Not worth it. Set in some kind of destroyed futuristic military base, although the context is unclear (as is your motivation). Poor spelling, little to do, ends abruptly with a promise of a sequel.

Rating: **

Reviewed by Carl Muckenhoupt (30 Jun 2000)

1998-01-12 2044.gam (47.13 KB)

TADS executable (version: 1.0)

1998-01-24 2044.sol (365 bytes)

solution

Teddy bears, as anyone who owns one can tell you, come to life when you're asleep. This game puts you in one bear's shoes, making mischief and preparing for a big day. Although allegedly an "interactive children's story", it will probably leave most genuine children baffled, through both its vocabulary and its several major references to other prominent text adventures. Small, with good puzzles based on overcoming the limitations of being two feet tall and made of cloth. Contains an adaptive hint menu.

Rating: ****

Reviewed by Carl Muckenhoupt (30 Jun 2000)

1997-09-24 bear.sol (4.07 KB)

solution

1997-10-13 bear.z5 (103.50 KB)

Z-code 5 executable (version: 2, as entered in 1997 competition)

1999-02-23 bear.z5 (107.00 KB)

Z-code 5 executable (version: 5)

2000-03-31 bearg.z5 (131.50 KB)

Z-code 5 executable in German (version: 4, translated by Gunther Schmidl)

2002-10-02 osito.z5 (125.50 KB)

Z-code 5 executable in Spanish (version: 4, translated by José Luis Díaz)

1998-01-24 bear.sol (1.33 KB)

solution

This game basically consists of a slew of rec.arts.int-fiction in-jokes strung together. In a riff from John's Fire Witch, you must gather seven text adventures representing the deadly sins. After that, it just gets sillier. Features a hint menu.

Rating: ***

Reviewed by Carl Muckenhoupt (30 Jun 2000)

1997-10-01 mimesis.z5 (85.50 KB)

Z-code 5 executable (version: Release 2, original competition entry)

1998-01-25 mimesis.zip (28.73 KB)

Source code (readable--uncompiled)

1998-01-25 mimesis.z5 (88.00 KB)

Z-code 5 executable (version: Release 3)

1998-02-27 Mimesis.gmp (741 bytes)

map in GUEmap format

Possibly the largest game ever entered in the competition. You're hunting a dragon, seeking a lost jewel, and generally exploring a rather varied map. Sprawling and diverse, with lots of puzzles, some guess-the-verb problems, and often not much guidance on what to do next, but it has its charm as well--certain actions have large-scale effects in a way that's not commonly done in IF, and there are some multiple solutions and plot twists that keep this one a cut above your average fantasy quest. There's also a helpful on-screen ASCII map. Not earth-shatteringly novel, but enjoyable if you like fantasy.

Rating: ****

Reviewed by Duncan Stevens (03 Jul 2000)

1997-09-30 erden.z8 (315.00 KB)

Z-code 8 executable (version: Release 1, original competition entry)

1997-09-30 erdensln.doc (46.50 KB)

Walkthrough

1998-01-14 erden.zip (229.69 KB)

Z-code 8 executable (version: Release 2, game file and walkthrough zipped together)

A small and excessively cute game concerning a dwarf town (that's Munchkin-style dwarfs, not Tolkienesque ones) where the people who create magic spells have been disappearing. You play a member of the town's Secret Service, assigned to the case. Has a female protagonist and in-game hints. Warning for homophobes: Features same-sex puppy love.

Rating: ****

Reviewed by Carl Muckenhoupt (30 Jun 2000)

1997-10-01 lost.z5 (114.50 KB)

Z-code 5 executable (version: Release 2, original competition entry)

1998-01-17 lost.z5 (125.00 KB)

Z-code 5 executable (version: Release 3)

A scavenger hunt set at Harvard - supposedly a graduation requirement - with treasures ranging from a picture of yourself to a Gutenberg Bible. The campus is chiefly explored via underground service tunnels. Accurate where it's accurate, whimsical where it's not. Has some good flash-of-insight puzzles and a fair degree of detail. Also has some death without warning and one sequence that you cannot reasonably expect to get through without learning from your death. Features a false maze and hints from characters in the game.

Rating: ****

Reviewed by Carl Muckenhoupt (30 Jun 2000)

1996-09-11 veritas20.sea.hqx (378.08 KB)

Macintosh executable (version: Release 2.0)

1998-01-23 veritas22.gam (314.80 KB)

TADS executable (version: Release 2.2)

1995-03-26 veritas.sol (2.55 KB)

Walkthrough

Starcross in miniature. In the middle of a routine flight to Io, you find yourself on a collision course with a large and distressingly organic spaceship. Only by mastering its systems can you reach home again. Very short - feels like an intro to the promised sequel - but well-crafted.

Rating: ****

Reviewed by Carl Muckenhoupt (30 Jun 2000)

1998-02-02 son1.gam (93.55 KB)

TADS executable (version: Release 2)

1998-01-29 son1.sol (772 bytes)

Walkthrough

Inspired by Freefall, this is an Inform port of the classic Unix game Robots (aka Zombies or Daleks). Not an adventure game. I suppose it's only a matter of time until someone does Worm.

Rating: Not rated

Reviewed by Carl Muckenhoupt (30 Jun 2000)

1998-01-15 robots.inf (20.58 KB)

Inform source code (version: Release 6)

1998-01-15 robots.z5 (6.00 KB)

Z-code 5 executable (version: Release 6)

1995-08-16 robots.hints (2.06 KB)

instructions

This game's premise: find out who you are and who vomited on you. By game's end, you still won't know the answer to either question, but it hardly matters since you and all of your friends will be stoned out of your minds with your choice of drug.

The coding is just as awful as the story. The only implemented scenery items are two toilets, a car, and a cabinet. All other objects are people (your druggy friends) and plot tokens (mostly drugs). All the people are implemented very ineptly; for example, each seems to have only one stock reaction whether you're trying to hit them, kiss them, or give, show, ask or tell them something. The southwest direction is inexplicably absent. All in all, this is a textbook example of why one shouldn't release one's first game beyond your circle of friends.

Rating: *

Reviewed by David Welbourn (03 May 2003)

1998-01-05 slackerx.zip (59.63 KB)

MS-DOS executable (version: 1)

1998-03-26 Slackerx.z5 (54.00 KB)

Z-code 5 executable (version: 1)

1998-01-24 slackerx.sol (545 bytes)

solution

1998-01-16 thypt-se.exe (87.53 KB)

MS-DOS executable (self-extracting archive)

Set in the world of Frederik Pohl's Heechee novels, Gateway 2 is a thoroughly enjoyable text/graphics game with clever puzzles. It's also considered by some to be the end of an era: the last text-based adventure game to share store shelves with its graphical brethren at the beginning of the multimedia explosion. However, if you want to play it, you're out of luck. The demo available at the Archive isn't even interactive. It's just a slideshow of the graphics accompanied by a partial plot summary.

Rating: Not rated

Reviewed by Carl Muckenhoupt (04 Apr 2001)

1998-01-23 gw2demo.zip (1.35 MB)

MS-DOS executable

1997-10-17 breath12.zip (99.99 KB)

MS-DOS executable (version: 1.2)

2004-11-14 bpsource.zip (179.44 KB)

BASIC source code (version: 1.2)

1998-01-29 breath12.sol (626 bytes)

solution

The English translation of the title is "The Time Travel". To play this game, you should have a working knowledge of German. A brief synopsis in English: After a lightning-stroke, you are transported into the future. Your goal is to find the way back to your time, collecting various items and tools.

Du bist ein Betreuer des Jugendtreffs in Neuwarmbüchen und findest dich nach einem Blitzeinschlag in der Zukunft wieder. Um wieder in deine Zeit zurückzukehren, müssen diverse Gegenstände gefunden und zusammengebaut werden, nicht ohne vorher einen Teleporter, ein Raumschiff vom Melmac und einige Einwohner besucht zu haben. Viele Orte sind äußerst karg beschrieben, der Zwei-Wort-Parser ist sehr unkomfortabel. Dafür bietet das Spiel eine automatische Karte und in einigen Szenen (optionale) Schwarzweiß-Fotos.
Dieses Spiel ist das Ergebnis eines Jugendprojektes, um die Programmierung in Pascal zu veranschaulichen.

Rating: **

Reviewed by Matthias Oborski (03 Jan 2003)

1998-01-09 ztreise.exe (215.58 KB)

MS-DOS executable in German (version: 1.1)

2001-02-02 Zeitreise.gmp (1.65 KB)

Map (in GUEmap format)

1998-01-17 bquest.exe (708.42 KB)

MS-DOS executable in Spanish (Warning: running this executable will unpack a large number of files into the current working directory)