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SPAG Issue 42
___. .___ _ ___.
/ _| | \ / \ / ._|
\ \ | o_/ | | | |_.
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The |___/ociety for the |_|romotion of |_|_|dventure \___|ames.
ISSUE #42
Edited by Jimmy Maher (maher SP@G grandecom.net)
October 2, 2005
SPAG Website: http://www.sparkynet.com/spag
SPAG #42 is copyright (c) 2005 by Jimmy Maher.
Authors of reviews and articles retain the rights to their contributions.
All email addresses are spamblocked -- replace the name of our magazine
with the traditional 'at' sign.
REVIEWS IN THIS ISSUE -----------------------------------------------------
Dastardly
Flat Feet
Future Boy!
Return to Ditch Day
EDITORIAL------------------------------------------------------------------
(shuffle, shuffle) Is this thing on? Oh! Hello, there! Jimmy Maher,
latest caretaker of this venerable institution called SPAG, here!
I will venture to guess that most you don't know me at all. The sum total
of my contributions to the IF community so far is one still slightly buggy
Z-code interpreter that I really must get back to and polish up, a few
reviews for SPAG, and the occasional newsgroup post. Be that as it may,
Paul O'Brian saw something in my meager corpus that he liked. Assuming it
was unwise to distrust such a distinguished IFer, I accepted his job offer,
and so, here I am, the next editor of SPAG.
SPAG is most definitely NOT all about me, but I will nevertheless tell you
all a little bit about whom I am and how I came to be here...
1) For the long version, read on.
2) For the short version, skip down to where you see this... -->
Like so many of you, I was introduced to IF through Infocom. Back in 1984,
my parents bought me a Commodore 64 computer for Christmas. I hadn't asked
for a computer, mind you, and I was actually rather disappointed to find
one under the tree in lieu of all the other grand possibilities. I was
even more disappointed when I realized that this magic machine was
effectively useless. You see, my parents had had great insight in thinking
I would (eventually) take to computers with a passion, but they didn't have
the practical knowledge to realize that a computer without any storage
media whatsoever -- no tape drive, no disk drive, nothing -- wasn't much
good to anyone. The Commodore 64 was soon relegated to my closet as an
interesting but impractical curiousity.
Months later, I was at the local Waldenbooks browsing for something, likely
sci-fi novels or role playing game materials, when I stumbled into the
software aisle. (Remember those days when bookstores sold software?
Wasn?t that sort of cool?) I was stunned to find dozens of colorful boxes
offering undreamt of adventure, all through that useless little gadget that
my parents had bought me and I had almost forgotten about. The games that
caught my eye most of all were those from Infocom, for they promised me the
opportunity to become the hero of my own interactive story, and the Infocom
game that caught my eye most of all was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy, for I had just finished the novel, and Douglas Adam's surreal
universe had left quite an impression indeed. I spent virtually every
weekend after that examining -- nay, let's be honest, stroking -- those
boxes that offered me the opportunity to pilot a fighter plane, to plan and
execute D-Day, to play Dungeons and Dragons without having to drum up four
or five equally nerdy friends... and, most of all, to wander with Zaphod,
Ford, and Arthur through the world of Hitchhiker's. When not fondling
software at the mall, I spent my free time explaining to my parents that
what I would like, what I needed more than anything I had ever needed
before, was a disk drive for Christmas, and a certain gray-boxed game to go
along with it. Of course, dear people that they are, they came through. I
received my disk drive, along with a nice color monitor, and Hitchhiker's,
along with a war game my father had picked out called Crusade in Europe.
That Christmas morning I took my first stumbling steps into the world of
IF, and into interactive entertainment in general. I have been hooked, to
one degree or another, ever since.
And then? I grew up. For better or for worse, computers and computer
gaming remained a big part of my life throughout adolescence, and probably
had much to do with my solid C average in high school. I bought some games
and I pirated many more. I traded my Commodore 64 in for a 128, and traded
the 128 in for an Amiga. Along the way, I managed to learn quite a lot
about how computers work and how to make them do what you want, knowledge
which still serves me well today.
By the early 90s, I was out of high school, and the Amiga scene in the
U.S. was beginning its slow death spiral. I belatedly began to realize
that there is a great big magical world outside the computer screen. I
sold my Amiga and spent a few years wandering bleary-eyed through the Real
World, trying to puzzle out what I had missed during my decade-long digital
dream.
Then I stumbled into a good job at the IT services company I still work for
today, and suddenly at least one foot was back in the realm of geekdom.
This was a different sort of world, where people used (grrr!) Microsoft
products on the desktop and the operating systems I was to administer had
names like Unix, MVS, and OS/400 and ran on big machines larger than my car
that nevertheless had really bad graphics. I adopted.
I spent some time doing the corporate America thing full-on, but I began to
find it unsettling. I decided to shift gears. I slowed down at work,
managing to get myself slotted into a rather cozy and low-stress (if hardly
career-enhancing) position and then I went back to college as, of all
perverse things, a liberal arts major. I am now one semester away from
finishing up my undergrad work. I vaguely plan to continue on to graduate
school, where I hope to spend at least part of my time studying what some
call "new media" and some call "humanities computing." Basically I am
still as excited by the potential of these strange imagination machines of
ours as I was as a boy back in that Waldenbooks all those years ago. I am
interested in introducing the computer to the storyteller, and vice versa.
Perhaps now you understand why I'm really, really happy to have this
particular gig.
--> One day several years ago I started feeling nostalgic and typed
"infocom" into a search engine. Like so many before me, I was surprised
and delighted to discover not only a wealth of information on our favorite
game publisher, but also a thriving community of authors and players still
working in their tradition. I never left. Oh, I wasn't prominent, mind
you. I lurked more than anything, and played quite a few games, and then I
wrote an interpreter for the hell of it, and I also wrote a few reviews,
and I even started to post a bit (but not too much) on the newsgroups, and
then suddenly I was the editor of SPAG. Somewhere a butterfly rests from a
job well done. Funny how things work out sometimes...
IF NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------
COMP 2005
Yes, the IF Comp is upon us once again. This year we have 36 entries. If
any of them makes a strong impression on you, please think about working up
a review for SPAG... and stay tuned for SPAG's special Comp issue at year's
end, which will feature interviews with the top three finishers.
http://www.ifcomp.org
INTROCOMP 2005
Another IntroComp has come and gone. Congratulations to all the entrants,
and especially to the top three finishers: Deadsville by William McDuff,
Weishaupt Scholars by Michael C. Martin, and The Fox, the Dragon, and the
Stale Loaf of Bread by David Welbourn. We will hopefully see these games
completed someday. In the meantime, feel free to submit a review for SPAG
if any of the intros made an impression on you.
IF FOR DUMMIES
David Cornelson really wants to bring IF to a wider audience, and I concur
wholeheartedly. As his latest venture in that direction, he has created a
new version of the IF Promotional CD. This CD allows the newbie to start
playing a variety of quality IF right away, just by putting the CD into the
drive. Windows only, but then that?s where most of our untapped market
probably is, isn't it? Share this with your friends!
http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/IF_Promotional_CD%2C_July_2005_Edition
THE UNSOLVABLE PUZZLE?
Gonzalo Garramuno is the latest to try his hand at creating a practical
system for mapping IF games. Maybe, just maybe he has succeeded where so
many others have failed. IFMapper is multi-platform, but requires that
Ruby scripting language be installed on your OS of choice.
http://rubyforge.org/projects/ifmapper.
THE GREAT 2005 NON-COMP REVIEW PROJECT
Greg Boettcher wants to make sure that every IF game released in 2005 gets
at least one review, and he wants you to help out.
http://www.springthing.net/noncomp/noncomp2005.htm.
THE UNIFIED INTERPRETER THEORY
Tor Andersson has brought interpreters for many IF systems together under
one unified front end. In its present incarnation, Cugel supports AGT,
Alan, Z-Code, Glulx, Hugo, Level 9, Magnetic Scrolls, Adrift, TADS 2, and
TADS 3. Impressive, no? This is alpha software, but already usable and
well worth keeping an eye on. Mac OS X only... why do they always get the
good stuff?
http://ghostscript.com/~tor/software/cugel.
SPAG NEEDS YOU!
You have probably already noticed that the pickings are a bit slim in this
issue. Only four new reviews is a bit disappointing, but SPAG will soldier
on. Please, please think about lending the magazine your support. The
next issue will be the annual Comp edition, featuring interviews with the
top three finishers from this year's Competition. Why not help flesh out
the issue even more by contributing one or more reviews? Reviews of Comp
games are welcome, as are the following unjustly neglected titles that are
still oh so deserving of a review:
SPAG 10 MOST WANTED LIST
========================
1. All Hope Abandon
2. Dawn Of The Demon
3. 1893: A World's Fair Mystery
4. Finding Martin
5. The Corn Identity
6. Mystery House Taken Over games (any, some, or all!)
7. Narcolepsy
8. Building
9. Threnody
10. Whom The Telling Changed
NEWS FROM THE WIDER WORLD--------------------------------------------------
THE ESCAPIST
The Escapist is a new online magazine dedicated to games, the games
industry, and its effect on culture. Serious, thoughtful writing is all too
rare in game journalism. These guys are making a brave stab at elevating
the discourse, and they deserve our support. (And they've already done an
article on IF to boot.)
http://www.escapistmagazine.com.
STAR CONTROL 2 REVISITED
Some of you may have played a game called Star Control 2 back in the day.
If you did, I am certain that you remember it. This space opera brought
together multiple disparate gameplay elements, grafted them to a compelling
plot, threw in clever and sometimes hilarious writing, and out of the whole
created one of the most compelling games of... well, ever. Yes, it really
is that good, and a stellar example of what interactive storytelling can be
when it's done right. The creators of Star Control 2 released the source
code for the 3DO console version in 2002, and a group of fans have used it
to make a new version of the game that combines the best features of the PC
and console versions. If you remember Star Control 2 fondly, take this
opportunity to revisit an old friend. And if you haven't played it, you
need to. Yes, it really is that good. Don't let the early version number
fool you. The current release is complete and stable.
http://sc2.sourceforge.net
KEY TO SCORES AND REVIEWS--------------------------------------------------
Consider the following review header:
TITLE: Cutthroats
AUTHOR: Infocom
EMAIL: ???
DATE: September 1984
PARSER: Infocom Standard
SUPPORTS: Z-code (Infocom/Inform) interpreters
AVAILABILITY: LTOI 2
URL: Not available.
VERSION: Release 23
When submitting reviews: Try to fill in as much of this info as you can.
Authors may not review their own games.
REVIEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Greg Boettcher <greg SP@G gregboettcher.com>
TITLE: Dastardly
AUTHOR: Andy Chase
EMAIL: dastardly.20.banjo SP@G spamgourmet.com
DATE: December 2004
PARSER: Inform
SUPPORTS: Z-code ports
AVAILABILITY: Freeware; Author's site or 24 Hours of Inform site
URL: http://achase.net/files/32/dastardly
or http://kevan.org/hoi/
VERSION: Release 1
I came to Dastardly with pretty low expectations. I had never before played
a game from 24 Hours of Inform, the contest for which this game was
written. I was expecting something not much better than a SpeedIF game.
What I got instead was a game that has much to admire in its atmosphere and
character development, although it does have a particularly serious flaw.
The third 24 Hours of Inform contest had two basic rules: write a game in
24 hours, and set the game in a theatre, featuring a petticoat, an
advertisement, something which is repainted, and a trapdoor. These
requirements led Andy Chase to set his game in a financially troubled
theatre in Victorian London. Your are an ambitious playwright, while your
financial backer, James, has ruined your hopes by turning your theatre into
a burlesque house while he indulges in excesses of drink and flesh.
In the "about" menus for this game, Andy Chase says that Dastardly probably
contains a lot of historical inaccuracies. Maybe, but I didn't notice any.
In fact, I really liked the game's setting and atmosphere. Another thing I
liked was the extent to which its characters were developed, far more than
I would have expected in a speed-written game. You may not be able to talk
to James much during the opening segment, but you can read your journal to
gain insight into him, yourself, and others. Before you are done exploring
the theatre, you have a fairly good idea of what you must do, and why.
Unfortunately, this game has a serious bug that prevented me from being
able to finish it. I thought maybe it was just me, so I asked my
girlfriend, another IF veteran, to play the game, but she got stuck at the
same place that I did. I wrote to the author and found out that we had both
essentially done everything we were supposed to do, but were stuck because
of a serious bug that often turns the final puzzle into a roadblock.
The other major flaw is shallow implementation, whereby a lot of scenery
items can't be examined, and lots of other details are overlooked. Of
course, this is what you'd expect in a game written in 24 hours.
Do I recommend Dastardly? Well, I guess that depends on whether you're
willing to write to the author for help, because I'd expect most people to
get tripped up by the game's major bug. But if you are so inclined, then
yes, play it. It's a short, enjoyable little game, with decent characters
and an interesting but flawed puzzle.
I'll be able to recommend this game much more strongly when Release 2 comes
out, or if hints or a walkthrough are released. Even if there is never a
Release 2 (and there usually hasn't been for 24 Hours of Inform games),
this game shows promise, and I'd be interested to see whatever Andy Chase
does next.
P.S. Now that I've written to Andy Chase for help on finishing his game, he
told me that his interest in Inform is somewhat rekindled now. He says that
a new version of Dastardly may indeed be on the way, though he can't say
when. To check for any updates, or to get the most recent version of the
game, visit: http://achase.net/files/32/dastardly
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: Neil Butters <NEIL.BUTTERS SP@G SYMPATICO.CA>
TITLE: Flat Feet
AUTHOR: Joel Ray Holveck
EMAIL: joelh SP@G piquan.org
DATE: March 13, 2005
PARSER: Inform
SUPPORTS: Zcode interpreters
AVAILABILITY: freeware; IF Archive
URL: http://ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/springthing/2005/flatfeet.zip
VERSION: Release 1
When I began playing Flat Feet I was a bit surprised that it only ranked
fourth in the 2005 Spring Thing Competition. Despite not having played the
other games I assumed they must have been very good to place better than
this one. However, it quickly became apparent that the game's auspicious
beginning was a broken promise.
In Flat Feet you are a cat and you have a detective agency with your ferret
partner, Ralph. You haven't had a mystery to solve in a long time but this
quickly changes. The mystery involves you and Ralph traveling around San
Francisco trying to solve a series of robberies.
The game opens with a clever prologue and enjoyable interplay between you
and Ralph. After you receive your assignment and head off there is even an
"in-joke" that anybody who has attempted to learn the INFORM language will
likely appreciate. But after that the game becomes tedious as you try to
solve a couple of contrived puzzles to achieve the simplest tasks.
Depending on what you already have and the places YOU have visited, these
puzzles could require a lot of traveling that only slows down the pace.
Grannted the places you have to visit are interesting authentic San
Francisco locations but the descriptions could have been more interesting
and more detailed. None of these puzzles contributed directly to plot
development and thus the mystery is thin and the perpetrator leaves behind
some evidence that makes you question her intelligence.
The game also doesn't take advantage of some interesting ideas. I thought
that being a cat would provide some interesting twists, ie using your
agility to solve a puzzle or two. In fact, the first puzzle would have been
solved easily by a cat. Unfortunately being a cat is irrelevant. At one
point you are offered a different point-of-view of the city but again the
game doesn't really take advantage of it in its room descriptions (although
this may have been an attempt by the author to comment on how dirty the
city is, play the game and you'll see what I mean).
There is a rather poor attempt at creating alternate endings. The final
showdown could occur in any of six locations but the ending is ultimately
always the same. You don't even have to get all the evidence to catch the
robber, the one piece of evidence you do need is so generic that it allows
for any of six possible suspects. Yet this flimsy evidence is still enough
proof to confront the robber.
There are some aspects of the game I did enjhoy. The game was sometimes
very witty and the comeraderie between yu and the ferret was fun. I liked
the locations (maybe only because I visited there once) and there are some
bizarre happenings that may hold some interest. I didn't encounter any bugs
or any problems interfacing with the game although some room descriptions
only make sense the first time you enter them or approach the room from a
certain direction.
I think Flat Feet is probably worth playing if you are interested in the
San Francisco area and would like to read about some of the attractions
there. Otherwise you may find the game a bit too tedious and the weak plot
won't maintain your interest.
Note: There is a walkthrough and source code files available with
the game. The walkthrough is a sample transcript complete with room
descriptions so it may be tempting to simply read that and not play the
game.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: Soenke Klettner <soenke_k SP@G yahoo.com>
TITLE: Future Boy!
AUTHOR: Kent Tessman
EMAIL: kent SP@G generalcoffee.com
DATE: 2004
PARSER: HUGO
SUPPORTS: HUGO interpreters
AVAILABILITY: commercial; http://www.generalcoffee.com
URL: http://www.generalcoffee.com.
VERSION: ?
Future Boy! Is the first commercial project developed with the HUGO-engine,
written by HUGOs creator Kent Tessman. As expected, it is flawless with
regard to programming and parsing and it is a convincing proof of HUGOs
power. But what is more important, it is one of the best games I have
played in years.
The story: Even though the title suggests otherwise, you are not Future
Boy, but his roommate. Nevertheless, it is up to you to save the city from
the evil supervillain Clayton Eno. To minimize spoilers, let me just say
that the plot takes many interesting and surprising turns and is
beautifully designed. Plus, you meet very interesting characters, some
friends, some foes, some something else. As in any good action comic (or
movie, by the way) the pace quickens towards the end. At the same time, the
difficulty of the puzzles rises, thus stretching the suspense to a maximum
(unless you use the in-built hint system prematurely). The game features
congenial graphics, animation sequences and music bits. Cartoonish in
style, they add to the superhero flair effectively, but they are neither
necessary nor helpful for advancing in the game. So the enjoyment doesnt
suffer too much on a system without graphic support (e.g. Palm). The voice
acting deserves special praise: it is amazingly well done and very
professional. I didnt discover any major flaws worth mentioning.
The game itself has a linear structure, which means there are no
alternative endings and the plot doesnt develop in different directions
depending on the players actions. In the beginning, there is always only
one puzzle at hand to be solved to advance the story. In the middle game,
the structure becomes much more open and the player can decide which puzzle
to try next, so he doesnt get stuck that easy. The level of difficulty
starts very moderate, so even the unpracticed (or untalented) puzzle solver
will advance easily and get motivated to try to solve the later, more
difficult puzzles by himself as well. This later puzzles get pretty hard
and multi-layered, but are always fair, solvable and well provided with
clues.
There are two features of the game I would like to see in every future text
adventure: a "goal" command which tells you what (basically) to do next and
a short summary of what happened so far after each restore.
So, I really recommand the game to anyone who likes superhero stories, good
puzzles and/or good text adventures in general. It is not cheap, but worth
the price (although I wouldnt order the deluxe package again, which is 5 $
more for a common CD case and a four page booklet).
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: Valentine Kopteltsev <uux SP@G mail.ru>
TITLE: Return to Ditch Day
AUTHOR: Michael J. Roberts
EMAIL: mjr SP@G hotmail.com
DATE: June 12, 2004
PARSER: TADS3
SUPPORTS: TADS interpreters
AVAILABILITY: freeware; IF Archive
URL: http://ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/tads/return-to-ditch-day.zip
VERSION: Release 1
Prepare for a nostalgic trip to Pasadena, California, back to your alma
mater - the California Institute of Technology, which you once explored
when playing Ditch Day Drifter.
One of the problems with nostalgic trips is, the traveller risks going
through a major disappointment in the end. Like, when getting to the place
you used to live as a child, you suddenly find out that your wonderful
playing area full of mysterious corners and secluded nooks turns out to be
a rather dull patch squeezed between faceless blocks of flats, and the
music school, the way to which you remember as quite a jorney, lies in fact
within a five minutes' walk from your former house.
The first good news is, you won't have such "shrinkage" troubles with
Return to DD. There are several reasons for that. The first one has little
to do with the skills of the game author: the thing is, the world
perception difference between a student and an alum isn't as harsh as for
children and adults;).
But even if it was, I doubt you'd have noticed any decrease in size. That's
because the game world itself has grown considerably bigger. I don't mean
just the number of rooms, although Return to DD has about twice as many of
them as DD Drifter (that is, if you don't count in the Behavior Lab maze in
the latter); rather, I'm talking of the way the rooms are depicted.
What passed for room descriptions in DD Drifter, were essentially lists of
exits. That's entirely different in Return to DD: even locations in the
area leaving the least space for being elaborate, the steam tunnels, can be
distinguished between not just by the directions they lead; other rooms
have yet more detailed and vivid descriptions, with practically all the
objects mentioned there implemented. You can bet this makes the whole thing
seem more real.
Still, with all those changes, the place remains quite recognizable. There
are topographical resemblances -- in particular, the room you have to solve
the "stack" (a challenge you need to overcome to get into a senior's room)
for is the very same as in DD Drifter, and its nearest surroundings have a
similar structure. Some other major sections, like the aforementioned steam
tunnels, don't retain the layout but maintain the overall atmosphere, the
"feel" of the rooms. Another thing "inherited" by Return to DD from its
predecessor is the humour, which, however, has become more brilliant yet
much less harmless; in fact, it gets rather spiteful at times -- for
example, read the brochures in the Carreer Center Office. This is quite
understandable -- our player character clearly has rid himself of most of
the illusions he had during the years that have passed since he graduated.
This brings us to the characters. The very generalized, "about the same as
always"-looking drifter has developed to a man with a well-defined
personality. The folks he has to deal with also aren't the sparingly
animated cardboard puppets they used to be anymore; it was amazing to find
out they have streaks I previously encountered in real people (for
instance, I myself recently baited one of my workmates with getting a huge
project done in the couple of days remaining till her vacation pretty much
the same way the workers in Return to DD tormented their colleague).
With all the praise the "troupe" deserves, one design choice concerning
character animation seemed somewhat odd to me: namely, the way conversation
was organized. I think it's best described with the term "implicit menu-
based system". In most cases, when you initiate a dialogue with someone,
the game comes up with topic/action suggestions, like this:
>TALK TO TIFFANY
As you open your mouth, Tiffany suddenly starts to cry.
(You could try to comfort her, or pummel her into silence.)
These suggestions really work like menu choices: they only are used to
advance the conversation, and the parser doesn't understand them if they're
typed somewhere else in the game. The only difference is, instead of
selecting the options by number, the player has to re-type them, which is
somewhat tedious (in spite of the fact they can be abbreviated). As far as
I see it, the theoretical benefit of such a system is more freedom for the
player, since, in addition to the options suggested, (s)he can enter some
other command. In practice, however, I didn't encounter any situations
where this extra freedom was needed, so that a "normal" menu-based
conversation seemed more appropriate. Well, maybe it's just a matter of
getting used to; anyway, making the suggested options clickable wouldn't do
any harm.
Having such great characters in one's game, it'd be rather stupid to stick
to the old trusted treasure hunt, instead of providing them with a decent
story. Without getting into much detail, let me assure you -- there is a
good plot, and, which is even better, an optional semi-mystery by-plot. The
puzzles needed to be solved in order to complete the main story line are
kept on the easy side. The player never remains without guideance, as the
"tactical subgoals" always are formulated clearly. One of the puzzles was
of the "refer to data source one to find out about data source two, then
refer to data source two to find out about data source three, then [put the
necessary number of iterations here]" type, which I'm personally not so
fond of, yet it was just an episode, and anyway short enough to avoid
becoming annoying. Also, a couple of puzzles required some random
exploration of the surroundings, but it seemed quite logical under the
given context, and was, because of the splendid game world, more of a
pleasure than of an issue. The puzzles for the by-plot were more
challenging, but still manageable. Since we're talking about puzzles -
unlike its predecessor, Return to DD features an adaptive hint system of
top quality that keeps track of the player's progress in the game.
To put it short - the sequel, quite unsurprisingly, turned out to be
superior to the original game in almost every respect. The only point where
DD Drifter probably beats its offspring is, encouraging new authors to
write in TADS. I mean, after completing DDD, a novice author probably is
going to feel a fit of energy and enthusiasm, because the game really is
very simple from the technical point of view; Return to DD, on the other
hand, is more likely to put him in a state of depression ("Bah, I'll never
be able to write THAT good!"). Still, if I had to choose between the game's
overall quality and its promotional value, I'd undoubtedly opt for the
first one.
SNATS (Score Not Affecting The Scoreboard):
PLOT: The main plot is decent, the by-plot even makes things fancy (1.4)
ATMOSPHERE: Collegiate (1.5)
WRITING: Great fun to read (1.6)
GAMEPLAY: Well-guided (1.3)
BONUSES: Detailed setting, brilliant humour (1.4)
TOTAL: 7.2
CHARACTERS: One of the strongest aspects of the game that has no weak
points whatsoever (1.8)
PUZZLES: Solid, but they don't seem to be the keystone of the game (1.2)
DIFFICULTY: Optimally suited for introducing novices to IF (6 out of 10)
...And no, there won't be any SNATS for Ditch Day Drifter, because that'd
be an unfair comparison.
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. Any and all text-based
games are eligible for review, though if a game has been reviewed three
times in SPAG, no further reviews of it will be accepted unless they are
extraordinarily original and/or insightful. SPAG reviews should be free
of spoilers, with the exception of reviews submitted to SPAG Specifics,
where spoilers are allowed in the service of in-depth discussion. In
addition, reviewers should play a game to completion before submitting a
review. There are some exceptions to this clause -- competition games
reviewed after 2 hours, unfinishable games, games with hundreds of
endings, etc. -- if in doubt, ask me first.
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.
For a more detailed version of this policy, see the SPAG FAQ at
http://www.sparkynet.com/spag/spag.faq.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for helping to keep text adventures alive!
