Results of the First Annual IF Competition

Inform category

TADS category

All Quiet on the Library Front

Parser: Inform          Author: Michael S. Phillips

You're a college student enrolled in an interactive fiction course -- sounds great, doesn't it? Unfortunately, you've goofed off all semester and you're caught short at finals time. The only way for you to make a passing grade is by writing a term paper about Inform creator Graham Nelson. To do so you'll need to sneak a biography of Nelson out of the library without detection. The game gives you two hours to locate the book, interact with several other characters, and smuggle the book out of the building without being caught.

The game includes hints, which are gentle proddings rather than direct spoilers. The game is scored up to 30 points, although you can win with less. The game's action takes place entirely within the library in (by my count) seven locations. The NPCs you meet up with -- a librarian, circulation desk attendant, and computer technician -- can supply you with information/objects you need as well as stop you from making your escape.

"All Quiet on the Library Front" makes reference to many games and participants in the current-day IF community. How thrilling it was to see a mention of XYZZYnews! :) The IF allusions dress up many of the room descriptions and make the game more fun for players who follow the r.a.i-f and r.g.i-f Usenet newsgroups.

Almost as much fun as winning was reading the less-than-ideal ending for the game: "You are kicked out of the library without the needed biography, and so you flunk the course, drop out of college in disgrace, and spend the rest of your days as the peon who sorts the hate mail in Microsoft's mail room. Life sucks, doesn't it?"

Detective, an Interactive MiSTing

Parser: Inform          Author: Christopher E. Forman

"Detective, an Interactive MiSTing" utilizes a device that has served the television show "Mystery Science Theater 3000" so well -- namely, embellishing a poorly executed work with apt criticisms, private jokes, and highly amusing asides. The lead characters from the Comedy Central cable series -- Mike and the 'bots Crow and Tom Servo -- provide the running patter, and the show's other characters make appearances as well.

This text adventure spoof features running commentary that's more entertaining to follow than the action or descriptions in the game proper, which is a port of Matt Barringer's AGT murder mystery "Detective." The MiSTed version pokes fun at everything from the game's design (featuring many one-way passageways and an excessive number of rooms described as a hallway) to the bare-bones plot (you discover the killer's hideout, favorite watering-hole, and job locale simply by entering a certain location).

Like the other television-inspired game in the competition collection ("Toonesia"), the game may be initially confusing to players unfamiliar with the original TV show. The gimmick has such wide appeal though, that hopefully even those who haven't had the pleasure of watching MST3K (as it's often abbreviated) will appreciate the author's purpose here.

The Magic Toyshop

Parser: Inform          Author: Gareth Rees

In search of a birthday present for your young niece, you decide to stop in at a particularly intriguing-looking toyshop to see what you can find. There you'll meet Catharine, the proprietor's daughter, who presents you with a number of unusual gadgets and brainteaser puzzles for you to solve.

The puzzles presented are fairly linear logic problems, some of which may be familiar to players in a paper-and-pencil version. Even the first brainteasers will have players scratching their heads in confusion until they look at the puzzle in just the right way. Catherine's comments offer clues, but no overt spoilers. "The Magic Toyshop" includes allusions to Graham Nelson's Curses , so strategies employable in that game will prove useful here. Brainiacs who enjoy mind games will fare well, even if they need to stop and mull over the situation for awhile. The rest of us, well, will just have to troll the rec.games.int- fiction newsgroup for tips.

There are some very nice ASCII graphics for several puzzles, such as the game of noughts-and-crosses (tic-tac-toe), dots and boxes, or the showdown between the robot cat and mouse inside the wall.

The Mind Electric, An Interactive Vision

Parser: Inform          Author: Jason Dyer

As gameplay in "The Mind Electric" begins, your mind has been captured as a pawn in the otherworldly war between two factions known as the Kaden and the Souden. You are aided in exploring and manipulating the confines of your prison base by a rotating cube with a human face on each side. Luckily there are outside forces who are also working to free you; when you do escape and have your mind restored to your physical body, you can take a moment to reflect upon the ludicrousness of war and the sacrifice of an individual's spirit for some arbitrary, often meaningless cause. The game's puzzles range from discovering the necessary passwords for getting past a locked door to engaging the human-faced but initially voiceless cube in a "Mastermind"-type game to identify a certain four- digit number. The extensive online hints provide the solutions to every puzzle in the game, and can be followed in the order presented as a kind of walkthrough. These hints are really a guide to help the player to navigate the game and know which issues to attend to at the correct time. There are several ways to be killed in "The Mind Electric," such as being tracked and discovered trying to escape from the containment field.

Tube Trouble

Parser: Inform          Author: Richard Tucker

"Tube Trouble" centers on two of life's frustrating little moments -- the experience of just missing a subway train and watching it speed off without you, and trying to coax a candy bar out of a temperamental vending machine. Eating in the station is prohibited, so once you've managed to obtain your candy bar, your mission is to board the train to eat it -- and thereby win the game.

You're both aided and hampered in your attempts by a tramp, the game's only major NPC. The tramp possesses several items that will prove most useful to you, and observing his actions is especially helpful. The tramp also has the means of creating a public disturbance, which will delay the trains... if only there was some way you could stop anyone who'd prevent him from disturbing the peace. You have only a very limited ability to interact with the tramp; there are a couple of other NPCs who appear at most for only one turn.

Although the game is small in size, with barely half a dozen locations and a total scoring of 1 point, I played it for several long sessions without being able to get anywhere. Then, some weeks later, I loaded it up on my laptop to mull over during my morning commute, and figured it all out before the train even made it to the next stop (11 minutes away). It was very fitting, actually, to experience two of life's small pleasures right then -- just barely catching one's train as it's about to pull out of the station, and playing a text adventure through to completion in one short session. :)

A Change in the Weather

Parser: Inform          Author: Andrew Plotkin

The summer picnic was fun, but your curious nature compels you to wander off for a bit... to the other side of a nearby bridge, where you're swept up in a confusing cacophony of events, foreshadowed by a terrible storm that drives you into a cave for shelter. When you emerge, you're filled with a strong sense of foreboding, and must act quickly before harm befalls you.

Several puzzles in this game are of the getting-past-a-locked-door- or-barrier variety. No online hints are available, but most interesting about the game's administration is the complete lack of scoring. If you issue the SCORE command you're told "Life doesn't work that way." What a refreshing perspective!

A Night at the Museum Forever

Parser: TADS            Author: Chris Angelini

Set in the echoing halls of a mystifying museum, "A Night in the Museum Forever" presents the player with a single challenge: travel through several time periods to meet various conditions and retrieve a diamond ring. The strange museum contains artifacts from your time period as well as 1,000 years in the past and 1,000 years into the future. Since your actions in one time period could affect a later one, you must take care in the moves you make.

Your role is that of a professional troubleshooter, retained by companies to resolve conundrums like this one. You are alone on your quest, and must also pay attention to detail in order to obtain the items you'll need to win. Victory is yours when you've obtained the ring and walk out of the museum.

Scored out of 50 points, the game includes several small puzzles that lead to the solution of the game's main puzzle. There are but a few game locations, but it is interesting to see each specific location at three points in time. Players will need to use their intuition and learn the syntax for operating a couple of pieces of machinery in the game, including the time travel machine. A complete walkthrough for solving the game is also included.

The One That Got Away

Parser: TADS            Author: Lee Lin

This highly engrossing story is about your quest to catch an enormous fish known as The Old One, legendary for its size and ability to outsmart even the best fishermen around. The game's action is packed into a mere five locations, but most of the story's depth comes from the long descriptions and narratives told to you by Bob the bait seller.

Even if fishing isn't on your list of favorite activities (and it's not on mine), it's easy to get drawn into the game's scenario. The procedure for weighting your line, baiting your hook, and casting your line is delineated directly and entertainingly in the game. There are a variety of objects you might reel in, from undersized fish to an old rubber boot; each tug on the line succeeds in creating a real atmosphere of suspense.

The game gains a great deal of depth by relating the tragic story of Bob and his lost love. Players gather much of this background material as they collect clues by asking Bob about the photos on his wall. A walkthrough for solving the game is included, as well as a list of suggestions of commands to try that have amusing results.

Toonesia

Parser: TADS            Author: Jacob Weinstein

Nostalgic for Warner Bros. cartoons? You've come to the right game. As the stuttering, gun-toting Elmo Fuld, you're out to plug a few holes in a certain rascally rabbit. The scenarios you enter are straight from a Saturday morning cartoon -- walking off cliffs, confronting a certain duck (more effective during duck season than rabbit season), and facing a Tasmanian devil.

My guess is that the game's theme and characters would be initially baffling to anyone unfamiliar with the Warner Bros. cartoons, but the game does contain an extensive set of progressive hints to walk players through most puzzles. Sure, there's no character development, but hey, they're cartoons -- they're supposed to be one-dimensional! Scored out of 10 points, "Toonesia" offers a wide variety of game locations and several potential not-so-happy endings.

Undertow

Parser: TADS            Author: Stephen Granade

You're on board your friend Thom's yacht attending a most unpleasant party with three other guests who're downright hostile to your host. Before long, a gruesome discovery is made -- Thom's dead body is caught up in one of the ship's lines, and the killer is obviously amongst your group.

What are you to make of your fellow guests -- Bill, Thom's business partner; Carl, another old friend of Thom's, and Ashleigh, Carl's girlfriend (and Thom's ex)? Will you succeed in turning up clues to compel the others to admit their secrets? Will you find damning evidence with which to confront the killer before the ship is blown up?

"The Undertow" packs a great deal of intrigue and plot into a very short game. Its brevity was probably a concession to the IF competition, but a longer version would no doubt prove highly popular. I liked that there were several possible outcomes to the game. Your inaction could lead to the ship's destruction (and your untimely demise); your failure to act decisively enough could lead to another character's death; and you may or may not discover everyone's possible motives for murder.

The game's action takes place entirely aboard the yacht in about a dozen locations. Character development is fairly skimpy, especially for Ashleigh. This isn't surprising in a short game, but it would help flesh out the murder mystery. The puzzles themselves are fairly straightforward: opening locked containers, figuring out uses for found objects, and hindering the murderer.

Undo

Parser: TADS            Author: Neil deMause

This minimalist game begins in much the same manner as Dave Baggett's mind-bending "+=3": You're ostensibly just a short ways away from winning a long, harrowing game and have just one major challenge left to face. In "Undo," that involves getting past a large hole. Beside the hole are a frog and a duck; can they help you win the game?

There are three additional experimental areas you can visit in the game; the logic of those areas' objects and descriptions is perhaps meant to inform your strategy for getting past the hole. Especially fun are the self-referential room (be sure to examine it) and the dark area you've come from, where you're likely to be eaten by a syntax error (you gotta love those error messages).

If this game had a subtitle, it ought to be "Now you see it, now you don't." The theme comes up when you use the inside-out eraser (you can erase nothing with it but the eraser itself) and the objects in the Binary Room (you can pick up a 0 and a 1, but all the other objects in your inventory seemingly disappear when you pick up the 0 because "you have nothing.")

Although the game states it's scored up to 86 points, there are no actions that'll earn you points during the game. As you play, you may find that a specific word that the game (or an NPC) chooses not to recognize will earn you the response "What [specific word]?" Similarly, your winning move nets only the response "What game won?"

Uncle Zebulon's Will

Parser: TADS            Author: Magnus Olsson

Bless his soul, your uncle Zebulon was always considered something of an eccentric by the rest of the family -- but now that he's passed away they're squabbling over the meager inheritance he's left. Since Zebulon dabbled in alchemy it was rumored he had hidden riches stashed away, but when you arrive home you find the house and grounds mostly stripped by the rest of your disappointed family.

As you discover, it turns out that you're Zebulon's favorite nephew, and if you can use your wits you'll be able to open the portals to the magical, exquisite lands that Zebulon wanted to share with you. There are no direct hints, but if you're stuck you can gain ideas for possible actions by looking into a crystal ball you find in Zebulon's study. The main puzzles have to do with getting past barriers or discovering hidden entrances, and discovering how to circumvent the stipulation in Uncle Zebulon's will that you leave the house carrying no more than one object from within. The game is scored out of 75 points with 12 locations.

The Effects of 'XYZZY' in the Competition Games

game title                           What "XYZZY" does
A Night at the Museum Forever        N/A [not applicable -- game 
                                     doesn't recognize the command]

The One That Got Away                You speak the ancient word of 
                                     power. When you realize that it 
                                     does jack diddly, you slap your 
                                     hand to your forehead and exclaim, 
                                     "D'OH!"

All Quiet on the Library Front       You invoke an ancient