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ISSUE #11 - September 16, 1997

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

                                ISSUE # 11

                 Edited by Magnus Olsson (zebulon SP@G pobox.com)
                            September 16, 1997.

             SPAG Website: http://www.afn.org/~afn55673/spag.html
            Contest Website: http://www.afn.org/~afn55673/contest/

    SPAG #11 is copyright (c) 1997 by G. Kevin Wilson and Magnus Olsson.
    Authors of reviews retain the rights to their contributions.

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

    EDITORIALS-----------------------------------------------------------------

    Magnus Olsson is the new editor of SPAG.  It's been real.  Be nice to
    him.  Take it away, Magnus.

                                    G. Kevin Wilson
                                    "Whizzard"

    Thanks, Whizzard. You've done a great job so far for re-vitalizing
    text adventures. Let's hope I can contribute a little to the cause as
    well.

    This issue was mostly prepared by Whizzard; I've just finished the
    formatting and added a few comments of my own. Readers will not notice
    any big differences in this issue. If you have any comments or
    suggestions, please email them to me at zebulon SP@G pobox.com.

    Oh, and it's time to start thinking about reviews for the next
    issue. If you run out of new games to review, there's a whole bunch of
    golden oldies that have been given a new lease of life - see the
    "new games" section below.

    Finally, let's give Whizzard a big hand for his work.

                                   Magnus Olsson

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

    SPAG is a non-paying fanzine specializing in reviews of text adventure
    games, a.k.a. Interactive Fiction. This includes the classic Infocom
    games and similar games, but also some graphic adventures where the
    primary player-game communication is text based.

    Authors retain the rights to use their reviews in other contexts. We
    accept submissions that have been previously published elsewhere,
    although original reviews are preferred. At the moment, we are _not_
    accepting any more reviews of Infocom games.

    LETTERS --------------------------------------------------------------------

    Hey!

    Great to see that people are still writing magazines with the IF
    audience in mind!  Brings back memories of the New Zork Times and the
    Status Line.  I just happened upon SPAG in the if-archive at ftp.gmd.de,
    and was really impressed with what you're doing.  Keep up the good
    work!!

    I have a question for you, a couple actually.  First, have you ever
    reviewed a game called "Crisis in Dersenia", by Tech-12 Software?  I've
    got it off of ftp, and I've prowled that site, and rec.arts.int-fiction,
    for someone who knows the solution to it.  I was wondering if you
    happened to know someone who has solved it, or if you have reviewed it
    yourself (I haven't had time to go through all the issues of SPAG, yet).

    My second question is more technical.  Do you know which drawing program
    was used by Magnetic Scrolls to produce to beautiful graphics in The
    Pawn, and in Guild of Thieves?  I'm thinking of writing my own IF (one
    to my credit already, using STAC - ST Adventure Creator), and I thought
    it would be neat if I could work towards producing graphics of a similar
    quality.

    Anyhow, I just thought I'd drop you a line, to say that there are some
    of us in Ottawa who love IF, and want to see more!!!

    Geoff Gander

    { "Crisis in Dersenia" has not been reviewed yet. Does anybody
       feel like reviewing it?  -- MO }

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

    Thank you for your review of Awechasm which featured in issue 8 of
    SPAG.  Notwithstanding the justified comments regarding the weakness
    of the parser, I would like to suggest that the critique was (in my
    albeit biased opinion!), rather harsh.

    When I wrote the Awechasm, I was trying to create a game that would
    appeal to a certain sense of humour - probably best described as
    "British Saucy Seaside Postcard humour" (30's style cartoons with
    saucy images and/or crude speech/thought bubbles) with occasional
    drifts of very obvious toilet humour. The sense of humour that sees
    Awechasm, reads Orgasm, and sniggers!

    This style of humour is obviously not compatible with everyone,
    including the reviewer, and (in more recent times,) myself. However,
    over the years, I have received a great many letters from grateful
    adventurers who appreciated both the sense of humour and the bizarre
    tendencies displayed in Awechasm.  Amongst these: a staff army officer
    posted in Split, Croatia during the troubled times - asking for any
    more adventures I had written because his staff were constantly
    occupied with Awechasm, and an elderly blind gentlemen (a speech
    synthesiser communicates the text output from the adventure) who made
    a second request for help with Awechasm after I initially put him off
    by telling him that it might be too rude.

    Snatch and Crunch (Awechasm part 1) was an ST only adventure -
    authored in STAC. It wasn't necessarily a masterpiece, but I
    thoroughly enjoyed creating it AND some people enjoyed playing
    it. That is the important thing. It featured in magazine shareware
    advertisements in the UK for a couple of years before it disappeared
    into obscurity, much like Awechasm in fact!

    Apart from a lot of more recent work on multi user adventures ( with
    much improved parsers ;) ), The only other adventure I have ever
    created is "Everyday". I was honoured to have this adventure featured
    on the cover disk of "PC Today" magazine in the UK. Although it is a
    clean adventure, it employs the same (dated) game engine as
    Awechasm. If anyone is interested in playing (or reviewing) this
    adventure, it can be obtained from the if-archive on ftp.gmd.de.

    Keep up the good work,
    Tony Stiles

    { Let me just add that all reviews published in SPAG reflect the
       reviewer's opinions, nothing else, and that opinions on the
       same game can vary rather wildly. -- MO }

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

    Consider the following review header:

    NAME: Cutthroats
    AUTHOR: Infocom
    EMAIL: ???
    DATE: September 1984
    PARSER: Infocom Standard
    SUPPORTS: Infocom ports
    AVAILABILITY: LTOI 2
    URL: Not available.

    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.

    More elaborate descriptions of the rating and scoring systems may be found
    in the FAQ and in issue #9 of SPAG, which should be available at:

            ftp://ftp.gmd.de:/if-archive/magazines/SPAG/

    NEW GAMES--------------------------------------------------------------------

    A bunch of new games have been released since the last issue. These
    include:

    _Aarbron Ascendant_ by S. Osborne, C. McPherson and D. Strand,
    _Lost Anaheim Hills_ by Adam Cadre,
    _Mercy_ by Chris Klimas,
    _Acorn Court_ by Todd S. Murchison, and
    _The Garden_ by Trevor Jay

    More information about these games, and other new releases, can be
    found on the SPAG homepage at http://www.afn.org/~afn55673/spag.html.

    Another important new development is Niclas Karlsson's _Magnetic_, a
    portable interpreter that lets you play the classic Magnetic Scrolls
    adventures (originally released for the C64 and the Amiga) on a
    variety of platforms. More information can be found in the _Magnetic_
    distribution:
    ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/magnetic-scrolls/interpreters/magnetic/

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

    Editor's Pick of the Month:

    Those of you who haven't already played Adam Cadre's delightful little
    game "Jailbait on Interstate Zero", or "I-0" for short, should take a
    look at ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/infocom/I-0.z5. It's a small
    game, but full of amusing detail, and with quite a few alternative
    ways of winning the game. It's perhaps a bit risque in places, but all
    in good humour.

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

    From: Graeme Cree <72630.304 SP@G CompuServe.COM>

    NAME:          2112
    AUTHOR:        Anonymous
    EMAIL:         ?
    DATE:          Some time after Rush released the song of the same name
    PARSER:        Extremely poor
    SUPPORTS:      IBM
    AVAILABILITY:  Freeware
    URL:           ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/pc/2112.zip

    I should have been warned by Chris Forman's review of Zanfar in Spag #8,
    in which he points out that one author's trick to draw attention
    to a game is to give it a name that places it last in the alphabet, so
    that a person will always see it when doing a dir command.  I
    downloaded 2112 for similar reasons; it is the first one listed in the
    games/pc library at ftp.gmd.de.  I kept seeing it every time I went
    there, had never heard a word about it from anyone, and thought I
    would check it out.  Silly me.

    2112 is based on a song by the rock group Rush.  It takes place in the
    typical Orwellian anti-utopian future.  Since criticizing big
    government is not as fashionable now as in Orwell's day, this
    government is run by Priests.  The game begins with you finding a
    guitar by the riverside, and taking this ancient relic of a forgotten
    time to the Priests, who confiscate it since music is outlawed.  To
    retaliate and let off a little steam, you go on a minor killing spree,
    shooting the Priests, blowing up their computer (a la Captain Kirk!),
    and making your getaway before the government is overthrown by space
    aliens who destroy the city (possibly blowing away a few cops along
    the way, although this is not required).  As a rock song, this is the
    sort of thing that could inspire parental protests at the record
    company.  The I-F player however would be better advised to protest
    the quality of the game.

    The parser is almost worthless; two words only, and no synonyms.  The
    puzzles are strictly "guess the word" and "struggle with the parser".
    Actions are intended to be taken in a specific order.  Altering the
    order can make the game very confusing.  One example: after you have
    surrended the guitar, you are supposed to go to your home where you
    will have a dream in which you see an old friend at the prison who
    aids you in finding materials you need to win the game.  You will have
    this regardless of whether or not you have already seen him and gotten
    the aid.  People can talk to you (and even kill you) after they are
    already dead, unless you have done everything in the right order.  In
    some areas, you can still hear humming from the computer after you
    have destroyed it; in others you can't.  There is a serious error at
    the end.  Destroying the computer is also supposed to destroy the
    electric fence, opening up a way of escape.  However if you arrive at
    the fence on the turn that it is shorted out, the new passageway you
    need will not be opened up at all, even though you can see the fence
    shorting out.  Only if you are elsewhere on that turn will you be able
    to get through the fence.  At least they can say that no playtesters
    were harmed during the making of this game.

    The atmosphere is heavily cliched, with lines like: "...policemen of
    the state lurk in the shadows.  I hope you are conforming!"  I
    personally think that the best treatments of the anti-utopian future
    since Orwell were done by Patrick McGoohan in "The Prisoner" and Terry
    Gilliam in "Brazil."  This one comes across as more laughable than
    sinister, and presumably exists only so that we can shoot up the town
    (the real point of the game) without feeling guilty about it.

    There are some things to like about the game, however.  At key points
    the game gives you a few bars of music from the PC speaker which help
    to set the mood.  The game was not written with TADS, AGT, or one of
    the other kits, but programmed from scratch, which is of course much
    harder to do.  I confess that I'm not a Rush fan, and if I were I
    might enjoy the game more.  At a couple of points in the game, stanzas
    from the 2112 song are used in conversations by the characters, making
    the game look like a little like a Musical (which is something I've
    never seen in a text game before).

    Still, the negatives far outweighed the positives.  Rush fans might
    want to play the game anyway, but others are advised to give it a
    miss.

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

    From: Graeme Cree <72630.304 SP@G CompuServe.COM>

    NAME:          Betty Carlson's Big Date
    AUTHOR:        Betty Carlson
    EMAIL:         ?
    DATE:          ?
    PARSER:        AGT Standard (originally a LADS adventure)
    SUPPORTS:      All AGT Ports
    AVAILABILITY:  Freeware
    URL:           ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/source/agt/bigd-src.zip

    Betty Carlson's Big Date is in essence Zork 1 transferred to a
    suburban setting.  The player goes on a scavenger hunt for items which
    much all be brought to a specific location in order to win.

    The player is Betty Carlson, the author of the game, who is preparing
    to go on a date.  Unfortunately, her three kids have gone on a rampage
    and have scattered the clothing she needs to wear all over the house.
    Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to gather up your
    clothes and deposit them in your trophy case...er, bedroom.  One item
    needs a little repair work before it is usable.

    At least Ms. Carlson has come up with a reasonable explanation of why
    the treasures...er, clothes are scattered in the first place.  In Zork
    1 I could never understand how all those valuables could still be
    lying around when the Thief and the Troll got there long before you
    did.

    If only she had turned it into a full-blown Zork parody, and cast her
    kids in the role of the Thief.  It would have been very funny to drop
    an item, make a move, and then hear something like "My, I wonder who
    left this fine necklace lying here," or something like that coming
    from the next room.  As it happens though, neither the kids nor any
    other characters appear in the game.

    The problem with the game is that it just isn't very interesting.
    Grab a few items, wrestle with the parser a little, and that's it.
    There is little story, and very few item descriptions.  Trying to
    examine something will usually respond with nothing more than "You see
    nothing special about the ."  Even the clothes are nondescript.
    You can't even wear any of them, they are simply treasures to be
    brought to the designated area.

    Part of the problem may be that this was originally a LADS game.  I've
    seen several LADS conversions, but never an original, so I don't know
    what the capabilities of the language are.  The conversions I've seen
    have usually been not much more advanced than this one.  The game may
    very well be a good one taking the LADS limitations into account.
    There are no serious bugs, and everything seems to work the way it is
    supposed to.  The main technical problem seems to be a couple of
    poorly chosen item adjectives, such as the "a glue" and the "some
    earrings" (shades of Detective's "wooden wood").  It's also
    unfortunate that you can take the long ladder into your Chevette.

    Bottom line: there's nothing terribly wrong with the game, but not
    enough in the way of either story or puzzles to grab the player's
    interest.

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

    From: Graeme Cree <72630.304 SP@G CompuServe.COM>

    NAME: Deena of Kolini
    AUTHOR: E. L. (Ev) Cheney
    EMAIL: ?
    DATE: c. 1986
    PARSER: GAGS standard
    SUPPORTS: All GAGS and AGT Ports
    AVAILABILITY: Freeware
    URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/source/gags/deen-src.zip

    People who don't like the AGT parser should be made to play a few GAGS
    games some time.  AGT looks like Virtual Reality by comparision.

    GAGS was the predecessor to AGT, and AGT is backwardly compatible
    enough to be able to use most GAGS source code.  The big difference
    between the two is that GAGS does not allow any of the meta-commands
    that AGT does.  As a result the parser is almost completely limited to
    Open/Close, Push/Pull, Turn, Touch, and a couple of others.  All
    puzzles must be solved with these, and are pretty much restricted to
    killing monsters and opening locks.

    Deena of Kolini, by E.L. (Ev) Cheney looks like it wants to be more
    detailed, but it is held in bondage to the limitations of the GAGS
    system (considering the content of the game, this may be poetic
    justice).

    In the game, you play Deena, a warrior-maiden POW captured when your
    people were attacked by the lecherous Gendi.  Tossed in a dark, damp,
    dank dungeon, your mission is to escape both your cell, and what was
    called "a fate worse than death" in Plundered Hearts.  Along the way
    you must find and rescue a handsome but wounded Prince, not for
    romantic reasons, but because you need him to illuminate rooms that
    your torch cannot (don't ask me about this, I haven't got a clue
    either).  Actually, according to the source code, the Prince is not
    only luminous but edible (!), which made me very thankful that GAGS
    doesn't permit any customized descriptions for this.

    It appears as though the author tried hard to flesh out the game as
    much as possible within the system.  In the early days of GAGS and
    AGT, many authors did not bother to write item descriptions for many
    things, resulting in repetitious "You see nothing special about the
    " messages whenever you tried to examine something (Even Zork 1
    was guilty in this area).  In this game, Ms. Cheney not only provided
    item descriptions for everything, but also accompanying graphics.  The
    whip, the manacles, the red-hot poker, (no, I am NOT making this up)
    are all rendered in fairly good quality ASCII line drawings.  My
    favourite one was the scrap of parchment, which should show you how
    boring I am.  The author did not just throw this game together, she
    obviously worked hard.  However, the technology of the day just wasn't
    enough to give more than a rudimentary result.

    One avoidable problem is in the game's spelling and grammar.  The
    spelling errors can be very distracting at times, and there are
    several places where sentences have single words gouged out of the
    middle (i.e.: "The rawhide whip looks as if it could the skin off a
    dragon" [sic]).

    My biggest design complaint about the game is the decision to conclude
    the game with an escape through a maze.  Actually there are two mazes
    side by side.  One goes nowhere, but the author was kind enough to
    include an item that will at least point you towards the right one.

    I've always regarded mazes as being the I-F equivalent of
    rock-climbing. If that phrase sounds familiar, you've probably played
    Chris Forman's excellent Mystery Science Theater game where he makes
    the same comment about Detective's seemingly endless hallways.

    The reference is to the 1951 movie "Lost Continent", starring Cesar
    Romero and Hugh "Ward Cleaver" Beaumont.  This was an early MST3K
    episode which featured a 12 minute sequence in the middle that showed
    nothing but the main characters rapelling up a rockface (not even on
    location).  Basically, "rock-climbing" means "padding" (although in
    this game "padding" may also be poetic justice).

    [SIDE NOTE: For those who were wondering about the "Deep Hurting!!"
    reference immediately after the rock-climbing one in Chris's game,
    this is a reference to another MST3K movie (Hercules Against the Moon
    Men) that was supposed to top "rock-climbing" with a 15 minute
    Sandstorm scene, that was gloatingly guaranteed to cause "Deep
    Hurting!".]

    The maze was a legitimate puzzle (even a clever one) when it first
    appeared in Colossal Cave because no one had ever seen it before.
    Since then it has been primarily used like "rock-climbing"; to
    artificially pad the length of a game that would otherwise be a little
    short.  There is no longer any puzzle; since everybody knows HOW to
    get through them.  All that is left is the tedium of actually doing
    it.

    There are a few games which really add something new to the idea (For
    example, Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur's Badger Maze presents us
    with a genuinely new puzzle; how do you map a maze when you can't drop
    objects behind you?), but these are the exception rather than the
    rule.

    Nothing against the maze in general.  I loved the Babel Fish puzzle in
    Hitchhiker's Guide, but I wouldn't want half the games in circulation
    to have the same identical puzzle in them.  (It could be worse though.
    Suppose everybody tried to imitate the Baseball Diamond maze in Zork
    2!?  Yuck!)

    Not to single Ms. Cheney out for criticism, but it's so annoying to
    pick up an ostensibly new game only to find the same old boring
    time-consuming puzzle poke its head up time after time after time.
    You know the old much-lampooned bumper sticker that said "I Brake for
    Animals"?  I'm going to get one that says "I Scream for Mazes."

    Well [climbing off the soapbox], back to the game at hand.  It also
    features some of the more common (but avoidable) quirks of the
    GAGS/AGT system, such as having to use one specific weapon to kill
    each creature, but not others.  For example, the dagger will kill one
    (non-magical) person, but the sword will not.  Where's the sense in
    that?

    One non-avoidable problem is that in GAGS/AGT, creatures must be
    classified as either friendly or hostile, and all hostile ones will
    block your path and try to kill you.  As a result, the lecherous old
    man who fondles you in the stairwell but does not attack you, must be
    classified as friendly, and therefore if you attack him, you get the
    standard message that asks why you would want to attack such a
    harmless and inoffensive creature, and that it looks hurt and
    betrayed.

    There are a few rooms of Instant-Fate-Worse-Than-Death, but there are
    sufficient clues for them to be avoided.

    Ms. Cheney obviously put a lot of effort into her game, but the
    technology of 10 years ago just wasn't up to the task, even with the
    recent desire for games with female lead characters.  She could have
    improved the final result with a little more proofreading and
    playtesting, but even so GAGS just doesn't have the proper...verbs for
    her little excursion into S&M to fly.

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

    From: Christopher Forman

    NAME: Frozen
    AUTHOR: Jeremy Farnham
    EMAIL: None given
    DATE: June 1996
    PARSER: Inform
    SUPPORTS: ZIP Interpreters
    AVAILABILITY: Freeware, GMD
    URL: ftp.gmd.de://if-archive/games/infocom/frozen.z5

    You're working late one night in the university computer lab when you
    notice that everyone around you has suddenly stopped what they were
    doing.  Closer investigation reveals that your fellow students and
    professors have all been immobilized by some mysterious force.
    Perhaps that odd machine in the gradate students' lab could offer an
    explanation...?

    My first impression of this game was that it was strongly influenced
    by "The Lurking Horror" -- the setting and early descriptions were
    very reminiscent of Infocom's tribute to Lovecraft.  "Frozen" is
    obviously a first attempt with Inform, containing numerous, albeit
    rather insignificant, bugs (such as being able to find objects by
    searching for them a second time), missing line-feeds in obvious
    places, a score that's always 0 out of 0 (is that good or bad?) and
    other nuances that give the impression of an unpracticed I-F
    programmer.

    These will hopefully be fixed as the author makes progress with the
    development system, because I see a lot of promise from his first
    work.  "Frozen" sports three, count 'em, THREE different conclusions
    to the story, a prominent plus in my book ("The Path to Fortune" also
    features a trinity of endings).  Occasional bits of writing are easily
    on par with "Lurking Horror" and the game has a genuinely mysterious
    feel throughout.

    Perhaps a bit too mysterious, in fact.  My primary gripe about
    "Frozen" is the complete lack of resolution to the game's bizarre
    circumstances.  Aside from the curious last-minute addition to the
    machine in the lab, no attempt at an explanation is even made.  Why
    exactly did the students freeze up?  Why wasn't I affected?  How did
    my experiences act to reverse it?  What exactly was that sphere on the
    machine, and why was it added?  Whose body was that, burned at the
    stake?  Two of the endings seem to suggest that everything was a
    dream, but all three of them are quite vague.

    Don't read this the wrong way -- unanswered questions fit in well with
    this type of story, and I like having to make educated guesses to put
    things together (and I'm a huge fan of "The X-Files", where the
    writers frequently and intentionally leave the loose ends for viewers
    to tie up), but I was hoping the author would give me a little more
    background to work with in this particular case.  Perhaps the dust
    spirit could have offered a few clues, or perhaps there could have
    been more information about the graduate project.

    At any rate, I enjoyed "Frozen".  Its size (the object code is only
    about 64K) would have made it a perfect short work for the
    Competition, but perhaps Jeremy Farnham is working on something else
    even as we speak...

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

    From: Cthulhu

    NAME: Gateway
    AUTHOR: Legend Entertainment
    EMAIL: ???
    DATE: 1992
    PARSER: ALMOST but not quite Infocom
    SUPPORTS: IBM-PC's
    AVAILABILITY: The Lost Adventures. Or download it from their web page.
    URL: http://www.legendent.com/

    I have seen the future of IF, and it is Gateway. It seems that just
    yesterday that Legend Entertainment released this masterful game; just
    yesterday that it went off the market before I had a chance to play
    it. Well Legend Entertainment has decided to bring it back. Free.  As
    demoware for their Lost Adventures Collection. I went to their web
    page and downloaded the three lengthy files.

    Five hours later I had the privilege to see the future of interactive
    fiction. It's Gateway. Forget everything you've ever heard about text
    games being obsolete. Time has not killed the text adventure; it has
    not fallen victim to progress. Rather, time has finally allowed text
    games to reach their potential. Gateway is an Infocom game for the
    nineties, built with state-of-the art graphics and classic text. And
    that's not all. If you prefer you can remove the graphical elements
    and play the game eighties-style.

    Yes, it has a compass rose like all other hybrid games. And yes
    Virginia, it has a window for graphics and a window for text. And yes,
    it combines an Infocom-quality parser with stunning animations,
    incredible graphics, compelling sound, and literate text. The words
    and pictures complement each other perfectly rather than
    conflicting. Add to this mix the beautifully-rendered cut scenes,
    self-contained puzzles, tons-o space travel, an epic storyline and a
    galaxy-affecting plot.

    Oh yes, let's talk about the galaxy-affecting plot. But let's not talk
    about it too much, since I don't want to ruin anything for you. It's
    an excellent story. Years ago the universe had been peopled by a
    mysterious race called The Heechee. Mankind had discovered one of
    their artifacts and learned how to use it. Turns out that it was a
    space station containing starships that could cross the universe in an
    eyeblink. We know of destination codes to punch into the starship, but
    not how to read them. Each code can lead to riches beyond your wildest
    dreams... or it can lead to instant death. You are a prospector who
    arrives on Gateway in search of wealth, a young person eager to use
    the mysterious alien starships to chase dreams across the light
    years. Soon you will rise through the ranks, becomming wealthier and
    more powerful until you have an encounter with the Heechee's ancient
    enemy.

    The rich setting is one of the most well-developed in the history of
    adventure gaming. Gateway sticks in my mind for this reason. The
    milleau is revealed to you through the introduction, through
    conversations, via a handheld computer and through what amounts to an
    answering machine connected to the Internet(!). Most of this
    information is unnecessary and purely for background; it shows the
    lengths that the designers took to make this one of the best games
    ever written. I daresay that, even before making it to the middle
    game, you will have experienced a world richer even than in most
    Infocom games.

    Your starship will take off towards the various worlds that you have
    codes for. Don't worry, the designers have mercifully decided NOT to
    have any of them lead to an arbitrary death! Remember the time-travel
    scenes in Trinity and Jigsaw? Well Gateway's space-travel scenes are
    just as good. They begin and end with beautifully-rendered cut scenes
    put to dramatic music. These scenes are short and to the point, and
    you can skip them if you want to. Then the ship touches down, and you
    will get to explore the planet in search of Heechee artifacts. Of
    course, you'll untangle a lot of mystery and learn a lot about the
    world first.

    You wouldn't believe how well done these worlds are. Imagine a planet
    where molecular acid takes the place of water, and the spear- carrying
    humanoid which bathes in this acid. Try to imagine one with
    carnivorous anemones which clear in terror when a giant spider
    approaches.  Try also one where jellyfish-like creatures inside a pond
    beam dreams to placate a primitive proto-human. I hope I haven't said
    too much! Every puzzle you encounter on these worlds, on Gateway, and
    throughout the game, are logical and self-contained. There are very
    few restore puzzles, and there are VERY few chances to put the game
    into an unsolvable state -- most of which are in the opening game.

    Does it have disappointments? Yes, but what game doesn't?  The parser
    is not quite up to Infocom standards, althought it comes very close;
    you can't refer to POWER KNOB as POWER, for example. Most of these
    disappointments come in the final world you will explore (you can
    actually explore them in nearly any order, but I say final because its
    code is listed last). The graphics in this world are almost EGA-like
    and certainly not up to the quality in the rest of the game. There's
    also an old man who doesn't react much when you shoot his pet
    dinosaur(!).  And BTW, what does this game have against innocent old
    men? Not only do you have to deprive one of his beloved companion, you
    also have to dupe another one out of his key!

    But all will be forgiven when you approach the endgame. You will
    experience Heaven and Hell, and live through the dark designs of an
    Assassin. Prepare to meet a Heechee artificial intelligence.
    Basically, get ready for surprise after surprise. I said "WHAT THE
    HELL?!" at least three times. Get ready for mental communication with
    a long-dead Heechee. You will escape from Heaven and the fires of
    Hell. And once you get back, there's a VERY shocking surprise waiting
    in store for you that I won't dream of giving away. Move on to the
    spectacular and apocalyptic ending sequence which will stay in my mind
    forever.

    Is the book this good? I don't know because I gave up on it some time
    ago. But after playing Gateway, I went to the library and picked it
    off the shelf. And they say that computer games are causing
    illiteracy! Oh yeah, and I'm absolutely sure that I've seen at least
    three of the illustrations previously-- in Omni magazine. Whoever
    illustrated this game is a professional artist and a very good one as
    well.

    { Fred Pohl's novel _Gateway_ and its sequels are very good indeed.
      Highly recommended. -- MO }

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

    From: Crispin Boylan

    NAME: Humbug
    AUTHOR: Graham Cluley
    E-MAIL: ???
    DATE: Aug 1991
    PARSER: Above Average
    SUPPORTS: PC
    AVAILABILITY: Public Domain, GMD (v.4.8)
    URL: http://members.aol.com/gcluley (v 5)

    This game has been around for years, and is one of the more popular
    interactive fiction titles in Britain, and was, until recently, a
    shareware title which had to be registered (with the registered
    version you got a solution to the maze which was otherwise unsolvable,
    and you could also save and load games to disk).  Times they are a
    changin' however, and now the game has been released into the public
    domain due to the author not having enough time to sell or support the
    game anymore.  Cluley has actually produced this game without the aid
    of any of the text adventure creation languages, a huge feat for a
    game this size!

    Anyway that's the history out of the way, now to get to the meat of
    this review, the game itself.  It all opens with you, Sidney
    Widdershins, arriving at your senile old grandads estate for a short
    stay during the Christmas Holidays.  You planned to explore the old
    windmill in the grounds of Attervist Manor, but as you arrive you
    realise that something is amiss, especially when Grandad does not
    appear to be around!  Closer inspection of the house reveals grandad
    sleeping in his armchair, seemingly unwakeable, he has a rather
    interesting document in his possession, a legal document asking for
    grandad to hand over the manor to his new neighbour, Jasper Slake, who
    will take proper care of the manor.  It seems during that the old fool
    is broke, and has let the manor fall into a state of disrepair, and
    his mutterings to Jasper of secret treasure hidden in the grounds of
    the manor, and the 'wild woman of the hills' have done nothing to
    prove his mental stability!  Grandad and Slake are bitter enemies,
    only recently, the letter explains, did Grandad plant a scale model of
    the Champs Elysee in Slakes garden!  So, on discovering this news it
    is still unclear as to your mission, do you have to find the treasure?
    or maybe stop Slake? This is one of the best points of the game, you
    are constantly fed with small snippets of the plot, which is
    consistent, and of good quality. 20

    There is one major feature of this game which makes it stick out from
    the rest, it is completely weird and surreal, you only have to look at
    the NPCs to see this, Kevin, a clockwork shark, built by Grandad as
    his contribution to the war effort; Sven, the viking, whose ship has
    been caught in the manors lake as it froze; and Horace the groundsman,
    who travels round the maze collecting any 'litter' in the form of
    objects, that you may have deposited, he also only talks to
    vegetables!  Some of the NPCs are better than others, but all are
    likeable, apart from the villain, Jasper, of course.  The NPCs, on the
    whole are not too talkative, but then again they really don't need to
    be.

    This game has a maximum score of 2000 points, so you can expect quite
    a few puzzles in this little gem, most of which are quite logical, but
    there are some very hard puzzles which you really have to think about.
    The game also has a bit of organisation needed, you must do the
    puzzles in a certain order or you won't be able to complete others,
    this is a bit annoying, but it is quite obvious, and easy to get
    around.  To get the final few points you have to do a bit of verb
    searching, for example typing 'PRAY', earns the response 'A voice from
    below shouts, "I don't know how you've got the nerve!" ' and earns you
    10 points, but does little else, my top score is 1920, so I still have
    to get those last few! 20

    There are over 200 objects and 100 locations in this game, so it's
    pretty big, and the locations are varied, and when I say that I mean
    Varied with a capital V, there are such bizzare locations as a alien
    bar, a trip back in time, a fairies den, a junk yard, a bus stop, and
    all of this takes place in the manors cellars!! The parser's
    vocabulary is pretty extensive, but does it doesn't stretch to
    multiple commands in the same sentence, still I like it.

    This game is very funny, you can't help but laugh at some of the jokes
    that examining some objects brings up, and the whole thing is just so
    surreal!  The atmosphere is very good and you can just imagine being
    there, the writing is on the whole very detailed and descriptive.  As
    a player with a bit of experience (I haven't completed all the Infocom
    games, but I've played through a few) I found this game hard (I
    desparately needed the on-line hints), but very rewarding, just wait
    until you see the ending, its brilliantly funny, and you'll never
    guess it!!!!  This is a great game, download it now, the public domain
    version is at Graham Cluleys own web page (address above), and is
    version 5, there is a version at ftp.gmd.de but it is only a shareware
    version (4.8), without the map solution or save ability.

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

    From: Graeme Cree <72630.304 SP@G CompuServe.COM>

    NAME: The Lady in Green
    AUTHOR: D.F. Stone
    EMAIL: ?
    DATE: ?
    PARSER: AGT standard
    SUPPORTS: AGT ports
    AVAILABILITY: ftp.gmd.de
    URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/source/agt/lady.zip

    The Lady in Green is another from the Electrabot/Detective school of
    gaming, although it has more in the way of puzzles and story than
    either of those two.  Like them, gameplay consists primarily of
    following a more or less straightforward path through the game area
    until you reach the end, at which point you win.  Detective had no
    puzzles along the way and Electrabot only required you to match random
    weapons with the monsters that they killed.  The Lady in Green goes
    beyond this with some genuine puzzles, but they are still very easy
    and buggy.  A couple even solve themselves (literally).

    The story begins with you as a tired, bored businessman, returning
    home from a trip to your wife, kids, and unmowed lawn.  At your hotel,
    you are captivated by a mysterious portrait of a sad-looking woman in
    a green dress that seems to be reaching out towards you.  In true
    Twilight Zone fashion, you end up traveling through the portrait 200
    years into the past into the (empty) bedroom of the lady in green.

    At this point, it appeared that the story would be either a
    time-travelling love-at-first-sight story, or some kind of
    reincarnation affair.  It turns out to be neither.  When you find the
    Lady in Green, it turns out that she just wants you to find her
    13-year old son who didn't return home last night.  You search for
    him, and find that he has been press-ganged into the British Navy as a
    galley slave (!).  You must rescue him and return him home.

    The game is divided into several sections.  A minor puzzle is usually
    required to get from one section to the next, and it is impossible to
    return to an earlier section until the end of the game.  It is
    possible to get the game into an unwinnable state if you fail to
    obtain a necessary item in one section before leaving it.  The game is
    so short and easy though that this is not a major inconvenience.
    Furthermore, the game comes with both an ASCII walkthrough file and
    the AGT source code, so the chances of getting stuck are zero.

    The puzzles are extremely easy, and as I said, there are some that
    solve themselves.  In two instances, I merely entered the appropriate
    area while carrying the necessary item, and was automatically told
    that I had done the right thing with it.

    The game is still rather buggy.  For example, the horse is needed
    twice during the game, however you are only allowed to ride it in two
    certain areas.  Elsewhere you are simply told that you can't ride it
    at all.  Unfortunately, the horse CAN be picked up and carried around (!).
    Since the horse is a part of the room description in the stables,
    you can still see it there when it really isn't.  Of course, this
    could be fixed by changing one line in the source code.  You can also
    be blocked from entering an area by a dog that really isn't there when
    you examine it.  At one point there is a barrel that cannot be taken
    by saying TAKE BARREL.  You need to solve a puzzle to get it.  Or you
    could just say TAKE ALL, which will take everything including the
    barrel, obviating the puzzle.

    The characters are cyberphantoms; you're never sure whether they're
    really there or not, and not only the dog and the horse.  When you are
    returning with the Lady in Green's son, you get the same descriptions
    you got on the way out.  There is no creature (AGT's programming term
    for all entities other than yourself) accompanying you.  You once or
    twice get a message that indicates that he is with you, but usually
    have no indication of it at all, and can neither see nor interact with
    him.  The Lady in Green is similarly spectral (which may be
    appropriate).  One turn after you enter the room with her, she gives
    you your mission and leaves with no chance for interaction (Know what
    I mean?  Say no more.  Nudge, nudge.)  The game is over the next time
    you find her again.

    One interesting thing about the game is the ending, which gives you
    the option of staying in the past with the Lady in Green, or returning
    to your old life.  Providing genuinely different endings is a rarely
    seen touch (Plundered Hearts being the only other example I can think
    of).  However, in Plundered Hearts, one of the endings is described as
    being clearly superior to the others, where here, you are told that
    they are both valid, even though if you choose to stay, you are
    abandoning your wife and children in the present simply to run off and
    live in what the game calls a more exciting time.  It's plain to see
    that D.F. Stone isn't female if he calls this a valid choice.  I would
    have liked it much better if your character had been a bachelor
    returning home to a life of dirty laundry and ravioli eaten straight
    out of the can, who had no real ties to the present.

    This game won an honourable mention in the 6th AGT Game Writing
    Contest.

    { As far as I know, _all_ entrants in the AGT Game Writing Contest
      (that didn't win prizes) got honourable mentions. -- MO }

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

    From: Graeme Cree <72630.304 SP@G CompuServe.COM>

    NAME:          Love's Fiery Imbroglio
    AUTHOR:        Natasha Mirage
    EMAIL:         ?
    DATE:          1988
    PARSER:        Multiple Choice
    SUPPORTS:      PC and all AGT Ports
    AVAILABILITY:  Freeware
    URL:           ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/pc/bigdate.zip
                   ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/source/agt/rapture.zip

    Natasha Mirage definitely has the best nom de plume in Interactive
    Fiction, but judging her game, Love's Fiery Imbroglio, by normal
    standards is not entirely fair.  Although it is a "text game", it is
    not interactive fiction as we know it at all.  It is a computerized
    version of a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book, and as a result, things
    that would be considered to be bad form in a true I-F game (such as
    choices that kill you or end the game without warning), may be
    entirely appropriate here.

    If you've played a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book, you already know
    what this game is.  You get about a screen full story at which point
    you are prompted to choose an action from a multiple choice list in
    order to get to the next screen.  The story is primarily linear, with
    a few side diversions, and has some choices which can end the game
    completely, though you never actually die.

    For example, early in the game when you are called for the date and
    asked if 6:00 is okay, you can say that it is, say that it is too
    early, or say that it is too late.  If you say that it is too early,
    then the caller will get distracted, forget about you until it is too
    late, and then spend the rest of his life in a monastary to atone for
    his behavior, thus ending the game.  However, these are not nearly as
    irritating as the "Rooms of Instant Death" in games like Detective and
    Electrabot however because a) they are not entirely without warning;
    common sense and textual clues may help you avoid many of them, and b)
    the game has keys letting you back up any number of screens, meaning
    that you don't need to restart the game or save first to get back to
    where you were.  Just as in a real book, you can simply turn back to
    the page where you were (and unlike a real book, you don't have to
    remember what page number it was!)

    The puzzles, such as they are, are primarily diplomatic ones.  For
    example, at the restaurant, your gourmet date mentions being puzzled
    by the secret ingredient of his favourite dish.  Suggesting that it
    may be salt, will hurt his feelings by implying that he couldn't
    identify something so simple.

    As for the plot...well, the title tells you all you need to know.  It
    is probably the only romance novel game apart from Plundered
    Hearts. You are a lonely female, sitting around your apartment, trying
    not to think about your accumulating laundry pile when a friend of a
    friend calls and asks you for a date.  The game consists of getting
    ready for the big evening, and handling yourself well during dinner
    (no bad puns, please!)  A lot of the (supposedly) usual Romance novel
    elements are in there; i.e. date has a secret pain which you must find
    out about and help deal with.  Yes, the Schlock Factor does ride quite
    high.

    However, the writing is where this game really shines.  The repartee
    between author and player is quite entertaining.  The game's
    atmosphere seems to repeatedly switch between "real" reality, Romance
    Novel reality, and fantasy in a very entertaining way.  The tone
    manages to remain bouncy (ah ah ah, no jokes!  I'm not having things
    getting silly!) and lighthearted at the appropriate times without
    slipping into pure comedy.

    Overall, this is a very polished and enjoyable product.  The simple
    multiple-choice interface makes the parser completely trouble-free.
    The writing (the core of any product like this) is first class.
    Though I've never felt moved to read a Romance novel (and still
    don't), I found the writing and interactivity, coupled with the
    games's very reasonable length, to be adequate compensation for any
    schlockiness, and considered the game to be well worth the time spent
    playing it.

    It's also not a bad introductory game.  I've always felt that intro
    games should be much more heavily weighted towards story than puzzles
    (as anyone who has played my own Lost in Space game can attest).
    Furthermore, these days a good introductory game should not do things
    merely better than graphics, but do things that graphic games cannot
    do at all.  For example, imagine the climax of Leather Goddesses of
    Phobos (okay, you can make a joke about that).  That isn't an
    introductory game, but you get the idea.  That scene would be flatly
    impossible to reproduce in a graphics game.  The same goes for this
    game.  A person can't play it and say "that was good, but I wish it
    had been graphical rather than textual."  (Superfluous) graphics could
    conceivably be added to this game, but could not possibly substitute
    for the text.

    The game was written with a system called Pinntale, which seems to be
    specially designed for Choose-Your-Own-Adventure games, however I
    don't know of any other games written with it.  I uploaded this one to
    GMD myself about a year ago, and GMD has no others, nor does the
    person that I got it from.

    Recently the game was ported to AGT by Mike Ryan, where its title was
    changed to "Love's Fiery Rapture" (to which I object, as "Imbroglio"
    is a much cooler word and doesn't mean the same thing as rapture).
    The source code for this version does exist at GMD.  The AGT version
    is inferior to the original in that it does not let you customize the
    character names, and does not seem to permit backwards page flipping
    (although both of these things could be implemented using AGT).  It's
    primary value is as a programming model for others wishing to create
    this same type of adventure.

    On the face of it, Love's Fiery Imbroglio is a game written
    specifically for women.  In fact, you have to claim to be a woman at
    the beginning or the game will tell you that you don't really want to
    play it, and that it's all about knitting anyway.  But really it's
    done well enough to be of interest to people of all sexes.

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

    From: Magnus Olsson (zebulon SP@G pobox.com)

    NAME: The Meteor, the Stone and a Long Glass of Sherbet -
          The Interactive Memoirs of a Diplomat.
    AUTHOR: Graham Nelson (writing as Angela M. Horns)
    EMAIL: graham SP@G gnelson.demon.co.uk
    DATE: September 28, 1996
    PARSER: Inform Standard
    SUPPORTS: Infocom ports
    AVAILABILITY: Freeware, GMD
    URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/competition96/sherbet

    It seems as if any new game by Graham Nelson is destined to be an
    instant classic. This one is no exception; I had barely played past
    the title screen when I realized that this was something quite out of
    the ordinary. The title, to begin with: impossibly long for a computer
    game, with its slightly bizarre combination of subjects; and the
    slow-paced, introduction, with its Victorian atmosphere and hints of
    diplomatic intrigue made it impossible to stop playing.

    Unfortunately, the game doesn't quite live up to these promises of
    originality: once one has found the crucial action to upset the
    orderly progression of events and enter the game proper, the pace of
    the narrative slackens, and the plot turns into a traditional
    treasure-hunt.

    For traditional it is, following the oldest tradition there is in IF:
    like "Balances" by the same author, "Sherbet" is an Infocom pastiche,
    set in a copy of the "Zork" universe (though all names have been
    changed, probably for copyright reasons). Unlike the minimalist,
    sketchy "Balances", this game is very rich in detail, with some
    detailed background history and other commentary provided in the
    hints.

    But any complaints about the lack of originality are compensated by
    the sheer joy of playing the game, and of exploring its rich world
    (which is not at all a copy of "Zork", if my previous comments have
    made that impression, but rather some sort of parallel universe where
    things are hauntingly familiar). The writing is excellent and the
    atmosphere exceptionally vivid - the cedar cave, in particular, has
    etched itself into my memory as if I'd really been there. Above all,
    when playing Sherbet I felt the same sense of wonder as I remember
    from my first contact with "Zork"; a sense of wonder that's often
    missing from newer games, however sophisticated they may be.

    The puzzles are good; nothing extraordinary, perhaps, but not trivial
    either. Unfortunately, there are some "guess the verb" situations, and
    one or two cases where the room descriptions are a bit confusing.

    But these flaws are all very minor and do not detract from the general
    impression. A very worthy winner, and a game that surely will bear to
    be re-played over the years.

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

    From: jbarlow SP@G ipass.net (Joe Barlow)

    NAME: Perdition's Flames
    AUTHOR: Michael Roberts
    DATE: 1993
    PARSER: TADS
    SUPPORTS: TADS ports
    AVAILABILITY: Freeware, GMD
    URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/tads/flames.zip
         ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/source/tads/flames_src.zip

    { This review was previously published in _Intelligent Gamer_, which
      explains the slightly different format. It is included here with the
      author's permission. -- MO }

    A couple of things about this review: please remember that it was
    written in 1994, before I knew anything about TADS [the Text Adventure
    Development System], which was used to create the game.  I touted a
    couple of the features in PF as being very unique, such as the ability
    to dump a transcript of the game to a text file.  Of course, that's a
    standard feature of all TADS games, but I didn't know it at the time.
    Also, at the time I reviewed it, the game was still commercial.
    Obviously, the comments about the game's copy-protection and all of
    the game's "included goodies" don't apply to the freeware version.  I
    am leaving them in the review, however, because the final rating the
    game received was due in part to its extensive Infocom-like packaging.
    Even without it, though, this game is well worth a look, especially
    for FREE!

       "I'm too young to die...."

    It has been said that man's greatest journey is the one he makes at
    death, and with good reason.  People have always been fascinated by
    what lies beyond our "mortal" world, and the book and film market have
    been quick to capitalize on this interest.  Even the computer gaming
    industry has explored the concept, much to the delight and surprise of
    many gamers.  More than one recent game has allowed players to explore
    the afterlife, including Sierra's King's Quest 6: Heir Today Gone
    Tomorrow, which offered would-be adventurers the chance to see the
    Realm of the Dead, complete with eerie background music and
    frightening graphics.  Now, California-based software publisher High
    Energy has taken a look at the afterlife (with tongue firmly
    in-cheek,) and death will never be the same again.  Let's face it: any
    game which opens with the message "*** You have died ***" can't be all
    bad!  Quite the contrary, in fact: Perdition's Flames is a marvelous
    adventure game, and the best way I've yet found to explore Hell
    without leaving the comfort of my own home.

    As the game begins, the player's soul is drifting down a river on a
    yacht, along with several other newly deceased people.  The player is
    free to wander around the ship, have a few drinks at the bar, chat
    with the crew, or just enjoy the scenery.  This opening sequence is a
    fantastic way of familiarizing yourself with the "feel" of the game.
    Wander around and enjoy the atmosphere.  Get used to being dead.
    You'll find out that it's not terribly different from the life you're
    used to.  (Hmmmm. I wonder if that's significant.)

    After a short while, the ship will arrive at a dock leading to the
    Hell mainland.  Once you leave the ship, you'll find yourself in the
    merry land of Hell, which is quite a bit different than most of us
    have been led to believe.  If the player wishes, he or she may attend
    a welcoming seminar, during which various other new arrivals will ask
    some hilarious "newbie" questions, and receive answers from the Hell
    Welcoming Committee.

    From the seminar, the player learns that Hell has decided to update
    its image.  Gone is the "Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter" sign that
    used to hang atop the main gate.  Gone is the eternity of damnation
    and suffering that every church preacher in the history of the world
    has shouted and sweated about in his sermons.  Now, Hell is just like
    any other nice place to live, with shopping malls, suburbs, and a
    Department of Motor Vehicles.  (Somehow, we all knew that Hell would
    have one of these, didn't we?)

    What if a soul is uncomfortable in Hell?  No problem!  People are able
    to freely go back and forth between Heaven and Hell, staying as long
    as they like in either place.  Transportation to and from Heaven is
    accomplished via an enormous elevator in the middle of town, provided
    one has a ticket.

       Just think of it as Sim-Hell...

    Perdition's Flames (PF) features incredibly detailed descriptions of
    rooms and objects.  Its text-only interface recalls the greatness of
    Infocom (a software publisher from the late 1970s-late 1980s who wrote
    many text- only adventure games), without resorting to some of the
    shortcomings that were typical of even this mighty software giant.
    For starters, PF is "100% Certified Maze-Free!"  For folks like me who
    still occasionally wake up screaming in the middle of the night
    because of Zork III's Royal Puzzle, this is a heaven-sent (no pun
    intended) gift.  True questers will also be relieved to learn that
    it's quite impossible to get yourself in a position from which it's no
    longer possible to win.  This was my only real gripe with Infocom's
    games: all too often, if you didn't do something trivial way back at
    the beginning of the game, you were unable to solve a puzzle much
    later in your quest.  (The cheese sandwich puzzle from Hitchhiker's
    Guide comes to mind.)

       Hell on Wheels

    Moving around Hell is easy: the player simply types in which way he or
    she wants to go: "Go north," for example.  More complicated sentences
    are also allowed: the player may type something along the lines of "Go
    north.  Open the door then take the shiny gold coin."  Players can
    keep track of the items they are carrying with the standard
    "inventory" command.  One of the more unique features PF has that many
    other games do not is the ability to dump a transcript of the game in
    progress to a text file.  Infocom's classics allowed transcripts to be
    dumped to a printer, so the tradeoff is a fair one.  Even some of
    Infocom's more obscure commands like VERBOSE (turn on long descrip-
    tions) are present (and welcome) in PF.  All in all, this game is
    something I wouldn't be surprised to find on a hypothetical Lost
    Treasures of Infocom Volume 3.

       Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

    What makes PF stand out above the countless other text games currently
    on the market is its wonderful sense of humor.  The game makes some
    truly awful puns, pokes fun at everyone's notion of what Hell is
    "supposed" to be, and generally keeps you looking forward to coming
    back to Hell every time you have to leave the computer.  If the player
    should find a pitchfork in a barn, for example, the game mocks: "Now
    if you only had horns and a tail, you'd own this place!"  During your
    welcoming seminar, the player discovers that it is unwise to try and
    sue anyone in Hell because the Hell Judicial System is based on the
    one in the United States, and it will take an eternity (literally) for
    cases to come to trial.  And hearing the woman in front of you answer
    questions in the Celestial Security Office will make you laugh out
    loud, in the style of Douglas Adams' Bureaucracy.

    PF was written using TADS (Text Adventure Development System), a
    programming tool also published by High Energy.  TADS allows users to
    write games that are of Infocom quality, and, if PF is any indication,
    they ain't just whistling "Dixie" with this claim.

       "I may be going to Hell in a bucket, baby...
        but at least I'm enjoying the ride." - Grateful Dead

    PF's elaborate packaging is another way in which the folks at High
    Energy software have summoned the ghosts of Infocom.  PF comes with a
    handsome map, a detailed, well-written manual, a hint book, a
    reference card, and "The Official Tourist Guide to Hell," an
    illustrated, side-splitting pamphlet that contains the game's
    copy-protection, in addition to many amusing items of interest.

    Let's talk about the quality of the game's prose.  Although
    comparisons with Infocom are unavoidable when reviewing text
    adventures, the prose of PF is elegant, often funny and immensely
    enjoyable, equaling (and in some cases, even surpassing) many of
    Infocom's works.  (It easily beats out the Zork trilogy, for instance,
    and is on par with Deadline or even A Mind Forever Voyaging in terms
    of the quality, if not intensity, of its writing.)

    I loved the non-linear nature of the game.  Although by neccessity
    certain puzzles have to be solved before other puzzles can be reached,
    the game is tremendously flexible.  You truly feel like you are
    PLAYING the game, rather than being sent to Location A to get Object B
    to take to Location C to exchange it for Object D, etc. (Indeed, this
    free-style type of play is neccessary, since the game's goal is not
    revealed to you until quite late in the adventure.)

    Finally, I enjoyed the difficult *BUT STILL LOGICAL* nature of many of
    the puzzles.  While many Infocom games had brain-twisting challenges,
    the solutions were occasionally not very logical at all (I'm thinking
    particularly of the two Douglas Adams games here).  There are two
    great head-scratchers that particularly stand out in Perdition's
    Flames: the Haunted House/Ring puzzle and the Lion-Headed Statue
    puzzle.  These are two of the best puzzles I have ever seen in ANY
    interactive-fiction game, in both implementation and originality.
    Both of these obstacles were *very* difficult to solve, but in the end
    the solutions made sense, and I felt a sense of accomplishment after
    conquering them.

    System requirements for the game are tough to reveal: the review copy
    INTELLIGENT GAMER Gamer received from Michael Roberts (the author of
    the game) didn't list them, but they seem to be just about as minimal
    as you could expect.  The program uses a swap file to run on machines
    with small amounts of memory, and a hard drive is recommended.  The
    program ran equally well on my 286/12 and my 486/50.

    RATING: 9.5 out of 10.  Perdition's Flames is an incredibly
    entertaining game with an original premise, and would be a bargain at
    twice the price.  Fans of text adventure games will not want to miss
    this one.  If, however, you don't think you'll be able to see past its
    lack of graphics, you should probably look elsewhere.

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

    From: Magnus Olsson (zebulon SP@G pobox.com)

    NAME: Sir Ramic Hobbs and the Oriental Walk
    AUTHOR: Gil Williamson
    EMAIL: ?
    DATE: October, 1996
    PARSER: AGT
    SUPPORTS: MS-DOS (runtime included), AGiliTy
    AVAILABILITY: Freeware, GMD
    URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/competition96/wok

    [ Note: There appears to be some confusion about the title of this
    game: is it the "Oriental Walk", as the title screen says, or the
    "Oriental Wok", as it's called in some of the docs? "Walk" probably,
    since there _is_ an "Oriental Walk" in the game, but no wok even in
    the kitchen :-). I suppose the "wok" is intended as a pun... ]

    One topic that has been the subject of much heated discussion on
    rec.arts.int-fiction is that of player characterization. How can you
    cast the player as a set character, perhaps totally unlike the
    player's ordinary character, and make him or her feel and act like
    this character? The prevalent view seems to be that most players hate
    when the game tells them what they feel and think, and that few things
    are as irritating as being told that your, perfectly reasonable,
    action is out of character.

    It is interesting to see that one of the less sophisticated games of
    the competition not only tries to do this, but succeeds at it. And,
    perhaps surprisingly, it does so by casting you in a far from
    flattering role: that of Sir Ramic Hobbs, an antihero in every sense
    of the word - or, to be frank, a bumbling, drunken buffoon.

    Or perhaps this is just why it manages to pull it off. For "Wok" is a
    farce, and you are the butt of the jokes. Not just you, Sir Ramic, but
    you, the player. Much of the humour lies in the player being misled,
    and the game pretending to misunderstand the player's confusion as Sir
    Ramic's stupidity. In some cases (such as the sudden darkness), the
    game leads the player completely up the garden path, thereby forcing
    him to act in character.

    As the reader may have guessed, "Wok" is a game that talks back to
    you. It even makes an attempt to explain who is doing the talking by
    giving a name to the "narrator": Prang, a disembodied wizard who takes
    orders from the player and guides him along. As a moderately
    experienced IF player, I found this slightly annoying at first, and
    then I forgot all about it. However, the documentation says that the
    game is aimed at beginners, who maybe will find this a help.

    Despite the fact that the game talks back to you, commenting on your
    every action, and making fun of many of the mistakes you're making, it
    is all very good natured (as opposed to a certain other competition
    game, that apparently made some people feel quite insulted). I never
    had the feeling that the author was making fun of me, but rather that
    we were sharing a joke. And Sir Ramic may be a buffoon, but he's quite
    a lovable buffoon.

    This is all very skillfully done. Apart from the writing, however, the
    game is quite unsophisticated. To start with, it has a rather
    primitive look-and-feel. To avoid fanning the ongoning religious wars,
    I won't speculate whether this is due to the game being written in
    AGT; it does have, however, the feel of a "typical, mid 80's, AGT
    game" - garish colours, rather minimalistic room descriptions, a
    simple parser, rather underdeveloped atmosphere, NPC's that are just
    animated obstacles.

    To be fair, however, these aren't very serious flaws. The parser, for
    example, is quite adequate (there is one glaring "guess the word"
    problem, but a better parser couldn't have remedied a lack of
    synonyms), one of the NPC's (the dog) is at least a bit more
    developed, and this is not the kind of game one plays for the joy of
    exploring a detailed fantasy world.

    The puzzles are fairly standard, but there are some interesting twists
    (and the series of transformations at the end is quite clever and
    entertaining). The obligatory maze adds nothing to the game and could
    have been advantageously removed. The eponymous puzzle, the "oriental
    walk", is clever, but far too tedious - and this is aggravated by the
    fact that saving is disallowed while solving the puzzle. Disabling
    saving is probably a way to prevent solutions by trial-and-error, but
    an unfortunate consequence of this is that a single mistake means
    having to start the puzzle all over again, with all the directions
    randomized.

    The online hints can be somewhat infuriating, since there is only one
    hint per room, but fortunately a walkthrough is provided.
    Unfortunately, the walkthrough is of no help in the "walk" - you'll
    just have to sweat it through (the endgame is worth it!).

    In conclusion, "Wok" is a game that lives by its wit and humour, which
    are more than enough to outweigh its shortcomings in other areas. In
    fact, I found it one of the funniest games I've played.

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

    From: "C.E. Forman"

    NAME: Time -- All things come to an end
    AUTHOR: Andy Phillips
    EMAIL: pmyladp SP@G unix.ccc.nottingham.ac.uk
    DATE: October 1996 (Release 4)
    PARSER: Inform
    SUPPORTS: Version 8 ZIP Interpreters
    AVAILABILITY: Freeware, GMD
    URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/infocom/tatctae.z8

    [This review contains minor spoilers for the beginning of the game.]

    It would seem to me that 1995-1996 was the Year of the Time-Travel
    Game.  Over the past 12 months, we've witnessed the appearance of "A
    Night at the Museum Forever", "Jigsaw", and "Lost New York", heard
    rumors of Jon Drukman's not-yet-released "Forward into the Past", and
    are now faced with "Time: All Things Come to an End."

    Yes, "Time" is another time-travel game (!), and a more believable one
    than "Museum", but not quite up to the levels of realism attained by
    Graham Nelson and Neil deMause.  It is well-programmed, and for the
    most part well-written (though there are a surprising number of run-on
    sentences, considering the author is from the U.K.).

    I personally found the introduction rather hard to swallow.  As the
    game began, a brilliant scientist (me) was in danger of having his
    temporal translocator research project shut down due to lack of
    progress.  Within 20 turns, however, I'd figured out how to power the
    machine, taking advantage of an overhead lightning storm.  Considering
    that the storm is described as "typical English weather", the notion
    of it taking YEARS to get around to considering lightning as a power
    source seems positively ludicrous!  ("Great Scott!" as Dr. Emmitt
    Brown himself might put it.)

    To be fair, though, once you get the machine working and are whisked
    into a cyberpunk-like dystopian future (perhaps the direct
    consequences of your meddling with the timestream?), suspension of
    disbelief kicks in, and "Time" becomes an enjoyable and surprisingly
    playable work of I-F.

    This came as quite a surprise to me, because the game itself is very
    linear.  It's a single-path story with little room for
    experimentation, puzzles requiring a great deal of note-taking and
    foresight, and plenty of opportunities to become irrevocably stuck.
    Normally I dislike stop-and-start gameplay.  For some reason, though,
    this didn't make me hate it, even after a dozen or so setbacks.  I
    can't quite explain why: The writing is good but not spectacular; The
    settings aren't all that inspired; Most of the individual puzzles are
    no more clever than the average game.

    Yet for some reason it was very, very fun for me to play, and
    discussions with other players led to the same conclusion.  There's
    something about the *way* the puzzles are presented -- never
    gratuitous, but as part of the story, giving the sense of plot
    unfolding before the player; layered, interwoven with one another;
    with virtually all reasonable actions accounted for -- that makes one
    want to keep trying, even after dying countless horrible deaths.  Just
    when you think you've finally gotten somewhere, "Time" tells you that
    you don't.  But you're close, you just know it.  Maybe one more try...

    Unfortunately, if you're weary of games that make you use information
    gained from past lives, there's nothing I can do to disguise the fact
    that "Time" is one of those games.  But I found it to be so enjoyable
    that this so- called "design flaw" didn't even matter.  I recommend
    that even crusaders for "realistic" I-F give this one a try.  You
    might be pleasantly surprised.

    Just save often.

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

    From: Audrey DeLisle

    NAME: Treasure
    AUTHOR: James L. Dean
    EMAIL: ?
    PARSER: none really
    SUPPORTS: IBM PC
    AVAILABILITY: GMD

    { I can't find this game in the IF-archive. If anybody knows a URL
      for it, please let me know. -- MO }

    HISTORY: This game was written in 1980 and revised in 1987.  It is
    based on an article in BYTE 7/79 by Roger Chaffee.  The game has
    been compiled to play, but the BASIC file is in the zip.  The BASIC
    file explains the algorithm used and has instructions to change the
    treasures and guardians.

    PARSER: The reason I say there is not really a parser is that the
    commands are limited to one letter:
    C = carry (get); L = leave (drop); P = points (score); R = repeat;
    I = Inventory; Q = Quit and the directions are N,S,E,W,U,D in the
    simple game, adding F (Forward), B (backward) in the expanded game.
    If you try to type something else, a help screen appears.

    This would be a good game for a child who can read a little or to be
    played with an adult to read the brief room descriptions and let the
    child input commands.  The object is to find and return all the 15
    treasures and pass through every room (100) in the fewest number of
    moves, but there is no comparison.  You are asked for a game number,
    so perhaps you can get the same game again.  This allows the game to
    be played over and over with different locations and it might generate
    a comparison for future games.  Those who abhor treasure hunts or
    expect to 'save' and 'restore' should avoid it.

    Each treasure is guarded by a monster and the weapons must be found to
    vanquish each.  The guardians do nothing.  You are safe.  You cannot
    die.  Well, if you do, the game will resurrect you with no loss.  You
    do nothing.  If you have the correct weapon, C will work.

    There are two hazards: a pirate will steal your treasure if you don't
    return it to the Entrance soon enough and an ill wind will blow you to
    a random location.  Neither is a serious problem.  The treasure will
    be found somewhere and you can get oriented quickly.

    It is not possible to write a solution since each game is different.
    You can choose variations--limit to 3d, accept another dimension, etc.
    In the simplest version, the directions are N,S,E,W,U,D and there are
    few surprises.  This is the one I played.  I think the more advanced
    versions might be more fun, but might take longer.  I finished the one
    game I played in about four hours.  I decided a chart of directions
    was more useful than a typical map.  I scored 100 points.

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

    From: Tony Baechler

    NAME: Tryst of Fate
    AUTHOR: G. M. Zagurski
    AVAILABILITY: freeware gmd
    EMAIL: gmzagur SP@G qnet.com
    DATE: April 1997
    PARSER: Inform
    PLATFORMS: Infocom
    VERSION: 104 970331
    URL: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/infocom/tryst104.z5

    For the most part, I really enjoyed this game.  I thought that the
    writing was quite well done and at some points I was really drawn into
    the story.  It would have rated higher but it had no online help, no
    hints, no walkthrough, and all I would get with help is the author's
    email address.  Also, there were some rough edges, one being that I
    had to type single words when mentioning the word to open the door and
    talking to the horse.  But, when answering the riddles, I had to use
    the say command.  It would have been better if the author would have
    stayed consistent.

    But, I would not have guessed that the author spent so long creating
    the game based on the fine writing and the fact that the game worked
    as I would expect.  It did feel a little odd in an old west setting
    since I would not expect a text adventure game to have anything to do
    with horses and ghost towns and mines.  But, even so, it was still
    presented very well and I liked it.  Also, a definite plus was that it
    was not that difficult, but there are many things that I would not
    have been able to guess because of the inconsistencies mentioned
    previously.

    I thought that the idea of gum ball transformation was neat and I kept
    hoping to find some more gum to take me to other places.  An amazing
    amount of things could have been put into the game if one actually
    would have enough time and willingness to program them.  The only real
    major disappointment I had was at the very end.  It did not abruptly
    come to a stop but more text (and more of an end game in general)
    would have been nice.  It is like I had come all that way and done so
    much and all I got was a gold watch and a thanks for helping out.  I
    was also hoping to find more information about the woman that George
    seemed to like so much that helped to open doors, among other things.
    Too bad there were no new gum balls in his factory and I had to make
    my own.  I could see a little bit of Zork, a small part of Trinity and
    some Colossal Cave in this game.

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

    From: Cthulhu

    NAME: Wormhole: The Beginning
    AUTHOR: Philip Dearmore
    EMAIL: morbeus SP@G eskimo.com
    DATE: 1995
    PARSER: TADS
    SUPPORTS: TADS ports
    AVAILABILITY: Free but "discontinued"
    URL: http://www.eskimo.com/~morbeus/neotext.html
         ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/tads/wormhole.zip

    Wormhole: The Beginning is the "introductory" game from
    Neotext. According to its web page, it has been "discontinued." Well,
    what can I say? It's a game that succeeds very well despite its
    massive flaws. It's annoying and frustrating, hobbled by cliches and a
    completely substandard parser. On the other hand the plot is so
    compelling, so interesting, that I simply couldn't stop playing this
    game.

    It's the middle of the night. Your friend George Edfry, who lives in
    Virginia, wakes you up with a phone call. The description of the phone
    call, BTW, has got to be THE funniest moments in any game outside of
    the Space Quest series. So you go to his house.

    Morning. The game begins. You've left your keys in the ignition of
    your Honda after locking your door and exiting the car. Excuse me, but
    how the heck is that possible? Never mind, since that's the setup for
    one of the game's most interesting puzzle. There are also George's car
    and, for a sinister bit of foreshadowing, an unexplained Lincoln
    parked outside of his house. You can interact with neither of these
    cars in any way whatsoever. The author put in a brilliant surprise
    when I looked under the welcome mat, and.. I won't even dream of
    telling you! You soon get to a puzzle where, to progress any further,
    you have to deal with a hostile guard dog in exactly the same way that
    you dealt with the poodle in Wishbringer.

    Well, that was the opening game. Soon you will be discovering the
    fiendishly clever plot and brilliant surprises. It soon becomes
    obvious that one of George's experiments have gone horribly
    wrong. Food stains on carpets are replaced by blood as you
    progress. You will discover a rift into another dimension. And,
    eventually, you will find George himself in a state that came as a
    complete surprise to me.

    Fun, eh? Yep. but this game has serious flaws. There's a chimney that
    you can enter, shades of Curses, but you can't do anything in it!
    There's a flashlight in the game that works the same whether it's
    turned on or not. In short, the coding is awful. Nowhere is this more
    evident than in a room with a pool of mercury in it. Try ENTER THE
    POOL, GO IN THE POOL, JUMP IN THE POOL, and JUMP ON THE POOL -- three
    of them give a "you can't do that" message. You cannot put anything in
    the pool. You cannot put anything on the pool. You cannot look in it
    or under it. You can't drink it. And, even though it's specifically
    called a "reflection pool", it's utterly impossible to shine the
    flashlight on it. Towards the end the game has your character say a
    line (about moon-stones, for those who know) when he could not
    possibly know what he's talking about. And the final puzzle, that of
    finding the last moonstone, has got to be the most stupid and
    illogical one I've ever played because it requires George to be a
    moron almost beyond comprehension.

    I'm looking forward to playing Neosoft's second game, Urban
    Cleanup. Wormhole has promise. Perhaps Urban Cleanup will realize it.

    READER'S SCOREBOARD----------------------------------------------------------

    { First, an apology: these ratings aren't quite up-to-date. If you've
      rated a game, and can't see your rating reflected in the scores
      below, don't panic: I'll go through the backlog for the next
      issue. }

       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

    ADVERTISEMENTS---------------------------------------------------------------

                            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!"

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

    Start of a transcript of:
    YE OLDE INFOCOMME SHOPPE SHAMELESS PROMOTIONAL ADVERTISEMENT

    Your Own Private I-F Museum
    Each breath you take echoes hollowly off the vaulted marble walls of your
    museum of classic I-F paraphernalia.  A crystal chandelier overhead casts
    refracted glares on the aisles of countless polished display cases.

    >EXAMINE THE DISPLAY CASES
    Your I-F collection is beautiful to behold, but woefully incomplete.  Whatever
    will you do?  Where can you possibly find out-of-print I-F games these days?

    >INVENTORY
    You are carrying the classified section of today's paper.

    >READ CLASSIFIEDS
    One ad catches your eye immediately:

                             YE OLDE INFOCOMME SHOPPE
                       C.E. Forman, proprietor.  Est. 1996
                 Classic I-F paraphernalia bought, sold, traded.
       Infocom, Rainbird, Level 9, Broderbund, Sierra, I-F books and more!
    Appraisal, searches, waiting lists.  Platform-specific copies w/ purchase.
      This month's specials: Buy 3, get 1 free!  Buy 5, get free shipping!
                     Take the "Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe" link at
                         http://netnow.micron.net/~jgoemmer/

    CLOSING REMARKS--------------------------------------------------------------

    It's been swell folks, but nothing lasts forever.  Good night, Mrs.
    Callabash, wherever you are!  -- GKW

    While Whizzard is saying goodbye (as an editor - I hope we'll see more
    contributions from him here in the future), let me add that I'm
    looking forward to editing the next 11 issues! Keep the reviews
    coming!  -- MO

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