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ISSUE #36 - March 16, 2004

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

                             ISSUE #36

               Edited by Paul O'Brian (obrian SP@G colorado.edu)
                           March 16, 2004

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

    SPAG #36 is copyright (c) 2004 by Paul O'Brian.
    Authors of reviews and articles retain the rights to their contributions.

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

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

    Amnesia
    Bad Machine
    Hamlet
    Insight
    Shadowgate
    To Hell In A Hamper

    SPECIFICS
    =========
    The Act Of Misdirection

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

    It's a collection of miscellany that I have to discuss today. First up
    is the lamentable absence of an interview in this issue. I'm working on
    a few different things, but none of them came together in time for this
    issue. As a small consolation prize, I can tell you a little of what's
    waiting in the wings, or at least what I *hope* the future holds. I
    recently canvassed you all for interview suggestions, and one dynamite
    idea I received was to interview Stephen Ramsay. For those of you
    unfamiliar with this name, Dr. Ramsay is a professor of English at the
    University of Georgia who taught a class last fall called Digital
    Narratives. This is the first academic course I've ever seen that
    focuses entirely on text IF, and that includes many works created by the
    IF community in its required reading and playing materials. If you're
    interested in the syllabus, it's available at
    http://cantor.english.uga.edu/cocoon/classes/engl4890.html.
    Unfortunately, though I tried to contact Dr. Ramsay for an interview, he
    didn't answer my email and his phone just rang and rang. If any of you
    out there know how to contact him, or if you took part in the class and
    want to tell SPAG's readers a little bit about your experience, get in
    touch with me. The other thing that's cooking is an interview exchange
    between myself and Urbatain, one of the luminaries of the Spanish IF
    community. If all goes well, the interview with me will be translated
    into Spanish and published in SPAC (Sociedad para la Preservación de las
    Aventuras Conversacionales, the Spanish equivalent of SPAG), and the
    interview with Urbatain will appear here. Sadly, my Spanish isn't strong
    enough for me to interview him in his native language, so we'll just
    have to muddle through as best we can.

    Another change that's recently occurred with SPAG is in the way it
    handles email addresses. This zine was started way back in 1994 (Whoa!
    It's almost our 10th anniversary!), and in those simpler Internet days,
    attaching email addresses to the names of authors and reviewers was
    actually a good thing. It encouraged feedback, made communication
    easier, and generally added cohesiveness to our small community.
    However, in today's spam-crazed Net environment, putting email addresses
    in cleartext out on the web is basically like pinning a sign on the
    person that says "Spam Me." Consequently, all email addresses appearing
    in SPAG will henceforth be spamblocked by replacing the @ sign with the
    string " SP@G ". This change has also been made to all addresses on the
    website, including everything listed in the review index and back issues
    listings. All mailto: links have also been removed, with the exception
    of the links to contact me or Joe DeRouen, SPAG Webmaster. It's
    regrettable to be driven to such measures by the bottom-feeders of the
    world, but there shouldn't be an overall penalty for being published or
    reviewed in SPAG, and for some people, the spam overload was becoming
    just that.

    Finally, I want to mention and publicly mull over a situation that
    occurred recently. I received a review that would have been great for
    this issue -- it was written clearly, specific in its analysis,
    objective, and fair. There was just one little concern, a parenthetical
    comment where the reviewer mentioned a plot thread that hadn't been
    followed, or, as he said, "at least not in the parts of the game I have
    succeeded in reaching so far." When I inquired further about this
    comment, the reviewer told me that in fact, he hadn't finished the game,
    quitting after reaching 50 points out of 75. In his mind, this wasn't a
    concern, since he had spent several hours with the game and had plenty
    to say about it. Also, to be fair, SPAG's submission policy has up until
    now been completely silent on the topic of whether a game should be
    finished before reviewing.

    Reluctantly, I had to reject the review, since I feel that completing a
    game is a necessary prerequisite to reviewing it. It feels a bit odd to
    say that, since I've written plenty of reviews of games I haven't
    finished, but those are competition game reviews, which is a bit of a
    special case, as the comp's rules dictate that a score must be assigned
    after playing a game for two hours, finished or not. In my mind, those
    comp reviews served to explain the score, not necessarily to provide a
    complete analysis of the game as a whole, though of course many times
    they serve that purpose as well. It's a thorny issue all around, though.
    When reviewing a book, or a movie, or a CD, the lines are rather clear:
    experience the entire thing, and until you do so, you aren't fit to
    review it. With games, though, there are a variety of different
    experiences of "finishing", and it's a much more subjective call on
    whether a reviewer has seen enough of the work to be able to review it.
    It's murky enough with traditional IF, but with experimental IF that has
    no ending, or that has hundreds of endings, or that has a facile "best"
    ending reachable in two moves, the lines blur even further.
    Consequently, although I've updated the submission guidelines, I've
    tried to leave a fair amount of wiggle room for a wide definition of
    "completeness." The bottom line is that if you're unsure how much of a
    particular game you need to see before reviewing it, ask me.

    LETTERS TO THE EDITOR------------------------------------------------------

    From:	Rich Mellor

    Just a quick update following on from SPAG #34 - All of the adventures
    sold by RWAP Software for the Sinclair QL and PC are now available on a
    dedicated website:

    http://www.rwapadventures.com

    I should be obliged if you would include this in your next issue of
    SPAG.

    [Consider it included, Rich. --Paul]

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

    AND THE XYZZY GOES TO...
    It was another fantastic XYZZY awards ceremony this year, held on March
    2nd in the Massive Auditorium on ifMUD (http://ifmud.port4000.com). It
    was an especially exciting ceremony for me, because for the first time I
    was able to be a presenter, though as it turned out, Earth and Sky
    stepped into that duty for me. Happily, I've been able to work something
    out with the MUD's lawyers so that I won't be billed for the damage my
    hapless characters caused. As for the awards themselves, it was
    definitely a banner year for Star Foster and Daniel Ravipinto's
    steampunk comp-winner Slouching Towards Bedlam, which was nominated for
    eight awards and won four, including Best Game. The ceremony itself was
    just as fun and chaotic as ever, as you can see if you care to check out
    the transcripts Stephen Granade has kindly made available at
    http://brasslantern.org/community/comps/xyzzy2003.html. Here now, the
    winners of the 2003 XYZZY Awards:
       * Best Use of Medium: ASCII and the Argonauts, by J. Robinson Wheeler
       * Best Individual PC: The PC from Episode in the Life of an Artist,
         by Peter Eastman
       * Best Individual NPC: Triage, from Slouching Towards Bedlam, by
         Daniel Ravipinto and Star Foster
       * Best Individual Puzzle: The Purple Room, from The Recruit, by Mike
         Sousa
       * Best NPCs: City of Secrets, by Emily Short
       * Best Puzzles: Gourmet, by Aaron Reed
       * Best Setting: Slouching Towards Bedlam, by Daniel Ravipinto and
         Star Foster
       * Best Story: Slouching Towards Bedlam, by Daniel Ravipinto and Star
         Foster
       * Best Writing: Narcolepsy, by Adam Cadre
       * Best Game: Slouching Towards Bedlam, by Daniel Ravipinto and Star
         Foster

    NEW GAMES
    And now that we've seen the 2003 XYZZYs, the contenders for 2004 may
    begin to emerge. The new games from the past few months run the gamut of
    development systems, themes, and annoyance levels. (Hint: the one called
    "Annoyotron" is really, really annoying.) I was happy to participate in
    a little pre-game promotion for Callico Harrison's excellent new game,
    The Act Of Misdirection, and Emily Short kindly provides us with an
    in-depth review of it for this issue's SPAG Specifics section.
       * Smuggler by Frank Fridd
       * The Gate by Owen Parish
       * The Last Hour by Roberto Grassi
       * The Act Of Misdirection by Callico Harrison
       * Annoyotron IV: Affrontotron by Joe Mason

    LOST, CONCEALING A DRIFTER (6)
    If the only place you read about IF is on the rec.*.int-fiction
    newsgroups, you may not be terribly aware that there's another thriving
    IF community that only overlaps a bit with the newsgroup crowd. This is
    the ADRIFT community, a group of enthusiasts for Campbell Wild's ADRIFT
    development system. Luckily for you, a wealth of information is
    available in the ADRIFT newsletter, a monthly publication run by Ken
    Franklin. The latest version of the newsletter can be downloaded from
    http://www.insideadrift.org.uk. Also, if you're interested in becoming a
    "drifter", check out the ADRIFT beginner's guide at
    http://home.gcn.cx/mystery, in the downloads section

    A TWISTY MAZE OF LITTLE ANALYSES, ALL GOOD
    For me, one of the most exciting IF-related events of the winter was the
    publication of Nick Montfort's book Twisty Little Passages, the first
    book-length academic treatment of interactive fiction. Montfort does his
    subject justice, treating IF as a new medium worthy of careful study and
    possessing enormous potential. I could go on at length about it, but as
    it turns out, I already have. If you want to see the results, they're at
    http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~obrian/tlprev.html. If you're interested in
    somebody else's opinion (a shocking thought, really), check out
    Montfort's own TLP page, which contains links to all online reviews and
    discussion about the book. It's at http://nickm.com/twisty/.

    I'M AFRAID I CAN'T LET YOU DO THAT, DAVE
    Finally, a bit of sad news: David Cornelson has come to the end of a
    long chapter of IF activism, and is shutting down his IF-related
    operations, including the Plover server and the IF Library's publishing
    endeavors. Right now, it's looking like another community member will
    take up the torch for Plover, keeping the sites it hosts from sliding
    into oblivion. As for the Inform Designer's Manual and the Inform
    Beginner's Guide, both published by IF Library, the sun is setting on
    their printed versions. The IF Theory book is still going forward, and
    its editors remain committed to shepherding it into publication. The
    latest news on the project is always available at
    http://www.iftheory.com. Let me take this space to offer big thanks to
    Dave for all he's done for us, and wish him the best of luck in the
    future.

    KEEP YOUR SPAG ALIVE
    I've gotten a nice variety of reviews for this issue, from lots of
    different sources, but while SPAG has a pulse at the moment, it's always
    touch and go from one issue to the next. Keep this zine's heart beating
    strongly by submitting your own reviews of IF games! If you need
    inspiration, consider the following list of games that I'd love to see
    reviewed here:

    SPAG 10 MOST WANTED LIST
    ========================
    1.  City Of Secrets
    2.  Dr. Dumont's Wild P.A.R.T.I.
    3.  1893: A World's Fair Mystery
    4.  The Gate
    5.  House
    6.  Inevitable
    7.  The Last Hour
    8.  Max Blaster and Doris de Lightning Against the Parrot Creatures of Venus
    9.  Narcolepsy
    10. Smuggler

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

    Consider the following review header:

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

    When submitting reviews:  Try to fill in as much of this info as you can.
    Authors may not review their own games.

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

    From: Neil Butters

    TITLE: Amnesia
    AUTHOR: Dustin Rhodes
    EMAIL: crazydwarf12 SP@G yahoo.com
    DATE: October 2003
    PARSER: TADS2
    SUPPORTS: TADS2 interpreters
    AVAILABILITY: Freeware
    URL: ftp://ftp.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2003/tads2/amnesia
    VERSION: Version 1.0 (competition release)

    The first line of Amnesia demonstrates what to expect from the game:

       A cool beach where you should have washed ashore and not have been
       able to remember anything because you where supposed to have amnesia,
       which you didn't, which completly ruins the whole storyline this game
       was going to have, so now the auther will have to make a game up on
       the spot, enjoy.

    Amnesia is a crude, nonsensical, and often hilarious effort, with an
    obvious affection for the genre. It certainly seems as though Amnesia
    was made up on the spot. For example, there is no story and the goal of
    the game does not become apparent until near the conclusion. The parser
    is very limited and there are spelling and grammatical errors aplenty.
    Often the exits from rooms are not mentioned. This only became a major
    problem in one situation. Consulting the walkthrough file did not help
    much -- it is in error. The puzzles make very little sense, but are easy
    to figure out anyway. And don't expect to finish the game; there's a bug
    near the end. A total waste of time? Not really, because I also laughed
    quite a bit. The sloppy and crude design often invoked laughter. The
    major NPC's sole purpose seems to be to act strange. Don't bother trying
    to interact with him (I don't think you can, despite the author's claim
    to the contrary) -- just enjoy his antics. Also contributing to the
    game's enjoyability is the author's self-mockery and love of the
    adventure game. Often the author (or narrator) will acknowledge the
    game's absurdities and invite you to play along. Credit has to be given
    for its self-consciousness.

    It is obvious why Amnesia finished in 27th place in the 9th Annual IF
    Competition. I can't say that Amnesia is "so bad it's good." It is not a
    good game. However, if you have 15 minutes, a sense of humour, and do
    not take it too seriously you may have as much fun playing Amnesia as
    the author had creating it.

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

    [For years I've been wishing for a review of Dan Shiovitz's mind-bending
    and idiosyncratic work Bad Machine. My pleas must finally have been
    heard, because recently a little hole in the universe opened and
    extruded the following piece. I can't vouch for its grounding in
    reality, but Dan has approved its publication, so publish it I will. Let
    me put it this way: it's the best Bad Machine review I've ever been
    sent. --Paul]

    From: Valentine Kopteltsev

    TITLE: Bad Machine
    AUTHOR: Dan Shiovitz
    EMAIL: dans SP@G drizzle.com
    DATE: 1998
    PARSER: TADS Hacked
    SUPPORTS: TADS2 interpreters
    AVAILABILITY: Freeware
    URL: ftp://ftp.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/tads/bmch.zip

    A pseudo-inter-RE-view with Dan Shiovitz
    ----------------------------------------

    I asked for it, and I got it: a cozy arm-chair next to a fireplace,
    where I can lounge while sipping cold beer and interviewing Dan, who's
    sitting opposite me in a similar arm-chair.

    Valentine Kopteltsev: Danny, partner, would you please tell me some
    background info about your game -- maybe something about its history,
    the creation process, etc.

    Dan Shiovitz: No, no. You're going about it from the wrong end. Look,
    for one thing, I agreed to help you with your REVIEW, which is supposed
    to be some sort of summary of YOUR OWN, PERSONAL impressions of the
    game. For the other, would you mind refraining from calling me Danny?
    I'd appreciate it a lot.

    V.K.: Well, then, let's begin from the very start. How does it happen
    that the trailer for Bad Machine is essentially unrelated to the game
    itself?

    D.S.: You didn't enjoy it?

    V.K.: On the contrary, I did; in fact, I thought it was just great.
    However, I found it a tad bit confusing to discover the main game had
    nothing to do with it.

    D.S.: I see no problem with that. Just take it as some sort of epigraph.
    How many books have you read in your life where the epigraph represented
    an integral part of the story?

    V.K.: M-m-m... Sounds convincing. Let's move on, then. The world of Bad
    Machine, this fully automated warehouse, is astounding, even
    overwhelming: while it doesn't take too much time to finish the game,
    one could spend I think at least a couple of hours exploring
    possibilities, gaining information, and trying to figure out how
    everything works. And despite its large size, you somehow managed to
    maintain both its consistency and a high level of detail. Danny, pal,
    please tell me -- was it difficult to create?

    D.S.: Could you please stop calling me Danny? You bet it was! You know,
    your question appears somewhat... inadequate.

    V.K.: You mean, it's stupid. ;) Sure, come to think of it, I have to
    admit it is. I mean, considering the dimensions of the warehouse, the
    number of different robots you had to implement for it, as well as the
    fact that you rewrote the standard TADS parser almost beyond
    recognition, one really needn't ask you whether it was a lot of work.
    Still, during gameplay, I ran into a few bugs, and there also were
    several things I thought I (or, to be more precise, the player
    character) should be able to do but wasn't. What do you think of this?

    D.S. (smiling): I think you're a nitpicker.

    V.K. (also smiling): Probably I am -- after all, none of the bugs were
    too critical. Still, there were some issues considering the puzzles and
    the overall gameplay. While, on the whole, the puzzles were logical and
    quite manageable (while I'm not the best puzzle-solver, I could finish
    Bad Machine without resorting to the hints; OK, I used them, but only
    after solving yet another puzzle -- as some sort of proof I was on the
    right track), there were episodes where I had to wait quite a few turns
    for something relevant to happen, and this was a bit confusing. Also,
    considering the recent discussion in SPAG about how doors should
    automatically unlock if the PC has a key, it occurred to me that some
    players (although I'm not one of them) might find the game too pedantic
    about always getting explicit commands. Danny, chum, please tell me your
    opinion on that matter.

    D.S.: Please don't call me Danny. First of all, Bad Machine was released
    a few years before this discussion, so referring to it here seems a bit
    inappropriate. Besides, the player is controlling a not too advanced
    robot in this game; I think that requesting precise instructions is
    exactly the behaviour most people would expect of a machine, isn't it?
    As for puzzle solutions requiring waiting for a random number of
    turns... You already mentioned the action in Bad Machine takes place in
    an automated warehouse. This structure has its own production cycles,
    and works strictly in accordance with a certain schedule. If it broke
    this schedule just to be more convenient for the player, that'd be
    rather unrealistic, wouldn't it?

    V.K.: OK, I think I can buy this explanation. However, for me, probably
    the strangest thing about Bad Machine was its ending. Somehow, I
    couldn't make heads or tails of it. You know, I've always had trouble
    understanding deeply symbolic games (Losing Your Grip by Stephen Granade
    is a good example); I guess that's the reason for my confusion about Bad
    Machine. Danny, buddy, please give me some clue for better
    understanding.

    D.S.: I suspect you also have troubles with your memory, for I have
    asked you several times not to call me Danny, and you still do. Well,
    I'm afraid I can't help you with that.

    V.K.: But Danny, my friend...

    D.S.: NOW STOP CALLING ME DANNY WILL YOU!!!

    V.K. (only slightly disconcerted): Er... still, a little explanation
    would be nice.

    D.S. (glancing at his watch): Sorry, I'm afraid we have to skip this. I
    suggest you get right over to the SNATS [Valentine's traditional "Scores
    Not Affecting The Scoreboard" --Paul] section -- I have another
    appointment in a few minutes.

    V.K.: Well, let's have a look at what we've got here... the PLOT is the
    element of the game that gives me the most trouble (1.1). Then, the
    genuine ATMOSPHERE of a robot factory (1.6)... WRITING that manages to
    be computer-like and not to degenerate into binary code at the same time
    (1.8)... GAMEPLAY with episodes requiring random waiting, but I think
    the multiple solutions balance it out (1.4)... and BONUSES for the
    overall consistency, lots of background material, as well as for some
    responses (in particular, the response to debris manipulation attempts)
    (1.3). All this results in a TOTAL RATING of 7.2. Considering the theme
    of the game, the CHARACTERS are almost perfect; however, it must be said
    that implementing robots probably is easier than implementing people
    (1.4). The PUZZLES were interesting and logical enough, although I had
    the feeling the game could use a couple more of them (1.3). As to the
    difficulty... well, even *I* was able to solve it without resorting to
    hints (max. 6 out of 10). But Danny, comrade, would you please give me a
    final comme...

    D.S. (producing a butcher's axe): HERE!

    Disconnect performed -- limb (top, left) removed
    Disconnect performed -- limb (top, right) removed
    Disconnect performed -- limb (bottom, left) removed
    Disconnect performed -- limb (bottom, right) removed
    Disconnect performed -- head removed

    D.S. (now alone): Time to find someone to bring this to the reclamation
    area.

    ---

    P.S. I honestly hope you play Bad Machine if you haven't already. The game's
    definitely worth it.

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

    From:	Andrea Crain

    NAME: The Most Lamentable and Excellent Text Adventure of Hamlet, Prince
          of Denmark
    AUTHOR: Robin Johnson
    EMAIL: rj SP@G robinjohnson.f9.co.uk
    DATE: November 2003
    PARSER: Nondescript
    SUPPORTS: Web browser with JavaScript
    AVAILABILITY: Freeware
    URL: http://www.robinjohnson.f9.co.uk/adventure/hamlet.html
    VERSION: The page says last bug fix was 1/25/04

    This game is written with Nondescript, a JavaScript game engine the
    author wrote himself. Lots of people tend to shy away from games not
    written in one of the big IF languages, but have no fear that playing
    Hamlet will leave you battling the engine instead of the game proper.
    This is a really well implemented piece of JavaScript. A couple of
    conveniences are missing that you might be used to -- you can't pick up
    or drop more than one item at a time, for example. Also, NPC's seem
    pretty shallow, and are rooted to one spot most of the time. However,
    things you can do work consistently, and you can use abbreviations the
    way you'd expect.

    Some Internet friends and I found this game, and we hadn't played any IF
    in awhile. I hadn't played anything since an abortive stab at Enhanced
    in 1995, in fact, and before that my IF experience was limited to
    Infocom games on a mid-80s Macintosh. The game's interface was fairly
    natural to pick up, and it got me interested in playing a lot of new IF
    games, which is what I've been doing for the past week or so. Now I know
    that I should be able to pick up two things at once, but when I played
    this game, I didn't, so the lack didn't bother me. That and the fact
    that you don't need to download anything and, since the game runs on any
    JavaScript enabled browser, make me think it's a good game to show to IF
    neophytes to suck them into your shadowy IF world.

    The game itself is a fun, silly adventure. You are ordering around
    Hamlet, and his mission is clear -- kill his usurping uncle. You don't
    need to have read Hamlet recently to finish the game, although I had,
    and it helped in a couple of spots, particularly with regard to the
    curtain in Gertrude's room. There are also characters from other plays
    thrown in for good measure.

    Some of the puzzles were so easy that I didn't even know they were
    there. For example, a ghostly mist stops you from going downstairs if
    you haven't gotten your mission from the ghost yet. Since that seemed
    like the only thing to do first off, I never encountered the mist. Other
    puzzles, one in particular, are fiendish. In fact, the hint system
    gloats that the puzzle in question is the obligatory incredibly
    difficult puzzle that must be included in any IF game. Unfortunately, I
    didn't know I had a puzzle before me when I got to that point. Well, I
    was at a loss for what to do next, and the game obviously wasn't over,
    so I knew there must be something I was missing. But there were no
    clues, as far as I saw, that a certain room existed, so how was I to
    know that I needed to get into it? I even looked in a direction that
    should have given me some inkling, but it didn't. Maybe that was just my
    failing as a game player, but once I looked at the hint page (available
    as a link below the JavaScript window) I started to get the picture.

    Anyway, this game was fun to play, fiendish puzzle aside. The
    environment was described well and, since I didn't notice there was a
    save feature until late in the festivities (it's implemented with
    cookies), I replayed from the start so many times I could probably
    navigate the whole map blindfolded if I were dropped there in real life.
    The humor was engaging, and the easy puzzles you start out with make you
    feel triumphant, hooking you in and making you want to finish. It's well
    worth playing. I'd give it an 8 out of 10.

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

    From:	Felix Grützmacher

    TITLE: Insight
    AUTHOR: Jon Ingold
    EMAIL: jonnyingold SP@G netscape.net (as given by the game's help text)
    DATE: 2003
    PARSER: Inform
    SUPPORTS: Z-machine implementations
    AVAILABILITY: IF archive
    URL: ftp://ftp.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/zcode/insight.z5
    RELEASE: 4

    "Before I've arrived
    I can see myself coming."
    -- Robbie Williams, from his song "Feel"

    From his previous games "All Roads", "Failsafe" and "My Angel", we know
    that Jon Ingold likes to experiment with the various possibilities the
    medium of IF has to offer. "Insight" brilliantly continues in this
    tradition. He is not through with us yet, poor experimental subjects
    that we are. Interestingly, the help text states that "INSIGHT is a
    standard text-game in many ways." Well, it's non-standard in many
    others.

    "Insight" is not a puzzler in the sense that "The Mulldoon Legacy" is.
    Neither is it a static story in the guise of interactive fiction, like
    "Photopia". But it also isn't an adventure game of the old school like
    most Infocom classics. This one is different.

    The game starts off with the PC interviewing a man who is being accused
    of murdering his wife. This interview serves the purpose of equipping
    the player with certain pieces of information he needs later on when
    investigating the scene of the crime, if indeed a crime it was.

    The atmosphere balances precariously somewhere between science fiction
    and political thriller, the sci-fi feeling resulting from the fact that
    most of the action takes place on Mars. These are two genres which have
    seldom been combined in literature (Frank Herbert's Dune being an
    interesting exception), let alone in IF. To my mind, the combination was
    successful.

    There are two major puzzles in the game. The PC has a certain special
    talent, and one of the puzzles consists of finding out what it is and
    putting it to good use. The second puzzle is piecing together what
    really happened. You won't find any of the standard adventure game
    frustrations such as mazes, battery failures and inventory restrictions.

    When I was playing "Insight" for the first time, I eventually felt I had
    exhausted every possible way of gaining more information, so I decided
    to leave the scene and do something else. The game reacted by simply
    telling me my investigation was finished, and asking if I wanted to
    restart or quit. Frustrated, I gave it a break. When I came back to it a
    few days later, I played with more insight. Don't give up when you feel
    stuck, just try again.

    As to the experimental nature of this game, I cannot go into any
    substantial detail without spoiling the fun. You'll have to find it out
    for yourself. But take my word for it, it's worth every second of
    download time.

    On the technical side, I didn't find any serious flaws. Mackenzie, the
    only substantial NPC, has a vast repository of responses, and the
    program keeps track of which topics have already been talked about. He
    speaks a language foreign to the PC, thus his inability to understand
    certain complex questions appears quite realistic. This reminded me a
    lot of "Failsafe", "LASH" and "Suspended", where the parser's
    restrictions are brilliantly excused with a bad communication channel.

    On a scale from 0 to 10, I would rate "Insight" at 8. Difficulty is 3
    out of 10. Experienced IFers will probably complete this one in three
    sessions.

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

    From:	Adam Myrow

    TITLE: Shadowgate
    AUTHOR: David Griffith (originally published by Icom for the Nintendo
            Entertainment System as well as many other platforms)
    EMAIL: dgriffi SP@G cs.csubak.edu
    PARSER: Inform standard
    SUPPORTS: Zcode interpreters
    AVAILABILITY: freeware IF-archive
    URL: ftp://ftp.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/zcode/sgate.z5
         Source code is also available at:
         ftp://ftp.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/source/sgate.tar.gz

    Sometimes, a game grows larger in the mind when it is not played for
    many years. This was the case for a game called Shadowgate which was
    released by Icom for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989. I have
    been totally blind since birth. Thus, I was never able to play the
    original game by myself. However, I was able to play it a few times by
    having a friend read the text and I would tell him what I wanted to try.
    The game was a mixed graphical/text game with a menu of verbs which
    could be applied to objects in your inventory. Anyway, I never got very
    far, and eventually, lost access to the game.

    Fast forward to late 2003. I was casually browsing rec.games.int-fiction
    when I noticed a post announcing that David Griffith had just released
    an Inform adaptation of Shadowgate based on the Nintendo version. I was
    thrilled. After over a decade, I could now finally play this game by
    myself and get past the puzzles which had previously stumped me. I
    grabbed it immediately.

    What I discovered was that this game had become much more exciting in my
    mind than it was in reality. First off, as the original was based on a
    menu of verbs rather than a parser, the puzzles were rather simple. With
    one or two exceptions, one object is used to solve one puzzle. Once the
    puzzle is solved, the object is either removed from play or will never
    be needed again. There are no alternate solutions, and few hints. Either
    you get past the obstacle, or you die. In fact, dying is extremely
    common in this game. There are numerous death traps besides the instant
    death puzzles. Take an object, go through a door, or attack a monster
    with the wrong weapon, and it's curtains for you. As if that weren't bad
    enough, there is the light source problem. When you start the game, you
    have a torch. You will quickly notice lots of torches lying around for
    the taking. Be sure and grab them! Your torches don't last very long, so
    you will find yourself constantly lighting new torches and dropping dead
    torches. The good news is that there is no inventory limit. This was
    fairly minor, as there are more than enough torches to let you finish
    the game. I think I ended up with 10 extra torches at the end of my play
    session. It's just a nuisance to constantly be told that your torch is
    about to go out and having to light one. There are no mazes, and no
    hunger or sleep puzzles, so most of the really annoying puzzles of older
    games are absent. It's just that learning by death is not much fun.
    Here's a typical example of what I mean.

       Tower Prison
       You are in a bare, round room. A beautiful woman is chained to the
       wall. Moonlight streams in from a window.

       You can see a golden blade and a beautiful woman here.

       >x blade
       It's some sort of spike that is made of precious metals. The tips are
       as sharp as needles.

       >get it
       As you reach for the golden blade the beautiful lady suddenly
       transforms into a wolf! With a load [SIC] roar, the wolf pounces on
       you, taking your life! The wolf's powerful jaws rip your throat out!

           *** You have died ***

       It's a sad thing that your adventures have ended here.

    Examining the girl gives no hint that she is anything other than what
    she seems. So, the only thing you can do is learn by dying, undo, and
    try to figure out how to get rid of the wolf. Another even worse example
    of this.

       Stone Tunnel
       This hallway is made of large granite slabs. There are exits up,
       west, and north.

       You can see four unlit torches here.

       >w
       Without thinking, you jump through the opening and immediately hear a
       loud click. Suddenly, the granite slab above you gives way and
       crushes you beneath it. It breaks every bone in your body.

    As for plot, it is the standard save-the-world type of plot. You must
    overthrow the evil Warlock Lord before he releases the Behemoth to
    destroy everything. Of course, this involves collecting various items
    and assembling them into a weapon of great power. In other words,
    nothing that hasn't been done before. There are a few spells as well. I
    don't know how spells worked in the original graphical game since I
    didn't get that far, but in this version, the good old Enchanter system
    of using gnusto to copy them into a spell book from a scroll was adopted
    probably because it is readily available. This really isn't a big deal
    as far as I'm concerned since like everything else, the spells each are
    used exactly once.

    So, overall, I was a bit let down by the game mainly because it had
    grown into an epic in my mind. What it is, in reality, is a very short
    little fantasy game with loads of death traps and one-use objects. There
    are also plenty of red herrings. However, while the plot is minimal, the
    writing is fairly decent aside from a few spelling errors. I think most
    of the writing comes from the original game, but according to the
    "about" text, many descriptions were made longer to account for the lack
    of graphics. So, it's not all bad. As for coding, I found a few minor
    bugs, but for the most part, things work pretty well. The torches, while
    annoying, have had a lot of work done on them to make dealing with them
    as painless as possible. I would suggest that any game developers have a
    look at this game's source code even if you don't plan on using Inform.
    Bundled with the source code are some transcripts of very early beta
    versions of the game with embedded remarks from the beta testers. These
    serve to illustrate the sorts of bugs to watch out for and the crazy
    things players might try when they get stuck. So, for me, I actually
    found the source code and transcripts very informative despite finding
    the game to be a little annoying. If you treat it like a game from the
    late 1980's rather than a modern piece of IF, I think it will sit much
    better with you than it did with me.

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

    From:	J. Robinson Wheeler

    TITLE: To Hell In A Hamper
    AUTHOR: J.J. Guest
    EMAIL: jason_guest SP@G hotmail.com
    DATE: 2003
    PARSER: ADRIFT
    SUPPORTS: ADRIFT interpreters
    AVAILABILITY: IF Archive
    URL: ftp://ftp.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/adrift/ToHellInAHamper.zip

    This is a short game with a good amount of wit and charm to it, and it
    shows that it is possible to make a one-room, one-puzzle (albeit a
    layered, Babel Fish type puzzle) game that's entertaining.

    The situation is that you are Professor Pettibone, eminent Victorian
    Balloonist, on his attempt to circle the world in a balloon. Your
    traveling companion has been replaced at the last minute by a Mr. Hubert
    Booby, a rather shady character with a suspiciously bulging overcoat.
    The puzzle of the game involves throwing enough weight out of the
    balloon to clear an erupting volcano, and you have to prise items one at
    a time (or sometimes, a half-dozen at a time) from Mr. Booby.

    I turned to the walkthrough rather soon, just to get the game moving,
    and relied on it a bit too much thereafter, worried that I was going to
    do something out of order and make the game unwinnable. In fact, the
    author was sometimes careful in this regard, and made it so that you
    couldn't toss some items you still needed over the side. (But some you
    could.) I had a few challenging guess-the-verb moments, including
    figuring out the syntax for throwing things overboard, and the rather
    dodgy necessity of using the non-standard verb 'MAKE' at a crucial
    late-game step.

    Having gotten that far, I decided to play the rest of the game without
    looking at the walkthrough, which turned out to be the one time I should
    have used it, because the ultimate turn of the game is a win/lose
    scenario. I typed "PULL ROPE" instead of "PULL GAS VALVE ROPE," and I
    lost. Since I hadn't saved the game, I had to start all over again and
    replay the whole thing just to see the winning outcome, which was
    irritating.

    There were a couple of spelling errors, including one in the concluding
    text of the winning scenario, and there were some odd tussles with the
    parser on occasion:

       > cut buttons
       [...] finally, with a great rending sound the coat bursts
       open, spilling a multitude of diverse objects onto the floor
       of the basket! These items consist of a large framed painting,
       an enormous carpetbag, a bundle of twigs, a boomerang, an
       ear-trumpet, a toy donkey and a sleeping Saint Bernard dog...

       > throw twigs out
       I'm afraid the meaning of your words escapes me. Could you
       possibly rephrase that?

       > get twigs
       Take what?

       > get bundle
       I pick up the smudge stick.

       > x it
       (the smudge stick)
       A bundle of cedar twigs and sprigs of sage bound together with
       coloured thread. [...]

       > throw twigs overboard
       I'm afraid the meaning of your words escapes me. Could you
       possibly rephrase that?

       > throw stick overboard
       I don't understand what you want me to do with the smudge stick.

       > throw stick
       I don't understand what you want me to do with the smudge stick.

       > throw smudge
       I'm afraid the meaning of your words escapes me. Could you
       possibly rephrase that?

       > throw smudge stick
       I toss the smudge stick over the side of the basket. After all
       I can't imagine what I might have needed it for...

    I enjoyed the pop-up introductory picture that set the scene. The
    dialogue of the game was very funny, as was the surprise of one of the
    last items to be revealed hidden about Mr. Booby's person. If I had run
    across this game in the Competition, I probably would have ranked it a 7
    or an 8, depending on how charitable I was feeling. Overall, nicely
    done.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     ___. .___    _    ___.     ___.
    /  _| |   \  / \  / ._|    /  _|
    \  \  | o_/ |   | | |_.    \  \
    .\  \ | |   | o | | | |    .\  \
    |___/ |_|   |_|_| \___|    |___/ PECIFICS

    SPAG Specifics is a small section of SPAG dedicated to providing in-
    depth critical analysis of IF games, spoilers most emphatically
    included.

    WARNING! SPOILERS BELOW FOR THE FOLLOWING GAME:

    The Act Of Misdirection

    PROCEED NO FURTHER UNLESS YOU HAVE PLAYED THIS GAME!

    THIS IS NOT A TEST! GENUINE SPOILERS TO FOLLOW!

    LAST CHANCE TO AVOID SPOILAGE!

    From: Emily Short

    TITLE: The Act of Misdirection
    AUTHOR: Callico Harrison
    EMAIL: calharrison SP@G eudoramail.com
    DATE: February 2004
    PARSER: Inform
    SUPPORTS: Zcode interpreters
    AVAILABILITY: Freeware
    URL: ftp://ftp.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/zcode/Misdirection.z5
    VERSION: Release 5

    Like Paul O'Brian, I am pleased to see work from a new author,
    especially released outside the competition. It's also excellent to find
    that it's such an interesting game.

    The first scene of "The Act of Misdirection" is delightful. Everything I
    did had a strange and fascinating result, but I still felt as though I
    was a step ahead of the audience. Appropriate actions were well-clued
    and became increasingly obvious as time went on. The tricks bore enough
    resemblance to traditional magic tricks that I had some sense of what
    was supposed to happen, but they were still unusual enough to surprise
    and entertain. I was also impressed by the way the tricks themselves
    become gradually more sinister -- the relatively innocuous card trick,
    then the grapefruit which seems to be slightly *off*, then the
    definitely-creepy sword-snake-boa. The descriptions of David and of the
    newspaper, and your refusal to remove your jacket, also seem odd at the
    time, but the flow of the game keeps you concentrating on other things
    until their real significance becomes clear. This is nicely handled.

    The scene rewards replaying, too. The second time through the act, when
    I knew what I was doing, I really got into role-playing the performance:
    showing things to the audience before using them in the trick, making
    dramatic gestures with the props, varying the details of the routine. It
    was wonderful how well "Misdirection" handled all of this, making the
    audience ooh and ahh just as I wanted them to.

    Such flexibility and responsiveness is something you can only achieve
    with careful implementation. There are a few imperfections, but they're
    relatively trivial. I didn't find the later scenes quite as richly
    implemented as the first, but they still showed a great deal of care and
    attention to detail.

    The imagery in "Misdirection" is likewise strong. The intense
    descriptions of light and darkness reminded me at times of "So Far"
    (Andrew Plotkin, 1996), or of the room with the pigeons in "All Roads"
    (Jon Ingold, 2001). Smell and sound are used to good effect. The
    sacrifice of blood to the ashes of the dead has all sorts of resonances,
    too -- though what bothered me most in that sequence was the capture and
    destruction of the rat. It's just so pathetic. I felt much sorrier for
    the dead rat than for my dead self. (This is nominally the happy ending,
    I suppose, but it seemed sad.)

    The peripheral features of the game, such as the help menus and the
    startup screen, were nicely handled, and made me expect good things even
    before play started.

    In short, "Misdirection" is well worth playing; if you haven't already
    gotten to it, you should (and certainly *not* read the rest of the
    review until you have). But there are a few ways in which it doesn't
    live up to its considerable promise.

    Chief among these is the writing. My sense of how good something is
    depends fairly heavily on how well it fulfills its own ambitions, and
    this is ambitious prose. Callico Harrison is aware of the sound of
    language, of the possibilities in an unexpected metaphor, and of the
    pleasure of using a specific word rather than a generic one. She puns.
    She nudges the reader. But she needs more discipline. I read a sentence
    like this --

       "You pig-headed imbecile," roars the boar-like man in the blue suit
       with a smile like fresh hay.

    -- and I have to think the author is getting too clever for her own
    good.

    Or a somewhat different problem, here:

       A cat expunges from the fog and disappears a few feet further.

    This does not mean what it is pretending to mean. I've sometimes found
    that sort of problem in my own prose (or, more embarrassingly, had it
    pointed out to me), and my experience is that this is the result of
    writing fairly quickly and concentrating on getting the rhythm right.
    You grope for the right word, you find a related word that sounds
    better, and you go on without quite registering that you just wrote
    nonsense. Possibly Ms. Harrison's experience is different, but this is
    how it goes for me. I think the word that she was reaching for was
    probably "emerges", but I can also see why she might not have wanted to
    use it in this sentence. "Expunge" is a strong word, and a rare one.
    "emerge" is duller; worse, "emerges from the fog" is a pretty shopworn
    phrase.

    Most people will probably know what the sentence means anyway: many will
    hear the sound of "expunge" and understand the sense of "emerge",
    through the miraculous capacity of the human mind to fabricate meaning
    where there is none. But you run the risk that some players will slow
    down, read the sentence literally, and be perplexed -- or think that you
    don't know your vocabulary, which is almost certainly not the problem.

    There were more misuses like this, lest anyone think I'm making too much
    of a single sentence. Admittedly, they didn't make "Misdirection"
    unplayable. If I read quickly, I didn't even mind; I caught the energy
    of the prose and missed the sloppy bits. But given the talent that went
    into the writing, it could have been much better.

    I don't know what to suggest to the author. Having been corrected on
    these sorts of errors a few times, I now tend to dump all my text into a
    file at compile time and proof-read it that way, preferably weeks after
    it was originally written. Even so, I find phrases in my released games
    that make me wince. The other possibility is finding a beta-tester who
    is also a good editor, someone who won't be fooled by the good qualities
    of the writing into not commenting on the bad ones. That's probably the
    best choice, if you can find someone you trust in that role.

    I apologize to the author for going on at such length. If you're feeling
    bitter, someone (I don't know who) wrote some fairly unflattering
    comments on a similar issue in Metamorphoses, here:
    http://www.geocities.com/risor_iracundus/writing.html.

    On a completely different note: I appreciate the misdirection that the
    game itself performs, distracting the player on the first playthrough
    into ignoring the rat. At the same time, the way this is set up seems
    almost like cheating. I *tried* to interact with the rat, but I didn't
    have the bun; it requires out-of-character prescience for Sarah to
    bother collecting one in advance, and I would have found the effect more
    pleasing if that were not part of the puzzle.

    Also, this one path is the only path that leads to any kind of escape,
    while there are quite a few other plausible things to try (walking away
    rather than approaching the shop; not following David into the darkness;
    emptying or breaking the ash jar; giving the hat away to another
    customer; trying to escape or disobey Eduardo) that aren't allowed.
    Sometimes they're denied on the explicit grounds that history is already
    established, and this is not what you did. But if history's established,
    why are you allowed to change exactly one thing? It makes sense from the
    author's point of view -- none of the other escapes makes a good story,
    therefore the player can't be allowed to use them -- but it's
    frustrating for a player. If I hadn't been told, I'm not sure I would
    have realized there was any valid escape route at all, and that would
    have been a pity.

    Finally, I have a question. I understand the bulk of the plot, but the
    exact nature of David's situation eluded me. He was bitten by a snake
    and was thereby doomed to follow it; very well. Once you put your blood
    into the ash, he is doomed to follow you, instead. Does that make you
    the snake? It seems that you're more the victim, all things considered.
    But then the relationships of the players becomes a bit obscure.

    Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but it doesn't make complete sense
    to me no matter how I approach it. This is disappointing, because, in a
    plot about a horrific mystery like this, I would really like to have a
    moment where everything clicks perfectly into place. It didn't, quite. I
    still enjoyed the experience of getting there, but I wanted the final
    result to be more coherent.

    I want to reiterate at this point that I rarely have such detailed
    complaints about a game I dislike. If this had come up in an IF
    competition I would have scored it high, probably very high. It gets
    more right than it gets wrong, and promises quite a lot from a new
    author.

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

    SPAG is a non-paying fanzine specializing in reviews of text adventure
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