TB's reviews (intro, 0/3)
Tony Baechler
three parts. I will explain more about my grading at the beginning of part
1. Sorry in advance for some obvious formatting problems, I switched
editors a few times. I only rated about half of the games, unfortunately.
This year, I actually contacted some authors privately with feedback, which
I usually do not do. These were written upon completion of the games, so if
they look like rough drafts it is probably because I had just finished and
wanted to get my thoughts written down. Unlike most other reviews, I
actually review the games then give suggestions to the authors to improve
the games in the future. I purposely did not use full game titles or author
names to prevent spelling errors and for my convenience.
A note about my ratings. Below is the actual rating.txt file I sent to the
vote counter. There are some gaps and missing entries. That is because
Comp00 had them in one random order, but I had to remove the Windows and
ADRIFT games because I found them unplayable and did not feel like fighting
them. Also, I could not use the multimedia Hugo engine. If you are missing
any parts of these reviews, you may get all of them from the following site.
They will probably only be up until sometime in December. You may feel free
to mirror or archive them, but please ask before putting them on CD.
Commercial distribution is not allowed. SPAG, Audyssey and other magazines
may republish them without asking, but I use an unusual format which would
probably not work well in SPAG.
If I have offended anyone in any way, I am sorry. I realize some of my
comments are harsh but I did not try to insult anyone. As I wrote to the
author of Comp00ter, even though it is an awefull game it is better than
anything I could do in Inform, which is why I have never entered as an
author before.
Finally, one brief note about "Enlisted" since I was vague about this in my
review. It is in the classic Infocom style of writing, but not much else.
I did not like it because of the puzzles and maze, but I really felt like I
was in an Infocom game at the beginning. Also, I really liked "Ad Verbum"
and apologize in advance for the rather short review of it. I would like to
see more games like this, as long as the word play genre is not overused.
Finally, I thought the music in "Kaged" was a little flat or muffled. I did
not knock points off for it, but I think Ian needs a better mp3 encoder. I
have contacted him about it already.
If you want to contact me for some reason, you may write to tony at baechler
dot net.
3: Happy Ever After (happy.z5)
3: Punk Points (punkpnts.z5)
6: Letters from Home (letters.z5)
6: Dinner with Andre (dinner.z5)
8: Kaged (kaged.gam)
1: VOID: CORPORATION (void.da1)
3: Castle Amnos (amnos01.z5)
7: Nevermore (never.z5)
5: Threading the Labyrinth (ttl.gam)
5: Transfer (transfer.z5)
5: Prodly the Puffin (prodly.z5)
6: The Masque of the Last Faeries (masque.z5)
5: Enlisted (enlisted.z5)
9: Ad Verbum (adverbum.z5)
6: Unnkulia X (uux.gam)
5: Guess The Verb! (guess.z5)
1: A Crimson Spring (scourge.hex)
5: The Clock (clock.gam)
3: Asendent (asendent.z5)
6: The Best Man (bestman.z5)
1: Breaking the Code (code.z5)
2: The Trip (trip.gam)
3: 1-2-3... (1-2-3.z5)
3: ON THE OTHER SIDE (otos.exe)
2: What-IF? (what_if.z5)
__: Jarod's Journey (jarod.gam)
__: Shade (shade.z5)
__: Masquerade (mask.z5)
__: The Pickpocket (ppocket.z5)
__: And the Waves Choke the Wind (atwctw.z8)
__: Futz Mutz (futzmutz.gam)
__: Aftermath (aftrmath.gam)
__: Desert Heat (desert.gam)
4: Got ID? (gotid.z5)
__: YAGWAD (yagwad.z5)
7: My Angel (my_angel.z5)
__: Withdrawal Symptoms (withdraw.z5)
1: Comp00ter Game (comp00tr.z5)
__: The End Means Escape (endmeans.gam)
__: Metamorphoses (metamorp.z5)
__: Being Andrew Plotkin (bap.z5)
__: Stupid Kittens (kitty.z5)
__: Rameses (rameses.z5)
__: At Wit's End (awe.gam)
__: Planet of the Infinite Minds (planmind.gam)
__: Return to Zork: Another Story (rtzas.z8)
__: The Djinni Chronicles (djinni.z5)
__: The Big Mama (bigmama.z5)
__: Infil-traitor (infil.bas)