SOFTWORKS ANNOUNCES WINNERS IN FOURTH ANNUAL ADVENTURE GAME WRITING CONTEST This year we truly had an international contest. We had entries from Germany, Ireland, Australia, Japan and the United States. The judging was extremely tough... We spent our days as a bumbling freshman at Tumbulgum University searching for a bathroom and trying to get better acquainted with some of the school's nubile coeds and our nights measuring the NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) spectrum of a mysterious alien substance. We rose again to do battle with an evil sorceress, to feed some "just desserts" to a few obnoxious pets, and to discover the meaning of life. We ordered burgers at the local hangout (in a foreign language), tried to win an inheritance of $7.4 million dollars, learned some Biblical quotations, and ended up walking a circus tightrope to escape from the Zamboni crime family's secret headquarters. After these diverse and thoroughly exhilarating experiences, our valiant judges (dazed, exhausted, but never played-out!) announce with pleasure the winner(s) of the fourth annual Adventure Game Toolkit (AGT) Adventure Game Writing Contest. Drum role, please! ......And the First Prize ($100) winner for the 1990 contest is: CRIME TO THE NINTH POWER -- By Patrick Farley. This game is the first of a planned series of interactive novels featuring Cliff Diver, a private investigator living and working in San Francisco. Cliff is cut from the same cloth as such famous PI's as Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. In this game, you must help Cliff to escape from the deadly milieu of the Zamboni crime family's secret headquarters. Along the way, you and Cliff will face such challenges as snarling dobermans, bad booze, and a couple of Zamboni's goons (named Flash and Bonzo), and have a brief encounter with the succulent Tatiana and her three beautiful sisters. CRIME TO THE NINTH POWER comes with its own "pop-up" help system that allows the player to get complete and comprehensive hints whenever he or she hits Alt-H during the game. The author, Patrick Farley, is a full-time professional writer and part-time radio broadcaster. The quality and professionalism of Patrick's writing really makes CRIME TO THE NINTH POWER a joy to read and to play. CRIME is his first adventure game, but it is not going to be his last. He is currently crafting PURCHASED -- SIGHT UNSEEN, the next Cliff Diver computerized interactive novel, which he expects to release later this year. In addition to CRIME TO THE NINTH POWER, the contest had a number of other excellent entries. Among them, the judges have singled out the very best adventures as deserving an "Honorable Mention." These winning entries include (in alphabetical order): ANDKARA -- By Randy Smith. This game is a classic fantasy of swords and sorcery in which you lead a merry band of rogues, thieves, warriors and magicians on a quest through swamps, forests and hamlets. During the game, you must buy provisions and deal with evil wizards, nasty swordsmen, old crones, and a beautiful raven-haired warrior maiden. ESCAPE FROM THE ELI and WEEKEND SURVIVAL -- Both By Lowell Riethmuller. These two games were written as part of Professor Riethmuller's (of the English Language Institute of University of Delaware) research in using Computer Assisted Language Learning in the field of English as a Second Language or ESL. In designing both games, Professor Riethmuller used simplified English in the descriptions so that students from a wide variety of countries could understand them. A concerted effort was made to avoid the cultural bias, puns and other instances of rhetoric-for-its-own-sake found in most adventure games. MAGIC MANSION -- By Denise Sawicki. In this game, you play the role of a young girl, held captive by an evil wizard. He keeps you locked in a tiny, prison-like room in the basement of his mansion. Making your escape leads to an adventure filled with clever puzzles, obnoxious pets, beautiful flowers, lots of magic and a young girl's flight of fantasy. MOLD -- DEEP SPACE AWAKENING -- By Declan Stanley. In this adventure, you play the part of a crew member of an interstellar spaceship who is awakened from deep sleep (an artificially induced hibernation to allow people survive the long periods needed to span the stellar gulfs) to find most of the crew killed by a strange orange mold and the various systems aboard the ship damaged beyond repair. The objects of the game are to explore the ship, find the one other surviving crew member, and get off the ship alive. NMR2 -- By Douglas P. Burum. In this game, you play the role of a research chemist working at a top-secret government laboratory. The earth has been invaded by powerful creatures from another galaxy. They have the power to transform their appearance at will, which makes them very hard to recognize. It has recently been learned that the secret of the alien transformation power lies in a special substance manufactured by the alien body that acts as a catalyst. The object of the game is to measure the NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) spectrum of this substance, discover its secret, and save the world without killing yourself in the process. PYRAMID -- By Roland Goulsbra. This game is an interactive "phantasy" set in modern Egypt. The player must discover the secret of the pharaoh's tomb. The game is won by doing the right things, rather than collecting the right things. The ultimate goal is to figure out the MEANING OF LIFE (or LIFF as it's called in the game -- as in Douglas Adams' book The Meaning of Liff). STORMS -- By Ryan Burrus. A phone call informs you that your uncle, the famous scientist Professor Nightshade, has passed away. According to the instructions in his will, whoever can recover his greatest invention will receive the inheritance of $7.4 million dollars. To win the game and the inheritance, you must explore your uncle's house, his lab, and such diverse locales as a joke shop, the town graveyard and an amusement park. TWO WAYS -- By Grant E. Metcalf. This is a Christian text adventure. You, a weary traveler, can choose between a quick and easy path for your journey or take the path fraught with untold hidden dangers which can strike without warning. This game is unabashedly evangelistic and there are numerous Biblical quotations. The game is presented in an very entertaining fashion and is filled with the traps, puzzles and humor. WHATEVER WE DECIDE TO CALL THIS GAME -- By Joel Finch, Glen Henville and little bits by Matthew Newbery. In this very funny adventure game, you play the role of a bumbling freshman during his first day at Tumbulgum University. You must (1) find a bathroom -- this is very urgent, (2) get enrolled, (3) get a parking permit, and (4) get better acquainted with some of the school's winsome coeds. A game from Australia with a wry sense of humor. All of the winning games are available from Softworks, the publisher of the Adventure Game Toolkit, in a special 2-disk set of files called "1990 Best of the Contest". Both of these disks are available for only $15 (total for both). All of the games on the "1990 Best of the Contest" disks are provided in AGT source code form -- with the exception of CRIME TO THE NINTH POWER. These AGT source code games require AGT's COMPILE and RUN programs which can be ordered separately. CRIME TO THE NINTH POWER is only available for IBM or Compatible computers. It is provided in a "ready-to-play" version which requires 512K of memory and for which a hard disk drive is recommended -- though not required. CRIME does not require AGT's COMPILE and RUN programs. It's "ready-to-play" as is. CRIME also comes with a complete "walkthru" solution -- just in case you get stuck. These and other fine products may be ordered from: Softworks 43064 Via Moraga Mission San Jose, California 94539 You can also order by phone using your Mastercard or VISA by dialing (415) 659-0533, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, PST ONLY, Monday to Thursday, or Saturday or Sunday from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM.