Averaging
several turns a minute, one should make nice steady progress...)

   SPAG: You're also serving as editor for an upcoming collection of "IF
   Theory" essays. Would you give us a little preview of what this
   project will include and when we can expect to see it?

ES: Second question first: I expect that we won't get through with all
of the proofreading, revising, layout, and printing arrangements until
spring of next year. (I won't pin myself down to a month here; too many
variables.)

The book covers a bit of history, a bit of craft, and a bit of theory.
(The list of specific articles is here:
http://www.iftheory.com/topics2.html.) As far as history goes, we tried
to cover things that haven't been presented extensively yet: discussion
of the history of IF in languages other than English, the history of the
Level 9 games, and so on. There's a broad coverage of specific issues
that come up in writing IF, from planning your map to dealing with
specific genres to beta-testing and finishing up. There's a new Graham
Nelson article, which is quite cool.

The idea here is both to provide practical advice for people doing game
design and to serve as a talking point. I'm quite excited about the
material that has been turned in so far, and I think we'll accomplish
both of those things.

   SPAG: How has IF influenced your graduate studies?

ES: In graduate seminars I've repeatedly found myself trying to
extrapolate things about the development of ancient literary genres on
the evidence of the development of IF. This doesn't necessarily get me
very far, though. Also, don't try starting a sentence in a humanities
grad seminar with, "Well, I'm in this internet community and I've
noticed that people on usenet generally..."

   SPAG: How about the other way around?

ES: Galatea, Metamorphoses, and to an extent Best of Three rely fairly
extensively on classical references. Francesco Cordella referred to me
once in a review as being unable to sleep unless I stuck Castor and
Pollux into all my games. I've since tried to reduce that effect as much
as possible.

   SPAG: Of the technical innovations you've introduced over the last
   couple of years, which ones are you the most excited about and why?

ES: Hmm. From my point of view I've managed to raise more problems than
I've solved.

I once hoped to develop a comprehensive set of library extensions that
would handle liquids, fire, frangible objects, ropes, and recording
devices. This was more ignorance than hubris. As far as I can tell the
real progress in terms of systematic simulationism is going on over in
the camp of TADS 3 -- nifty sense-passing stuff, more complex ways to
disallow actions, and so on. I'm eager to see what that develops into.

I still want to do goal-seeking, conversational NPCs, too, but the task
seems much more daunting to me than it did two years ago. I'd say that's
what I care about most, at this point, though.

   SPAG: What are you planning to work on next?

ES: I have assorted projects lying around at the moment, most of which
in some way focus on expanded/more interactive NPCs. Preferably in a
context where there's more to do than *just* talk to the NPC. We'll see.

KEY TO SCORES AND REVIEWS--------------------------------------------------

Consider the following review header:

NAME: Cutthroats
AUTHOR: Infocom
EMAIL: ???
DATE: September 1984
PARSER: Infocom Standard
SUPPORTS: Z-code (Infocom/Inform) interpreters
AVAILABILITY: LTOI 2
URL: Not available.

When submitting reviews:  Try to fill in as much of this info as you can.
If you choose, you may also provide scores for the games you review, as 
explained in the SPAG FAQ. 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.ifarchive.org/if-archive/magazines/SPAG/
 and at http://www.sparkynet.com/spag

REVIEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Jim Cooper <waiting SP@G thebusstop.demon.co.uk>

NAME: Depravity Bites
AUTHOR: samjones
EMAIL: samanthamisunderstood SP@G hotmail.com
DATE: 2002
PARSER: TADS standard
SUPPORTS: TADS interpreters
AVAILABILITY: Freeware
URL: ftp://ftp.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/tads/depravityBITES.zip
VERSION: 1.4

I read Stas Starkov's review of this game in SPAG 28 and wondered how
much of his obvious dislike for it stemmed from the game's subject
matter. Being quite broad-minded myself, I thought I'd download the game
and see what it was all about. I really shouldn't have bothered.

The game starts off with you waking up a prisoner in a cellar. Your
naked girlfriend is chained up, and your first task is to try to free
her. The game then proceeds through a series of tasks masterminded by
the owner of the house you're in before culminating in a sex scene in
the back of a van.

Unfortunately, the game falls down not only on the content, which goes
out of its way to be offensive rather than erotic, but is filled with
numerous technical flaws, some of which make the some of the puzzles
unnecessarily difficult -- you play "guess the verb" a few times, for
example. Certain other flaws also make the big sex scene at the end
laughable rather than arousing. To give a more specific example, at one
point you are given an object to perform a task with. Later on, the game
assumes you still have the object, whether you have dropped it since or
not. These obvious flaws disrupt the flow of the game, destroying any
sense of atmosphere that might otherwise build up.

The puzzles themselves aren't actually too bad, although they were
fairly easy -- I managed to complete it in about 4 hours without
reference to the provided hint sheet. The game also comes with the
source code, if the hint sheet isn't enough for you. One or two puzzles
are quite difficult, the initial one for instance, which the game itself
gives you hints about.

All in all, this game isn't worth playing even if you are into this kind
of thing. It deliberately sets out to shock rather than excite or
interest and, for me, it failed to even do that. Sorry, samjones, but
you can see far worse than this with just ten minutes on a decent
internet search engine. If you are easily shocked, avoid this game. If
you're not, this game will bore you. Even a dedicated sado-masochist
will find nothing of interest here, unless putting up with all the
errors counts as masochism.

ATMOSPHERE: Technical errors interfere too much (0.3)
GAMEPLAY: Bad parser, plagued by errors         (0.5)
WRITING: Tries quite hard but, well, fails      (0.6)
PLOT: Well, there is one, and it's reasonable   (1.2)
WILDCARD: This really isn't a good game, so I'm
      not going to give it any Wildcard points. (0.0)
TOTAL: Just don't bother.                       (2.6)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

From: Adam Myrow <myrow SP@G eskimo.com>

TITLE: First Things First
AUTHOR: J. Robinson Wheeler
EMAIL: rob.wheeler SP@G stanfordalumni.org
DATE: February 2002
PARSER: Tads 2.5.
SUPPORTS: Standard Tads interpreters
AVAILABILITY: If-archive, freeware
URL: ftp://ftp.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/tads/ftf.gam
     Also available: ftp://ftp.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/tads/ftf_manual.pdf
VERSION: 2.0 (02/20/2002)

Have you ever wished you could go back in time and prevent a mistake?
Have you ever wished all those time travel games would let you change
things for the better rather than preserve history the way it is? Well,
wish no more! First Things First is a recent game that lets you do just
that. You start out in the present, as an eccentric person who dreams of
building a time machine. You just came back from the library, where as
usual, you were reading on the subject. It is late, so you were thinking
of just going to sleep. However, you've done what we've all done in the
past. You've locked yourself out of your house! The spare key is nowhere
around. As you begin to hunt for your spare key, something else begins
to get your attention. Why is the roof in such lousy shape after only 10
years? What's this squirrel doing on my roof? Why didn't I ever plant a
tree on the south side of my house? In the midst of all your wondering,
a time machine appears, and the real game begins.

This game reminds me of Curses in a lot of ways. Like Curses, you are
doing something ordinary, and gradually get yourself into something
else. Like Curses, this is a puzzle fest. It got the XYZZY award for
best puzzles for a good reason. Most of the puzzles are very logical,
and some have multiple solutions. For example, there are at least 2,
maybe 3 ways to get rid of the dog, and 2 ways to repair the wheel
barrow. Be warned, the game can be made unwinnable, so save early, and
keep multiple saves especially before doing something that will put an
item out of play. Be extremely careful with money! Some items serve no
purpose, while others have multiple uses. Still others are optional
depending on how you go about solving puzzles. There is a contraption
called a herring detector which will tell you if something is a red
herring or not. It really breaks the mimisis of the game, so I would
advise not using it unless you are truly desperate.

This game has a maze, but it has a solution that doesn't involve
dropping things. The best part is that once you get through it, you
never need to go through it again.

Overall, I liked this game. It has a few bugs here and there, but no
real show stoppers. It is refreshing to actually be able to do something
about the past instead of being told to accept it for what it is. My
only real complaint is that the ending leaves a few loose ends, and I
think the environmental tone is a bit too obvious. Also, some
descriptions are a bit awkward. There is one place where the word
"prettily" appears twice in the same sentence. Other than that, it's not
a bad game, and there is even an Easter Egg room with a unique surprise.
I found it to be difficult, but not insanely so. Anybody who wants a
good old-fashioned puzzle-filled IF experience, and has some time on
their hands should give this one a try.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

From: Adrian J. Chung <ajchung SP@G yahoo.com>

NAME: The Tale of the Kissing Bandit
AUTHOR: J. Robinson Wheeler
EMAIL: rob.wheeler SP@G stanfordalumni.org
DATE: February 2001
PARSER: Infocom Standard
SUPPORTS: Z-code (Infocom/Inform) interpreters
AVAILABILITY: Freeware
URL: http://www.plover.net/~emily/smoochie/bandit.zip
VERSION: Release 1 (SmoochieComp original)

Oh this is sweet -- a delightful little story of a night of adventure.

You play a mysterious secretive character who steals kisses from women
caught unaware. The whole game is like this. Well, most of it. Really.
Go play it if you have 5 minutes to spare. The game is as compact as it
is amusing.

The light-hearted mood is sustained by excellently conceived prose
heavily peppered with overt prompting to move the player along. I found
myself using verbs I would never think to use in any other game. There
are no puzzles to speak of and the story is very much on rails after the
first few rooms. It never ceases to amaze me what can be accomplished
with such sparse geometry, objects, and NPC interaction -- a sign of
very effective writing.

And lastly, if you haven't done so already, play through "Shade" (Zarf's
Comp 2000 entry) prior to this one for maximum effect. That should quiet
any feelings of missing out that those who're not ifmud regulars may
have.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

From: Adrian J. Chung <ajchung SP@G yahoo.com>

NAME: Voices
AUTHOR: Aris Katsaris
EMAIL: katsaris SP@G otenet.gr
DATE: February 2001
PARSER: Infocom Standard
SUPPORTS: Z-code (Infocom/Inform) interpreters
AVAILABILITY: Freeware
URL: http://www.plover.net/~emily/smoochie/voices.z5
VERSION: Release 1 (SmoochieComp original)

I debated with myself whether or not I should submit a review for this
one. The recent jump in the adventure gaming audience swayed me in the
affirmative. Stating that newcomers who were expecting a game are in for
a surprise would be a bit of an understatement. The opening text:

   Voices
   An Interactive Romance
   (...)
   Ladies' Tree
   We like to play and dance in this place around the tall beech,
   (...)  but I've never seen them myself. Nor have I ventured alone
   much to the south of here - the town of Domremy is in the north.

suggests a romance told in the first person -- features of the Comp98
2nd place game, "Muse". As it turns out, this work really orbits in the
same system as the Comp98 1st placer, "Photopia". The tightly scripted
(almost on rails) story and heavy reliance on "talk to" are the features
to which I refer. Not to mention the interface manipulation gimmicks
pioneered by "Shrapnel" -- one gimmick is also to be found in another
SmoochieComp game, "Pytho's Mask". Enough references for you?

There's not much more I can say without contributing to the spoilery for
a work as short as this -- it takes no more than ten minutes to
experience. The prose conveys some rather strong emotions via a story
design that can be debated for days, which is exactly what happened on
r*if. If emotional impact per line of non-library source code were a
valid measure, this would probably rank as high as Photopia or Shade;
perhaps even higher due to the sparse implementation. It takes courage
to use the minicomp format (and SmoochieComp, no less!) to tackle much
debated philosophy and religious theology. Admittedly my Catholic
upbringing could be a factor in my slight disagreement in the portrayal
of some of the major characters. It was also disconcerting to have to
make decisions for them at critical points in the story. The rapid
switching of person perspectives -- between 1st and 2nd, interspersed
with 3rd -- only added to this discomfort. Maybe this was intentional.

At least it avoids the risks of trivialising the belief systems of a
major religion as can often happen in this medium. This is testimony to
the author's writing skill and well-planned design. Did I mention the
historical setting? There is almost too much packed into something of
this size. Does it work? I'd venture a conditional yes. But like I said,
it depends greatly on what expectations you bring to the table. Perhaps
that's why it was released in a minicomp.

READERS' SCOREBOARD: THE FINAL CHAPTER ------------------------------------

As I mentioned in the editorial section, this issue's SPAG scoreboard
will be the last, so what you see here is what will remain. For those of
you unfamiliar with the concept of this scoreboard, it was an ongoing
feature of SPAG, charting the scores that SPAG readers and reviewers
gave to various IF games from the time SPAG began. The codes in the
Notes column give information as to a game's availability and the
platforms on which it runs. For a translation of these codes and for
more detailed information on the scoreboard's format, see the first
issue of SPAG, available at ftp.ifarchive.org or on the SPAG web page at
http://www.sparkynet.com/spag.

Name                   Avg Sc     Chr     Puz # Sc  Issue Notes:
====                   ======     ===     === ====  ===== ======
1-2-3...                  4.1     0.9     0.5    3     23 F_INF_ARC
9:05                      6.6     0.7     0.5   11     20 F_INF_ARC
Aayela                    7.0     1.0     1.3    6     10 F_TAD_ARC
Abbey                     6.8     0.6     1.4    1     24 S10_I_ARC
Above and Beyond          7.3     1.5     1.6    5     24 F_TAD_ARC
Acid Whiplash             5.2     0.7     0.2    5     17 F_INF_ARC
Acorn Court               6.1     0.5     1.5    2     12 F_INF_ARC
Ad Verbum                 7.4     0.9     1.7    3     23 F_INF_ARC
Adv. of Elizabeth Hig     3.1     0.5     0.3    2      5 F_AGT_ARC
Adventure (all varian     6.6     0.7     1.2   16   8,22 F_INF_TAD_ETC_ARC
Adventureland             4.4     0.5     1.1    6        F_INF_ARC
Adventures of Helpful     7.0     1.3     0.9    2        F_TAD_ARC
Aftermath                 4.0     0.7     0.7    1        F_TAD_ARC
Afternoon Visit           4.1     1.0     0.8    1        F_AGT
Aisle                     6.8     1.4     0.2   11     18 F_INF_ARC
Alien Abduction?          7.5     1.3     1.4    5 10, 26 F_TAD_ARC
All Alone                 8.2     1.3     0.7    2     22 F_TAD_ARC
All Quiet...Library       5.0     0.9     0.9    6      7 F_INF_ARC
All Roads                 8.1     1.4     1.2    2        F_INF_ARC
Amnesia                   6.9     1.5     1.3    4      9 C_AP_I_64
Anchorhead                8.7     1.7     1.5   29     18 F_INF_ARC
And The Waves...          7.9     1.5     1.1    2     23 F_INF_ARC
Another...No Beer         2.4     0.2     0.8    2      4 S10_I_ARC
Arrival                   7.9     1.3     1.4    5     17 F_TAD_ARC
Arthur: Excalibur         8.0     1.3     1.6    44,14,22 C_INF
Asendent                  1.7     0.0     0.3    1        F_INF_ARC
At Wit's End              7.1     1.2     1.3    1     23 F_TAD_ARC
Augmented Fourth          7.9     1.2     1.6    7     22 F_INF_ARC
Aunt Nancy's House        1.3     0.1     0.0    2        F_INF_ARC
Awakened                  7.7     1.7     1.6    1
Awakening                 5.9     1.1     1.1    3  15,18 F_INF_ARC
Awe-Chasm                 3.0     0.7     0.7    2      8 S_I_ST_ARC
Babel                     8.5     1.7     1.3   11     13 F_INF_ARC
Balances                  6.6     0.7     1.2    9      6 F_INF_ARC
Ballyhoo                  7.3     1.5     1.5    6      4 C_INF
Bear's Night Out          7.3     1.1     1.3    7     13 F_INF_ARC
Beat The Devil            5.5     1.2     1.1    4     19 F_INF_ARC
Begegnung am Fluss        5.6     0.8     1.4    1        F_I_ARC
Being Andrew Plotkin      7.5     1.5     1.1    2     23 F_INF_ARC
Best Man                  5.2     0.8     1.2    2        F_INF_ARC
Beyond the Tesseract      5.0     0.8     0.9    2      6 F_I_ARC
Beyond Zork               7.6     1.5     1.7   11  5, 14 C_INF
Big Mama                  5.4     1.2     0.6    3     23 F_INF_ARC
BJ Drifter                6.5     1.2     1.2    5     15 F_INF_ARC
Bliss                     6.3     1.1     0.8    4     20 F_TAD_ARC
Bloodline                 7.7     1.4     1.1    2     15 F_INF_ARC
Border Zone               7.2     1.4     1.4    7      4 C_INF
Breakers                  7.5     1.5     1.1    1        C_I_AP_M_64_S
Break-In                  6.1     1.1     1.4    3     21 F_INF_ARC
Breaking The Code         0.4     0.0     0.0    2        F_INF_ARC
Brimstone: The Dream.     6.5     1.4     1.1    1        C_I_AP_M_64_S
Broken String             3.9     0.7     0.4    4        F_TADS_ARC
BSE                       5.7     0.9     1.0    3        F_INF_ARC
Bureaucracy               7.1     1.5     1.4   13      5 C_INF
Busted                    5.1     1.1     0.9    2     25 F_INF_ARC
Calliope                  4.7     0.9     0.8    3        F_INF_ARC
Carma                     8.0     1.9     1.2    1        F_GLU_ARC
Cask                      1.5     0.0     0.5    2        F_INF_ARC
Castaway                  1.1     0.0     0.4    1      5 F_I_ARC
Castle Amnos              4.6     1.0     0.8    2        F_INF_ARC
Castle Elsinore           4.3     0.7     1.0    2        I_ARC
Cattus Atrox              4.9     1.2     0.8    1     17 F_INF_ARC
Cave of Morpheus          5.4     1.3     1.0    1        F_ADR_ARC
CC                        4.2     0.4     1.0    1        F_ALAN_ARC
Change in the Weather     7.5     1.0     1.3   14 7,8,14 F_INF_ARC
Chaos                     5.6     1.3     1.1    2        F_TAD_ARC
Chicken under Window      6.6     0.8     0.3    4        F_INF_ARC
Chicks Dig Jerks          5.2     1.1     0.7    9     19 F_INF_ARC
Chico and I Ran           7.2     1.7     1.1    1        F_INF_ARC
Christminster             8.3     1.6     1.6   21     20 F_INF_ARC
Circus                    3.4     0.5     0.8    1
City                      6.1     0.6     1.3    2     17 F_INF_ARC
Clock                     3.7     0.8     0.6    1        F_TAD_ARC
Coke Is It!               5.6     1.0     0.9    3        F_INF_ARC
Coming Home               0.6     0.1     0.1    1        F_INF_ARC
Common Ground             7.1     1.6     0.3    3     20 F_TAD_ARC
Commute                   1.3     0.2     0.1    1        F_I_ARC
Comp00ter Game            0.9     0.1     0.1    1        F_INF_ARC
Congratulations!          2.6     0.7     0.3    1        F_INF_ARC
Corruption                7.2     1.6     1.0    4 14, 21 C_MAG
Cosmoserve                7.8     1.4     1.4    5      5 F_AGT_ARC
Cove                      6.5     0.8     0.7    4     22 F_INF_ARC
Crimson Spring            6.9     1.5     1.2    1        F_HUG_ARC
Crypt v2.0                5.0     1.0     1.5    1      3 S12_IBM_ARC
Curses                    8.0     1.2     1.7   20  2, 22 F_INF_ARC
Cutthroats                5.7     1.3     1.1    9      1 C_INF
Dampcamp                  5.0     0.8     1.1    3        F_TAD_ARC
Danger! Adventurer...     3.2     0.3     0.7    1        F_INF_ARC
Dangerous Curves          8.6     1.5     1.6    1     24 F_INF_ARC
Day For Soft Food         6.8     1.0     1.3    5     19 F_INF_ARC
Deadline                  6.9     1.3     1.3    9     20 C_INF
Death To My Enemies       4.4     0.9     0.7    4        F_INF_ARC
Deep Space Drifter        5.6     0.4     1.1    3      3 S15_TAD_ARC
Deephome                  4.0     0.5     0.9    2     21 F_INF_ARC
Degeneracy                8.7     1.5     1.3    1     25 F_INF_ARC
Delusions                 7.9     1.5     1.5    5      14F_INF_ARC
Demon's Tomb              7.4     1.2     1.1    2      9 C_I
Depravity Bites           2.6     0.5     0.5    1  28,29 F_TAD_ARC
Desert Heat               6.0     1.3     0.7    1     23 F_TAD_ARC
Detective                 1.0     0.0     0.0    9 4,5,18 F_AGT_INF_ARC
Detective-MST3K           6.0     1.2     0.2   10 7,8,18 F_INF_ARC
Dinner With Andre         7.2     1.6     1.4    1     23 F_INF_ARC
Ditch Day Drifter         6.3     0.9     1.6    5      2 F_TAD_ARC
Djinni Chronicles         7.1     1.1     1.1    3     23 F_INF_ARC
Down                      6.0     1.0     1.2    1     14 F_HUG_ARC
Downtown Tokyo            6.1     0.9     1.0    6     17 F_INF_ARC
Dragon Hunt               5.4     0.5     0.5    1        F_HUG_ARC
Dungeon                   6.2     1.0     1.6    3        F_ARC
Dungeon Adventure         6.8     1.3     1.6    1      4 F_ETC
Dungeon of Dunjin         6.0     0.7     1.5    5  3, 14 S20_IBM_MAC_ARC
Edifice                   8.0     1.4     1.8   10     13 F_INF_ARC
Eins Swei Spiegelei       5.0     1.1     1.0    1        F_ARC
Electrabot                0.7     0.0     0.0    1      5 F_AGT_ARC
E-Mailbox                 3.1     0.1     0.2    2        F_AGT_ARC
Emy Discovers Life        5.0     1.1     0.8    3        F_AGT
Enchanter                 7.3     1.1     1.5   10   2,15 C_INF
End Means Escape          6.1     1.4     1.1    1     23 F_TAD_ARC
Enhanced                  5.0     1.0     1.3    2      2 S10_TAD_ARC
Enlightenment             6.5     1.1     1.5    3     17 F_INF_ARC
Erehwon                   6.2     1.2     1.5    4     19 F_TAD_ARC
Eric the Unready          7.4     1.4     1.4    6        C_I
Essex                     5.7     1.2     0.9    1        C_I_AP_M_64_ST
Everybody Loves a Par     7.0     1.2     1.2    3     12 F_TAD_ARC
Exhibition                6.2     1.4     0.3    6     19 F_TAD_ARC
Fable                     2.0     0.1     0.1    3      6 F_AGT_ARC
Fable-MST3K               4.0     0.5     0.2    4        F_AGT_INF_ARC
FailSafe                  7.5     1.0     1.0    1  24,25 F_INF_ARC
Fear                      6.3     1.2     1.3    3 10, 24 F_INF_ARC
Fifteen                   1.5     0.5     0.4    1     17 F_INF_ARC
Firebird                  7.1     1.5     1.3    4     15 F_TAD_ARC
Fish                      7.5     1.3     1.7    4 12, 14 C_MAG
Foggywood Hijinx          6.2     1.2     1.3    3     21 F_TAD_ARC
Foom                      6.6     1.0     1.0    1        F_TAD_ARC
For A Change              8.0     0.9     1.3    6 19, 22 F_INF_ARC
Forbidden Castle          4.8     0.6     0.5    1        C_AP
Four In One               4.4     1.2     0.5    2        F_TAD_ARC
Four Seconds              6.0     1.2     1.1    2        F_TAD_ARC
Frenetic Five             5.3     1.4     0.5    3     13 F_TAD_ARC
Frenetic Five 2           6.6     1.5     1.0    3 21, 22 F_TAD_ARC
Friday Afternoon          6.3     1.4     1.2    1     13 F_INF_ARC
Frobozz Magic Support     7.2     1.2     1.5    3        F_TAD_ARC
Frozen                    5.5     0.7     1.3    1        F_INF_ARC
Fusillade                 7.1     1.5     0.3    1        F_TAD_ARC
Frustration               5.7     1.1     0.9    1     21 F_TAD_ARC
Futz Mutz                 5.3     1.0     1.1    1        F_TAD_ARC
Galatea                   7.4     1.8     0.9    5     22 F_INF_ARC
Gateway                   8.6     1.4     1.8    7     11 C_I
Gateway 2: Homeworld      9.0     1.7     1.9    6     24 C_I
Gerbil Riot of '67        6.3     0.7     1.1    1        F_TAD_ARC
Glowgrass                 6.9     1.3     1.3    5     13 F_INF_ARC
Gnome Ranger              5.8     1.2     1.6    1        C_I
Golden Fleece             6.0     1.0     1.1    1     21 F_TAD_ARC
Golden Wombat of Dest     6.3     0.7     1.1    1     18 F_I_ARC
Good Breakfast            4.9     0.9     1.2    2     14 F_INF_ARC
Got ID?                   6.2     1.4     1.0    1        F_INF_ARC
Great Archeolog. Race     6.5     1.0     1.5    1      3 S20_TAD_ARC
Guardians of Infinity     8.5             1.3    1      9 C_I
Guess The Verb!           6.5     1.2     1.4    2     23 F_INF_ARC
Guild of Thieves          7.1     1.1     1.5    5     14 C_MAG
Guilty Bastards           6.9     1.4     1.2    5     22 F_HUG_ARC
Guitar...Immortal Bar     3.0     0.0     0.0    1        F_INF_ARC
Gumshoe                   6.2     1.0     1.1    7      9 F_INF_ARC
Halothane                 6.6     1.3     1.2    4     19 F_INF_ARC
Happy Ever After          4.6     0.5     1.2    1        F_INF_ARC
HeBGB Horror              5.7     0.9     1.1    2        F_ALAN_ARC
Heist                     6.7     1.4     1.5    2        F_INF_ARC
Hero, Inc.                6.8     1.0     1.5    2        F_TAD_ARC
Heroes                    7.9     1.8     1.6    1        F_INF_ARC
Hitchhiker's Guide        7.3     1.3     1.5   16      5 C_INF
Hobbit - The True Sto     5.9     1.1     0.8    1     26 S10_I_ARC
Hollywood Hijinx          6.3     0.9     1.5   12        C_INF
Holy Grail                6.2     0.9     1.2    1     21 F_TAD_ARC
Horror of Rylvania        7.2     1.4     1.4    5      1 F_TAD_ARC
Horror30.zip              3.7     0.3     0.7    2      3 S20_I_ARC
Human Resources Stori     0.9     0.0     0.1    2     17 F_INF_ARC
Humbug                    7.4     1.6     1.3    4 11, 24 F_I_ARC
Hunter, In Darkness       7.3     0.9     1.4    7     19 F_INF_ARC
I didn't know...yodel     4.0     0.7     1.0    5     17 F_I_ARC
I-0: Jailbait on Inte     7.7     1.5     1.2   22     20 F_INF_ARC
Ice Princess              7.5     1.4     1.6    2        A_INF_ARC
In The End                4.8     0.6     0.2    3     10 F_INF_ARC
In The Spotlight          3.2     0.2     1.0    2     17 F_INF_ARC
Infidel                   6.9     0.2     1.4   15      1 C_INF
Infil-Traitor             2.9     0.1     0.7    1        F_I_ARC
Informatory               5.5     0.5     1.3    1     17 F_INF_ARC
Ingrid's Back             7.0     1.6     1.6    2        C_I
Inheritance               5.0     0.3     1.0    3     20 F_TAD_ARC
Inhumane                  4.4     0.3     0.9    4  9, 20 F_INF_ARC
Intruder                  6.7     1.3     1.1    4     20 F_INF_ARC
Invasion of... Jupite     1.9     0.3     0.6    1        F_I_ARC
Jacaranda Jim             7.5     1.0     0.9    3     24 F_ARC
Jacks...Aces To Win       7.1     1.3     1.2    3     19 F_INF_ARC
Jarod's Journey           2.5     0.5     0.3    1        F_TAD_ARC
Jewel of Knowledge        6.3     1.2     1.1    3     18 F_INF_ARC
Jeweled Arena             7.0     1.4     1.3    2        AGT_ARC
Jigsaw                    8.2     1.6     1.6   19    8,9 F_INF_ARC
Jinxter                   6.1     0.9     1.3    3        C_MAG
John's Fire Witch         6.5     1.0     1.5    9  4, 12 S6_TADS_ARC
Jouney Into Xanth         5.0     1.3     1.2    1      8 F_AGT_ARC
Journey                   7.2     1.5     1.3    5      5 C_INF
Jump                      3.2     0.5     0.7    1        F_INF_ARC
Kaged                     7.0     1.1     1.1    4 23, 25 F_INF_ARC
King Arthur's Night O     5.9     0.9     1.0    4     19 F_ALAN_ARC
Kissing the Buddha's      7.9     1.8     1.5    6     10 F_TAD_ARC
Klaustrophobia            6.4     1.1     1.3    6      1 S15_AGT_ARC
Knight Orc                7.2     1.4     1.1    2     15 C_I
L.U.D.I.T.E.              2.7     0.2     0.1    4        F_INF_ARC
Lancelot                  6.9     1.4     1.2    1        C_I
Land Beyond Picket Fe     4.8     1.2     1.2    1     10 F_I_ARC
LASH                      7.6     1.3     1.0    5     21 F_INF_ARC
Leather Goddesses         7.2     1.3     1.5   12      4 C_INF
Leaves                    3.4     0.2     0.8    1     14 F_ALAN_ARC
Legend Lives!             8.2     1.2     1.4    4      5 F_TAD_ARC
Lesson of the Tortois     6.9     1.3     1.4    5     14 F_TAD_ARC
Lethe Flow Phoenix        6.9     1.4     1.5    5      9 F_TAD_ARC
Letters From Home         7.0     0.6     1.2    2        F_INF_ARC
Life on Beal Street       5.4     1.3     0.1    3        F_TAD_ARC
Light: Shelby's Adden     7.5     1.5     1.3    6      9 S_TAD_ARC
Lightiania                1.9     0.2     0.4    1        F_INF_ARC
Lists and Lists           6.3     1.3     1.1    3     10 F_INF_ARC
Little Billy              1.1     0.4     0.0    1        F_I_ARC
Little Blue Men           8.2     1.4     1.5   11     17 F_INF_ARC
Lock And Key              6.6     1.0     1.5    1     20 F_GLU_ARC
Lomalow                   4.6     1.0     0.6    3     19 F_INF_ARC
Losing Your Grip          8.5     1.4     1.4    6      14S20_TAD_ARC
Lost New York             7.9     1.4     1.4    4 20, 26 S12_TAD_ARC
Lost Spellmaker           6.3     1.3     1.1    5     13 F_INF_ARC
Lunatix: Insanity Cir     5.6     1.2     1.0    3        F_I_ARC
Lurking Horror            7.2     1.3     1.4   16    1,3 C_INF
MacWesleyan / PC Univ     5.1     0.7     1.2    3        F_TAD_ARC
Madame L'Estrange...      5.1     1.2     0.7    1     13 F_INF_ARC
Magic Toyshop             5.2     1.1     1.1    5      7 F_INF_ARC
Magic.zip                 4.5     0.5     0.5    1      3 S20_IBM_ARC
Maiden of the Moonlig     6.4     1.3     1.5    2     10 F_TAD_ARC
Masque of the Last...     4.7     1.1     0.8    1        F_INF_ARC
Masquerade                7.3     1.6     1.0    1     23 F_INF_ARC
Matter of Time            1.4     0.3     1.4    1      14F_ALAN_ARC
Mercy                     7.3     1.4     1.2    6     12 F_INF_ARC
Metamorphoses             6.8     0.8     1.3    2     23 F_INF_ARC
Meteor...Sherbet          8.0     1.5     1.6    9 10, 12 F_INF_ARC
Mind Electric             5.2     0.6     0.9    4    7,8 F_INF_ARC
Mind Forever Voyaging     8.4     1.4     0.9   15   5,15 C_INF
Mindwheel                 8.5     1.6     1.5    1        C_I
Mission                   6.0     1.2     1.4    1     21 F_TAD_ARC
Moist                     6.4     1.3     1.1    5        F_TAD_ARC
Moment of Hope            5.0     1.3     0.3    3     19 F_TAD_ARC
Moonmist                  6.3     1.3     1.0   17      1 C_INF
Mop & Murder              5.0     0.9     1.0    2      5 F_AGT_ARC
Mother Loose              7.0     1.5     1.3    2     17 F_INF_ARC
Mulldoon Legacy           7.4     1.2     1.8    1     24 F_INF_ARC
Multidimen. Thief         5.6     0.5     1.3    6    2,9 S15_AGT_ARC
Muse                      7.9     1.5     1.2    4     17 F_INF_ARC
Music Education           3.7     1.0     0.7    3        F_INF_ARC
My Angel                  8.2     1.8     1.4    2     23 F_INF_ARC
Myopia                    6.1     1.3     0.6    2        F_AGT_ARC
Mystery House             4.1     0.3     0.7    1        F_AP_ARC
Nevermore                 7.2     1.5     1.4    1     23 F_INF_ARC
New Day                   6.6     1.4     1.1    4     13 F_INF_ARC
Night At Computer Cen     5.2     1.0     1.0    2        F_INF_ARC
Night at Museum Forev     4.2     0.3     1.0    4    7,8 F_TAD_ARC
Night of... Bunnies       6.6     1.0     1.4    1        I_INF_ARC
No Time To Squeal         8.6     1.6     1.5    1        F_TAD_ARC
Nord and Bert             6.1     0.6     1.2    9      4 C_INF
Not Just A Game           6.9     1.0     1.3    1     20 F_INF_ARC
Not Just... Ballerina     5.3     0.8     0.9    3     20 F_INF_ARC
Obscene...Aardvarkbar     3.2     0.6     0.6    1        F_TAD_ARC
Odieus...Flingshot        3.3     0.4     0.7    2      5 F_INF_ARC
Of Forms Unknown          4.5     0.7     0.5    1     10 F_INF_ARC
Offensive Probing         4.2     0.6     0.9    1        F_INF_ARC
On The Farm               6.5     1.6     1.2    2     19 F_TAD_ARC
On The Other Side         2.2     0.0     0.0    1        F_I_ARC
Once and Future           6.9     1.6     1.5    2     16 F_TAD_ARC
One That Got Away         6.4     1.4     1.1    7    7,8 F_TAD_ARC
Only After Dark           4.6     0.8     0.6    4        F_INF_ARC
Oo-Topos                  5.7     0.2     1.0    1      9 C_AP_I_64
Outsided                  2.5     0.7     0.2    2        F_INF_ARC
Pass the Banana           2.9     0.8     0.5    3     19 F_INF_ARC
Path to Fortune           6.6     1.5     0.9    3      9 S_INF_ARC
Pawn                      6.3     1.1     1.3    2     12 C_MAG
Perilous Magic            5.7     1.0     1.2    3     21 F_INF_ARC
Perseus & Andromeda       3.5     0.4     0.9    2        64_INF_ARC
Persistence of Memory     6.2     1.2     1.1    1     17 F_HUG_ARC
Phlegm                    5.2     1.2     1.0    2     10 F_INF_ARC
Photopia                  7.4     1.5     0.7   29     17 F_INF_ARC
Phred Phontious...Piz     5.2     0.9     1.3    2     13 F_INF_ARC
Pickpocket                4.1     0.6     0.8    1        F_INF_ARC
Piece of Mind             6.3     1.3     1.4    1     10 F_INF_ARC
Pintown                   1.3     0.3     0.2    1        F_INF_ARC
Pirate's Cove             4.8     0.6     0.6    1        F_INF_ARC
Planet of Infinite Mi     6.8     1.1     1.3    1     23 F_TAD_ARC
Planetfall                7.3     1.6     1.4   15      4 C_INF
Plant                     7.3     1.2     1.5    4     17 F_TAD_ARC
Plundered Hearts          7.4     1.4     1.3   11      4 C_INF
Poor Zefron's Almanac     5.6     1.0     1.3    3     13 F_TAD_ARC
Portal                    8.0     1.7     0.2    3        C_I_A_AP_64
Prodly The Puffin         5.8     1.3     1.1    2     23 F_INF_ARC
Punk Points               6.4     1.4     1.3    1        F_INF_ARC
Purple                    5.6     0.9     1.0    1     17 F_INF_ARC
Pyramids of Mars          5.8     1.2     1.1    2     24 AGT_ARC
Quarterstaff              6.1     1.3     0.6    1      9 C_M
Ralph                     7.1     1.6     1.2    3 10, 25 F_INF_ARC
Rameses                   8.0     1.6     0.4    2     23 F_INF_ARC
Rematch                   7.9     1.5     1.6    1     22 F_TAD_ARC
Remembrance               2.7     0.8     0.2    3        F_ARC
Reruns                    5.2     1.2     1.2    1        AGT_ARC
Research Dig              4.8     1.1     0.8    2     17 F_INF_ARC
Revenger                  4.2     0.8     0.5    1        F_INF_ARC
Reverberations            5.6     1.3     1.1    1     10 F_INF_ARC
Ritual of Purificatio     7.0     1.6     1.1    4     17 F_ARC
Saied                     4.6     1.0     0.2    1     15 F_INF_ARC
Sanity Claus              7.5     0.3     0.6    2      1 S10_AGT_ARC
Save Princeton            5.6     1.0     1.3    5      8 S10_TAD_ARC
Scapeghost                8.1     1.7     1.5    1      6 C_I
Sea Of Night              5.7     1.3     1.1    2        F_TAD_ARC
Seastalker                5.2     1.1     0.8   11      4 C_INF
Shade                     8.5     0.7     1.0    2     23 F_INF_ARC
Shades of Grey            7.8     1.3     1.3    6   2, 8 F_AGT_ARC
Sherlock                  7.0     1.3     1.4    5      4 C_INF
She's Got a Thing...S     7.0     1.7     1.6    3     13 F_INF_ARC
Shogun                    7.0     1.2     0.6    2      4 C_INF
Shrapnel                  7.5     1.4     0.5    7     20 F_INF_ARC
Simple Theft              5.8     1.3     0.8    1     20 F_TAD_ARC
Sins against Mimesis      5.5     1.0     1.2    3     13 F_INF_ARC
Sir Ramic... Gorilla      6.0     1.2     1.2    2      6 F_AGT_ARC
Six Stories               6.3     1.0     1.2    4     19 F_TAD_ARC
Skyranch                  2.8     0.5     0.7    1     20 F_I_ARC
Small World               6.5     1.3     1.1    4 10, 24 F_TAD_ARC
So Far                    8.0     1.1     1.4   13 12, 25 F_INF_ARC
Sorcerer                  7.2     0.6     1.6    7   2,15 C_INF
Sound of... Clapping      7.1     1.3     1.3    8      5 F_ADVSYS_ARC
South American Trek       0.9     0.2     0.5    1      5 F_IBM_ARC
Space Aliens...Cardig     1.5     0.4     0.3    6   3, 4 S60_AGT_ARC
Space under Window        7.1     0.9     0.4    6     12 F_INF_ARC
Spacestation              5.6     0.7     1.1    1        F_INF_ARC
Spellbreaker              8.5     1.2     1.8    8   2,15 C_INF
Spellcasting 101          7.4     1.1     1.5    4        C_I
Spellcasting 201          7.8     1.6     1.7    2        C_I
Spellcasting 301          6.0     1.2     1.2    2        C_I
Spider and Web            8.6     1.7     1.7   19      14F_INF_ARC
SpiritWrak                6.7     1.2     1.3    6     22 F_INF_ARC
Spodgeville...Wossnam     4.3     0.7     1.2    2        F_INF_ARC
Spur                      7.1     1.3     1.1    2      9 F_HUG_ARC
Spyder and Jeb            6.2     1.1     1.4    1        F_TAD_ARC
Starcross                 6.6     1.0     1.2    7      1 C_INF
Stargazer                 5.4     1.1     1.1    1        F_INF_ARC
Starrider                 7.2     1.2     1.4    1        F_INF_ARC
Stationfall               7.7     1.6     1.5    7      5 C_INF
Statuette                 3.7     0.0     0.1    1        F_INF_ARC
Stick It To The Man       6.2     1.8     1.0    1        F_GLU_ARC
Stiffy                    1.2     0.1     0.2    2        F_INF_ARC
Stiffy - MiSTing          4.1     0.8     0.3    7        F_INF_ARC
Stone Cell                6.0     1.1     1.0    3     19 F_TAD_ARC
Stranded                  6.4     1.4     1.5    1        F_TAD_ARC
Strange Odyssey           4.0     0.0     1.0    1
Strangers In The Nigh     3.2     0.7     0.6    2        F_TAD_ARC
Stupid Kittens            2.9     0.6     0.4    2        F_INF_ARC
Sunset Over Savannah      8.7     1.7     1.4    6     13 F_TAD_ARC
Suspect                   6.2     1.3     1.1    8      4 C_INF
Suspended                 7.7     1.5     1.4    8      8 C_INF
Sylenius Mysterium        4.7     1.2     1.1    1     13 F_INF_ARC
Symetry                   1.1     0.1     0.1    2        F_INF_ARC
Tapestry                  7.3     1.4     0.9    6 10, 14 F_INF_ARC
Tempest                   5.3     1.4     0.6    3     13 F_INF_ARC
Temple of the Orc Mag     4.5     0.1     0.8    2        F_TAD_ARC
Terror of Mecha Godzi     4.6     0.8     0.6    1     26 S10_I_ARC
Test                      1.9     0.1     0.4    1        F_ADR_ARC
Textfire Golf             7.1     1.3     0.4    2     25 F_INF_ARC
Theatre                   7.0     1.1     1.3   13      6 F_INF_ARC
Thorfinn's Realm          3.5     0.5     0.7    2        F_INF_ARC
Threading the Labyrin     1.9     0.0     0.0    1        F_TAD_ARC
Time: All Things...       3.9     1.2     0.9    2 11, 12 F_INF_ARC
TimeQuest                 8.0     1.2     1.6    4        C_I
TimeSquared               4.3     1.1     1.1    1        F_AGT_ARC
Toonesia                  5.8     1.1     1.1    6  7, 21 F_TAD_ARC
Tossed into Space         3.9     0.2     0.6    1      4 F_AGT_ARC
Town Dragon               3.9     0.8     0.3    2 14, 22 F_INF_ARC
Transfer                  7.6     1.0     1.6    2     23 F_INF_ARC
Trapped...Dilly           5.1     0.1     1.1    2     17 F_INF_ARC
Travels in Land of Er     6.1     1.2     1.5    2     14 F_INF_ARC
Trinity                   8.7     1.4     1.7   18    1,2 C_INF
Trip                      5.4     1.2     1.1    2        F_TAD_ARC
Tryst of Fate             7.1     1.4     1.3    1     11 F_INF_ARC
Tube Trouble              4.2     0.8     0.7    2      8 F_INF_ARC
Tyler's Great Cube Ga     5.8     0.0     1.7    1        S_TAD_ARC
Uncle Zebulon's Will      7.3     1.0     1.5   12      8 F_TAD_ARC
Underoos That Ate NY      4.5     0.6     0.9    3        F_TAD_INF_ARC
Undertow                  5.4     1.3     0.9    3      8 F_TAD_ARC
Undo                      2.9     0.5     0.7    4      7 F_TAD_ARC
Unholy Grail              6.0     1.2     1.2    1     13 F_I_ARC
Unnkulian One-Half        6.7     1.2     1.5    9      1 F_TAD_ARC
Unnkulian Unventure 1     6.9     1.2     1.5    8    1,2 F_TAD_ARC
Unnkulian Unventure 2     7.2     1.2     1.5    5      1 F_TAD_ARC
Unnkulian Zero            8.4     0.7     0.8    21,12,14 F_TAD_ARC
Varicella                 8.2     1.6     1.5    9     18 F_INF_ARC
Veritas                   6.6     1.3     1.4    4        S10_TAD_ARC
Vindaloo                  2.9     0.0     0.4    1        F_INF_ARC
VirtuaTech                6.1     0.0     1.2    1        F_TAD_ARC
VOID: Corporation         3.2     0.4     0.8    1        F_AGT_ARC
Water Bird                5.0     1.1     0.8    1        F_TAD_ARC
Waystation                5.5     0.7     1.0    4      9 F_TAD_ARC
Weapon                    6.8     1.1     1.4    1     26 F_INF_ARC
Wearing the Claw          6.5     1.2     1.2    7 10, 18 F_INF_ARC
Wedding                   7.4     1.6     1.3    3     12 F_INF_ARC
What-IF?                  1.6     0.0     0.0    2        F_INF_ARC
Where Evil Dwells         5.1     0.8     1.1    1        F_INF_ARC
Winchester's Nightmar     6.9     1.5     0.5    1     22 F_INF_ARC
Winter Wonderland         7.6     1.3     1.2    7     19 F_INF_ARC
Wishbringer               7.6     1.3     1.3   16    5,6 C_INF
Withdrawal Symptoms       4.4     0.5     0.7    1        F_INF_ARC
Witness                   6.7     1.5     1.2   10  1,3,9 C_INF
Wizard of Akyrz           3.2     0.3     0.8    1
Wonderland                6.4     1.4     1.1    3        C_MAG
World                     6.5     0.6     1.3    2      4 F_I_ETC_ARC
Worlds Apart              8.0     1.7     1.4   10     21 F_TAD_ARC
YAGWAD                    6.7     1.1     1.3    2     23 F_INF_ARC
You Are Here              6.0     1.0     1.3    1        F_INF_ARC
Your Choice               5.5     0.0     1.1    1        F_TAD_ARC
Zanfar                    2.6     0.2     0.4    1      8 F_AGT_ARC
Zero Sum Game             7.5     1.5     1.6    4     13 F_INF_ARC
Zombie!                   5.2     1.2     1.1    2     13 F_TAD_ARC
Zork 0                    6.3     1.0     1.5   10      14C_INF
Zork 1                    6.1     0.8     1.4   24  1, 12 F_INF
Zork 2                    6.4     1.0     1.5   13  1, 12 F_INF
Zork 3                    6.5     0.9     1.4    8  1, 12 F_INF
Zork Undisc. Undergr.     5.9     0.9     1.1    3      14F_INF_ARC
Zork: A Troll's Eye V     4.4     0.6     0.1    3     14 F_INF_ARC
Zuni Doll                 4.0     0.6     0.9    2     14 F_INF_ARC

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The Top Ten:

I've gotten twelve, count 'em, *twelve* votes since the last issue. Hey,
that's about four votes a month, almost one a week! Unsurprisingly,
nothing has changed in the top ten. Not one thing. Oh, wait -- one
thing: Mind Forever Voyaging got one more vote. Not that this vote
affected its score or placement in any way. Sheesh, no wonder I'm
putting this feature to bed. 

1.  Gateway 2: Homeworld  9.0   6 votes
2.  Anchorhead            8.7   29 votes
3.  Sunset over Savannah  8.7   6 votes
4.  Trinity               8.7   18 votes
5.  Spider and Web        8.6   19 votes
6.  Gateway               8.6   7 votes
7.  Losing Your Grip      8.5   6 votes
8.  Babel                 8.5   11 votes
9.  Spellbreaker          8.5   8 votes
10. Mind Forever Voyaging 8.4   15 votes

A game is not eligible for the Top Ten 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.

SUBMISSION POLICY ---------------------------------------------------------

SPAG is a non-paying fanzine specializing in reviews of text adventure
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Authors retain the rights to use their reviews in other contexts. We
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although original reviews are preferred.

For a more detailed version of this policy, see the SPAG FAQ at
http://www.sparkynet.com/spag/spag.faq.

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