programming/agt/contests/agt4.txt

                         SOFTWORKS ANNOUNCES WINNERS

               IN FOURTH ANNUAL ADVENTURE GAME WRITING CONTEST


This year we truly had an international contest.  We had entries from Germany,
Ireland, Australia, Japan and the United States.

The judging was extremely tough...  We spent our days as a bumbling freshman
at Tumbulgum University searching for a bathroom and trying to get better
acquainted with some of the school's nubile coeds and our nights measuring the
NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) spectrum of a mysterious alien substance.  We
rose again to do battle with an evil sorceress, to feed some "just desserts"
to a few obnoxious pets, and to discover the meaning of life.  We ordered
burgers at the local hangout (in a foreign language), tried to win an
inheritance of $7.4 million dollars, learned some Biblical quotations, and
ended up walking a circus tightrope to escape from the Zamboni crime family's
secret headquarters.  After these diverse and thoroughly exhilarating
experiences, our valiant judges (dazed, exhausted, but never played-out!)
announce with pleasure the winner(s) of the fourth annual Adventure Game
Toolkit (AGT) Adventure Game Writing Contest.

Drum role, please!

......And the First Prize ($100) winner for the 1990 contest is:

CRIME TO THE NINTH POWER -- By Patrick Farley.  This game is the first of a
planned series of interactive novels featuring Cliff Diver, a private
investigator living and working in San Francisco.  Cliff is cut from the same
cloth as such famous PI's as Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe.  In this game, you
must help Cliff to escape from the deadly milieu of the Zamboni crime family's
secret headquarters.  Along the way, you and Cliff will face such challenges
as snarling dobermans, bad booze, and a couple of Zamboni's goons (named Flash
and Bonzo), and have a brief encounter with the succulent Tatiana and her
three beautiful sisters.

CRIME TO THE NINTH POWER comes with its own "pop-up" help system that allows
the player to get complete and comprehensive hints whenever he or she hits
Alt-H during the game.

The author, Patrick Farley, is a full-time professional writer and part-time
radio broadcaster.  The quality and professionalism of Patrick's writing
really makes CRIME TO THE NINTH POWER a joy to read and to play.  CRIME is his
first adventure game, but it is not going to be his last.  He is currently
crafting PURCHASED -- SIGHT UNSEEN, the next Cliff Diver computerized
interactive novel, which he expects to release later this year.

In addition to CRIME TO THE NINTH POWER, the contest had a number of other
excellent entries.  Among them, the judges have singled out the very best
adventures as deserving an "Honorable Mention."  These winning entries include
(in alphabetical order):

ANDKARA -- By Randy Smith.  This game is a classic fantasy of swords and
sorcery in which you lead a merry band of rogues, thieves, warriors and
magicians on a quest through swamps, forests and hamlets.  During the game,
you must buy provisions and deal with evil wizards, nasty swordsmen, old
crones, and a beautiful raven-haired warrior maiden.

ESCAPE FROM THE ELI and WEEKEND SURVIVAL -- Both By Lowell Riethmuller.  These
two games were written as part of Professor Riethmuller's (of the English
Language Institute of University of Delaware) research in using Computer
Assisted Language Learning in the field of English as a Second Language or
ESL.  In designing both games, Professor Riethmuller used simplified English
in the descriptions so that students from a wide variety of countries could
understand them.  A concerted effort was made to avoid the cultural bias, puns
and other instances of rhetoric-for-its-own-sake found in most adventure
games.

MAGIC MANSION -- By Denise Sawicki.  In this game, you play the role of a
young girl, held captive by an evil wizard.  He keeps you locked in a tiny,
prison-like room in the basement of his mansion.  Making your escape leads to
an adventure filled with clever puzzles, obnoxious pets, beautiful flowers,
lots of magic and a young girl's flight of fantasy.

MOLD -- DEEP SPACE AWAKENING -- By Declan Stanley.  In this adventure, you
play the part of a crew member of an interstellar spaceship who is awakened
from deep sleep (an artificially induced hibernation to allow people survive
the long periods needed to span the stellar gulfs) to find most of the crew
killed by a strange orange mold and the various systems aboard the ship
damaged beyond repair.  The objects of the game are to explore the ship, find
the one other surviving crew member, and get off the ship alive.

NMR2 -- By Douglas P. Burum.  In this game, you play the role of a research
chemist working at a top-secret government laboratory.  The earth has been
invaded by powerful creatures from another galaxy.  They have the power to
transform their appearance at will, which makes them very hard to recognize.
It has recently been learned that the secret of the alien transformation power
lies in a special substance manufactured by the alien body that acts as a
catalyst.  The object of the game is to measure the NMR (Nuclear Magnetic
Resonance) spectrum of this substance, discover its secret, and save the world
without killing yourself in the process.

PYRAMID -- By Roland Goulsbra.  This game is an interactive "phantasy" set in
modern Egypt.  The player must discover the secret of the pharaoh's tomb.  The
game is won by doing the right things, rather than collecting the right
things.  The ultimate goal is to figure out the MEANING OF LIFE (or LIFF as
it's called in the game -- as in Douglas Adams' book The Meaning of Liff).

STORMS -- By Ryan Burrus.  A phone call informs you that your uncle, the
famous scientist Professor Nightshade, has passed away.  According to the
instructions in his will, whoever can recover his greatest invention will
receive the inheritance of $7.4 million dollars.  To win the game and the
inheritance, you must explore your uncle's house, his lab, and such diverse
locales as a joke shop, the town graveyard and an amusement park.

TWO WAYS -- By Grant E. Metcalf.  This is a Christian text adventure.  You, a
weary traveler, can choose between a quick and easy path for your journey or
take the path fraught with untold hidden dangers which can strike without
warning.  This game is unabashedly evangelistic and there are numerous
Biblical quotations.  The game is presented in an very entertaining fashion
and is filled with the traps, puzzles and humor.

WHATEVER WE DECIDE TO CALL THIS GAME -- By Joel Finch, Glen Henville and
little bits by Matthew Newbery.  In this very funny adventure game, you play
the role of a bumbling freshman during his first day at Tumbulgum University.
You must (1) find a bathroom -- this is very urgent, (2) get enrolled, (3) get
a parking permit, and (4) get better acquainted with some of the school's
winsome coeds.  A game from Australia with a wry sense of humor.

All of the winning games are available from Softworks, the publisher of the
Adventure Game Toolkit, in a special 2-disk set of files called "1990 Best of
the Contest".  Both of these disks are available for only $15 (total for
both).

All of the games on the "1990 Best of the Contest" disks are provided in AGT
source code form -- with the exception of CRIME TO THE NINTH POWER.  These AGT
source code games require AGT's COMPILE and RUN programs which can be ordered
separately.

CRIME TO THE NINTH POWER is only available for IBM or Compatible computers.
It is provided in a "ready-to-play" version which requires 512K of memory and
for which a hard disk drive is recommended -- though not required.  CRIME does
not require AGT's COMPILE and RUN programs.  It's "ready-to-play" as is.
CRIME also comes with a complete "walkthru" solution -- just in case you get
stuck.

These and other fine products may be ordered from:

    Softworks
    43064 Via Moraga
    Mission San Jose, California  94539

You can also order by phone using your Mastercard or VISA by dialing
(415) 659-0533, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, PST ONLY, Monday to Thursday, or
Saturday or Sunday from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM.