More CYOA than IF, and there's not even much C-ing to do. You're walking along a street thinking about your relationship with your lover, and you get a series of choices--1 to go forward, 2 to go back. The author has admitted that he wrote it as a joke of sorts, and it shows--the writing is ludicrously overdone.

Rating: **

Reviewed by Duncan Stevens (28 Jan 2001)

beal.gam (50.95 KB)

TADS executable (version: competition release)

Bare-bones old-school fantasy--time-travel and treasure-hunt combined. Worse, lots of bad design choices, like a really small inventory limit, random death, and a light source puzzle. Lots of silliness--the game is supposedly set in the 10th century, but of course things like pizzas are on hand. On the other hand, everything works okay, and a few of the puzzles are somewhat inventive. If you're nostalgic for the dawn of IF, you may like this.

Rating: ***

Reviewed by Duncan Stevens (28 Jan 2001)

tac.sol (4.12 KB)

Walkthrough

tac.z5 (95.00 KB)

Z-code 5 executable (version: Release 101)

A huge jumble of puzzles, some of them fair and clever and many decidedly not. This was a 1999 competition entry, but it's nowhere near competition size--I count roughly 30 rooms, each with its own puzzle or set of puzzles, many of them extraordinarily complicated. There's also a hint system with lots of attitude. If you like puzzles, you may like this--but you have to really, really like puzzles.

Rating: ***

Reviewed by Duncan Stevens (28 Jan 2001)

action (38.30 KB)

data file

autofile (9.83 KB)

data file

comm (51.59 KB)

data file

document.txt (20.44 KB)

Author's notes

mess (385.58 KB)

data file

object (13.42 KB)

data file

object2 (948 bytes)

data file

prep (9.68 KB)

data file

setup.dat (6.70 KB)

data file

travel (1.65 KB)

data file

vocab (9.16 KB)

data file

xsnosae.exe (89.95 KB)

MS-DOS executable (version: competition release)

An attempt at a spy thriller, ruined by bad writing, bad game design, and bugs. Particularly notable is the opening scene, in which you have to figure out how to convince your character not to kill himself. The plot, to the extent it's understandable, involves a PC whose mind keeps getting transferred to different bodies, but the game doesn't do much with the premise.

Rating: **

Reviewed by Duncan Stevens (28 Jan 2001)

outsided.z5 (112.50 KB)

Z-code 5 executable (version: Release 1)

solve.htm (7.66 KB)

Release 1

An intriguing premise--you've been hired to guard a cave against a bunch of looting adventurers--but the implementation lets it down. The competition release was entirely unfinishable due to bugs, but there are still plenty of bugs in the latest release. The cave itself is large and well described, so if you enjoy cave settings you may enjoy this, but the game itself needs work.

Rating: ***

Reviewed by Duncan Stevens (28 Jan 2001)

guard.z8 (338.00 KB)

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

guard.zip (241.60 KB)

Z-code 8 executable (version: 2), debugging history, graphic puzzle clue

More Rybreadness, but there really isn't much here--just a few rooms without much to do. Even those that appreciate Rybread's work, for whatever reason, probably won't find much to enjoy in this one.

Rating: **

Reviewed by Duncan Stevens (28 Jan 2001)

ludite.z5 (81.00 KB)

Z-code 5 executable (version: Release 1)