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[Saccade]

Castle Ralf

Review (not a great one, may want to consider someone else doing it)
Hint Booklet
Screenshot

On FTP.

[Saccade]

Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers

Game (zip) - includes readme and GNU license.
Review
Screenshot

I'm going to question this game and ask for a second opinion as to whether it should really be on the site.
It's a fan project really and, because of this, means that people who aren't fans of the Red Dwarf series will find it pretty hard to figure out what to do.

I've been referring to the books it's based on and watched the TV series again and I'm still stumpted.
It's almost like the solution is there, but it just will not work no matter how you phrase it or how many stages you try to break it up into...

The mapping isn't great - it's mind bending because of using only 4 directions to move, but 8 in the map...
The parser is occasionally a pain to use as the structure is backward to pretty much every other Interactive Fiction or Text Adventure I've ever played.
The game feels incomplete in that there are typo's and spell errors and, for the creator's confidence in his parser - it isn't up to what he says it is.

This game feels like it's been made up as he's gone through it for his University course and that it just isn't a complete game.

And this has nothing to do with the fact that it's the only one so far that I haven't been able to finish!!!

[Lulu_Jane]

If it's fanmade then AR is the place for it.

[Luchsen]

Originally Posted by the editing Saccade

Trying to get rid of the annoying ! yellow triangle icon for my thread...

Fixed.

[TotalAnarchy]

Saccade, since you didn't want to review Metal Gear, I gave it (the right to do the review) to Shadow_Stalker. I hope you didn't change your mind.

[Saccade]

I'm cool with that matey.

Dunjin - Review, screenshot.

Walkthru to come when I've typed it up. (this game took f--king ages.)

[TotalAnarchy]

There are some questions:

1. Are the walkthroughs written by you or did you asked the authors for the right to host them? If neither of these options --> we can't upload them.
2. What the heck is with those Deep Space Drifter images? We can't upload those on site.
3. If I understand correctly you used your own copy of Abbey of Montglane? (the exe which you uploaded) I want to verify this cause we also have a copy from another user (pczelda)

Sorry for the trouble, but this really needs to be verified.

[Saccade]

Hi Total,

1. Are the walkthroughs written by you or did you asked the authors for the right to host them? If neither of these options --> we can't upload them.

Nearly all of the Interactive Fiction and Text Adventure games that I accepted to review are freeware - this covers (as stated in the licenses that I have uploaded with each game) all the documentation that would come with it and if there are any walkthrus, most of them (if I remember right) have a similar GNU license or something that is to the same effect.
I think that the Abbey is donation but isn't shareware... as it the other one by the same author - they sent me the prequel sequel because I was reviewing it and they were happy with that.
Otherwise it would've been $10 or something to register either game for hints and stuff...

I'll go through and check all of them again.
For Raithes Castle (?? I'm not sure) I used a hintbook off the net - I can't remember where I got it but I can find it again if you want? - and, I think the hint book was written by the original authors of the game a few years after it's release.
However, the GNU license does say that they freely grant permission for it to be reproduced in it's original form only. Which I think's a PDF.

That one's not a problem and the hintbook's very good.

All the maps for all the games are made by me, even if they are a bit messy. I can re-draw them and scan them so that they are clearer if you want?

I used a walkthru for another game - as I said, I'm not sure if the first one is Raithe's Castle, I'll check as soon as I am able - but it was not great and needed re-writing.

The walkthrus for other games that I've submitted are written by me.
Either from another walkthru that made no sense or was incomplete or totally from scratch as I've made my way through the games.
Mostly from scratch as I've played the game - which is why it took me so long to do the reviews, even though it only took a few days to finish the game.

All the walkthrus I've uploaded are tested and work and I've tried to make it so that it doesn't ruin the game entirely. (eg, hints instead of answers first, actions that will lead to something funny or interesting that isn't part of the story's progression.)

I was thinking of compiling walkthrus for the games using the UHS (Universal Hint System) as I think this would be a good way to give someone a walkthru.
I did start doing one for Dunjin. I should really finish it - thanks for reminding me.

I know that sometimes, when I need to refer to a walkthru, I'll end up using it every time I get stuck for more than 5 minutes and it totally ruins the game for me.

I've got all the maps, walks, hints and stuff saved on my Mac, so I'll get round to it again later on.

IF a walkthru isn't completed, made readable, or written by me - I've likely left the introduction or appendices in which it usually states that the original author has given permission for it to be reproduced anywhere by anyone, so long as it is in it's entirely original format.

I don't know how it affects things if I've found a walkthru that is totally rubbish and made it better by re-writing it and adding things I've discovered in order to make it useful...
Perhaps you can tell me?


The only Interactive Fiction / Text Adventure game that I've reviewed and completed so far where I *haven't* been able to contact the author / compiler to discuss the game, etc... is Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers.
The guy isn't on that email any more, nor at the address and the college/university he went to do not have any forward contacts for him...

I can't get in touch with him at all. J Stenko his name is, I think.
But, again, he has included a GNU License that states that the game and any documentation, etc... that comes with it has his permission to be freely distributed.

2. What the heck is with those Deep Space Drifter images? We can't upload those on site.

What's up with them?
I think, if I remember, that because Deep Space Drifter is a TADS game, that I used a programme called SplatterLight for Mac.
It was just the computer that I was on at the time.

Because I wasn't using Boxer for Mac (basically DosBox) or DosBox on PC, I couldn't take a screenshot the usual way.
I used the MacOS screengrab. That may be why it looks like it's a bit strange.
But the images I captured were of the TADS engine, which you need to run the game.

DSD isn't an exe, bat or com. It's a specific file-type for TADS.

Unfortunately, Deep Space Drifter doesn't run under DosBox, as the only TADS (Text Adventure Development System) engines available are for Windows or Mac.
(I didn't look especially hard, though - I already owned SplatterLight so it wasn't a problem.

I can take some others if you'd like.

There probably is a TADS engine available for Dos or DosBox - I'll try and find one and retake the screenshots.

It would be a shame not to include this game on AB as it was one of the better IF games that was on the list needing review.

3. If I understand correctly you used your own copy of Abbey of Montglane? (the exe which you uploaded) I want to verify this cause we also have a copy from another user (pczelda).
Sorry for the trouble, but this really needs to be verified.

Yeah - I didn't get sent any of the archives for any of the games, so I either had to track them down elsewhere (most of them are online at BIF's IF Archive - thanks Luchsen) but I did have a few of the other ones on several floppies which contain hundreds of IF's and Text Adventures. (most of them shit)
The TADS ones in particular are ones that I'm likely to own, as I remember trying to make a piece of IF using it when I was younger and just starting out writing.

It is my own copy of the Abbey.
It runs under windows or Dosbox or Boxer for Mac totally fine.

The one from BIF's IF Archive doesn't start...

If both exe's are the same size and both work, it'd probably be best to make the latest version or newest file on the site available.
I know mine works - really it makes no difference which file is used if they both work, does it..? :eh:

Didn't I include some extra files with that game executable? I thought I did.
I got totally stuck on the game, finally found and emailed the author in California who also sent me the other game they made (a prequel sequel thing) - I've yet to review that one.

I think the Abbey is the better of the two, despite it's weird Parser...

They were happy, when I explained what I was doing, for me to write a review and to make the game available for download through Abandonia and for any hint-books or walkthrus to be used and altered if I thought they needed updating.

I think that the walkthru I've included with it was the one they emailed me and I have just made the hints better and streamlined it so that it's easier to follow than the, somewhat, random walkthru that they gave me.


---------

Does that answer everything?

As I said, the only person I didn't get to speak to was J Stenko from the Red Dwarf game, as he's not contactable and I really cannot be arsed to track him down.
I still haven't finished the game.

Mind - the other games I have reviewed, such as Star Wars Chess I didn't contact the creators as I thought it

For the others, the reviews are mine, hints are mine, majority of walkthrus are mine or have permission to be reproduced by the authors.

That's the reason I included the readme and license text files - so that it's obvious that the agreement allows the materials to be used.

If you still think there's a problem with the games, reviews, hints, walks, etc... let me know so that I can prepare another one for whichever game is the offending collection of bytes.

It took me quite a long time to map everything out and write everything, so if you're not going to use it - please let me know so that I know not to bother next time.
I could just write a better review instead of expending energies on something that you can't use.

I've got the emails from different people saved on my Mac (for some strange reason). If you need me to, I can uncompress them and forward them to you so that you can verify everything.

I'll definitely see if I can find a TADS engine that runs in DosBox as I really think that Deep Space Drifter would be a good IF game to have on the site.
I'm sure there's some way of getting a decent, usable screenshot even if I can't find a DOS TADS engine...

Thanks for letting me know, Mr Anarchy!
Just give me a shout if there's anything else matey.

Take it easy,
Pete

[TotalAnarchy]

I just read a book.

Ok, walkthroughs and all material are fine (well except that read me that has only a postal adress written in it) and we'll use your Montglane .exe because you already tested it. But the biggest problem are the screens:

1)We need the original screens, how the game looked originally.
2)The screens are too long, we primarily use 320x200 (if the game has only one supported resolution then we resize it to make it closest to this, like 320x240). The site automatically resizes the screens and if we leave them as they are you wouldn't understand a thing, believe me. I don't think you'll even know that it's a text adventure.
*Of course if there's no way to obtain (to run the game) the original screens we can use the current ones and just crop the important parts to obtain the desired size.

[Saccade]

Are these the Screenshots from Deep Space Drifter Total?

When I get back later on, I'll have a search for a TADS engine that's compatible with either Windows or Dos.

At least with Win, the images can be put into Fireworks or Photoshop easily and resized - cheers for the dimensions.

If I can't get it to run in DosBox, do you want me to upload a few versions of different TADS engines to the TFP, or just make a note that the review needs to include links to places to download TADS?

As you say, if worse comes to worse, I can always just crop some images from Splatterlight for MacOS so that they are legible and are acceptable.

Eh - you know what they say:

"A book a day does something something something..."

Take it easy mate.
I'll post here when I've completed everything you asked for.

Pete