Audyssey; Computer Games Accessible to the Blind by Michael Feir Issue 1: July/August, 1996 + Welcome What's life without a little fun? Just as life would be incomplete without its pleasures, computers, in my opinion, are incomplete without games. To find such entertainment, sighted people need only look as far as their local computer store. There, they can expect to find high-quality commercially developed games. Should they need some guidance as to which games are worth their time and money, they may look to a variety of magazines, friends, and salespeople for advice. For the blind person, solving the problem of finding a game is a harder proposition. Games must not only suit the interests, levels of patience, and intellectual levels of their players, but must also fulfil another requirement of being accessible to speech synthesizers or braille display devices. Added to these difficulties is the dismal fact that commercial companies are not interested in tapping into the relatively small market of blind computer users who would buy games. Finally, the majority of games which are accessible to the blind are of the interactive fiction type. While the quality of these games is usually quite high, their one serious drawback is their general lack of replay value. This magazine will discuss commercially developed games, as well as those of the shareware/freeware varieties which, through accident or by design, are in some way accessible to blind people. Topics relevant to these games and those who play them will also be discussed. In this first issue, the opinions expressed will be almost exclusively my own. However, I do not intend for this magazine to serve forever as my pulpit. Issues will be published on a bimonthly basis, on or about the fifteenth of the month. All submissions must be sent to me in standard Ascii format either on a 3.5-inch floppy disk, or via e-mail to my Compuserve address. I will give my home address and my Compuserve address at the end of the magazine. I will also be happy to accept any games or information on them which my readers might have. Although I have amassed a sizeable collection of accessible games, I am always on the look-out for new ones. Send any games on a 3.5-inch disk in a self-addressed mailer so that I can return your disk or disks to you once I have copied their contents onto my hard drive. Please only send shareware or freeware games. It is illegal to send commercial games. By sending me games, you will do several things: first, and most obviously, you will earn my gratitude. You will also insure that the games you send me are made available to my readership as a whole. As a further incentive, I will fill any disks you send me with games from my collection. No disk will be returned empty. If you want specific games, or specific types of games, send a message in Ascii format along. *Never* *ever* send your original disks of *anything* to *anyone* through the mail. *Always* send *copies!* This principle may seem like it shouldn't even have to be stated, but when it comes to just about anything related to computers, there's always some poor soul who will act before applying common sense. Disks are *not* indestructible. Things *do* get lost or damaged in the mail, and disks are not immune to these misfortunes. If you have a particular game that you need help with, and you are sending your questions on a disk anyhow, include the game so that I can try and get past your difficulty. If you can, I recommend that you send e-mail. This way, no money will be wasted sending me a game I already have, and you'll get my reply more quickly. You are responsible for shipping costs. That means, either use a disk mailer which has your address on it, and is either free matter for the blind, or is properly stamped. I can and will gladly spare time to share games and my knowledge of them, but cannot currently spare money above what I spend hunting for new games. + Contents Welcome Contents From The Editor Why Audyssey? The Latest Finds Replay Value: The Scarce Quantity of Quality Game Reviews Adam, The Immortal Gamer The Eight-bitt Adventure Coming Soon Contact Information + From The Editor Hello to all my readers. Welcome to the first issue of Audyssey. I'm your editor, Michael Feir. Playing computer games has been my hobby for the last eleven years or so. They have both entertained me, and taught me a great deal about myself and the world of people, places and things in which we live. Almost any kind of game can tell us valuable things about ourselves, or be inspirational to unconventional ideas and thinking. Even games of pure luck can teach us to roll with the punches or to lose with some degree of grace. I've constantly heard computer games being dismissed as anti-social, or described as complete wastes of time. These statements could not be more blatantly wrong, nor more indicative of ignorance. It is true that a lot of games are designed to be played by one player only. Just because they are designed for one player doesn't mean that they need to be played alone. Players can help each other along, play as a group, have competitions, and discuss the games that they play with fellow players. These days, speech packages are advertised with working in mind, as they should be. When we spend small fortunes on adaptive equipment, we want to know that it makes using WordPerfect easy, or, that it can handle spreadsheets, etc. Only after we have made our purchases, and have some spare time on hand, do we wonder if there's anything fun we can do with our equipment. Games are not only fun, but are also good teachers. They make learning interesting, and provide motivation to learn how best to use your speech package. If you need living proof of this, there's me. I got my first computer, an Apple II e, when I was about nine or ten years old. My school teacher happened to have some games for it, and gave them to me to try out. I took an instant liking to them, and played them quite regularly. Without my consciously noticing it, my typing speed increased rapidly. The first time I was aware of this was when I finished an assignment ten minutes earlier than anyone else. I also learned more about my speech synthesizer, and began to find that I knew its controlling combinations and review features better than the rest of my class. Games make a fantastic way to familiarize yourself with computers and special equipment like speech synthesizers. I certainly learned more about my Artic Transport by playing games than I did by reading the manual. It's always easier to learn when you're interested. Although the Artic manual is very well-written, it shares the boring quality common to technical manuals. Retailers have more important things to do than amass libraries of games. After doing this myself, I can testify to how much work it is to find suitable games, and, when necessary, write configurations for them. For me, it was in my own interest to pursue this goal, and I'll gladly share my experience, games, and knowledge with anyone who is interested. This is the purpose of this magazine: To make blind computer-users aware of the vast potential for enjoyment and exploration which can be at their fingertips. I'll also be happy to supply any games discussed in the magazine to any who cannot get hold of them for themselves. If you want any games mentioned in the magazine, or any particular genre or type of game, just send me a disk in a returnable mailer. I have no money to pay for disks or postage, but will gladly put in the time it takes to help people with games, or fill a few disks with any games which interest people. The only provision I make is that I will distribute shareware or freeware games only. These authors want people to have their games so that they can try them out. It is your responsibility to pay any registration fees or not. Shareware works on the honour system. You will not be forced to pay for shareware products, but you should, as this will encourage authors to write more games and utilities. Freeware is simply written for others to enjoy. No contributions are expected for its use. Because of computer games, I have learned to use the full capabilities of all three speech packages I have used over the years. I have learned to type at a speed around eighty words per minute largely through playing computer games. My level of patience has largely been developed as a result of plodding through the more difficult games, solving their puzzles and unravelling their plots over weeks or months. Also, games teach us about whatever subjects they are based on. Playing Poker teaches us about measuring the odds and also teaches us about guile. Chess teaches logic and strategy. Adventure games can teach us about such virtues as persistence in the face of adversity, courage, and loyalty. Of course, we play games mostly for fun, and I must confess here to have had a good deal of that. I have always maintained that games are like mirrors which reflect aspects of ourselves and those we play with. You'll get to know more of my philosophy towards games when I explain my choice of a title for this magazine. This issue is a kind of launching pad for something which I hope will grow into a forum for discussion of a subject which has always been dear to me and of interest to many of my friends. Being the benevolent dictator of an editor that I am, I will also use this magazine to test some ideas that I have had for quite a while. The first two of these are a kind of textual comic strip, and a kind of computerized adventure book which can be played through the use of any word processor. If you are interested in seeing this magazine continue beyond two or three more issues, please send me your articles, thoughts, letters, suggestions, etc. Although I have a good deal to say about games and their accessibility, I am by no means an inexhaustible fountain of knowledge. As I have my own life to live in addition to writing this magazine, I do not have the time to chase down the authors of games for Interviews. For this kind of reading, I very strongly recommend Xyzzynews, available at ftp.gmd.de, as well as on Compuserve. Xyzzynews always has very interesting articles and reviews, as well as previews of up-coming games. The contributors to this magazine are quite knowledgeable and interesting. Contributions to my magazine must come from you, its readers. This magazine will deal strictly with what is out there, our reactions to it, and what you and I would like to see out there in the future. If you have enough knowledge about games or issues relating to them, write an article. If you want answers to questions, or simply want to share a few thoughts on a given topic, write a letter. I will reserve the right to publish, or not publish any letters and/or articles I receive. If, for some reason, you do not want your letter published, please state this in the letter. Anything without a clear indication that you do not want it published, I will consider fair game for publication. There should be no need for concern or embarrassment. Remember also that there is no such thing as a stupid question. Chances are that someone else may want to know the answer to it, but is too shy to ask. for now, I plan to simply up-load this magazine in plane Ascii format. If enough people want it compressed with Pkzip, I can do that. The size of this magazine should not be too large. My maximum size limit per issue is around one hundred kilobytes. I might go as high as a hundred twenty, but this possibility seems fairly remote. Because of this limitation, I may elect to hold some of what you send me for future issues. If I don't publish your article in the issue for which you send it, it doesn't necessarily mean that I do not intend to publish it. If you are good enough to write reviews of games which you have played, do not be concerned with any kind of guidelines or format. Simply describe the game or games, their good and bad qualities, and their ease of use with speech or braille access. Remember that all submissions must be in plane Ascii format. Well, folks, that's about it for this section. I hope you enjoy the remainder of this magazine, and look forward to hearing from you. + Why "Audyssey"? When thinking of a title for this magazine, I asked myself two basic questions: First of all, what are games to me? Secondly, what do I want this magazine to focus on? Because the answer to the second question is more quickly dealt with than the answer to the first, I will present my answers in reverse order. As I've stated earlier, I want this magazine to focus on games which are in some way accessible to the blind. To be largely accessible to the blind, it is necessary for games to incorporate some auditory component. Of course, with the use of a braille access device, this is not strictly necessary. However, any game which can be accessed in the above manner should be automatically accessible to users of speech synthesizers, since the games would have to be text-based. The other question was: What is a game to me? In my experience with computer games, which has spanned some eleven years or so, they are journeys of discovery to be taken by the mind. When we play games, we are exploring their many facets, possibilities, and limitations. In doing this, we also explore some of our own facets and limitations. Any game involves challenge or conflict of some kind. We must learn to face and deal with such things as chance, strategy, skill, other players, and even ourselves. As I alluded to earlier, a game can be a mirror, showing us aspects of ourselves with which we must contend. As with real mirrors, we may not always like what is shown to us. When we embark on these journeys, we risk exposing our short-comings. To lose a game can wound the ego, shake our confidence, and injure our pride. On the other hand, winning games can boost one's confidence, enlarge one's ego, and gives one an achievement to be proud of. An odyssey is a journey fraught with hardships and perils. This word perfectly summed up what games have been to me. I have gone on many journeys without leaving my chair, and have discovered many things. Along the way, I have been frustrated, angered, and have received some mentally painful wounds to the ego. However, I have also learned a great deal from the games I have played. As a traveller may gain a deeper understanding of the world and its people, so the gamer may gain a deeper understanding of the world, him/herself, and his/her fellow players. By no means am I recommending that anyone spend their entire lives playing games. To do that would be comparable to spending one's whole life wandering, never stopping in places for long. Such a life would be devoid of purpose, friendship, and stability. To go on a productive journey, one must have a home and a life to return to. The experiences gained on the journey can then be used to better one's life. I look at games as tools. One goes on a vacation or reads a book, or builds a house to accomplish something. Without goals to achieve, tools are useless. I've heard many people talk of games, particularly role-playing games and computer games, as being detrimental in various ways. Like any inanimate object, a game is what we make of it. If we get carried away with them, they can be harmful. If we enjoy them for what they are, and use them responsibly, they are either harmless or beneficial. A hammer can be used to drive a nail into a house, or it can smash the brain out of someone's skull. We wouldn't entertain the notion of banning all hammers for an instant. Yet, there are groups who would ban games, and blame them for any unfortunate consequence which befalls those who use them poorly. If there is enough interest, I will be happy to expand upon the lessons I have learned about how to safely enjoy games, and the best attitude from which to approach them. The rest of the making of the title of this magazine is, I think, fairly obvious. I took the first two letters from the word audio, and used them in place of the o in odyssey. This play on words seems to me to be the perfect title for a magazine dealing with games for the blind. + The Latest Finds In this section of the magazine, I will present to my readers any additions to my collection of games which I find or receive between issues. For this first issue, I will discuss what I have run across in the last couple of months. These presentations will consist of short commentaries along with the basic requirements for running the game, as well as essential information concerning accessibility. For more in-depth coverage of old and new games, read the Game Reviews section. The Nethack Development team has recently released its tenth anniversary version of one of the best freeware games in existence. Actually, there are two flavours of this release. The "real" mode release is the one that performs the best, but if it doesn't work on your system, you may want to try the "protected" mode version of it. It seems to run noticeably slower, but appears to be otherwise equal. In this role-playing game, you must journey into the Mazes of Menace to recover the Amulet of Yendor for your god. Dungeons are randomly generated, so no two games will be the same. Choose the kind of character you want to play from a list of several, including knight, wizard, rogue, and barbarian among others. Use your wits, weapons, and magic to defeat the numerous monsters who will challenge you on your journey. Beware, for many traps lay in waiting for incautious adventurers. This game is a graphically oriented game. The only reason that it can work for blind people at all is that it can display things using text characters. Vertical bars form vertical walls, and dashes form horizontal walls. Creatures are represented by lower or upper-case letters. Your character is represented by an @ sign, made by shifting the number 2. If you do not get this game through me, you will need to change the nethack.cnf file to make the game use text characters instead of graphics. Instructions are provided to help people modify the nethack.cnf file, but an all-text character set is not provided. I have created one for myself, and will include it with any version I send out. I will also include the entire nethack.cnf file which I use in this magazine. You will need a screen review system which allows you to view the screen character by character. You will also need to be able to search for specific characters on the screen, such as the @ sign, to find out where your character is and what is immediately around you. Begin2 is the second version of this well-designed starship combat simulator. Up to fifty ships can participate in highly strategic two-dimensional combat. Instead of the grid system used by most Star Trek games, this game uses actual principles of navigation and movement. Course, speed, mark, bearing, and range are given for each ship in combat. Different kinds of ships have different turning and speed capabilities, as well as various weapons and defense capability. This game's one drawback is its lack of plot. It is strictly a combat simulator. However, it is the best and most detailed simulator accessible to the blind. to run the simulation in text mode, from the Dos prompt, type begin2, followed by a space, followed by the word text. It will otherwise run in graphics mode. Any speech or braille device which allows for the reviewing of lines on the screen can access this game. Spiritwrak is a recent unofficial addition to the Enchanter and Zork trilogies designed by Infocom. Ten years after the magical cataclysm brought about by a member of the enchanters' guild, an order of monks dedicated to maintaining the balance between good and evil, as well as what remains of magic, comes to realize that their task is ultimately hopeless. In an effort to escape the age of science which threatens to destroy their order, they accidentally unleash four evil spirits and a powerful demon on the unsuspecting world. As the last available priest of the order, you must journey into the world of science and, with the aid of the ancient gods, defeat the demon. This masterful piece of interactive fiction can easily be compared to Infocom's Enchanter and Zork trilogies. It is humorous, but is not a parody on Infocom's works. Instead, it is quite a respectable addition to them. This game needs the inform interpreter to run. The latest version of this interpreter is called zip204.exe. do not confuse this with pkzip, which is a commonly used compression program. This game and the Inform system and interpreter are both freeware. Several other fantastic pieces of interactive fiction are written with this powerful system, and you'll be hearing about more of the best of them later in this issue. To run an inform game in pure text mode with zip204, use the command: zip204 -d 0 (filename) Remember to include the extension after the dot. No special techniques are needed to access games of this type. Standard screen review capabilities are all that is required. + Replay Value: The Scarce Quantity of Quality When sighted people look at purchasing a game, one of the many factors which they will consider is a games replay value. This is especially true with the more expensive Multi-media titles which come out on cdrom disks. Despite their stunning graphics and incredible sound, they aren't worth very much if they have no replay value. There are many adventure games which have no real replay value after they have been won. All their puzzles and mysteries have been solved. What could be gained by playing them again? If left alone for a while, these games may be played again and be at least marginally interesting. There's always a chance of discovering things missed on the first trip through the game. There is also the fun of watching others try and solve a game which you have already solved. However, other than the above, the game has little left to offer an example of this kind of game would be Infocom's excellent piece of science fiction called Planetfall. If games only have a single plot to them, then typically, that plot will be very well developed. . In contrast, there are other games which are designed never to be the same. There are so many variable elements which change from game to game, that even after it has been won, playing it again presents enough of a challenge to be worth while. The plots of these games are often designed around a main plot, which may be followed in various ways, and subplots which can optionally be explored. Card and board games also have a lot of replay value, since there is either enough randomness or room for variation in them. Monopoly is such a game. So are a lot of war simulations and multi-player games. Nethack, as mentioned in the Latest Finds section, is a game which is designed to be drastically different each time it is played. It also perfectly illustrates the only major drawback to games designed with replay value as their main strength. Nethack has an extremely loose and poorly developed plot. It is basically a journey through a randomly generated series of dungeons. There is certainly enough plot to hold the game together, but one doesn't come away from this game with a deeper understanding of his or her character. Both Planetfall and Nethack have something unique to offer. Planetfall gives us a chance to explore a coherent universe and unravel a well-developed plot. We come away missing our child-like robot companion. We are made to think about the ethics of our actions and the dangers and benefits which technology offers. Planetfall is a nice game to solve, but I wouldn't want to go back there. I thoroughly enjoyed solving it once, but if I were to play it again, it would be reduced from the journey it was to a simple trip down Memory Lane. I might play it again some day, and will probably admire it as I would a favourite book. Nethack, on the other hand, will keep me challenged indefinitely. Each game I play will be a different experience. I'll have to use different strategies to overcome different circumstances. Playing Nethack gives a different sense of wonder than does playing Planetfall. Planetfall induces a sense of wonder through its detailed crafting, much like a sculpture does. Nethack produces a sense of wonder at its intricacy, and the staggering possibilities it offers. Where does this leave us? Are we forced to choose between games with too little replay value or too little plot? As long as one understands the kind of games one is getting into, then both of these games have their own kind of value. Still, is there no compromise? The answer to this appears to be a definite yes. There are some games which have both plot and randomness. An excellent example of this is Infocom's game Beyond Zork. This game has a very coherent ultimate quest for you, the hero, to complete. However, it is designed to be fairly open-ended, with many different ways of doing things and no restrictions on where players may go at any time. There are also monsters to be fought, providing further variability. Locations, potions, scrolls, and other things change from game to game. Fallthru, a game I will review later in this issue, is another excellent example of a game with both plot and replay value. Players must journey throughout a fantasy land and solve riddles and puzzles to ultimately find their way home. I have recently won this game (after two years of fairly constant play). Yet, unlike Planetfall, I could play it again today and be just as entertained and challenged. Unlike Infocom's works, which are commercial software, Fallthru is shareware and Nethack is freeware. Games for multiple players, such as Fallthru and The World Is Mine, which I will review later, provide the most replay value. A computer's randomness, even when backed by artificial intelligence routines, such as in Nethack and Begin2, cannot compare with the unpredictability, deviousness, and real intelligence of other human opponents. A lot of games that were designed to run on bulletin board systems are capable of running as stand-alone games. These games are often designed for many players, and many are text-based. These games require many sessions to complete, so groups of players should realize that they are not suitable for a simple evening's entertainment. Each player should take his or her turn, and the game can then be advanced one round. I will review one of these games in this issue. Since players cannot play simultaneously, they will have to be patient, and a reasonably short time limit will have to be set for players. Whoever is in charge of running the game must read the operating instructions in advance In the future, more games similar to Fallthru and Beyond zork, will be made. The compromise between substantial plot and optimal replay value is hard for designers to make. Increasing one element seems to automatically mean decreasing the other. Also, it is much easier to program a game which does not have variable factors necessary for replay value. For the immediate future, despite the growing demand for replayable games, truly good ones like Fallthru, will be quite rare, at least in the domain of shareware and freeware. companies producing popular multi-media packages have the money and time to produce high-quality games, and have the talented programmers necessary to implement variability. Shareware authors and companies are now producing fairly good role-playing games and war simulations, but the majority of these are graphical in nature. Besides the latest version of Nethack and Begin2, nothing with good replay value has been released in the past couple of years as far as I know. Anyone with games of this type produced later than 1994 are encouraged to send them to me. I would like nothing better than to be proven wrong in my somewhat dismal assessment of the availability of games with high replay value combined with coherent plot. + Reviews Colossal Caves: Reviewed by Michael Feir Colossal Caves was the first adventure game ever written on a computer. During one of my searches, I recovered this ancient treasure, and was surprised at the quality of the game. Originally made back in the 1960's, I found the descriptions and puzzles to be most entertaining. The game understands simple, two-word commands, which tends to make things a tad more complicated than one might imagine. Despite its age, the game is still comparable to text adventures made in their heyday during the early eighties. This game has no real plot. Players must simply explore the cave and collect the treasure in it. Of course, this task is anything but simple. The puzzles tend to be object-based. That is, using a certain object will overcome each obstacle. There are also many magic words which have different effects, and players must contend with threatening dwarves which appear from time to time. No special requirements are needed to play this historically important game. It makes a fine addition to any games collection. If anyone plays games and wonders where it all began, the answer lies here. This game inspired such classic interactive fiction as Infocom's zork trilogy, and there are many versions of the game out there. Enjoy! Begin2 If any of you watch Star Trek, you may sometimes wonder what a battle between fleets of ships would have been like. Begin, version 2.00, is one possible answer. It is a tactical simulator, which, for once, isn't totally dependant on graphics. Up to fifty ships, outposts, starbases, etc, can participate in detailed tactical combat. Information is accessible in textual or chart form. There is a graphical display if you're playing with sighted friends, but if you aren't, I recommend setting the scanning range to no more than 2000, and you must run it in text mode to have it accessible to speech and braille displays. To do this, type in the command: begin2 text This will minimize the confusion which can be caused by hearing all the odd-sounding syllables. Those odd syllables are representations of ships in the game, and I've found the scanner to be helpful in determining when ships are within a certain range. You should find the provided document adequate, if not completely satisfactory. To get the complete documentation, you'll have to register with the author. What can I say? You get what you pay for. In this case, in fact, I'd say you get a hell of a lot more than that. The quality and atmosphere are absolutely amazing. The only problem is figuring out where enemy torpedoes are going. That's largely an exercise of estimation and deduction. This game has provided me with months of enjoyment, and I hope you find it equally exciting. It taught me all about using the more simple review functions. Fallthru: Adventure Defined Review by Michael Feir, game by Paul H. Deal In my experience with text-based computer games, which now spans around eleven years, I have never come across a more stunningly original and wonderfully unstructured adventure. The problem with most text adventures is that they never change much. Even Beyond Zork, written by Infocom, doesn't vary nearly as much from game to game. In Fallthru, you can explore a land of millions of square legions, (the equivalent of kilometres or miles), visiting forests, farmland, villages, dungeons,and much more, unhindered by the structure of the game. During your travels, you will encounter warriors, renegades, and peasants. Various other creatures can be encountered or hunted. Climate and terrain are taken into account by the game as well. Players must take care of their characters, making sure they are well-fed, hydrated, sheltered, rested, and in good physical condition. Apart from sheer scope and randomness, Fallthru stands out for its originality. There are no dwarves, goblins, orcs, or even dragons. Instead, a host of original creatures and demons lies in wait for the warrior. Many treasures, some with special properties, are either hidden in dungeons, or offered to the warrior as rewards for charity. Instead of the typical hack-and -slash approach, the lives of warriors are largely based on honour. Honourable warriors will not attack you unless you attack them in response to their challenge. If it is obvious that you are bested in skill, you can always yield, as long as you have a rall in hand to pay tribute. If a player is arrogant enough to respond to a challenge without being ready to pay if he loses, he must fight to the death. Combat seems almost totally random, until one realizes that the names of warriors are important. When greeted, a warrior will always reveal his level of strength. this level will not vary much, so that if you encounter a warrior you previously talked to, and remember that he is weaker than you, you have an almost certain chance of winning a fight. Your equipment and statistics are also crucial to success. Strategy is also important in the use of missile weapons of various kinds. The puzzles in the game are quite clever, and not to be dismissed casually. These range from the simple task of mapping dungeons such as the catacombs under Slavhos, to deductive spacial reasoning and foresight needed to conquer Blackwater Cave. I have yet to encounter a truly complex puzzle, such as some found in the Zork series, except if one counts the task of figuring out the whole plot of the game from the scraps of information picked up through conversations with characters. Shopkeepers, warriors, peasants, and innkeepers will all give information when spoken to, consisting in facts about Faland, or riddles to be unravelled through thought and exploration. The other major feature of this game is the ability to play along with two other companions. Three players may share the adventure, each taking their turn for any given segment of the day. Limited interaction between players is possible, in that players may help each other out by leaving items for others to pick up. Fighting among players is not allowed. Although this detracts from the realism of the game, as far as fantasy can be said to have realism, it forces players to either cooperate, or pursue their own quests in a kind of friendly competition. For the most part, Fallthru is a game of risk management. Rewards and hazards must be measured and stacked in the players' favour. Careful planning is needed to survive and prosper. Information must be absorbed and pieced together to form conclusions suggesting courses of action to take. Descriptions of places and creatures, though brief, are detailed enough to add life and interest to this most original world of adventure. I have recently won this game without the use of any additional hints or documentation other than those provided, so you should not be worried about finding that the game cannot be won due to crippling. This is a good thing since all of my attempts to locate the author of this game and register it have met with failure. I plan to try again some time before the publication of the next issue of this magazine, and will keep you apprized of any developments here. Jigsaw: Reviewed by Michael Feir game by Graham Nelson Jigsaw is an amazing piece of interactive fiction which surfaced late last year. It takes place, or, should I say "time", within the twentieth century. The final moments of the twentieth century have arrived. You start the game at a New Year's Eve party in the year 1999. Lasers flash across the crowded park. The noise is giving you a head-ache. To top it all off, an attractive stranger, dressed in black, has vanished into the crowd. You find that she hasn't forgotten you for good. She has left you a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. This strange token of affection turns out to be the key to a specific event in history. During your quest to maintain the course of history and thwart the stranger's misguided efforts to change it for the better, you journey via the jigsaw puzzle through the past that we have all shared. Many ethical decisions must be made, and many puzzles, other than the jigsaw puzzle which binds the game together, must be solved. You must also figure out how to destroy the time machine so that history can never again be re- written. This game represents the best in interactive fiction. The plot and prose are excellent. Also, although no hints are provided, footnotes, latin translations, and very thorough and complete instructions are supplied. The game can be solved in a number of different ways. As with all inform games, no special features other than basic screen review capabilities are needed to play this game. the -d 0 command option should be used with the zip204 interpreter to play this game in pure text mode. Galactic Warzone: reviewed by Michael Feir Game by Scott Baker This bbs door is capable of running as an excellent and involving multi-player game. It is fully functional, but is shareware. The premise is that you are a merchant ship in a universe at war. The federation has come under attack by a ruthless race of aliens known as the Cabal. You must forge your own empire and ultimately defeat both the federation and the Cabal, in order to be able to recreate the universe in your image. Many options in the game, such as prices, production amounts, limitations, and universe size are configurable by the game master. The documentation is quite well-done. In fact, the only thing which might confuse people a good deal is the status line on the bottom of the screen. Just make sure that that line is outside the active reading area of your speech review when playing. Basically, this game boils down to a souped up version of Tradewars. This original concept has sparked a whole wave of clones, as people tried to improve on the basic theme. Galactic Warzone has two major advantages. It is completely text-based, and is fully functional. Enjoy this exciting game. has made by a dead inventer + Adam, The Immortal Gamer: A textual comic Episode 1: From Eternal Death to Immortality Adam sits in front of his computer. He is a young, lanky man. He is in the middle of a game of Fallthru. His character is an insanely well-armed and well-equipped warrior. A herd of six pack animals trail behind him, laden with hundreds of pounds of food, and two dozen canteens filled with water. He carries a scimitar, a spear, a knife, and wears a suit of armor. Adam has recovered all three amulets and all three rings. He has only two of the three keys. Reviewing his statistics and massive inventory, Adam is relatively pleased with his progress to date, but lusts after the final key. "Adam!" His mother screeches, the sound fit not only to wake the dead, but also to shatter every window for blocks in every direction. "Have you cleaned up your room yet?" Adam sighs in resignation, and briefly glances at the room he has spent the majority of his waking life in. It is in its usual state of disarray. Disks and tapes are scattered about wildly. Clothes are tossed on the floor. Getting up from his desk, the only neatly organized place in the whole room, he happ-hazzardly picks some things off the floor and throws them into disorganized heaps on various shelves in his closet and cupboards. He hardly notices the fact that to move about, he must wade through a knee-high layer of scattered objects. Sitting down at his desk once more, he resumes playing the game. Adam's character stands on a trail atop a thousand-foot cliff. Pulling a diamond and locatrix from his pack, he reads the information on it. It reveals the location of the golden key, far away in the rain forests. Adjusting his flyr, he races off across the lush farmlands towards an unmarked patch of earth. Adam, the human, is completely caught up in the game, typing furiously and almost flawlessly. He Is going so fast that he is not checking his character's statistics, which are steadily dropping. "Adam!", His father bellows, almost failing to attract the attention of his son, but receiving an immediate answer from every sheep from farms within fifty miles, "Have you done your homework?" "I'll do it later!" Adam yells back. He has a powerful voice, a kind of pre-requisite for long-distance parental communication. Why move unless it is absolutely necessary? To tell the truth, Adam hasn't done his homework for weeks, ever since he started playing this exciting game. If he started doing it now, he would not only destroy his reputation as a gamer, but would take weeks to catch up with his class-mates. He continues playing. Adam, the warrior, races through a forest of tall pines and other evergreens. His six pack animals thunder along behind him at break- neck speed. They move so rapidly that sweat is blown off of the rapidly tiring warrior before it can collect. Mistaking the sounds of thundering hooves for a harness race, many peasants stand along the way and cheer the animals on. They are hungry, poor, and thirsty, and have much advice to offer, but Adam isn't interested. Who needs them? The warrior moves so fast that the peasants don't even notice him. Adam's statistics are plunging. His hunger is at two, and his thirst is at three. His fatigue is at one. An eagen swoops down out of the sky. This large bird of pray emits a shrill and ominous cry. From its point of view, the warrior's face can be seen. Exhaustion is etched into it like letters on a tombstone. Death is very near for Adam, the warrior. Adam, the human, heedless of three of his friends pounding at his door, continues to play the game. They are getting more and more angered with him as time passes. Adam barely hears their yells through the door. "Hey! Adam! Let us in already!" "Come in!" Adam yells back. Hearing this, the friends try and open his door. So much stuff is on the floor that the door is effectively blocked from movement. The stench caused by old pop cans and wrappers from various kinds of junk food wafts into the faces of the three comrades in arms. They gag in unison and back away to rethink their assault plans. Adam, oblivious to all, carries on. The warrior takes a final step, and cannot go any further. His hunger, thirst, and fatigue are all at zero. He is dead. This former tower of strength and prowess collapses slowly to the ground. His six pack animals start to cry. Peasants finally succeed in catching up to the fallen warrior, and one of them plays Taps on a noisy trumpet. An auctioneer appears and Adam's possessions are bargained off at a rapid pace. Animals gather to feast on his body. Finally noticing that something is seriously wrong, Adam, the human, quickly types in the restore command. Briefly, Adam's warrior re- animates. He starts to rise from the ground, to the accompaniment of music from Rocky. However, the effort proves too great for the exhausted warrior, and life fades away from him once again. Again, the restore command is issued. The warrior is brought back to life again. This time, he does not get up, but rests instead to regain his strength. However, he dies again of starvation. Realizing his tremendous folly, Adam, the human, starts to sob. "Please! Give me another chance! I've got to win this game! I've got to!" Faintly, from the other side of the door, a rhythmic pounding can be heard. Adam's friends have returned with a two-by- four, and are attempting to ram down his door. "Charge!" Adam's mother shrieks, causing the three friends to wince and cover their ears. They charge the door, and the wood cracks. However, so much junk is piled up against it that it still can stand and block access to his room. Adam's computer suddenly displays unfamiliar characters. "Adam! You have been quite foolish in your use of games. Games are not a replacement for life, but are only a part of it. You must use the knowledge and skills that games teach you to further your life in the real world, instead of playing games all the time. "I don't care about life! I want to win the game!" Adam feels slightly foolish talking to his computer, but then, it's never tried to give him advice like this before. "Please, can't you just fix up my character so I can try again?" The computer flashes, and prints: "Alas, that cannot be done. it is time that you learned your lessons and ended your folly. Turn this computer off and see to your friends and family. This is your last chance." Last chance? A part of Adam's mind which has somehow escaped the numbing effects of continuous game play is alerted by the ominous quality of that phrase. However, Adam is still set on winning the game at all costs. "I'll restart from scratch if I have to! I'll win this game if it's the last thing I do." "In that case, since you care so little for the real world, you will leave it until you see its value. You will travel into the universe of games which are on your hard drive, and learn the lessons which they have to teach you. You will be given the power of immortality, but each time you return from death, you will be in another game. When it has been decided that you have paid for your wanton squandering of your life, you will be allowed to return to the world of humanity." Before Adam can even begin to think of how to respond to this, there is an odd and powerful flash from his monitor. He is bathed in the strange glow, which seems to penetrate to his very core. Adam's friends see the odd flash and pause in their next ramming attempt in a moment's wonder. They are all experienced gamers, and have never seen anything like this. Adam gives a brief cry of surprise as he is dissolved into incandescence and drawn into his computer. "No! Adam! Are you okay?" Adam's mother shrieks in concern. The walls crack from the sonic bombardment, and one of Adam's friends falls to the floor, holding his head in agony. Adam's mother and the other two friends race into the room, vaulting over piles of junk. Looking into his chair, they stop in amazement. Adam has vanished. What has become of Adam? How will he fair in the strange universe of games? What will he learn therein? Find out in future episodes of: Adam, the Immortal Gamer + 1 An Eight- Bit Adventure by Michael Feir (This was originally done as a secondary school assignment.) Anyone who knows me at all will tell you that I have a decided interest in computer games. They've become a large part of my life over the last eleven years or so. People are always asking me, "What started it all?" The game that began my journey through the eight-bit universe of computer games was called "Great Escape". This is what I remember of it, and the impressions it gave me. I ran the program, thinking I'd either win, lose, or get bored, in under twenty minutes. I had no idea how long I would actually play for. The game took place in a maze of a hundred rooms. The object was to get out. The instructions said nothing about an armed villain, a gorilla, or any of the other players in the game. I found out about those the hard way. The rooms were all numbered from one to one hundred. Moving north brought me ten rooms closer to room one. Moving south took me ten rooms closer to one hundred. I didn't know that until my father explained it to me a day or two later. All I knew, was that the exit was north. Before I made my first move, I heard about a "villeon", and a leprechaun. I knew what a leprechaun was. They were those little creatures who either had pots of gold, or bowls of Lucky Charms cereal. But what was a "villeon"? I didn't know, but it said that he was trying to find me, and he always seemed to be moving closer. I figured it might be wise to avoid him, until I got a better idea of what he was all about. After about ten moves or so, I had found a substantial amount of gold coins. I believe the amount was somewhere around thirty. I equated a gold coin with ten dollars, since all the stories I heard which mentioned gold, seemed to suggest that it was very valuable. As I had no really expensive hobbies back then, thirty gold coins, (three hundred dollars), seemed like enough money to live on for the rest of my life. Too late, I found out what the "villeon" did. He finally found me, moving into the same room I was in. He captured me, stole all my gold, and threw me into a "secret passageway". This transported me to a random location. The game had told me that if I ever got stuck, I could use a "secret passageway" to get free again. Since my first experience with one was negative, due to the villain's ("villeon" was some kind of typing error), robbery of my gold coins, I was reluctant to use this option. From then on, I was much more careful to avoid being captured by the villain again. I kept getting closer and closer to the leprechaun, but could never catch him. The computer would tell me how many rooms away from me the leprechaun was, but he would always move. 2 This made me even more determined to catch him, since I was firmly convinced that if I did, either a pot of gold would appear, or a bowl of Lucky Charms. I had visions of enormous cauldrons full of gold, enough to bury someone in. Strangely, the gold pot, and the bowl of Lucky Charms attained the same value for me. Gold would be nice, and having never felt a gold coin before, I was curious as to what they were like. I was hungry, however, so the Lucky Charms were equally attractive. Computers were a mystery to me. I didn't know, nor did I much care, how they worked. As long as they did, I was satisfied. This game had a mix of modern and medieval things in it. There were magic lamps, a locked treasure chest, a time bomb, a flashlight that needed batteries, a first-aid kit, a gun, a wicked witch, etc. I believed that some of the things were real, or, could become real. If I caught the leprechaun, I was convinced that a real reward would appear somewhere in my bedroom. I was afraid of the villain, because now that I had a gun, I was convinced that he did as well. Of course, the villain would easily shoot me. He couldn't miss. He could see, and I couldn't. How could he possibly fail to shoot me? On the other hand, the gorilla, the robot, all the tools, the mad gambler, never seemed to have that same sense of realism. They were more distant, more abstract. I thought that, in some plain of existence, I was controlling a real person's actions. If certain conditions were met, I might somehow journey into that plain of existence, or a part of it would find its way into mine. It was a strange, magical feeling, that we probably all experience, but never really appreciate until we can only remember its quality. It was like being on the edge of a loud thunder storm. The danger seems surreal, due to the thin screen that blocks your window. This thin piece of material, although filled with holes, seems to provide plenty of protection. But even when most of you feels safe behind it, a small part of your mind realizes that a gust of wind could blow the rain in, and a bolt of lightning could dance its way right through into your room, your reality. This thrilling edge between fantasy and reality always has, and probably always will intrigue me. I'm always on the look-out for games that bring me into that altered state of consciousness, where reality is so flexible, and nothing is anchored down by rationality and reason. I got the sense that anything could happen at any time, and loved it. 3 My first game lasted about two and a half hours, by my dubious recollection of time. During this span of moves and minutes, I was bitten by a snake, bargained with an evil merchant, was forced to play the Mad Gambler's game, and, yes, I finally did catch that leprechaun. I took a break at this point, and searched my entire room for the pot of gold, or bowl of cereal. I was disappointed when I never found either. Finally, I gave up, and went back to the game. I realized that the leprechaun had given me fifty additional gold pieces, and was somewhat consoled, but still bore a grudge against the little fellow. Near the end of my game, I was trying to find the key to a treasure chest in the maze. The villain was getting closer all the time, but my greed kept me from leaving. I had to know what was in that chest. Then, it hit me. I had a gun! I could shoot the lock off. I raced for the chest. This bit of recklessness took me within three rooms of the villain, but by some miracle, I got by him. Finding the chest, I shot at the lock three times, and would have shot a forth time had it come to that. I had enough sense to leave one bullet for shooting at the villain. The chest opened, and inside it was a staggering four thousand gold pieces. I was awe-struck. I raced for the northern edge of the maze, with the villain only a step behind me. Each time I had shot at the chest, he had gained precious distance. I was almost at room number seven, where I knew there was an exit out of the maze. At the last moment, I fell through a trap-door, and ended up in room number six. I had a saw, and was told I could use it to cut an exit. Unfortunately, I pushed the wrong button! The villain caught up with me again. The tension was both agonizing, and exquisite, at the same time. "The villain enters the room. Do you shoot at him? (Y/N)" I had too much to lose without doing something to defend my fortune. Unfortunately, there was no (R), (RUN!) option. I realized I had to shoot. I hit the final button. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. An image of myself, a very young, frightened kid, standing next to a calm, sinister villain, laughing wickedly, appeared in my mind. At last, it happened. I fired first, the word "BANG!", spoken by the computer, was transformed in my mind to a blast straight out of one of those war movies. I was sure I had hit him, until the computer dashed all my hopes by saying: "You missed." The villain's shot killed me. In a way, I still won something. The lesson that winning a game was not as important as having fun, was my first realization. Until that moment, it had never really hit home. I learned to value my imagination, and make the most out of my free time. Perhaps, the most valuable lesson I was taught, was that having fun, learning, and self-discovery, go hand-in-hand. + Coming Soon: In the next issue, there will be a review of a game of Chess which seems to be fairly speech-friendly. For those who can't wait, it is Gnuchess, version 3.0. Initial testing done by me, a profound stranger to the ins and outs of good chess programs, indicates that this game may be the long-sought-after opponent for those lusting after a computerized Chess game. A good friend of mine happens to be quite a chess buff, and he will look into the program further and have a review for us in the next issue. Another version of Chess is called Crafty. It requires the use of a math co-processor to run, and is therefore currently inaccessible to my friend. It runs fine on my computer, but knowing less about Chess than I do about colours, I'll leave the reviewing of this game to heads wiser than mine. If someone out there gets hold of this game and can send me a review of it, I would very much appreciate that. Articles for the next issue will cover how to play screen-oriented games like Nethack, as well as playing games with sighted people. If there is sufficient demand for it, I'll also discuss the lessons I've learned concerning a healthy attitude to take towards games. Of course, Adam's adventures through the universe of games will commence in earnest in the next issue. + Contacting Me I can be reached in two ways. The easiest is through Compuserve. My e-mail address is as follows: 72712.3103@compuserve.com alternatively, you may correspond with me on 3.5-inch disks, provided you be sure to send them in returnable disk-mailers. I don't have the money to pay for postage. My mailing address is: 5787 Montevideo Road Mississauga, Ontario, Canada Postal code: L5N 2L5 I have recently acquired a copy of UUencode and UUdecode for dos, so you may send files to me via this means.