___. .___ _ ___. / _| | \ / \ / ._| \ \ | o_/ | | | |_. .\ \ | | | o | | | | The |___/ociety for the |_|reservation of |_|_|dventure \___|ames. ISSUE # 9 Edited by G. Kevin Wilson (whizzard SP@G uclink.berkeley.edu) June 11, 1996. All email addresses are spamblocked -- replace the name of our magazine with the traditional 'at' sign. EDITORIAL-------------------------------------------------------------------- Here we are again. Another SPAG, another dollar. We just recently hit SPAG's 2nd anniversary, averaging one issue every three months or so. As of SPAG #8, we have published just over 100 game reviews. That's one big ole hunk of text. (Not to mention the 17 reviews in this issue) I'd like to pause here a moment and thank the most prolific of my steady reviewers: Graeme Cree, who has written probably more reviews than anyone else. Palmer Davis, who helped out by reviewing all the 1995 I-F contest entries. Audrey A. DeLisle, who helped out a lot in the beginning. Christopher E. Forman, who has written quite a few reviews himself. Molley the Mage, who hasn't been around for awhile, but deserves thanks for his early work, and his recent work. Magnus Olsson, who maintains SPAG's mailing list and has written some very nice reviews, not to mention Uncle Zebulon's Will. And of course, to the authors of all the text adventure authorship programs. Without the toolkits like TADS, Inform, Alan, and others, a revival of I-F would be nigh impossible. And of course, to all of you who have written or are writing a text adventure. Thanks for helping keep my favorite hobby alive. Thanks also to all the other contributers to SPAG. It's been a great two years. I-F has seen a healthy revival since I first got into it. I hope that I have been a part of this revival. Without games like Trinity, A Mind Forever Voyaging, and Jigsaw, there wouldn't be much around on the game market that had a serious theme to it, much less any literary merit. It is games like these that remind us that not everything has to be a Leisure Suit Larry or a Doom. But besides the fact that text adventures have a history of being better written than graphic adventures, there's also the noticeable fact that graphical adventures have ventured further and further from their interactive beginnings. In seeking simpler user interfaces, the games have sacrificed an important element of control that players once cherished. Text adventures still hold onto this interactivity in defiance of the mass game market, and maybe someday we'll have the opportunity to point out this loss of playability to the commercial game companies. So, text adventures are important in their own ways. They have, ironically, become the spearhead of research into methods of interactivity and characterization, even as outdated as they are claimed to be. If anyone figures out how to make an NPC feel totally real, it will most likely be a text adventure author. This issue is chocked full of chewy goodness. There are many reviews, loads of updated reader scores, an in-depth analysis on The One That Got Away, more info on the 1996 Second Annual I-F Competition, and maybe some other good stuff too. Apologies to Leon Lin in advance for the analysis. :) G. Kevin Wilson "Whizzard" P.S: As of next issue I would like reviewers to use the new header format for their reviews. It changes nothing else, just the review header, scores will still be done the same. The new version seem much more succinct and to the point than the old one. And, without further ado, here it is: KEY TO SCORES AND REVIEWS---------------------------------------------------- Consider the following NEW review header: NAME: Cutthroats AUTHOR: Infocom EMAIL: ??? DATE: September 1984 PARSER: Infocom Standard SUPPORTS: Infocom ports AVAILABILITY: LTOI 2 URL: Not available. The new header is shorter and easier to read. It relegates the comments on writing, atmosphere, etc. back into the body of the review, which should not pose a problem. The sections needing explanation are: DATE: When the game was released. Month and year are preferred, but year by itself will be accepted. URL: Where the game can be found on the Internet. Obviously, Cutthroats shouldn't be available on the net, so here's an example for "Shelby's Light": URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/tads/shelby.zip This will make the magazine a little friendlier for Web browsers. My thanks to Gareth Rees for the new header format. He used it in one of his reviews, and I liked it so much I decided to make it the official form. The EMAIL section is for the e-mail address of the game author, not the reviewer. AVAILABILITY will usually have either Commercial ($price), Shareware ($price), or Freeware. If the commercial price varies in stores, then it will just say Commercial. If it has been released in the LTOI collection, this line should say so. Lastly, if it is available on ftp.gmd.de, the line should add GMD. (Demo) if it's a demo version. The body of the review hasn't changed. 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. SPAG accepts reviews of any length, letters to the editor, the occasional interesting article on text adventures (no reprints please), and even just ratings for your favorite game, if you don't have the time to do a full review. Please though, at least send me info for each game you have rated equivalent to the review header for Cutthroats, above. All accepted materials will be headed by the submitter's name and e-mail address, unless you request that they be withheld, or do not supply them, in which case the header will read as "Anonymous." NEW GAMES-------------------------------------------------------------------- Recent months have seen the release of _SpiritWrak_, a game in the spirit of the Enchanter trilogy. It takes place in the Age of Science, when magic has left the planet, but the Gods remain. You, as a priest, can call on them to perform magical feats for you, in a manner VERY reminiscent of a wizard casting a spell in Enchanter. SpiritWrak can be found at ftp.gmd.de:/if-archive/games/inform/spirit.z5. I'm sure I'm missing a couple of recent games, like Lost New York or Gumshoe, but I've been pretty busy lately, and lacking in time for playing text adventures in general. Between SPAG, Avalon, and my other projects, I could easily work straight through the summer and not finish them all. REVIEWS---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Christopher E. Forman" NAME: Amnesia GAMEPLAY: Infocom-quality parser AUTHOR: Thomas M. Disch PLOT: Good, though done before EMAIL: ??? ATMOSPHERE: Very good AVAILABILITY: Commercial (Elec. Arts) WRITING: Excellent PUZZLES: A variety SUPPORTS: C64, Apple II, IBM CHARACTERS: Satisfyingly responsive DIFFICULTY: Challenging During the reign of Infocom, there were many attempts by other software companies to follow their recipe for quality I-F, some of them succeeding and some of them not, the latter occurring largely because of Infocom's dedication to I-F. Firms such as Sierra, Mindscape, and Electronic Arts preferred to branch out and diversify their software products, rather than placing all their eggs in one basket (which could be another factor contributing to Infocom's downfall, but that's another article entirely). In fact, Infocom and Level 9 were the only two companies focused solely on I-F, which may account for their stories outshining those of the competition -- very few 80's text adventures that I've seen can even come close to the gameplay of the average Infocom game. Thomas M. Disch's "Amnesia", however, succeeded where many others failed. As the player begins "Amnesia", he (and the main character is most certainly male) awakens in a New York City hotel room, naked and with no clue as to his identity. This by itself is by no means unique -- ICOM's "Deja Vu" begins under the same pretenses. But the story behind "Amnesia" is so much more involved. Once the most pressing problem of finding clothes is overcome, the player hits the streets of Manhattan in an effort to recover his lost memory and find out who framed him for murder. This, in essence, is the primary puzzle of the game, although its solution is hampered by a need to find food and a place to sleep at night. These things cost money, so earning money through such means as washing windows and panhandling are necessary. "Amnesia's" parser is perhaps the only one to equal Infocom's at the time. In many places it surpasses Infocom. With a vocabulary of about 1700 words and a multiple-sentence parser with plenty of synonyms, you'll very rarely need to hunt for a word. The one minor annoyance stems from the fact that objects' words aren't recognized if you try to use them when an object isn't in the current location -- for instance, you can't refer to a telephone if one isn't around, even though there may be one elsewhere in the game. But this is minor. Character interactions are detailed, and range from face-to- face meetings to conversations over the telephone. The game itself is huge, with as many as 4000 locations. Most of them are street corners or parts of the Manhattan subway system (both of these are completely programmed into the game), although there are a number of buildings and New York landmarks for the player to visit. A map (among other things) is included in the game package, so there's no need to draw your own, but you'll probably need to at least jot down some notes. "Amnesia" offers a variety of puzzles, from object and character interactions to some creative methods of obtaining money, food, and rest. The game's scoring system reflects this, awarding points for the categories of detective (how well you uncover clues), character (how well you interact with the denizens of New York), and survivor (how well-fed and rested -- and also alive -- you keep yourself). A good balance of the three is necessary for victory. If there's one major complaint about the game, it's the copy protection. The subway and city maps, address book, and street-indexing code-wheel would have been more than adequate to deter piracy, but "Amnesia" insists on forcing players to insert the original game disk for verification each time it loads. It seems EA didn't think of the consequences of what would happen when 5.25" disk drives phased out. You must insert the original disk -- a backup copy won't work -- or plan to spend several hours doing some heavy hex-editing, as the copy-protection is malevolently self-modifying (on par with some of the more evil computer viruses). Someone out there either REALLY didn't want this game to be copied (even legally), or REALLY liked copy protection. Once you get past this, though, "Amnesia" is a joy to play. It was written by Thomas M. Disch, who won the Campbell Award back in 1980, but this was done specifically for the I-F medium; it's not an adaption of any sort. (I've heard of a sequel -- "Amnesia II", astoundingly enough -- but have never seen it, and would appreciate any info anyone might have on it.) Disch's prose is vivid and flows nicely, spanning several screens on a few occasions. It makes for good reading as well as good adventuring, combining the best of the two art forms. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: "Bozzie" NAME: Demon's Tomb PARSER: OK. Nothing fancy. AUTHOR: Mastertonic PLOT: Stop ancient demon. EMAIL: ??? ATMOSHPHERE: Nice. AVAILABILITY: Commercial(Bargain bins) WRITING: Very good. PUZZLES: Average, but logical SUPPORTS: PC CHARACTERS: Very, very good (See below) DIFFICULTY: Medium This is an old game, but nonetheless it is a very good one. It deals with such important issues as fighting an ancient evil, sacrificing yourself in order to save the world (don't worry, not a spoiler), and how to keep a duck from quacking. The game starts off with you as Professor Edward Lynton, famed archaeologist, in an important site in England. Recently, some strange things have occurred. Your partner has gone missing. You have discovered things in the site which are both more amazing than your wildest dreams, and more horrifying than your worst nightmares. You awake in the middle of the night and smell smoke... With no escape outside this recently discovered tomb, you must send a message to the outside world, before the tomb becomes your own (and it will, no matter what you do. That's made very clear throughout the skimpy manual). You have only a short amount of time to do what you must do before you are overcome by smoke. Despite your actions, after a certain number of moves, the prologue ends and the game starts. You are Richard, the professor's son, in a car lot near the archeological site. You are here to talk to your father, but unfortunately, he is in no condition to talk. As you learn more about his death, depending on your earlier efforts, you will find a tale of a centuries old rivalry, of evil about to be unleashed and that you are the only one to stop it. The story itself is nice, and immediately reminded me of a Doctor Who story, Pyramids of Mars (also a text adventure game at /pc/mars.zip. Somewhat rough about the edges, but is a fairly good AGT game) . The story generally comes in spurts at a time in some wonderful prose. Notes, letters, documents all give some great insights at several interesting people who lived in the area. While most of these aren't necessary for the game, it is well worth your time to read everything. There are few, if any, "real" characters in Demon's Tomb that you can interact with, and most of those that there are puzzles more than anything. However, the descriptions, as I have said above, more than make up for the lack of interacting agents. In fact, in some ways, it makes it better. As recent debates on r.a.i-f have shown, there is no easy way to make a good NPC in a text game, and indeed, even if you manage to, there will still be problems with him/her. This way, the author manages to show us some wonderful characterizations without having to code a lot of time-eating code. This is not to say that the game is simple. Indeed, the game tries to be flashy by offering a menu system and some graphics, space which could have been used more efficiently. Indeed, I would have liked there to have been a good developed character. For example, how about a motorist I could flag down and warn, and then find him dead later... The Parser is sub-Infocom, but quite adequate for its purpose. The puzzles themselves are fairly simple, but not overly simple, and they are dynamic, so as not to bore experienced gamers. But that doesn't deter from the game, it adds to it. There are no completely obscure puzzles, and there are a few interesting ones. There are certainly no unfair puzzles, and enough of an area to explore, so that should you get frustrated at one problem, you'll be able to explore another area. And if you really need some help, C. E. Forman has graciously made a hint file of the game on ftp.gmd.de. It is because the story doesn't try to serve complex problems, the author is able to work on the story, and still throw in a new and interesting puzzle or two. It also manages to allow freedom to explore, although tends to be mostly linear in terms of solving problems. While I could hope for better, in terms of problem solving and a few other areas, over all, I enjoy this game, and it's certainly up there on my list of favorite games. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: "Christopher E. Forman" NAME: Guardians of Infinity GAMEPLAY: Windowed text AUTHOR: Paragon Software PLOT: Very detailed EMAIL: ??? ATMOSPHERE: Good AVAILABILITY: Commercial WRITING: Sparse but good PUZZLES: You'll need the docs SUPPORTS: PCs CHARACTERS: User-controlled DIFFICULTY: Hard Now this one is different. REALLY different. Possibly the most unique text adventure ever released. Paragon did "Guardians of Infinity" near the end of the '80s, about the time Infocom released their graphical I-F, but "Guardians" has no graphics. Rather, the player acts as one Adam Cooper, commander and overseer of five time-travelling agents attempting to prevent the assassination of JFK (Oliver Stone, eat your heart out). The screen is divided into windows for each agent, as well as the player's command line and other features critical to the mission. In a way, it's part "TimeQuest", part "Suspended", part "Trinity", part "Border Zone", and part...something. "Guardians of Infinity" simply has to be played to be understood. No terminology can quite do the experience justice. The game begins on November 15, 1963, and the player's job is to use the five agents to influence events in order to arrange a meeting between Kennedy and Cooper, so that Cooper can talk Kennedy out of his visit to Dallas, which in turn will prevent the assassination and the subsequent disruption of the time continuum which is threatening Cooper's own world of 2087. The agents will perform a surprising number of actions, from talking with those close to Kennedy, to robbing a bank to acquire funds. The parser is well-programmed but substantially different from the Infocom tradition. You can say, for example, "STEIN, GO TO WASHINGTON AND TALK WITH VICE- PRESIDENT JOHNSON" or even provide answers to your agents' questions, such as "LEE HARVEY OSWALD IS IN DALLAS." Walking around, picking up items, and brute searching are all eliminated, which lends a whole new universe of flexibility to the story. It's perhaps the closest thing to "puzzle-less" I-F, the recent subject of debate on rec.arts.int-fiction. (Don't get any ideas, though -- writing such a game would require a complete makeover on all the existing I-F compilers.) Still, it takes quite a bit of getting used to. Packaged with the game are a 90-page novella providing characterization for the agents and an exceptionally well-researched 145-page mission manual outlining the whereabouts of everyone connected with the assassination during the week of the 15th-27th. These must have had 1988 software pirates running away screaming, as you can't possibly get anywhere without them, yet they enhance the game and are plot-related, making for THE best copy-protection ever developed (with no irreverence intended toward Sorcerer's infotater). Disk #3 also contains a graphical slide-show with more info on the mission. The game's internal clock is always running, and news and agents' reports pop up in their respective windows constantly, leaving a lot for the player to juggle around. It's an intense experience, to say the least. Agents' responses, and most of the game text, for that matter (aside from some large plot points), are typically sparse, but with a fair amount of realism. "Guardians of Infinity" is definitely worth a play, and deserves far better than the measly bit of recognition it got on its initial release. Altering history has never been such fun. (No, I haven't won it yet, but I'm still trying.) -- C.E. Forman Incidentally, if you're having trouble locating a copy of "Guardians of Infinity", you may want to give the folks at Centsible Software (centsible SP@G delphi.com) a mail. They sell tons of used software, both classic and recent, at very reasonable prices (although, if you want the original game boxes, you may be out of luck). That's where I got my copy of "Guardians" (among other classics), and I recommend them. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= >From "David Seybert" NAME:Gumshoe AUTHOR: Mike Oliphant GAMEPLAY: Inform, usual PLOT: Poor EMAIL: oliphant SP@G cogsci.ucsd.edu WWW: http://cogsci.ucsd.edu/~oliphant ATMOSPHERE: well done AVAILABILITY: GMD WRITING: Disappointing PUZZLES: Good SUPPORTS: Inform Ports CHARACTERS: Shallow with one or two exceptions DIFFICULTY: Easy During the opening sequences of Mike Oliphant's new Inform game "Gumshoe", I found myself smiling a lot. With every turn Mike unveils yet another element from the private eye genre and sets the player up for a twisty ride through territory well blazed by the fictional likes of Philip Marlowe and Lew Archer. The dingy messy office, the caustic secretary, the beautiful woman who suspects her husband of infidelity, the drunken hangover, menacing underworld types to whom you, as the hero, owe money; the corrupt cop who enjoys harassing you; all of these are in "Gumshoe"'s delightful set-up. I've loved the private-eye genre since I was in high school. What makes it great is the use of the "Gumshoe" set up as an excuse to explore the darker side of human nature, to guide us through a labyrinth of perversity, dark secrets, haunted souls and evil that strikes quickly and lasts for generations. Inevitably the initial case the detective is asked to solve is only the tip of the iceberg; the real story lies much deeper. This is tricky territory to explore in interactive fiction and, unfortunately "Gumshoe" is not up to the task. We are asked to prove that Sandra's husband is cheating on her and that's exactly what we end up doing. We encounter no dead bodies, discover no dark secrets buried in families for generations, rescue no damsels in distress or uncover any surprising revelations that give us pause. All do is prove John's infidelity and that's what we do and rather quickly at that. In fact, one of the problems with the game is that we can provide the evidence we need to convince the woman of her husband's two timing very quickly. She gives us the money and that's that. Of course, there's more game to explore including a section where we get to prove his infidelity again, but it adds nothing top the story and feels like unnecessary padding. All of the elements that are introduced early in the game come to nothing. The secretary and her delightfully caustic comments vanishes early, the corrupt cop is quickly dealt with and never reappears, the underworld figures end up posing no threat and are easily bought off and forgotten. This lack of development might go uncommented on an another type of game, but character development and is what private detectives are all about along with plot development. Plot development or the lack thereof was the most disappointing element of the game. Once I got the goods on her husband, I expected to go to Sandra's house and find her still warm corpse with a couple of slugs in it, preferably from my gun. But she's home and she's fine and the game is over just when I expected it to take off. Likewise, when I entered the old house, I expected to solve the puzzle and find a body. But all that's there is the means to prove John unfaithful - again. Fortunately, actual gameplay is good, if a bit too linear. Everything has to be done in a certain sequence or you'll spend a *lot* of time sitting around doing nothing. I spent hours (game time) in one location before I realized that by acting logically (I.e. calling up my client and presenting her with the evidence she required) I'd made a mistake. Puzzles were, for the most part, logical and easily solved. I especially enjoyed the old house puzzle and the scene at the restaurant where you have to get past the corrupt cop. If you're looking for a pleasant afternoon's diversion, Gumshoe offers simple but enjoyable puzzles, and enough solid private-eye atmosphere to send you off to the video store to rent "Chinatown" or up to the attic to get out that old dog-eared copy of "The Long Goodbye." From: "Julian Arnold" NAME: Gumshoe PARSER: Inform standard AUTHOR: Mike Oliphant PLOT: See below EMAIL: oliphant SP@G cogsci.ucsd.edu ATMOSPHERE: See below AVAILABILITY: Freeware, GMD WRITING: See below PUZZLES: See below SUPPORTS: Z-machine ports CHARACTERS: See below DIFFICULTY: See below URL: Needs a Z-Machine interpreter, You wake up on the floor outside your office, fully clothed and with a hangover. You are Joe Gumshoe, private investigator, and you owe money. This is the premise upon which "Gumshoe" opens, nearly identical to the premise upon which so many detective stories and film noirs open, and the first of many noir mainstays (or perhaps I should say cliches?) which it adopts. There is also the sultry femme fatale with the unfaithful executive husband, the corrupt cop, the seedy bar, the unseen "Mr. Big" (in this case, one Jimmy Voigt) whose only contact with the player is via the medium of his bevvy of thugs and a mention in the introductory text, and the flickering neon. Sure, we've all seen this all before, but then, this is a genre seldom reknowned for its originality or inventiveness. Most, if not all, successful film noirs (I am more familiar with cinematic examples of the genre than with those of literature) are based on a relatively small set of standardised plot devices, and "Gumshoe" makes no attempts to break new ground here. This is a small game which most players will be able to complete in one or two sittings. A little unfortunately Oliphant has tried to incorporate too much into such a small game, and consequently there are too many loose ends and stray plot threads by the end of the game. For example, although we are told of a frame-up involving the aforementioned corrupt cop and resulting in Joe Gumshoe's dismissal from the police force (and his subsequent involvement in his current line of work) this issue is never resolved. Also, this same corrupt cop dogs Joe's footsteps during the early part of the game, but disappears entirely after his first set-back. The game also suffers from a few missed opportunities: the femme fatale is not actually fatale; no characters in the game are any more than they at first seem-- there are no double-crosses and no betrayal; though the plot is not entirely straightforward, neither does it contain any particular twists or surprises. However, the NPCs, of which there are a fair number, are mostly well done, each one being a believable though stereotypical character. They usually come equipped with an interesting and not entirely incidental past, and are able to satisfactorily answer questions on this. The writing is successfully atmospheric, with the right downbeat quality, menacing undertone, and emotive turn-of-phrase. For instance, "Well, Mr. Detective, or should I say Mr. Private Investigator, since you ain't a member of our well-respected police force no more? It seems that we got a problem here. You owe Mr. Voigt a considerable sum of cash. From what I can see, your little snoop business isn't exactly booming, so we're gonna cut you a deal. You cough up $500 by midnight tonight or you cough up a lung. Deal?" "Yeah," Morty echoes, "$500 or a lung." The puzzles are all based around the plot, resulting in a firm and successful marriage of game and story. It also means the solutions to the puzzles are logical and sensible-- the player is never left wondering "what do I do now?" or indeed "why did I do that?", but rather "I know what I want to achieve... now how do I do it?" "Gumshoe" is a short, enjoyable game. Both plot and puzzles play an important part in the game as a whole, and have been skillfully interwoven by the author. The writing is good, and the genre is unusual in interactive fiction. These factors, combined with the unresolved plot elements, left me wanting more at the end. This game also has some of the coolest music in IF. (I was a playtester for "Gumshoe".) [This review was posted to rec.arts.int-fiction, 7th April 1996.] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: "Christopher E. Forman" NAME: Inhumane GAMEPLAY: Bare-bones Inform AUTHOR: Andrew C. Plotkin PLOT: Parody of Infocom's "Infidel" EMAIL: erkyrath+ SP@G cmu.edu ATMOSPHERE: Demented AVAILABILITY: Freeware, GMD WRITING: Passable PUZZLES: Get yourself killed SUPPORTS: ZIP Interpreters CHARACTERS: Nope, afraid not DIFFICULTY: Half-hour session at most [A spoiler for the ending of Infocom's "Infidel" follows. If you haven't solved it, don't read on.] I'll start off by saying this: "Inhumane" is not meant to be taken seriously. It's a puzzle-less parody of Infocom's "Infidel", written by the author when he was 15 or so, and translated from the original AppleSoft BASIC version to Inform. But it's actually kind of fun, with a few small laughs, and it brought back some great memories of my own abyssmal (though they seemed great at the time) early attempts at I-F. Perhaps more good-natured sharing of first-try games is in order. I may even translate one of my own, if the interest is there. What little plot there is begins along the same lines as "Infidel." You've been abandoned on an archaeological dig, and must find and explore a hidden pyramid. Once you get inside (and a couple of notes left behind by your partner tell you how), you're confronted by a malevolent spirit who offers to give you the key to the treasure room in exchange for your getting killed by a series of traps to prove yourself a complete moron. This aspect of the game pokes fun at the fact that your character dies at the end of "Infidel" -- in "Inhumane", you have to get killed nine times to win. Some of the traps are rather imaginative, though it's nearly always painfully obvious when you're going to die. For the most part, though, "Inhumane" is just an excuse for a bunch of incomprehensible inside jokes about high-school geometry class. Though you'll get a couple of laughs, it sounds a lot funnier than it actually is. Far more entertaining is the "History of Infobom" section of the online help, which describes some of the other Infocom parodies author Andrew Plotkin and his friend worked on at one time. -- C.E. Forman =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: "Gareth Rees" NAME: JIGSAW AUTHOR: Graham Nelson E-MAIL: nelson SP@G vax.ox.ac.uk DATE: October 1995 PARSER: Inform SUPPORTS: Infocom ports AVAILABILITY: IF archive URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/infocom/Jigsaw.z8 "Jigsaw" opens on the night of December 31st, 1999, at a party to celebrate the new millennium. Feeling out of sympathy with the thronging party-goers, and unable to find again the attractive stranger in black who has just slipped away, you wander off to explore a mysterious monument built by the late eccentric millionaire Grad Kaldecki. You discover that Kaldecki has constructed - or somehow obtained access to - a time machine. In the centre of the monument, the time machine takes the baroque form of a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces (once found) give access to turning points in twentieth century history. Kaldecki planned to alter history, but died with his work barely started, leaving his acolyte (the attractive stranger, soon capitalised as Black) to complete his megalomaniacal scheme. Much against your will, you find yourself trailing around the century in Black's wake, trying to restore history to its rightful course, and searching for hidden jigsaw pieces. You visit some of the most important moments in twentieth century history: World War I, the Wright brothers, women's suffrage, the Moon landings, the Cold War, the Berlin Wall. (Though not every historian would place the writing of Proust's novel "A la Recherche de Temps Perdu" in this list!) The quest is complicated by a romance between you and Black, and by hints of metaphysical significance when you enter a realm called `The Land', whose mist-shrouded locations are emblematic of the great themes: Art, Science, War, and Nature. It is often an axiom in time-cop novels that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and that any kind of interference with history must be disastrous. "Jigsaw" rigidly enforces this convention by ending the game whenever the past is changed. This extreme historical conservatism sits uneasily with some of the chapters: it is not clear why eight million men had to die for the sake of the world as we know it, nor what is so bad about the world described in the following paragraph that World War I was preferable: You shake your head, confused. Why did the mad London-born architect Kettering build this monument? Why did the government of the Franco-British Republic ever allow Century Park to be built here at Versailles? Never mind: time to go and get a drink of potato brandy from the commissars and toast the new millennium. Sometimes it is completely implausible that the disturbance in the past could have led to the result you see. For example, in the Suez Canal chapter, the wider outcome does not depend on your actions: even though Black brokered a deal to prevent the Suez Crisis, the powers that be always intended to renege on the deal. "Jigsaw" is a huge game, one of the largest text adventures ever written. It is made manageable only by its episodic structure: each time zone can be treated more or less as a separate game, requiring only those objects that are nearby to solve its puzzles. (Though there are a few interconnections between the eras to make life interesting, and attempts to use anachronistic objects inappropriately are often amusing.) "Jigsaw"'s puzzles are hard; often all you can do is collect the available objects and fiddle with them, without any real understanding of what your objective is until you've achieved it. Particularly unfortunate in this respect are the Alexander Fleming, women's suffrage and East Berlin chapters. A few other puzzles refer to classic works of interactive fiction including "Adventure", "Zork" and "Enchanter", and the novice without this background will struggle. Some of the puzzles, on the other hand, are inspired. In one chapter, you find yourself at Bletchley Park in World War II and have to decrypt a message encoded by the Enigma machine. Sweating away at this problem, I suddenly realised that, whereas the usual derring-do of an adventure game is only so much make-believe, in this case my task was made no easier by its fictional nature. Of course, my 1940s counterparts faced a more difficult Enigma machine - Nelson's being slightly simplified - had to succeed without the benefit of information gained by supernatural means, had no access to high-speed computers, and faced rather greater consequences of failure than merely an unfinished game. I found myself thinking, ``If Turing and Newman could do it, then surely I, with all these advantages, can do it too!'' The most interesting feature of "Jigsaw" is the way it deals with Black's sex. By cunning paraphrase, Nelson manages to avoid ever stating whether Black is male or female: knowing only that Black is attractive to you, you are free to project your own preference onto the situation. This is a more elegant device than the outright question ``Are you male or female?'' or the various contrivances by which Infocom games force a decision on you. Not every reader appreciates this elegance: at least one person posting to rec.games.int-fiction, having noticed that both you and Black are able to pass yourselves off successfully in masculine roles, argued that you and Black must therefore be gay men. But given the fantastic nature of the piece, and the famous cases of women who have gone disguised as men for long periods of time without detection, it is foolish to rigidly insist on such an interpretation. "Jigsaw" is Nelson's second game. His first, "Curses", grew by stages into a mish-mash of Celtic Druids and King Arthur rubbing shoulders with classical Greek Gods and the poems of T.S. Eliot. The effect is certainly startling, but I imagine that a writer as attracted to elaborate formal structures as Nelson could not be satisfied with the outcome. A new game gave him the opportunity to make amends. The result is dominated by structures based on the numbers 16 and 100. There are 16 time zones, 16 chapters, 16 jigsaw pieces, 16 animals to sketch, 16 locations in the Land and the game starts with 16 minutes to go before the start of the new century. There are 100 years in the Twentieth Century and 100 points to be scored. There are also pairings of opposites: Prologue and Epilogue, Black and White, nature and technology, the dead Land and the living Land, the party at the end of the century and the party at the beginning, the chapel unbuilt and the chapel disused. At times I felt the correspondences and allegory were too obvious and too much; Black's schematic role rather overshadows the tentative story of Black's relationship with the player (and this is not helped by the flexible order of the chapters). "Jigsaw" also lacks the excitement and unpredictability which "Curses" achieved by being so chaotic. Still, "Jigsaw" is extremely good by the standards of existing text adventure games, and certainly good enough to be worth paying the compliment of taking it seriously. Although it adopts a traditional puzzle-based style of game-play, and doesn't make any technical advances beyond the state of the art, it does wonders with the limited techniques at its disposal. Everyone who enjoys text adventures should play it. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: "Magnus Olsson" Name: Lethe Flow Phoenix Parser: TADS standard Author: Dan Shiovitz Plot: Linear Email: scythe SP@G u.washington.edu Atmosphere: Slightly surreal Availability: F, GMD Writing: Excellent Puzzles: Logical, rather simple Supports: TADS ports Characters: See review Difficulty: Below average "Lethe Flow Phoenix" is one of those works that one approaches without really knowing what to expect. On one hand, it's been mentioned as small and simple, solvable in a few hours; on the other hand, there's the obscure, almost pretentious, title that implies a mythical significance. Add to that various comments - including spoiler requests - that hinted at great depths, and it felt like a "must-play". I wasn't disappointed - it turned out to be even more interesting than I had expected: "Lethe Flow Phoenix" is an ambitious attempt to deal with questions not normally addressed in IF, and an attempt to extend the traditional adventure game to be able to do so. At first, you are not very likely to notice much of this. The introduction is short and somewhat sinister: memories of a camping trip, and falling - or stepping - off a cliff, then nothing more until you find yourself in a slightly surrealistic fantasy world, with no idea of how you got there or what to do next. There is nothing very original about this opening - the sudden abduction to a strange world seems to be becoming a cliche of IF - nor about the world you've ended up in. In fact, everything in the world is vaguely familiar: it seems to be assembled out of common IF icons such as gazebos, bird cages and waterfalls. This is probably intentional (an explanation is given later in the game) and does not imply any lack of originality on the part of the author - the puzzles involving these familiar icons are perhaps not of stunning novelty, but they certainly don't feel old and worn either. The atmosphere in this early part of the game is sweet and idyllic, somewhat reminiscent of "The Sound of One Hand Clapping", though there are dark undertones that foreshadow later revelations. After having you explore this tiny world (only 15 or so locations) and solve a number of not too difficult puzzles, all at a rather languid pace, the author suddenly turns the tables on his unsuspecting audience. It is here that "Lethe Flow Phoenix" changes from a light, innocent puzzle game to rather dark interactive literature, that at least attempts to touch deep, existential questions. It starts innocently enough with a puzzle involving a spider and a mushroom. The conclusion of the puzzle is, however, not just an increased score and a longer inventory, but an entirely unexpected series of events that plunges you into what first seems like a nightmare, plagued by ghosts from your past. Via a series of essentially non-interactive "cut scenes" - there is seldom a choice of actions, but either just one obvious thing to do, which triggers another cut scene, or no option but to watch and listen as the plot advances by itself - you are led to an encounter with the central NPC, Daniel, who in a long monologue explains what is going on and how crucial a role you're actually playing in the scheme of things. The encounter with Daniel is the climax of "Lethe Flow Phoenix", and acts as a centre of symmetry; it is followed first by another confrontation with your past, and then you are back where you were before, in a "traditional", puzzle-based adventure game. The difference is that after meeting Daniel, you are prepared to do something about your past, to derive inner strength rather from it rather than just grieving over lost opportunities. Similarly, when you're attacking the puzzles again, you are armed with the means to manipulate not only the various objects in the world, but the world itself. This enables you to go back and finish certain puzzles that were left open before, thus bringing everything to a satisfying conclusion. While not very original, the outer parts of the game are quite well written, with attention to detail even in objects that would normally be considered decorations. People who like red herrings will probably enjoy this; personally, I find significant-looking objects that turn out to be unimportant a bit of a distraction, but this is a matter of taste. On the other hand, the author sometimes fails to realize the full potential of the really significant objects. The gazebo scene, for example, or the remote control, are wonderful devices with lots of possibilitites for experimentation and clever puzzles; I was a bit disappointed that in both cases the intended use for this complex machinery was quite simple. Still, in a game of this small size, it is perhaps just an advantage to have simple puzzles. And though simple, the puzzles are not trivial. In most cases they require thinking in several steps and solving them gives you that nice feeling of accomplishment that is perhaps the adventurer's best reward. There is only one NPC in the outer parts of the game. It is very simple and not very interactive, and anyway, in the case of this particular NPC it's quite in character. I had a few parser problems (the most serious one being that you can enter a cave by typing just "enter" in the right place, but the command "enter cave" gives the response "I don't see any cave here"), and the way the magnet is handled is extremely awkward, but my only major complaint with the outer parts of the game is the very first puzzle. Unfortunately, it is of the tired "find food or you'll die" variety, and, as usual, the time before you starve is far too short, forcing you to restart from the beginning over and over again until you've found all the objects necessary to get food. The puzzle in itself is quite nice, but the time limit detracts considerably from the enjoyment. Perhaps it was put in to give a sense of urgency to the rather placid early game, but in that case it is almost certainly not the right method. Apart from a this, gameplay flows smoothly and a reasonably experienced adventurer should be able to solve it in a few sittings. The central section is entirely different. Almost all the action takes place in the cut scenes, and the player is led through the plot without the option to deviate from the path, being told what he thinks and feels, never really given a chance to act. The centre of the centre, so to speak, is entirely non-interactive; a story within the story, told by Daniel in a monologue that must be the longest speech by any IF character so far, at least outside "The Legend Lives". There are no real puzzles in this section, and the NPCs are essentially non-interactive, although it is possible to extract some interesting background information by asking Daniel questions after he has finished his speech. The author uses the cut scenes very effectively, gradually leading the player into longer and longer, and less and less interactive scenes. The writing is very good indeed, the imagery evocative, the language beautiful and poetic, without degenerating into empty effects - and what is being said is important: not only the background to the entire setting, but the player character's internal conflicts and attempts to come to grips with his or her past. Dan Shiovitz is addressing very deep questions for an adventure game, and perhaps he has chosen the only realistic way of doing so. Still, I must confess that it fails to be really engaging. I think one reason for this is simply the enormous contrast with the outer parts of the game, and especially the differences in time scale. Solving the first part of the game takes at least a few hours, during which one gets into the mode of thought appropriate for a puzzle game. Then one is presented with an enormous amount of text, which takes perhaps ten minutes to read - only to be abruptly dumped back into the remainder of the puzzle game, which will take some time to finish. The effect is that what should be the central part and climax of the work turns into a short interlude, while the rest of the game, which is infinitely less important in terms of emotional content, dominates it totally. Also, although the writing is excellent, I feel that author attempts too much. He certainly seems to have given his imagination free reins; the result is a story that combines fallen angels with alien invaders, philosophical speculation with battle scenes; a struggle of enormous proportions - and this is just the background. The player character's immediate concern is not this cosmic drama, but coming to grips with himself and with the ghosts of his past. Somehow, this combination of myth and science fiction, legend and psychological drama, science fiction and ghost story, saving the world and achieveing personal fulfilment, all presented in just a few pages of text, fails to have the desired impact just because it is _too_ powerful, too all-encompassing. I'm not saying that it is impossible to combine these elements into one story, just that the author may be making it just a little bit too hard for himself - and for his readers. There are limits to the ability to suspend disbelief. If the author had concentrated on one or two aspects of this story, instead of trying to do everything at once, it would have been much more effective; the message would have come across much more powerfully without all the fireworks. To summarize, "Lethe Flow Phoenix" is a work with strong centrifugal tendencies - it flies apart into quite disparate components. Taken by themselves, these parts are perhaps not perfect, but very good indeed, considering that this is the author's debut work. Together, they fail to yield an artistic unit, partly because of the author's high ambitions; however, he shouldn't be blamed for failing to achieve everything but praised for even making the attempt. Without experimentation, we would never get anywhere. "Lethe Flow Phoenix" is very interesting for what it tries to achieve, and the ways in which it succeeds or fails to succeed in doing so. It contains some pieces of excellent writing, as well as some good work in the invention of puzzles and intricate puzzle machinery. IF authors are advised to study it carefully. And for everybody, authors or non-authors alike, it remains a very enjoyable game. From: "Gareth Rees" NAME: Lethe Flow Phoenix AUTHOR: Dan Shiovitz DATE: August 1995 PARSER: TADS SUPPORTS: TADS ports AVAILABLE: IF archive URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/tads/lethe.zip It is universally acknowledged by writers of fiction that realistic characters are hard to do. Any adventure game programmer would add, I am sure, that maintaining that realism while making it possible to interact with characters is well beyond the current state of the art. So what to do? Keeping the interaction and accepting the loss of realism is one approach, but a second possibility is to lose the interactivity and try to salvage the realism somehow. Infocom's games often toyed with this approach, from the mysterious gentleman who occasionally robs the player in "Zork", to the unseen and unsettling presence of cousin Herman in "Hollywood Hijinx". David Baggett, in his game "Legend", experimented with a variation on this approach, by confining most of the character exposition and major turning points in the plot to `cut scenes', long conventionally narrated passages which break up the more conventionally puzzle-oriented interactive action. Dan Shiovitz's game "Lethe Flow Phoenix" (1995) takes this approach to its logical conclusion. In this game, all plot, characterisation and background is confined to the cut scenes, and the interactive portions are completely unrelated to the ostensible plot. The effect is unnerving and surreal. The matter of the plot is this: you play an unhappy young man or woman experiencing an existential crisis. While travelling in the American desert to try to make sense of your life, a supernatural force pulls you off a cliff, and you find yourself in a fantasy world. After some exploring, you find a fallen angel called Daniel who explains that the Earth is being invisibly taken over by alien invaders, and that you are one of the chosen ones intended to fight this secret war. [Spoilers removed.] It's hard to imagine how an adventure game could get to grips with this kind of powerful and emotional material, and Shiovitz doesn't even try. The interactive parts of the story are conventional puzzle-solving involving a talking tree, a levitating gazebo, a magic mushroom and other fantastic trappings. Various aspects seem intended to suggest Brian Moriarty's game "Trinity" (1986): there are giant mushrooms, and a sun that moves and casts shadows on a giant sundial. All very entertaining, but it seems rather petty when compared to the Earth-shaking apparatus of the plot. The most curious aspect of "Lethe Flow Phoenix" is how well done the individual parts are! The puzzles are uniformly excellent and well-motivated (except for one curious action, which most players will eventually work out for lack of anything else to do). There are several impressively complex interactive mechanisms, which all seem to have been coded flawlessly, and there are as many synonyms and alternate ways of expressing actions as a player could want. On the plot side, the writing is very fluent and readable despite the weightiness of the material (although not up to the task of compressing God, angels, alien invaders, human avatars, a deprived childhood, adolescent angst, family breakdown and forgiveness into the space of a few screenfuls - as if any writing could be!). But the plot and the puzzles make a game bolted together like a Frankenstein monster: neither side supports the other, and the result is neither successful as a game, nor as a story. Still, I look forward to Shiovitz's next game with interest; if he can produce a game and story which go together to make something greater than the sum of the two parts, the result will be very impressive. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: "Molley the Mage" NAME: The Light: Shelby's Addendum PARSER: TADS 2.2 AUTHOR: C. A. McCarthy PLOT: Darkish science fiction EMAIL: mlkuehl SP@G students.wisc.edu (?) ATMOSPHERE: Excellent! AVAILABILITY: Shareware, GMD WRITING: Highest quality PUZZLES: Obscure, not well done SUPPORTS: TADS 2.2 ports CHARACTERS: Richly developed DIFFICULTY: NP-Complete "The Light: Shelby's Addendum" is a fascinating piece of science-fiction IF from a very talented writer, C.A. McCarthy (a regular contributor to the interactive fiction newsgroups as well). The game casts you as Shelby, the "apprentice" (functional equivalent of a graduate student) to the Regulators, two physicists who maintain a beacon which is critical to the survival of the Earth (in between their studies of subsurface sonar phenomena). When you return home from a trip to find that the beacon is no longer alight, and no one seems to be left at the project site, you must embark on a search for the truth behind the evil happenings which have befallen the Lighthouse. What fate has befallen the Regulators? What's happened to the phase modulator? And why didn't anyone feed the chickens, for crying out loud? As it turns out, you'll get to know the Regulators quite well before meeting either one of them. Barclay and Holcroft come to life through Shelby's observations on the everyday things around him, and through other sources (a diary, for example). You'll learn that something sinister is definitely afoot, and that one of the Regulators has placed all of Earth's inhabitants in danger by embarking on a dangerous "quest" of his own. His motivations, as well as his methods, must be unraveled if Shelby is to succeed. The first problem, however, is the fact that without the beacon, Shelby (and any other living thing) is out of phase with the rest of the world. If you do not find some way to prevent it (and quickly!) Shelby will meet a grisly death within just a few turns of the game's beginning. In my opinion, the time limit imposed by the game to solve this first puzzle is too tight. You get 100 moves before dying, which may seem like a lot, but trust me -- it's not. This is definitely a "restore puzzle" and one which will probably take you several restarts to solve. Which brings me to my only major complaint with the game: the puzzles. "The Light: Shelby's Addendum" contains several puzzles which are more or less original in concept. Unfortunately, they are terribly executed. While a genuine attempt has been made by the author to integrate the puzzles into the story, the nature and difficulty of the puzzles is such that they stick out like a sore thumb. Not only are some of the more important puzzles (like the first one you'll need to solve in order to stay alive) just downright obscure, the author has chosen to "hide" most of the objects in the game deep within the scenery. You'll need to look under, over, around, behind, and through every single piece of scenery to avoid missing vital objects without which you cannot complete the quest. In particular, the places where the keys are hidden on the mainland is extremely unfair. Quite frankly, I don't recommend playing this game without at least a hint sheet (and probably a walkthrough) or you will almost certainly become hopelessly stuck at any of several places. You may consider this "puzzle wimpiness" on my part, but consider that Trinity and Spellbreaker are my two all-time favorite Infocom games, and perhaps that will put my opinions of "Shelby"'s puzzles into perspective. This is not to say that *all* of the puzzles are bad: several of them are quite clever, and the implementation of all the puzzles is basically seamless (with one exception, but it doesn't affect your ability to finish the game). There's one puzzle near the end of the game which involves a weight-sensitive elevator and is quite nifty in its execution. In fact, the implementation of the whole game seems *very* solid. I didn't discover any unknown bugs in the game, nor did I notice any typos (other than a couple of places where "its" was used instead of "it's") and the game mechanics and pacing flowed beautifully. In truth, despite the incongruency of the puzzles, I hasten to say that I enjoyed "Shelby's Addendum" a great deal. This game is well written. The plot is great, there's a bit of horror (but nothing overboard), the characters are well-developed (including the player's character, which is unusual in IF but handled beautifully here), and the room descriptions and scenery descriptions are vivid and consistently of the highest quality. The "cut scenes" (areas of long text where various central characters interact) and the original storyline throughout made me think I was reading a top-notch science-fiction short story instead of playing a computer game. Did I mention that I think the prose is *really* good? I have to be sure and work that little tidbit into this paragraph somewhere. There's an undertone of ecological (ir)responsibility in the game, but the player is not really "hit over the head" with any kind of great theme or moral message. One does get a glimpse into how far a man might go to regain that which he has lost, and a more convincing NPC than Barclay I have not seen in an interactive fiction game for some time. There is plenty of material here for your philosophical brain cells to chew on, as well as a good amount of technical descriptions and other "futuristic" science. The game logic is consistent all the way through, and everything is eminently believable. The author has certainly created a seamless experience as far as I am concerned. However, many players will be turned off by the puzzles. I know that after several hours of extreme frustration when Shelby first came out, I was unable to survive the 100-turn limit and put the game away for another day. I just dragged it out today, actually, and pretty much lucked into the solution to that first puzzle. Once you have managed to locate the wall safe, however, the rest of the steps needed to preserve Shelby's physical integrity should be easier. However, this is only the first of several major frustrations you will encounter. The only word of advice I can give to players is examine EVERYTHING. And I mean everything. If a noun is mentioned in a room description, you had better look at it or you may well miss something crucial. While I always have been and remain a great advocate of the rule that "if a noun is used in a room description, the player should be able to examine it", I believe that the author has gone a bit too far in making the player search for important objects and other pieces of information in unlikely places. In summary, "The Light: Shelby's Addendum" is not going to make my list of the top three interactive fiction games of the year, because frankly it wasn't that much fun to play, what with the puzzles being such a mess. However, it rates number one for 1996 in quality of writing, characterization, story, and plot. This is a game which begs to be *read*. This is a game which could have been published as a short story. This is a game which, if you can get past the first few frustrations, will reward you amply. I've not played any of Colm's other games; (he mentions two in the accompanying text file), but I would sure like to read some of his fiction -- because his instincts as a writer are right on the money. Some better puzzles and a bit less random searching, and this would be one of the best games ever to come down the pipe. As it stands, "Shelby" is much like a lighthouse itself -- brief periods of dazzling illumination punctuated by deep darkness. But the light pierces, straight and true. Give this one a chance, folks. Also, I have to give a good review to any game which implements a full bottle of the finest liquid refreshment on Earth, Guinness Extra Stout. Brought a tear to my eye, it did. The only thing I regretted was that there was only one bottle. :) From: "Gareth Rees" NAME: The Light: Shelby's Addendum AUTHOR: Colm A. McCarthy DATE: December 1995 PARSER: TADS SUPPORTS: TADS ports AVAILABILITY: IF archive URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/tads/shelby.zip In this game you play Shelby, a young apprentice to the `Regulators', Holcroft and Barclay. You live in a remote lighthouse where you nominally study physics, but actually spend most of your time cooking and scrubbing floors. Returning to the lighthouse after an extended period of absence, you find that things have gone wrong. An ominous mist surrounds the lighthouse and Holcroft and Barclay are nowhere to be found. It is up to you to find out what is the matter, and to put things right again. Most of the fun in this game is figuring out the background to the world McCarthy has created here, so I won't reveal too much about it. Suffice to say that this is a world somewhat like ours, but in which `physics' is a very different subject from the physics we know. The how and why of this world is revealed tantalisingly slowly, a little bit in the room descriptions, some more in books, magazines and other papers that you read, and some more that you have to guess for yourself. The idea of alternate worlds, and the uses to which they might be put (if technology were to allow their manipulation), play a strong part in the rationale for the plot and some of the game mechanics. (However, it is a bit disappointing that the working of the plot depends on so many people being complete idiots! If the `phase modulator' is so essential that its removal can threaten the destruction of the world, why does the UN leave it to be guarded only by two old physicists?) Although the discovery of the background is interesting, the actual mechanics of the game are disappointing. Some of the text is good, notably the introductpry paragraphs, but much of the rest is rather lacklustre. Room descriptions have a tendency towards lists of furniture and exits, and there are rather too many rooms in which nothing happens (I counted 25 that could have been removed without loss). Far too many of the puzzles require you to read through the room description, examine every object mentioned and look under every piece of furniture. Several locations seem to be full of clutter for the express purpose of distracting you from the one object you need to investigate. There are a few places where over-enthusiasm on the part of the writer rather spoils the atmosphere. There's a submarine trip in which you're treated to jokey descriptons of characters from television programmes (Flipper the dolphin, the puppets from "Stingray" and so on). These seem completely out of place with the more serious tone of the rest of the game, and would have been better turned into Easter eggs. Late on in the game, with the island crumbling around you and doom approaching, you are treated to messages along the lines of ``All around you the earth groans horribly'', presumably in order to instil in you some sense of urgency. But these messages appear every turn, and it turns out that there is in fact no time limit, so after fifty or more repetitions the effect is ludicrous rather than alarming. Some of the puzzles seemed completely arbitrary to me, and even after solving them I still don't understand why the solution worked. For example, there's a puzzle with two circles on the ground; if you put the right objects in the circles, a secret door opens. As far as I can tell, there are no clues to which objects to use. Another puzzle uses an oxygen cylinder and a pump to make a submarine appear; I might have understood this if the submarine had been in an underground chamber full of water that needed to be pumped out, but in fact the submarine appeared in the open sea. So what was the oxygen used for? Some other puzzles are made difficult by programming errors: there's a trapdoor in the ceiling which is too high to reach, but you might not realise this because the commands `touch trapdoor', `push trapdoor' and so on give messages that suggest you can touch it. A pivoting balance is implemented so that it only moves when you put an object on one of the plates. If you change the weight of an object while it's on the plate, the balance stays where it is. However, a few of the puzzles are well done: two cleverly-clued password puzzles gave me an ``Aha!'' feeling when I got them right first time. I've been rather harsh in this review; there are good aspects to "The Light: Shelby's Addendum", and it would not have been out of place had it appeared as a mid-period Infocom game. But I didn't enjoy playing it very much because the moments of excitement were few and far between. I had expected the eventual encounter with Barclay and Holcroft to liven things up a bit, but, when they do appear, these characters are passive and unresponsive, implemented with the minimum of effort necessary to carry them from their rediscovery to their disappearance a handful of turns later. The one point in the game that really ought to be exciting - a ding-dong fight between Barclay and Holcroft in an underground laboratory - was made completely non-interactive, with nothing for the player to do but yawn as several screenfuls of text scroll by. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: "Christopher E. Forman" NAME: The Multi-Dimensional Thief GAMEPLAY: AGT or Parser/GUI AUTHOR: Joel Finch PLOT: Escape the Dungeon EMAIL: ??? ATMOSPHERE: Fragmented AVAILABILITY: Shareware ($15), GMD WRITING: Not Bad PUZZLES: A Few Surprises SUPPORTS: PCs CHARACTERS: Unresponsive DIFFICULTY: Below Average "The Multi-Dimensional Thief," which was a winner in one of the AGT Programming Contests a few years back, comes in two formats: A text-only AGT-based version, and a Legend-esque graphical game engine, with command buttons, clickable text, and mouse input. Both versions of the game have the same layout, but I found the latter to be a bit more playable, as the parser is a slight improvement over AGT's standard, though still far from perfect (the AGT version is not bad either, merely missing a few nice features). They're both a bit buggy, though -- I found three or four rather obvious mistakes as I played through them, but nothing serious. The plot is nothing we haven't seen before. You're a thief, and you want to become part of the Multi-Dimensional Thieves' Guild. So you're placed in a magical dungeon and must escape to prove yourself. Pretty standard stuff, but the simple concept serves the game well. Throughout your travels, you'll visit a number of different places, many of which are barely connected to the game world. That's my primary complaint about "Thief" -- it seems as if many of the locations are simply stuck together with no regard for a streamlined overall design. Travel to exotic, faraway places works well in I-F if there's perceived spatial distance and a central logic to it (for instance, the Oracle in "Zork Zero"). But "Thief" puts so many diverse environments in such close proximity to one another that it tends to make the game appear incongruous and fragmented. Some of the puzzles are quite clever. The portable hole, in particular (obviously inspired by the classic Warner Brothers cartoon), is one of my favorites. A few (some of the Oz puzzles, for instance), require some inside knowledge from the original sources that inspired their I-F counterparts. All in all, though, it's not too hard, and shouldn't take an experienced player more than a few days to play through. The AGT version comes with a set of pop-hints, which in turn come with a list of fun things to try and some rather amusing bogus topics. This is one feature that I missed in the graphical release. If you detest graphics, the GUI version isn't going to endear them to you, but it's worth checking out for the novelty of implementation. Better yet, show it to your graphic-crazed friends, and perhaps they'll be willing to give parser adventures a try. (BTW, the graphical version won't run on some older systems -- it requires a VGA or SVGA video card. Also, SVGA users need at least a 386.) -- C.E. Forman =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: "Christopher E. Forman" NAME: Oo-Topos GAMEPLAY: 1 or 2-word commands AUTHOR: Michael Berlyn PLOT: Strictly rudimentary EMAIL: ??? ATMOSPHERE: A few nice touches AVAILABILITY: Commercial (Sentient Software) WRITING: Minimalist PUZZLES: Not overly difficult SUPPORTS: C64, Apple II, IBM CHARACTERS: Lifeless obstacles DIFFICULTY: Medium [This review is based on the Apple II version of the game.] "Oo-Topos" is an oldie but a goodie. It was written billions and billions of years ago (to be exact, 1981), during the dawn of the home computing era. It was also the very first game written by Michael Berlyn, before he went on to write "Cutthroats", "Infidel", and "Suspended" at Infocom. (Incidentally, to add to the recent "Where Are They Now?" article in April's "Computer Game Review," Berlyn also worked at Accolade for some time, where he did the "King's Quest"-like "Altered Destiny" a few years back, and was also part of a team which created Sega and Super Nintendo games -- he worked on the original "Bubsy," for instance.) The plot is very straightforward as sci-fi stories go: You were transporting a shipload of scientific equipment and a serum to cure an Earth- bound plague, when aliens caught your ship in their tractor beam and grounded it on their homeworld of Oo-Topos. You begin the game in a cell, having forced the door open, and must escape the prison, collect the scattered cargo, and locate the necessary parts to put your ship back together. You interact via a two-word parser superimposed on a minimal interface -- there's no prompt, just a cursor, and the text spans 40 columns, all in caps. Still, it looks more like the Infocom format than the Scott Adams adventures -- "Oo-Topos" has full (albeit rather sparse) room descriptions as opposed to a simple room name and a list of objects, which makes it feel less mechanical. Even so, there's not much of a command set. There are no synonyms, it's impossible to examine room scenery, and you can't even examine objects unless you're carrying them. (There are a few exceptions to the last one.) According to the sleeved package the game comes in (mine has a $32.95 price tag still attached -- wow!), Berlyn spent a year and a half writing and programming the game. The writing is passable for such an early effort, but it's very prosaic, nowhere near the level of Berlyn's books. (He's had four science-fiction novels published: "The Integrated Man," "Crystal Phoenix," "Blight," and "The Eternal Enemy.") Players get little sense of wonder as they wander the corridors of the alien prison, as the text suffers from the sparse minimalism of early adventures. The aliens themselves are particularly lifeless, serving only as obstacles to impede the player's progress. The puzzles, though no doubt original at the time, are pretty simple by today's standards. A 2-word parser doesn't allow for something as complex as, say, the Enigma machine in "Jigsaw." Don't forget that the game had to fit on a 180K single-sided floppy as well. Much of the game is derivative of the original Crowther and Woods Adventure (when you die, you're resurrected, but your possessions are lost, etc.). A few bits of text pay humble tribute to Adventure (such as eating the food -- you're told that it's "pretty tasty food"). Most puzzles embody the characteristic cause-and-effect logic -- setting up conditions so a solution can occur -- but there's no veil of atmosphere or plot to conceal the fact that these are simple logic puzzles. Sprinkled throughout the game are a number of drop-an-object mazes. These are hard, no two ways about it. You'll have to make maps if you expect to get through them. Maze-haters will likely become fed up very quickly. But, considering that the game's date places it in the company of "Adventure" and the "Zork" Trilogy, I'm willing to let that slide. Despite these criticisms (which can largely be excused because the game is so old), I had a lot of fun with "Oo-Topos," and have scored it accordingly, breaking several rules of the SPAG rating system in an effort to keep it from being slighted. If you can appreciate the adventure game at its most primitive level, you'll enjoy "Oo-Topos." I felt a little thrill in watching the red disk-access LED on my Apple II light up, as I waited for the next location to be loaded into memory. "Oo-Topos" is a piece of I-F history, a nostalgic trip down memory lane, a perfectly preserved relic from an age of computer gaming whose mystical aura can only be recaptured by those of us who were there to watch the computer adventure grow up. -- C.E. Forman =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: "Christopher E. Forman" NAME: Quarterstaff GAMEPLAY: Combination Parser/GUI AUTHOR: Infocom & Westwood PLOT: Fairly straightforward EMAIL: ATMOSPHERE: Perhaps a bit lacking AVAILABILITY: Commercial (quite rare) WRITING: Not bad PUZZLES: Not many, in the true sense REQUIRES: Mac or Mac emulator CHARACTERS: Pseudo-intelligent DIFFICULTY: Below average For centuries, the various Druid sects have been responsible for preserving peace and prosperity among the four kingdoms of Rhea. But when the Tree Druids, the most powerful sect of all, mysteriously vanish, disaster threatens the world. A party of three great warriors was sent to investigate the disappearance, but was never heard from again. So a new party has been selected as the last hope to rescue the Tree Druids and restore their Majik. (Just in case anyone cares, this is #3 on the list of different Infocom spellings of the word -- there was the traditional "magic" in the Zork and Enchanter Trilogies, the archaic "magick" in Wishbringer and Beyond Zork, and now "majik." But I digress...) "Quarterstaff: The Tomb of Setmoth" is famous for a lot of reasons. First, it was one of the company's very last releases (if not _the_ last) under MediaGenic. Second, unless you count the breakdown of "Dungeon" into the Zork Trilogy (which I don't), it's the only Infocom adaption of an already-existing game -- "Quarterstaff" is based on a little-known earlier FRPG of the same title by Westwood Associates, who also collaborated with Infocom on "Circuit's Edge", "Mines of Titan", and the two "BattleTech" games. Third, it's notorious for being incredibly difficult to find, as only the Macintosh version was ever released. (And, contrary to popular belief, there is _no_ finished-yet-unreleased PC version lurking about the ruins of Infocom. David Lebling has denied this rumor several times.) As a result, "Quarterstaff" is something of an Infocom Holy Grail, sought by devoted collectors everywhere. As an obscure collector's item, it's one of the best there is. But how is it as a _game_? It took me quite awhile to really be able to learn that for myself, as the game obviously requires a Macintosh to play. I'd tried "Executor", a Mac emulator (available from vorlon.mit.edu), but couldn't get it (the emulator) to load properly on my machine, and finally had to resort to playing "Quarterstaff" down in the campus Mac lab. Not being overly familiar with Macs (I'd never used one in my life), I had to grab the basics of the Mac operating system as well. Also, the game has problems loading if you're not running the right system. If you don't have System 6.0 and Finder 6.1, you'll need to boot the game with the System Disk supplied in the game package. Just trying to play "Quarterstaff" was an adventure in itself! But I'm happy to report that, although it's nowhere near the level reached by Infocom at their height, "Quarterstaff" manages to be a moderately entertaining game with a nifty combination of windows and parser for a play system. It reminded me of nothing so much as Virgin's Magnetic Scrolls interface, with perhaps a bit of the old C64 game "Rogue" mixed in. There are windows and menus for text, inventory, objects in the vicinity, optional graphics, maps, and an extensive on-line help and hint system. And what of the Infocom parser? Yes, it's still present, and more or less up to their regular standards, aside from a few annoying twists -- non-cardinal directions such as northeast and southwest aren't used, the "UNDO" command is absent, and some of the basic I-F commands have been altered slightly ("WAIT" is replaced by "PASS" or "GUARD", and "REPEAT" is used instead of "AGAIN"), with few abbreviations allowed. Let this serve as a lesson: NEVER stray too far from the firmly established text adventure conventions; you'll only confuse and annoy players accustomed to time-honored I-F tradition. At heart, though, "Quarterstaff" is an RPG, not pure I-F. And in traditional RPG style, the game puts you in control of not a lone quester, but a party of adventurers, necessitating a slightly different method of play. Members of the party are classified as either leaders or followers, and behave accordingly -- with a directional move, the followers follow their leader. In other situations, the followers can take their own non-directional actions, and the "Quarterstaff" player types one command for each member. Special commands include the aforementioned "PASS"; "MIMIC", to imitate the leader; and "SPLIT" and "JOIN" to disband from the party and regroup, respectively. The need to enter separate commands for every member of the party inevitably leads to a considerably longer play session. Unlike most RPGs, this game does not classify characters as fighters, thieves, magic users, etc. Rather, all characters are able to use the entire spectrum of skills to some extent, and their proficiencies continuously increase or decrease according to the frequency with which the character practices them. Other aspects of FRP are incorporated rather realistically. Takeable items have such properties as size, shape, and weight, and NPCs wander about of their own accord (some will join your party). It's necessary to "WIELD" weapons before using them (a la "Beyond Zork"), and characters must also provide themselves with food, water, and sleep (interestingly, lack of sleep will actually cause a character to take damage points). The writing is about par for Infocom, good but not outstanding, although Amy Briggs ("Plundered Hearts") is credited with producing some of the text. As for puzzles, well...there just aren't very many in the true I-F sense. Your progress depends largely on discovering hidden objects and keys, unlocking doors, replenishing light sources, and opening secret passages. In most cases a little careful observation is all that's needed. Although the layout is fairly vast, there just isn't much variety, as the game is primarily combat-oriented ("ATTACK", "THROW", and "SHOOT" are used ad nauseum...though the "SMILE" command is kind of cute). IMO, the most significant "real" puzzle is that of deciphering a set of magic words using a parchment and wooden coin included in the game package. (Apparently quite a few players were stumped by this -- Infocom actually gave away the entire solution in the very last issue of "The Status Line." Refer to the notes at the end of this review for details on how to do it.) There is also one critical bug -- the game crashes your entire system if anything with nested objects (containers and NPCs holding items) is set on fire. This causes problems in two areas in particular -- the Charred Room and the second dungeon level (again, see below for info on avoiding the crashes). On the plus side, there are no "fatal mistakes" for players to make. You can't screw up the game completely unless your entire party is killed off. How well does all this work when put together? Sadly, only so-so. "Quarterstaff" is really neat at the outset, but sooner or later the novelty wears off and it becomes rather tiresome to play through toward the end (as did Infocom's other RPG offerings, "BattleTech" and "Mines of Titan"). Once you've played through, it's doubtful you'll feel much like experiencing it again. "Quarterstaff" simply doesn't have the same play value as the all-text games. But then, that's not the reason most Infocom fans want a copy. -- C.E. Forman (SPOILER ALERT!) Now, about that coin and parchment: The poem on the top of the map is just a cryptic way of explaining what you're supposed to do. Basically, you use the coin, the compass rose on the parchment, and the identify wand (it's pictured on the parchment above the poem) to decipher and use four magic words, one corresponding to each of the messages on the bottom of the parchment. Each message is used to form the word that can be spoken to identify unnamed keys, wands, scrolls, and potions (provided the character who uses the word is actually holding the identify wand in his hands). Make sense so far? Each message on the bottom of the parchment reveals four things: 1) The correct placement of the coin. 2) The starting point for determining the word. 3) The number of steps (letters in the word). 4) The direction in which to decipher. What you want to do is put the coin on the compass, making sure the coin's arrow points in the direction specified by the message. Then, beginning at the starting point, move the number of "steps" in the direction the message says, around the circumference of the coin and parchment, writing down one letter for each step. Letters alternate between the coin and the parchment, and can start on either. As an example, the magic word for keys is "GURZ", and the word for potions is "NESOE". The last two are left as an exercise for the player. As for the crashes... In the Charred Room, all you need to do is unlock the bronze seal. Once you've found the key, disband a single member (preferably one with a high resistance to heat) and send him back to unlock it. For the dungeon, the problem area is the region labeled A1-A5, etc. Stay on the D's and the 5's, and you'll be safe from the mines. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: "Christopher E. Forman" NAME: Spur GAMEPLAY: Quirky but not frustrating AUTHOR: Kent Tessman PLOT: Unfolds nicely EMAIL: as400477 SP@G orion.yorku.ca ATMOSPHERE: Good AVAILABILITY: Freeware, GMD WRITING: Good PUZZLES: Logical but not obvious SUPPORTS: Hugo ports (DOS, Amiga, Linux) CHARACTERS: Fairly convincing DIFFICULTY: Medium Considering the potential for atmosphere and adventure puzzles with a western theme, it's something of a surprise to me that Infocom never did a game in this particular genre, not to mention the fact that there is so little I-F in general set in the Old West. Kudos are due Kent Tessman, who has found a relatively unexplored niche in the world of I-F in which to place "Spur." The game is full of atmosphere and serves as a good showcase of the Hugo language's capabilities. Since no one has yet done a review of a Hugo game (since there are so few to begin with), I suppose I should analyze the parser and overall user- friendliness of the system before examining the game itself. Relative to the most popular development systems out there, Hugo's parser is far superior to AGT's standard, but a number of strange quirks keep it from matching Inform and TADS for ease of use. For instance, a number of common phrases aren't understood -- "OPEN DOOR WITH KEY" as opposed to "UNLOCK DOOR WITH KEY" is one that comes to mind. To ride a horse, you must first "GET ON THE HORSE" and then "RIDE" in the desired direction ("RIDE HORSE" won't get you on the horse in the first place). "KILLing" and "SHOOTing" someone are two completely different actions. Also, I found one that was quite (unintentionally) amusing: >steal the axe You'll have to buy the pick-axe first. ("STEAL" seems to be a synonym for "TAKE" in this case.) Much of the scenery can't be examined either. Don't get me wrong, most major objects such as a billiards table are present, but tables, chairs, and even Grady's bar aren't even recognized. I'm not trying to be overly harsh here; I merely want to give players a basic feel for how the parser handles, and Hugo handles quite well overall, with most of the standard "ease-of-use" features ("UNDO", "OOPS", command recall, etc.) implemented. If a particular syntax doesn't work, it usually takes little experimentation to find another common one that does. Rarely is there a need to guess a particular phrase, and if the need seems to arise, it's more than likely that you're on the wrong track, so it's not too terribly frustrating. To perhaps put it more tangibly: I usually score the AGT parser around 0.7 (with a couple of exceptions), and both the TADS and Inform parsers around 1.5 or 1.6 on average. By this standard, Hugo would come in at 1.3 or so. (This is Hugo 2.0, BTW. As no games have yet been released with 2.1, I can't offer comment.) The action begins immediately, with the player thrust into the middle of a gunfight, and doesn't let up. The outset is fast-paced, pushing the player along, but it doesn't force the sort of do-or-die time limit where you're dead if you don't do everything exactly right (such as the opening to "Demon's Tomb" or the endgame of "Christminster"). Some events are timed, but sufficient warning is provided. "Spur" has a pleasant western atmosphere to it, with appropriate situations and puzzles, and some intentional anachronisms tacked on for humor. Those more familiar with the western genre (and I for one am not) will no doubt spot some minor cliches but I found nothing so obvious as to make me cringe. The game is linear overall, and it's sometimes easy to overlook things. Quite a few problems rely on the other characters and can't be solved unless you gain the right information from the right person (much like "The Path to Fortune"). Reading the sample commands in the online help will give you some nudges if you're stuck in the early stages. What's interesting here is the fact that the Hugo engine prevents you from asking characters about something if you haven't actually seen it. This adds a degree of realism, but has the side effect of being a pain on subsequent playthroughs. It's a trade-off. The characters in "Spur" are quite nicely done, many of them with reasonable mobility and most of them fairly responsive. The fact that they're observing your behavior as well lends to the realism. Grady the bartender has a superstitious streak, but you can't trick him by giving him a fake charm if you create it while he's watching you. Little Jimmy whines incessantly if you steal his taffy. Old Dan, the town drunk, wanders about on his own personal quest for liquor. Sheriff Argyle is a constant threat until you can escape town. Your own character is not the typical John Wayne western hero. The story reveals that you're not a very good shot at all, and most other characters don't have a very high opinion of you. It's also necessary to do some rather unkind things in order to complete the story. (The scoring system reflects this by summarizing your exploits rather than using a point tally, and the effect is pleasing.) Although "Spur" is not a long game, it's a detailed one. You're more or less free to do what you choose, with few messages to the effect that "violence isn't the answer." Killing off other characters, though fatal, is a perfectly valid move (shooting Sarah's horse was particularly fun -- gawd I'm sick!). "Spur" is a fairly unique work of I-F, and a fine example of what the Hugo language can do. I'm looking forward to more games from Kent Tessman in the future...as well as more Hugo games. -- C.E. Forman =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: "Stephen Granade" NAME: The Windhall Chronicles I: Path To Fortune PARSER: Inform's usual AUTHOR: Jeff Cassidy and C.E. Forman PLOT: Spacious EMAIL: ceforma SP@G rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu ATMOSPHERE: Well done AVAILABILITY: Shareware, GMD WRITING: Slightly uneven PUZZLES: From enjoyable to illogical SUPPORTS: Inform Ports CHARACTERS: Static DIFFICULTY: Medium+ Path to Fortune (PTF) is the first in the Windhall Chronicles series. In it, you play Aerin, "a simple blacksmith's apprentice, nothing more." However, by a bizarre bit of reasoning on your village's part, you are chosen to save the village from taxation without representation by finding the treasure horde of Kirizith, a huge dragon. The game begins with most of the world available for exploration, and the world is large and complex. There are many places to explore and many puzzles to attempt, which helps if you are stumped by one particular puzzle. It would have been nice had the game not shown its whole hand at the beginning; additional areas which you can explore only after solving a puzzle hold my interest more than being able to visit (almost) everywhere at the beginning. There were only three areas I couldn't visit without solving a puzzle, and all three involved at most two rooms. After enough tromping about Windhall, I was ready for something new to explore. Of course, "enough" is a relative term--as large as Windhall is, it took a long time before I was familiar with it. The open design of PTF weakened its plot somewhat. At times I felt as if I were slogging through endless puzzles, marking time until I could find the dragon. If you ask Denvil the elf about the fish dinner he wants you to supply, he says something to the effect that it is just one of those sub-plots adventurers are always fulfilling. A lot of the game felt like that--sub-plots I had to finish in order to get to the dragon. More direction towards the end goal was needed. The initial puzzles' difficulty range from fairly easy to slightly more difficult. However, as time went on, I found the puzzles becoming more and more illogical, possibly due to my solving the logical ones early on. The puzzle involving a werewolf and ogre locked in battle struck me as completely unmotivated, even after I was helped by someone who had already finished the game. Too often I had to resort to the brute force approach of trying every object out on every other object; I would have much rather reasoned how to solve the puzzles. The main strengths of the game, its size and number of NPCs, are also its main weaknesses. Due to the size of the game and the number of NPCs, it felt as if none of the NPCs were fully realized. The NPCs reacted to a large number of questions, but all were of the "ask xxx about yyy" category. None of the NPCs had a life of their own. Every day Baezil cursed over his unlit stove; every day Mielon and Idah stayed in their house. There are an ogre and werewolf who are fighting to the death, day in and day out, for as long as you are willing to watch. The NPCs could have been improved by having motivations of their own. I enjoyed playing PTF immensely, the above nitpicks notwithstanding. The game is an excellent addition to the growing pantheon of Inform games, and well worth the time spent. I look forward to seeing the next installment in the series. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: "Julian Arnold" NAME: Waystation PARSER: TADS standard AUTHOR: Stephen Granade PLOT: See below EMAIL: sgranade SP@G phy.duke.edu ATMOSPHERE: See below AVAILABILITY: Freeware, GMD WRITING: See below PUZZLES: See below SUPPORTS: TADS run-time ports CHARACTERS: See below DIFFICULTY: See below URL: Needs TADS run-time (v2.2 or later), While driving home from work at night your car's engine dies. Stopping at the side of the road you get out to investigate (not because you have the slightest clue of what the problem is, but rather because that seems the thing to do). Moments later you are engulfed in blue light and pass out, awakening once more in a dungeon-like cell. The introduction to "Waystation" can be seen as analogous to the game as a whole-- rarely do you have a reason for your actions, other than that they seem like the right thing to do at the time-- objects are collected simply because they can be, and used by the same rationale. Your goal in the game is not revealed until over half-way through, so for the majority of the game you are reduced to moving purposelessly from location to location and solving seemingly arbitrary puzzles. It could be argued that you are exploring the environment, but the game-world is not rich or coherent enough for this to be a satisfactory explanation. Indeed, the game is a mish-mash of genres-- Granade has played with many ideas, but expanded on almost none of them. The introduction suggests alien abduction, but then you are transported to an all-too-human cell and seemingly left to rot there; after your escape you fetch up in an Orwellian world of barcoded and overalled workers, repressive armed guards, and unquestioning order; later, by way of the waystations of the title (interplanetary teleportation booths), you visit a garbage-dump planet, and a decaying, war-torn alien city (in which you find a Roman Catholic church untouched by the bombs which decimated the rest of the city-- shades of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds"?). This hotch-potch of genres overflows into the local geography in places. For example, one building contains the worker's bathroom, the cafeteria, a strange museum-cum-library, an armoury, and a rather sensitive computer room all along the same corridor. The writing is quite good, the location decriptions are vivid and all the text is clear in it's meaning. However, a somewhat juvenile humour pervades the game, with the produce of the worker's cafeteria likened to school dinners and the not uncommon trap thrown in which unfairly kills the player after luring him into considering it a puzzle (the most obvious example being the slightly infamous exploding toilet "puzzle" early on in the game). Equally, the solutions to some puzzles verge on the ridiculous (passing the laser beams) or are only apparent with foreknowledge gained through previous failure (protecting yourself from the acid rain, escaping the ruined house, or using the viscous liquid). Also, there are a lot of red herrings, both portable objects and referrable-to, but useless, scenery objects. Used sparingly and carefully such red herrings can contribute to a game's atmosphere and "realism", but here they generally do neither, and the lack of a satisfactory container (such as, say, "Curses" rucksack) results in the need for annoying inventory management. In summary, though the game is not wholly disappointing, neither is it particularly gratifying or inspired. If you do not expect too much from it, in the way of a strong or developed plot, or detailed interactive NPCs (there are none) the game succeeds reasonably well as just that-- a game. The puzzles, many of which seem to exist for their own sake only, as I've mentioned before, are generally of medium difficulty, and do not noticeably differ in this respect throughout the game. Overall "Waystation" is a fun game, which perhaps offers as many lessons in how not to write IF as it does in how to write it. [This review was posted to rec.arts.int-fiction, 5th April 1996.] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: "Bozzie" NAME: The Witness PARSER:Infocom AUTHOR:Stu Galley PLOT:30's mystery EMAIL:??? ATMOSPHERE:Very Good AVAILABILITY:LTOI 1, Mystery Col. WRITING:Good PUZZLES:Few, but well done. SUPPORTS:Infocom ports. CHARACHTERS:Excellent DIFFICULTY:EASY/MEDIUM You've been hired by Freeman Linder, a businessman who is scared for his life. After you arrive to his home, he tells you his story, just before he is shot. Now you've got a murder to solve, before its too late. This is an excellent game. But then, as it was the first game I ever played, more then 10 years ago, I may be somewhat partial to it. It features one of the most coherent, realistic mysteries, and possibly one of the most consistent stories all together. Mr. Galley worked hard on this one and it shows. There are no plot holes, and the game makes complete sense. That is one of the vital things about a mystery, and even more so an interactive one, where you have to consider every possible storyline, and every tangent you can take. [For example, try not going to the house one time and see what happens]. He also is careful to place clues in the writing. You could just follow the "obvious" beginning path and get at least 2 clues without examining or questioning anybody. Another important step is having good, believable characters, and this is where Mr. Galley truly shines. The characters here are as believable as they have ever been in text adventures. They lie, bluff, change their minds and more. They move around with reasons, and will keep in mind you (The detective) when considering their actions. I'll admit, I fell in love with Monica, despite her calling me a masher consistently. I would, however, have liked at least one more character to have had. Three is never a good number to pick when making mystery suspects. I would have liked someone from Mr. Linder's business, for example. Still, I won't be too choosy. The puzzles in this game are standard mystery type. You question the mystery suspects. You read the prose carefully for clues. You spy on characters and their actions. You try to search every room and examine every evidence you find, with Sgt. Duffy by your side to help assist when you need his help. The Atmosphere is well done, if sometimes overly cliched. But, for some reason, I think Mr. Galley may have wanted that effect. You were watching an old 30's mystery movie, not conducting a criminal investigation. Still, while most people think that it has the atmosphere of the Maltese Falcon, I would tend to think it was more like the Charlie Chan movies. You weren't heading off everywhere to look for clues, just remaining in a somewhat restricted area, questioning people. READER'S SCOREBOARD---------------------------------------------------------- Notes: A - Runs on Amigas. AP - Runs on Apple IIs. GS - Runs on Apple IIGS. AR - Runs on Acorn Archimedes. C - Commercial, no fixed price. C30 - Commercial, with a fixed price of $30. F - Freeware. GMD - Available on ftp.gmd.de I - Runs on IBM compatibles. M - Runs on Macs. S20 - Shareware, registration costs $20. 64 - Runs on Commodore 64s. ST - Runs on Atari STs. TAD - Written with TADS. This means it can run on: AmigaDOS, NeXT and PC, Atari ST/TT/Falcon, DECstation (MIPS) Unix Patchlevel 1 and 2, IBM, IBM RT, Linux, Apple Macintosh, SGI Iris/Indigo running Irix, Sun 4 (Sparc) running SunOS or Solaris 2, Sun 3, OS/2, and even a 386+ protected mode version. AGT - Available for IBM, Mac, Amiga, and Atari ST. This does not include games made with the Master's edition. ADVSYS - Available for PC and Macintosh only, or so my sources tell me. (Source code available as well. So it can be ported to other computers.) HUG - Written with Hugo. Runs on MS-DOS, Linux, and Amigas. INF - Infocom or Inform game. These games will run on: Atari ST, Amiga, Apple Macintosh, IBM, Unix, VMS, Apple II, Apple IIGS, C64, TSR-80, and Acorn Archimedes. There may be other computers on which it runs as well. Name Avg Sc Chr Puz # Sc Rlvt Ish Notes: ==== ====== === === ==== ======== ====== Adventure 7.7 1.1 0.7 2 8 F_INF_TAD_ETC_GMD Adventure 350 6.5 0.0 1.5 1 x Adv. of Eliz. Highe 3.1 0.8 0.3 1 5 F_AGT All Quiet...Library 4.5 0.7 0.7 3 7 F_INF_GMD Amnesia 7.7 1.3 1.4 1 9 C_AP_I_64 Another...No Beer 2.4 0.2 0.8 2 4 S10_IBM_GMD Arthur: Excalibur 8.6 1.8 1.7 1 4 C_INF Awe-Chasm 2.4 0.3 0.6 1 8 S?_IBM_ST Balances 6.4 1.0 1.3 2 6 F_INF_GMD Ballyhoo 7.0 1.8 1.5 3 4 C_INF Beyond Tesseract 3.7 0.1 0.6 1 6 F_I_GMD Beyond Zork 8.1 1.5 2.0 3 5 C_INF Border Zone 6.7 1.4 1.4 4 4 C_INF Broken String 3.1 0.5 0.6 1 x F_TADS_GMD Bureaucracy 8.3 1.8 1.6 3 5 C_INF Busted 5.2 1.0 1.1 1 F_INF_GMD Castaway 1.1 0.0 0.4 1 5 F_IBM_GMD Change in the Weather 6.1 0.8 1.1 2 7 F_INF_GMD Christminster 8.6 1.8 1.7 3 F_INF_GMD Corruption 6.7 1.4 1.4 1 x C_I Cosmoserve 8.7 1.3 1.4 2 5 F_AGT_GMD Crypt v2.0 5.0 1.0 1.5 1 3 S12_IBM_GMD Curses 8.3 1.3 1.7 7 2 F_INF_GMD Cutthroats 6.4 1.4 1.2 5 1 C_INF Deadline 7.0 1.3 1.4 4 x C_INF Deep Space Drifter 5.5 1.4 1 3 S15_TAD_GMD Demon's Tomb 7.4 1.2 1.1 2 9 C_I Detective 1.1 0.0 0.0 4 4-5 F_AGT_GMD Detective-MST3K 6.0 0.6 0.1 3 7-8 F_INF_GMD Ditch Day Drifter 7.1 1.2 1.6 1 2 F_TAD_GMD Dungeon Adventure 6.8 1.3 1.6 1 4 F_SEE REVIEW Issue #4 Dungeon of Dunjin 6.2 0.5 1.5 2 3 S20_IBM_MAC_GMD Electrabot 0.7 0.0 0.0 1 5 F_AGT_GMD Enchanter 7.1 0.9 1.4 5 2 C_INF Enhanced N/A 0 2 S10_TAD_GMD Eric the Unready 7.4 1.5 1.4 1 x C_I Fable, A 2.0 0.2 0.1 1 6 F_AGT_GMD Fish 7.1 1.2 1.5 1 x C_I Forbidden Castle 4.8 0.6 0.5 1 x C_AP Gateway 7.5 1.6 1.5 1 x C_I Great Archaelog. Race 6.5 1.0 1.5 1 3 S20_TAD_GMD Guardians of Infinity 8.5 N/A 1.3 1 9 C_I Guild of Thieves 6.8 1.1 1.2 1 x C_I Gumshoe 6.3 1.3 1.1 2 9 F_INF_GMD Hitchhiker's Guide 8.0 1.6 1.6 5 5 C_INF Hollywood Hijinx 5.7 1.0 1.5 4 x C_INF Horror30.Zip 3.6 0.0 0.9 1 3 S20_IBM_GMD Horror of Rylvania 7.7 1 1 C20_TAD_GMD (Demo) Humbug 7.4 1 x S10_GMD (Uncertain) Infidel 7.0 1.4 7 1-2 C_INF Inhumane 3.6 0.2 0.7 1 9 F_INF_GMD Jacaranda Jim 7.0 1 x S10_GMD (Uncertain) Jeweled Arena, The 8.0 1.5 1.5 1 x ? Jigsaw 8.7 1.6 1.6 3 8,9 F_INF_GMD Jinxter 6.7 1.1 1.3 1 x C_I John's Fire Witch 7.2 1.1 1.6 5 4 S6_TADS_GMD Journey 6.9 1.3 0.8 1 5 C_INF Jouney Into Xanth 5.0 1.3 1.2 1 8 F_AGT_GMD Klaustrophobia 7.3 1.2 1.4 4 1 S15_AGT_GMD Leather Goddesses 7.8 1.4 1.7 5 4 C_INF The Legend Lives! 8.2 0.8 1.5 1 5 F_TADS_GMD Lethe Flow Phoenix 7.5 1.7 1.5 1 9 F_TADS_GMD The Light: Shelby's Ad. 8.0 1.6 0.5 1 9 S?_TADS_GMD Lurking Horror, The 7.1 1.4 1.3 5 1,3 C_INF MacWeslyan(PC Univ.) 5.6 0.7 1.0 1 x F_TADS_GMD Magic.Zip 4.5 0.5 0.5 1 3 S20_IBM_GMD Magic Toyshop, The 3.6 0.5 1.0 1 F_INF_GMD Mind Electric, The 5.1 0.5 0.8 2 7-8 F_INF_GMD Mind Forever Voyaging 8.5 1.4 0.6 4 5 C_INF Moonmist 5.9 1.4 1.3 5 1 C_INF Mop & Murder 4.9 0.5 1.0 1 4-5 F_AGT_GMD Multidimen. Thief 5.6 0.4 1.0 3 2,9 S15_AGT_GMD Mystery House 4.1 0.3 0.7 1 x F_AP_GMD Night at Museum Forever 4.1 0.0 1.0 3 7-8 F_TAD_GMD Nord and Bert 4.8 0.5 1.0 2 4 C_INF Odieus': Flingshot 3.3 0.4 0.7 2 5 F_INF_GMD One Hand Clapping 7.1 1.1 1.3 2 5 F_ADVSYS_GMD One That Got Away, The 6.4 1.2 0.9 2 7-8 F_TAD_GMD Oo-Topos 5.7 0.2 1.0 1 x C_AP_I_64 Path to Fortune 6.8 1.4 0.8 1 9 S_INF_GMD Pawn, The 6.5 1.0 1.2 1 x C_I_AP_64 Perseus & Andromeda 3.4 0.3 1.0 1 x ? Planetfall 7.5 1.7 1.6 6 4 C_INF Plundered Hearts 7.8 1.4 1.3 2 4 C_INF Quarterstaff 6.1 1.3 0.6 1 9 C_M Sanity Claus 9.0 1 1 S10_AGT_GMD Save Princeton 5.8 1.2 1.3 2 8 S10_TAD_GMD Seastalker 5.5 1.1 1.0 4 4 C_INF Shades of Grey 8.0 1.3 1.4 4 1-2 F_AGT_GMD Sherlock 8.2 1.5 1.6 2 4 C_INF Shogun 7.1 1.5 0.5 1 4 C_INF Sir Ramic Hobbs 5.0 1.0 1.5 1 6 F_AGT_GMD Sorceror 7.3 0.6 1.6 5 2 C_INF South American Trek 0.9 0.2 0.5 1 5 ?_IBM_GMD Space Aliens...Cardigan 1.8 0.5 0.4 4 3 S60_AGT_GMD Spellbreaker 8.2 1.2 1.8 4 2 C_INF SpellCasting 101 7.0 1.0 1.2 1 x C_I SpellCasting 201 7.8 1.5 1.6 1 x C_I SpellCasting 301 7.5 1.4 1.5 1 x C_I SpiritWrak 6.6 1.0 0.6 1 9 F_INF_GMD Spur 7.2 1.4 1.2 1 9 F_HUG_GMD Starcross 7.0 1.1 1.3 5 1 C_INF Stationfall 7.6 1.6 1.6 5 5 C_INF Suspect 6.2 1.3 1.2 2 4 C_INF Suspended 7.5 1.3 1.2 4 8 C_INF Theatre 6.8 0.9 1.2 3 6 F_INF_GMD TimeQuest 8.6 1.5 1.8 1 x C_I TimeSquared 4.3 1.1 1.1 1 x F_AGT_GMD Toonesia 6.3 1.1 1.2 2 7 F_TAD_GMD Tossed into Space 3.9 0.2 0.6 1 4 F_AGT_GMD Treasure.Zip N/A 0 3 S20_IBM_GMD Trinity 8.8 1.4 1.7 8 1-2 C_INF Tube Trouble 3.3 0.5 0.4 1 F_INF_GMD Uncle Zebulon's Will 7.6 0.9 1.3 3 7 F_TAD_GMD Undertow 5.2 1.0 0.8 1 F_TAD_GMD Undo 1.9 0.1 0.4 2 7 F_TAD_GMD Unnkulian One-Half 7.0 1.3 1.7 4 1 F_TAD_GMD Unnkulian Unventure 1 7.1 1.2 1.6 5 1-2 S10_TAD_GMD Unnkulian Unventure 2 7.2 1.4 1.5 4 1 S10_TAD_GMD Unnkulian Zero 9.0 1 1 C25_TAD_GMD (Demo) Waystation 5.7 0.7 0.9 2 9 F_TAD_GMD Windhall Chron. 1 - See Path to Fortune. Wishbringer 7.6 1.3 1.3 4 5-6 C_INF Witness, The 7.2 1.7 1.2 5 1,3,9 C_INF Wonderland 7.5 1.3 1.4 1 x C_I World 6.5 0.6 1.3 2 4 F_SEE REVIEW Issue #4 Zanfar 2.6 0.2 0.4 1 8 F_AGT_GMD Zork 0 7.1 1.3 2.0 2 x C_INF Zork 1 6.0 0.7 1.5 9 1-2 C_INF Zork 2 6.4 0.8 1.5 7 1-2 C_INF Zork 3 6.1 0.6 1.4 5 1-2 C_INF -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The Top Five: I've decided that we finally have enough competitive entries on the scoreboard to have a Top Five instead of a Top Three. A game is not eligible for the Top Five unless it has received at least three ratings from different readers. This is to ensure a more democratic and accurate depiction of the best games. 1. Trinity 8.8 8 votes 2. Jigsaw 8.7 3 votes 3. Christminster 8.6 3 votes 4. Mind Fvr Voyaging 8.5 4 votes 5. Curses 8.3 7 votes Bureaucracy 8.3 3 votes Say, is it just me, or do we really like serious games better than others? The more serious games on the list seem to consistantly score better than the rest. Both of Infocom's serious games make the Top 5, Graham Nelson's games are there too, and he writes pretty serious stuff as well. The only real exception is Bureaucracy, which has done quite well considering how few copies it originally sold. Another interesting bit, Spellbreaker is the next game down the ladder, with an 8.2 and 4 votes, and there's a serious game in many ways (with admittedly, some silliness, but the theme is deadly serious.) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Editor's Picks of the Month: My pick of the month is _Lethe Flow Phoenix_. Dan Shiovitz's work about alien invaders and biblical allusions is certainly worth a look. See the various reviews in this issue for information on where to download it. ADVERTISEMENTS--------------------------------------------------------------- Soon, the unlikeliest of heroes will be chosen to embark on the unlikeliest of adventures.../\ / \ / \ / / \ \/ / \ / THE PATH TO / \ \ ___________ / /\ \ | _________| / / \ / | |_________ _/ / | _________| ______ _____ __| |__/ _ _ _____ ____ | | | __ | | ___| |__ __| | | | | | _ | | o__| | | | |__| | | | / | |_ | |_| | | | | | | |__ |_| |______| |_| / /|___| |_____| |_| |_| |____| |___/ VOLUME ONE OF "THE WINDHALL CHRONICLES" BY JEFF CASSIDY AND C.E. FORMAN Windhall has fallen upon hard times. Lord Osrich, ruler of the realm of Rysch, has threatened to reclaim the tiny village and send its inhabitants away, unless a great debt is paid. The town's only hope lies in finding and recovering the treasure of the great dragon Kirizith, hidden and nearly forgotten for so many centuries... Meet Aerin. A simple blacksmith's apprentice, nothing more. Certainly not the hero selected by the village to seek out the dragon's lair... ...Or is he? Meet the cast. Fifteen fully-developed characters help and hinder Aerin in his quest: Borthur, the dwarven blacksmith, Aerin's mentor and best friend. Mielon, the mayor of Windhall (since no one else wanted the job). Idah, his wife, the finest storyteller in the land. Baezil, preparer of Windhall's finest culinary delights. Sir Gunther IX, the most incompetent and tongue-tied knight in Rysch. Creston the cleric, master of alchemy...when he feels like it. Kytan the thief (guard your gold closely). Denvil, the jovial (or is it pain-in-the-neck?) wood elf. Midknight, swordsman extraordinaire. Kaela, the enchanting young wizardess of Aerin's dreams. Mighty Nostrophidius, an ancient sorcerer whose powers are unmatched. The ever-rhyming Mire Cat, master of riddles and wordplay. The Haughty Chameleon, appearing and vanishing in the blink of an eye. Grrarr, werewolf of the Forest of Ansalon. And of course, the mighty Kirizith himself. Meet the quest of a lifetime. In a world where magic is the ultimate power of mortals, where only the most skilled warrior can survive, where only the most clever explorer can uncover the secret, ADVENTURE IS INEVITABLE. "The Path to Fortune" Volume One of "The Windhall Chronicles" Available on a ZIP Interpreter near you. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Feeling a little paranoid? You will be. S C I M I T A R A new adventure from the author of "The Light: Shelby's Addendum" You'll never trust your mother again Coming in '96 from Illusory Mental Images "We know where you live!" IN DEPTH ANALYSES---------------SPOILER WARNING! BEWARE!--------------------- First, I am going to apologize to every author whose game I am taking apart with tweezers below. I'm sure you'll all refuse to speak to me for a month or so after reading my analyses of your games. I promise you this, however. I will endeavor to explain WHY I say the things I say. There will be no 'empty' criticism in these articles if I can help it. [This space intentionally left blank.] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The One That Got Away _The One That Got Away_ (TOTGA) was my second favorite game from the 1995 Competition. It lost out only to _Uncle Zebulon's Will_. The reason is hard to put my finger on, so I will muse on it below, and perhaps clarify both to myself and others why TOTGA doesn't quite stand up before Zebulon. TECHNICAL ASPECTS: The parser was excellent. Leon did a great job of both simulating a complicated act (fishing), and explaining to the player exactly how the simulation works. The pamphlet in the game that tells the player how it works is both funny and straightforward. No complaints on this front. Leon thought of many phrasings and synonyms and made them usable. PLOT: This is one of the two areas where Leon really hit the nail on the head. The plot is engaging (if short) and serves to bring out the humanity in the characters. It is a gentle bittersweet touch to contrast the comic effect of the rest of the game. If television comedy writers could regularly reach this level of compassion and feeling, then I would start watching sitcoms. Perhaps the very weakness of the game, its size, helped in this area. Static writers edit, cut, re-write, and cut some more when working on a story. They try to distill the literary experience down to its essence. At least, the good ones do. Padding out a game is something many of us are guilty of, and it really shouldn't be condoned, but remains standard practice both for us hobbyists, and for the gaming industry at large. We want to find room for a certain puzzle, or we need to stretch the playing lifespan of the game just a little more. But what we usually end up doing is diluting the experience. Leon just put in what he needed to tell the story, no more. When he was finished, he stopped. That's the greatest praise I can give him. ATMOSPHERE: Here he was on some shaky ground. With only four rooms, and a very few objects, a sense of the game's atmosphere failed to materialize for me. There was some sense of a quiet country lake, but where was the gentle breeze, the quiet rustling of the grass? Leon did in some aspects neglect the senses. He had the birds, but the sound of the country is a rich and wonderful thing, very hard to capture in words. He had the raw fishing experience, but failed to capture the thrill of a whining reel as the mighty fish races for the darkest depths of the lake. There was some good progress towards a unified feel in the game, but Leon needs to work more in this area. Atmosphere is a game designer's bread and butter. WRITING: This is another area that really stands out as exceptional. The turn of the comic phrase is everywhere to be seen in TOTGA. There are many little references to other works of this vein (Moby Dick, among others), and the writing seems caring and conversational while still being informative. I would perhaps rank the writing between Zebulon and A Change in the Weather. TOTGA's writing avoids the sometimes deadpan delivery of Zebulon, but fails to capture the truly beautiful phrasings that pop up so often in Weather. Altogether not a bad place to be ranked, betweeen two 1st place winners. PUZZLES: I think that enough has been said on this matter. Suffice it to say that TOTGA is too short, and the puzzles a bit too easy for most people's tastes. However, on a related soapbox issue... ;) There are many legitimate reasons to do this, but in a competition voted on by many die-hard puzzle lovers, a game that attempts it is simply going to suffer unless the writing is truly, truly magnificent. It must capture the attention of the puzzle-goers and draw them into the plot, even as puzzles do in normal IF. It's not impossible, it's just a heckuva lot harder to do without all the smokescreening and handwaving that goes on in a more traditional IF work. This too to consider. Players have certain expectations about games, and different ones about stories. If your puzzles are lean, then expect to be lumped into the story category, where you will find it very hard to keep up with static fiction. Remember, in terms of work alone, you are doing 4-5 times the work that an author of a static fiction work might do, probably more. You must read the player's mind and anticipate the player's actions, then write the myriad plot branches, whereas a static writer only writes one plot. The puzzles put the player into a different mindset, where less is expected of the writing, as the player remembers that this is just a game. Not a satisfactory situation, in my mind, but a real one, nonetheless. CHARACTERS: The one main NPC in TOTGA is a truly excellent example of how to make an NPC that feels like a person. Due to limitations on parsers and the author's time, we have come to a certain set of commands that are expected to work for most NPCs. >show x to person >ask person about x >tell person about x >person, do x The NPC in TOTGA doesn't go anywhere, doesn't even do much, but the SHOW and ASK verbs are very well-implemented for him. These are fairly key to bringing an NPC to life, at least until another NPC grammar (or AI) is invented. The NPC in TOTGA (Bob of the bait shop) reacts to all sorts of questions and objects. He has motivation, a purpose for being, and a personal history. This last is too often neglected in IF NPCs. A character needs a past, a present, and hopes for the future in order to feel real. Our perception of time, and our ability to plan sets us apart from most animals. A human NPC that lacks all indication of these traits is going to fall flat on its virtual back. I personally write a history for any NPC that I create, unless it is some sort of unintelligent animal. Even in that case, I still make a list of traits. Is it irritable? Does it have a fear of water? If you master the art of getting inside an imaginary person's head, then you will soon thereafter master the art of the NPC. And the art of the character is the art of fiction, because, as many writers will tell you, stories are about people first, events and places second. So, my recommendations to Leon? Work on a longer game, and practice bringing a theme, or a more unified feel to your writing. The puzzles weakness is a very difficult thing to overcome. The only help for it is to practice inventing puzzles. You get better at it over time. Knowledge of first order logic and AI is helpful when you remember that at its heart, any truly complicated mechanical puzzle can probably be reduced to some form of Turing machine. So, invent an interesting set of states, a set of operators, and a start and finish state, and then invent the imagery to go from there. Mathematics are very helpful in some forms of puzzle design. But remember too not to cram your games full of the 'soup can' puzzles so popular in graphical games today. There should be logic and careful planning behind each puzzle. There must be a reason that the player wants to solve each puzzle. The reason can be to get to a treasure that he/she knows about, or to help an old lady out of the goodness of his/her heart, but don't just put a strange boardgame in the game and expect the player to enjoy playing it. Another lesson that I need to learn myself, but I'm working on it, cross my heart. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=- That concludes my analyses for now. I will continue this practice in future issues of SPAG, unless there is some great demand that I discontinue it. CLOSING REMARKS-------------------------------------------------------------- Whew, thanks for sticking with me. I know that this is a really huge issue, and I'm glad to see that you plowed your way through it, because there were some really thoughtful reviews and such this issue. For those of you who haven't seen my fairly hastily cobbled together Web Page, it's at: http://ocf.berkeley.edu/~kevinw On that note, I would like it if someone would volunteer to update the game review pages. You would have to take issues 7-9 (or as many as you can handle) and add the reviews in them to the page, converting to HTML as you go. Knowledge of HTML is necessary, I reckon, and you need to be able to check the ftp links you make. If you are willing to give 'er a go, lemme know. Lastly, here is a copy of the more or less finalized version of the announcement for the 1996 I-F Competition for those of you who haven't heard about it yet: -=-=- Announcing the Second Annual Text Adventure Authorship Competition Administered by whizzard SP@G uclink.berkeley.edu -=The Rules=- The text adventure you enter must be winnable in under two hours. Judges will be asked to rate it after playing for that long. Please note that your game will NOT be disqualified if it exceeds this length, but judges may not see it in its entirety before rating it. The entry may be written in any programming language, including any of the text adventure creation utilities available (such as TADS, Inform, AGT, or Alan, to name a few.) If your game is unplayable, then it won't receive enough votes to be eligable for prizes. (See Judging.) This year, do NOT post your entries ahead of time. Jumping the gun is punishable by disqualification. Instead, you will need to send me your entries privately, either through e-mail (as a uuencoded file) or some other arrangement that you will have to work out with me. The entries must be received by September 30th, 1996. No entries will be accepted after this date. Entries will be sent by me to ftp.gmd.de on October 1st, 1996. Only entries uploaded by me will be eligible. If you want your entry to be anonymous, then leave your name off it and email me that it's your entry. I advise a secret command that pops up the author and copyright message. Anonymity is not required, and I hope to be able to continue to do this in the future. Speaking of copyright, all games must be entirely your own creations. You may parody established works, but you may not, for example, write a game based on Sherlock Holmes. This avoids the entire issue of copyright and the ethics involved. All entries MUST be freeware or public domain. So don't enter a game you've worked on for 2 years if you don't want to give it away. No shareware, no donorware, no commercial products, etc. Only clear and free games. Lastly, and this is a NEW rule, somewhat controversial at that. All entries must include some sort of walkthrough. By this I only mean that somewhere in the game package there must be explicit directions on how to play the game from beginning to end, and that this info must be available to the player from the very start of the game. A walkthrough is fine, as is a hint system that progresses all the way to blatant spoilers. If you like, you could even have an NPC take over for the PC if enough time has been spent on a single puzzle. I don't care how you do it, but do it. Any entry without something of this nature will be returned to its author, and the author will be asked to rectify the oversight. -=Judging=- The judging will be a 'People's Choice Awards' type deal for the most part. Everyone is able to vote. All you have to do is play every game that you are able to (you are bound on your honor to play as many as possible and give each of them an equal chance.) and then rate each game on a scale of 1 to 10, no decimal places please. The site to mail votes to will be announced later on this year, but it will not be me. I would appreciate receiving no votes, please. Votes will begin to be taken on Oct. 15th, and must be in by Oct 31st. Shortly thereafter, results will be announced, and prizes will begin to be distributed to the winners. Any game that does not receive at least 10 votes on it is removed from prize consideration. The winner will be the game with the highest average score. Each winner will have a draft pick to choose a prize of his/her choice until there are no longer any prizes left. Tied entrants who both select the same prize will be decided between by a flip of the coin, the loser receiving his second choice. Authors and official betatesters may vote, but must head their votes with the subject: "MISS CONGENIALITY VOTE" so that the counter is able to seperate them. These votes will be counted towards an author's best of show choice. The winner will receive a copy of "The Interactive Writer's Handbook", donated by me. The Prizes This Year Include: $75.00 cash, donated by Martin Braun. "Creating Adventure Games on Your Computer", by Tim Hartnell. Copyright 1984, donated by Matthew Amster-Burton. The original sketch of the "Path to Fortune" map, donated by Christopher E. Forman. A registered copy of "Lost New York" (which includes on-screen hints, a manual, and some goodies), donated by the author, Neil deMause. 5 copies of the book: "Computer Adventures - The Secret Art", donated by the author, Gil Williamson. A PC copy of the Magnetic Scrolls Collection which includes Fish, Corruption and the Guild of Thieves, donated by Colm McCarthy. "One-of-a-kind deluxe scraps of paper with stuff written on them" registered version of "The Light: Shelby's Addendum", signed, with hint sheets and maps, and a whole mess of scribblings that no-one in their right mind would ever want, donated by Colm McCarthy. One free copy of "Avalon", assuming it's done by then, donated by the author, me, as if you didn't know. Cecilia Barajas of Activision (Author of Zork Nemesis) has donated the following items: A copy of "Lost Treasures of Infocom vols. 1 and 2." (to be awarded as a matched set.) A copy of "Zork Nemesis." A Zork Nemesis t-shirt Andrew C. Plotkin (Last Year's Inform Winner) offers the awardee's choice of: A) Dinner at a (pretty) fine restaurant in the Washington, DC area, with me, plus hours of fine conversation on the art of interactive fiction or other topics as desired. or B) $20.00 cash (US), plus I'll email you some of my old posts from r.a.i-f. Lastly, assuming that: 1) We have at least 20 entries in the competition. (By that, I mean 20 valid, on-time, non-disqualified entries.) 2) At least 5 of the entries are done by female authors. Then Christopher Forman will also award five free registrations of "Circle of Armageddon", Volume 2 of "The Windhall Chronicles". That should do us pretty well for prizes this year. I think there are good odds of everyone getting at least a smaller prize. If not, well, I'll be thrilled to see a turn-out of over 20 or so entries. Thank you to all prize contributors for helping to make this yeat's contest a reality. If you offered a prize but don't see it in here, then I've decided to try and save it for next year's competition. We have a nice bonanza of stuff right now, and I'd feel weird giving out multiple prizes to entrants. Maybe we'll have more entries than prizes, but considering all the generousity this year, it'll be a tough feat to pull off. -=-=- Finally, we have enough official betatesters. If you are entering and want to use their services to test your game, then you'd better get your game in to me soon (as in before mid-August). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for helping to keep text adventures alive!