The Sextra Curricular Activities Presents 2004 Erin Winners The origin of the awards we now call the Erins dates back to 2002, first and simply called it Adult Interactive Fiction Awards. The name Erin was decided during a debate in AGX in 2003, it was named after a character in Dear Diary by Wotan-Anubis; he named his also named his character Erin to be an antithesis of Erin in Gamma-Gals by Chris Cole. The first lifetime achievement awards was given to, and named after Badman creator of the game and genre know as XTREK, the parent of modern AIF (if your parent is a dirty old man). The original image was created by Mr. Spatula as the sole entrant in the 2003 Erin art competition. When it was decided to hold the 2004 Erins we contacted Mr. Spatula for the original art work, but found out the art work was lost. So the search went out for graphics artists to recreate our current Golden Erin, and through the collaborative efforts of Joe Slash, Trebuchet and A Ninny, we have our current golden Erin. So congratulations to all the winners and nominees, and thanks all the authors of the games and all those that participated in the voting. Award Categories Awards Categories: Explanation: Best Male PC: Awarded to best male player character. A named PC is not a requirement for this category. Best Female PC: Awarded to best female player character. A named PC is not a requirement for this category. Best Male NPC: Awarded to best male non-player character. Best Female NPC: Awarded to best female non-player character. Best M/F Scene: Awarded to best sex scene involving only one male character and one female character. Best F/F Scene: Awarded to best sex scene involving only two female characters. Best Threesome/Orgy: Awarded to best sex scene involving more than two characters of any gender or species. Best Sex Overall: Awarded to the game with the best sex overall. Best Use of Multimedia: Awarded to the game with the best use of images and/or sounds. Best Story: Awarded to the game with the best story. Best Atmosphere: Awarded to the game with the best atmosphere. Best Technical Implementation/Use of Medium: Awarded to the game that best stretched the limits of the parser, was the most creative in its presentation and best redefined what is considered to be AIF. Best Puzzles: Awarded to the game with the best puzzles. Best Humor: Awarded to the funniest game of the year. Best One Night Stand/ "A Night With" Game: Awarded to the best game containing only one NPC, few rooms or puzzles, and one sex scene. Best Game of the Year: Awarded to the best game of the year. Badman Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award: Awarded to one influential figure in the AIF community that has helped direct and shape it into what it has become today. Previous winners are Badman (2002) and Choices (2003) so they are not eligible. Blurbs by BBBen, A. Bomire and A. Ninny Best Male Player-Character Sam Shooter (Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned by One-Eyed Jack) One-Eyed Jack’s third Best PC Erin for Sam Shooter should come as no surprise to AIF fans. Sam is becoming more fully rendered with each game and in SSIV he’s as acerbic, jaded and irreverent as ever. SSIV delivers Sam into Hell, where his fuck-all attitude isn’t abated one bit as he wrangles with a veritable host of female demons and comes face to face with Satan himself. Runner-up: Caradoc (Hell in Highwater by J. Arthur) The name of the PC in Hell in Highwater (Caradoc) isn’t used much in the course of the game, but he is a well developed PC with very certain character traits. Like Sam Shooter, he is on a quest concerning his very soul, and the way he treats his conquests show us the versatility that J. Arthur possesses in creating convincing AIF. 3rd Place: Bones (Parlour by A. Ninny) 4th Place: Wendell (Santa's Little Helper by A. Bomire) 5th Place: You (Mount Voluptuous by Christopher Cole) Best Female Player-Character British Fox (British Fox and the Celebrity Abductions by Lucilla Frost) British Fox plays extremely convincingly as superheroine in jeopardy. Her adventures in Lucilla Frost’s British Fox and the Celebrity Abductions lead her to delve the depths of her psyche through numerous torture and rape scenes so difficult that she often refers to herself in the third person. This survival instinct has visceral quality that the player can easily grasp. Despite all her difficulty, she’s extremely sexy, extremely well rendered and she participates in a few really classic sex scenes. Runner-up: Laurie (Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned by One-Eyed Jack) Laurie shares the player-character role with Sam Shooter in SSIV, and is also a return character this year. She previously won a female non-player character Erin for her role in SSII. She is one of the sexiest characters of all time and is extremely fun to play. Her adventures in SSIV are extremely hot and worth replaying. 3rd Place: Janey (Janey's Diary by BBBen) 4th Place: Samantha (Dear Diary 2: Prom Night by Wotan-Anubis) Best Male Non-player Character Incubus (Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned by One-Eyed Jack) Incubus is the demon in One-Eyed Jack’s SSIV. It is just OEJ’s twisted sense of humor that would take a demon whose sole task in life is to rape thousands of women and make him a flaming homosexual. The scene with Incubus and Laurie is about the funniest thing to come out in AIF this year and the writing of this character is a big reason why. He’s a very worthy winner in this category. Runner-up: Vrix (Hell in Highwater by J. Arthur) Vrix is the demon in J. Arthur’s Hell in Highwater. Rather than having a large role in the game, he is a constant shadow in the lives of the player-character and every non-player character you encounter. The writing for your encounter with him sets up an emotional state for you that remains very consistent throughout the entire game. 3rd Place: Dongle (Santa's Little Helper by A. Bomire) 4th Place: Eugene (British Fox and the Celebrity Abductions by Lucilla Frost) Best Female Non-player Character Debbie (Crossworlds series by BBBen) Debbie from the Crossworlds series is a runaway landslide winner for best female NPC this year. BBBen is extremely skilled at writing female characters and of the three recurring characters in Crossworlds, Debbie is the one that really comes to life – she’s the wild, crazy pink-haired bombshell you can’t take home to mother but wish you could spend every waking moment with. Runner-up: Mrs. Claus (Santa's Little Helper by A. Bomire) A. Bomire’s Mrs. Claus came in a distant second in this category, but certainly deserves recognition. Her everlasting sex scene at the end of Santa’s Little Helper is extremely hot and delivers a very healthy mix of sensual and smutty sex. Her sex scene with Sara and Wendell won the Erin for best orgy. 3rd Place: Grace (British Fox and the Celebrity Abductions by Lucilla Frost) 4th Place: Jenna (Escape Pod by LoveLettersToLove) 5th Place: Lynne (Santa Baby by Christopher Cole) Best m/f Sex Scene PC and Fairy (The Backlot by A. Bomire) The best scene of the year is that in A. Bomire’s The Backlot between the PC and the Fairy making a return from her original role in Dexter Dixon: In Search of the Prussian Pussy. The Fairy is an amazing partner in this scene as her amazement at her own body is incredibly palpable and this adds to her excitement lends extra heat to the entire encounter. A. Bomire’s sex writing, always strong, is in rare form here, making this scene a worthy Erin recipient. Runner-up: PC and Samantha (Normville High by BBBen) The scene between the PC and Samantha at the end of BBBen’s Normville High earned second place in this category for offering a much-needed fulfillment of your desire for Samantha that grows overwhelming as you play through the game. BBBen wrote the scene to carry on for a long time, with different sex acts available in different rooms. He also implemented more body parts than you usually get in a sex scene. 3rd Place: PC with Nila (The Tale of the Unlikely Harem Girl, Prologue by BlueGreen) 4th Place: Bones and Ruby (Parlour, by A. Ninny) 5th Place: PC with Yulia (Mount Voluptuous by Christopher Cole) Best f/f Sex Scene Eve and Laurie (Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned by One-Eyed Jack) Part of the success of the Sam Shooter series of games lies not only with One-Eyed Jack’s unique (some may say twisted) world view, but with the rich characters he has developed. Among these, the obvious runawayfavorite has been Laurie – she is the only character besides Sam who has appeared in every game. Is it any wonder that joining her with the popular Eve from SS III would lead to an award winning encounter? Runner-up: Debbie and Tabitha (Crossworlds Part 2 – The Flower Opens by BBBen) BBBen earns a much deserved runner-up for his encounter between Debbie and Tabitha the guard in Crossworlds Part 2 – The Flower Opens. One incredible thing about this scene is that it is viewed from Debbie’s point of view, but she’s not the player-character. Instead, you channel her experience through a magical conduit. In any case, BBBen’s sex writing is particularly poignant and his affection for Debbie is clearly on display in the scene. 3rd Place: British Fox with Grace (British Fox and the Celebrity Abductions by Lucilla Frost) 4th Place: PC with Nila (The Tale of the Unlikely Harem Girl, Prologue by BlueGreen) 5th Place: Samantha with Erin (Dear Diary 2 – Prom Night by Wotan-Anubis) Best Threesome/Orgy Sex Scene Wendell the Elf, Mrs. Claus & Sara (Santa's Little Helper by A. Bomire) Wendell the Elf, Mrs. Claus and her friend Sara get it on for ages at the end of A. Bomire’s Santa’s Little Helper. Every conceivable position is attempted and the action moves all over Santa’s underground recreation room. This scene particularly deserves the Erin because, as we’ve come to expect from A. Bomire, the vast variety of sex permutations are all technically clean and fully implemented. Runner-up: PC, Janey, Lin and Debbie (Sleepover by BBBen) The foursome with Lin, Janey and Debbie in Sleepover gives us our introduction to the three of them as they begin their adventures in BBBen’s multi-game AIF world. The scene begins with a game of spin-the-bottle and quickly degrades into a massive four-way sexfest. 3rd Place: British Fox with Grace and Eugene (British Fox and the Celebrity Abductions by Lucilla Frost) 4th Place: PC with Bettie, Chloe and Nadine (Mount Voluptuous by Christopher Cole) 5th Place: PC with Lynn and Stacy (Santa Baby by Christopher Cole) Best Sex Overall Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned (One-Eyed Jack) One-Eyed Jack’s sex writing is without peer. In SSIV, he neatly balances violence, sensuality and out-and-out smut in every scene. His scenes are much more than “join part A with part B - repeat”; they have an individualness and personality all their own. Considering how many sex scenes there were in SSIV, it is amazing that he has made them all unique and none less than sizzling hot. Runner-up: Mount Voluptuous (Christopher Cole) Mount Voluptuous gives us Christopher Cole’s best, most detailed sex writing in any of his games to date. The women you get it on with are all super-busty models gleaned from the Internet, and Chris gave extra attention to his NPCs’ mammoth assets during the sex scenes. 3rd Place: British Fox and the Celebrity Abductions (Lucilla Frost) 4th Place: The Backlot (A. Bomire) 5th Place: Crossworlds Part 2 - The Flower Opens (BBBen) Best Story Hell in Highwater (J. Arthur) Hell in Highwater has a sprawling map, extremely detailed descriptions, great puzzles and vivid characters. Combine these with the overarching ‘reclaim your soul’ quest and it adds up to an amazingly immersive gameplay experience. The story alone makes the game worthwhile, even without the sex; the sex is skillfully incorporated, though, and enhances the story nicely. Runner-up: The Backlot (A. Bomire) One of the most unique story ideas of the year comes to us from A. Bomire in his The Backlot. We are transported to a behind-the-scenes world where interactive fiction games are made like movies, and must find our way home. As a fun touch, the game incorporates famous characters and settings from both IF and AIF. The concept is extremely clever and the telling convincingly realized. 3rd Place: Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned (One-Eyed Jack) 4th Place: British Fox and the Celebrity Abductions (Lucilla Frost) 5th Place: Ghost Justice & Ghost Story (Purple Dragon) Best Atmosphere Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned (One-Eyed Jack) In Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned, you wander through Hell, trying to find your way back home. One-Eyed Jack has taken classic pictures of Hell from various religious backgrounds, and filled it with characters both familiar and yet still new (see the incubus for Best Male NPC). You can almost hear the wind screaming across the desolate landscape, or feel the heat as you wander through the appropriately…well, hellish, environs. Runner-up: Hell in Highwater (J. Arthur) Hell in Highwater is set in an amazing alternate universe, part medieval and part machine-age. It is a richly-described, dark, desolate world full of shadowy locales peopled (sparseley) with paranoid figures who shrink into the endless night. 3rd Place: British Fox and the Celebrity Abductions (Lucilla Frost) 4th Place: The Backlot (A. Bomire) 5th Place: Crossworlds Part 2 - The Flower Opens (BBBen) Best Use of Multimedia Sexbot (Cauldron) Cauldron wins his second Mulimedia Erin, this time for “Sexbot”, a small game written in Hugo about robots whose job is to pleasure humans. Cauldron hand-drew extremely stylish images of the characters and their exploits. He also included some nifty Java-like scrolling text effects that help create the setting for the game. There is very little textual description of sex in the game; fortunately, the drawings are able to carry the day. Runner-up: Santa's Little Helper (A. Bomire) The still images (pornographic photos of women) in “Santa’s Little Helper” are buried deep within a secret compartment of the game, but once found, are presented in a clever ‘video’ format with text story providing narrative linked to a series of images providing the visuals. This was a unique and very interesting way of using multimedia in AIF. 3rd Place: Mount Voluptuous (Christopher Cole) 4th Place: Birthday (Johnny Reb) Best Technical Implementation / Use of Medium The Backlot (A. Bomire) One thing that A. Bomire is known for is his technical ability. He writes technically clean games, he tests them thoroughly, and he is always willing to help other authors with their technical questions. He also, and this is important, patches his games post-release to fix any bugs found, even picayune ones. The Backlot is not only clean, it is incredibly ambitious, with a huge map, tons of characters, lots of extremely detailed sex scenes and cleverly layered puzzles. In all, a solid Erin-winning performance. Runner-up: Hell in Highwater (J. Arthur) J. Arthur’s Hell in Highwater isn’t as clean as The Backlot, but it is a worthy runner-up for the category for its ambitions. Its sheer size, the number of characters, the competent puzzle-tracking and the mass of information (all neatly consistent) all combine to impress mightily. 3rd Place: Parlour (A. Ninny) 4th Place: Santa's Little Helper (A. Bomire) 5th Place: British Fox and the Celebrity Abductions (Lucilla Frost) Best Puzzles Santa's Little Helper (A. Bomire) Runner-up: The Backlot (A. Bomire) That both the winner and runner-up in this category are games penned by A. Bomire shows how clever he is at devising puzzles for his games. That the two games garnered 16 of the 25 first place votes also shows what considerable respect and admiration the AIF community has for him. Both games feature a series of object puzzles that are challenging, yet logical. In Santa’s Little Helper you must solve all the puzzles before having any sex, but you don’t mind this because the puzzles are plain good fun. In The Backlot, the puzzles are more interspersed with sex scenes, but the overall puzzle is solved piecemeal throughout the game, giving an interesting layering effect of puzzles within puzzles. Another strength of both games is that A. Bomire helps you keep track of your puzzles in such a way as to avoid leading you into unwinnable situations. 3rd Place: Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned (One-Eyed Jack) 4th Place: Hell in Highwater (J. Arthur) 5th Place: Breakout (Grimm Sharlack) Best Humor Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned (One-Eyed Jack) Nobody comes close to One-Eyed Jack for comedy in AIF. SSIV won this category by a landslide. OEJ also won this category for SSIII and was runner-up for SSI. His characters are so crazily outrageous and their adventures so outlandish that you can’t help but laugh out loud constantly, at least when you’re not enjoying his ‘best sex’ of course. Runner-up: The Backlot (A. Bomire) Backlot is worthy comedy runner-up. The game’s setup (behind the scenes on AIF production lot) is very clever, and the characters play their roles as moody/ditsy actors and actresses or grumpy high-powered IF execs extremely well. As a result, the game consistently works on an extremely funny level. 3rd Place: Santa's Little Helper (A. Bomire) 4th Place: British Fox and the Celebrity Abductions (Lucilla Frost) 5th Place: Crossworlds 1 & 2 (BBBen) Best One-night Stand Game Parlour (A. Ninny) Parlour contained interesting, unconventional (for AIF) characters and heavily layered sexual actions. Parlour was tied for second place in the 2004 mini-comp, and the fact that it then went on to win this award demonstrates that the “Best ONS” category is worthwhile. Parlour clearly proved to be memorable. Runner-up: Normville High (BBBen) Normville High took first place in this year's mini-comp. It best accomplished its own goals and at the same time stayed within the spirit of the comp. It is a small game that quickly establishes the story's background, plot line, characters and the motivations for those characters. It also has very hot, immersive sex. It doesn’t feel like a fragment of a greater game, nor a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am quickie, and was a worthy winner for that award and runner-up for this one. 3rd Place: Escape Pod (LoveLettersToLove) 4th Place: Oval Office (Faraday) 5th Place: Stowaway (Johnny Freebase) Best Game of the Year Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned (One-Eyed Jack) Best Male PC. Best Male NPC. Best Lesbian Sex Scene. Best Sex Overall. Best Atmosphere. Best Humor. Runner-up for Best Female PC. Plus, several additional Erin nominations for SSIV and Badman nominations for its author. Is there any wonder it is winning the Best Game of the Year Erin as well ? Runner-up: British Fox and the Celebrity Abductions (Lucilla Frost) An amazing effort for a rookie author, British Fox and the Celebrity Abductions has it all: incredible sex, wild adventures, fantastic settings, great characters and challenging puzzles. It was nominated in eleven Erin categories, amazing for any game (let alone an author’s first release). Though it only one Erin, British Fox and her creator instantly earned the community’s respect and admiration. 3rd Place: The Backlot (A. Bomire) 4th Place: Hell in Highwater (J. Arthur) 5th Place: Mount Voluptuous (Christopher Cole) Badman Memorial Award NewKid, author of Ideal New England Prep School (HI) and Generic New York Apartment Building (GNA) and other games, could possibly be considered the father of modern AIF. With HI he took the AIF community beyond its Xtrek phase and demonstrated that AIF games could be high quality and intelligent. His TADS "chick.t" library has aided other authors and his presence in the community has been an inspiration to many more. Award speeches In a community like ours, you would expect the recipient’s speeches to be as entertaining as the games themselves, and you would not be disappointed. Now onto the speeches. The speeches are taken from the Erin Award Ceremony, transcript provided by JohnConnor Best Male PC recipient One Eyed Jack for Sam Shooter from Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned Ok, um, I'd like to thank... Myself and whoever was stupid enough to put "Cisco Red" on the Market. Best Female PC recipient Lucilla Frost for British Fox in British Fox and the Celebrity Abductions. Best Male NPC recipient One Eyed Jack for Incubus in Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned OEJack wonders what the voters were thinking Best Female NPC recipient BBBen for Debbie from Crossworlds BBBen struts around in an obnoxious way. I didn't prepare any remarks, but I will say that female NPCs are the most important thing for me in AIF, so thanks to all who voted for Debbie! Best M/F recipient A Bomire for PC and Fairy in 'The Backlot' Wow! I am really suprised. I thought some of the other scenes in that game were much hotter. Best F/F scene recipient One Eyed Jack for Eve and Laurie in Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned My mother would be so proud *sniffle* Best Threesome/Orgy recipient A Bomire for Wendell the Elf, Mrs. Claus and Sara in 'Santa's Little Helper' Thanks to everyone who voted for me. I'm not much for speeches, but I will say thanks to everyone who voted. I originally didn't plan on including Sara in the game. Best Sex Overall recipient One Eyed Jack for Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned Okay, I'd like to thank all the voters this time (the checks are in the mail) Best Use of Multimedia recipient Boiling Cauldron for Sexbot Best Story recipient J Arthur for Hell in Highwater! Best Atmosphere recipient One Eyed Jack for Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned This time, I'd like to thank Hollywood legend Uwe Boll for his great inspiration. Best Technical Implementation/Use of Medium recipient A Bomire for The Backlot Thanks once more. I feel like I should be thanking some people in New Zealand, but I don't know any. Okay. Thanks to all of you in Australia! Even though you play my games upside down... Best Puzzles recipient A Bomire for Santa’s Little Helper Thanks everyone. I designed SLH with puzzles first, and added the sex later. Believe it or not, took me a week to write the puzzle part, and almost 5 weeks to add in the sex. Well, for me, SLH was a relatively short game. The Backlot [the runner up] took 18 months. Best Humor recipient One Eyed Jack for Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned I'd like to thank the man, the legend himself... Vachon. He who sits upon the peak of greatness which I can only dream of one day ascending to. Best One Night Stand/ "A Night With" game recipient A Ninny for Parlour Thanks all. damn layered sex commands took forever to write. Best Game of the Year recipient One Eyed Jack for Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned You mean I stayed up all night writing this concession speech for nothing? Wow, I am truly even more shocked than I was last year. I am undeserving slob. Let me be serious for three seconds and say "Thanks everyone" Badman Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award recipient NewKid You like me! You really, really like me! Thanks folks! This feels like a life-time achievement award for the old geezer who's over the hill....I feel my fame is more from sheer dint of having enough time to write large games, but I'll take it. 2004 Golden Erin Award Totals One Eye Jack: 7 Best Male PC for Sam Shooter in Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned Best Male NPC for Incubus in Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned Best F/F Sex Scene for Eve and Laurie in Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned Best Sex Overall for Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned Best Atmosphere for Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned Best Humor Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned Best Game of the Year Sam Shooter IV: Children of the Damned A Bomire: 4 Best M/F Sex Scene for PC and Fairy in The Backlot Best Threesome/Orgy Sex Scene for Wendell the Elf, Mrs. Claus & Sara in Santa's Little Helper Best Technical Implementation/Use of Medium for The Backlot Best Puzzles for Santa's Little Helper A Ninny: 1 Best One Night Stand/ "A Night With" game for Parlour BBBen: 1 Best Female NPC for Debbie in Crossworlds Boiling Cauldron: 1 Best Use of Multimedia for Sexbot Lucilla Frost: 1 Best Female PC for British Fox in British Fox and the Celebrity Abductions NewKid: 1 Badman Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award The Erins 2005 Well we had a great year, a lot of great games. We were all impressed by how many One Eyed Jack and A Bomire had, but we were all equally impressed by Lucilla Frost and her first game, I am quite confident that if we allow TADS ports in next year she will clean up. Remember 31-October-2005 for your last minute releases. Until next year, The Staff Editor Markaedw has beta tested one game, “Hell in Highwater”. He written walkthroughs for “Ginger’s Island” and “Hell in Highwater”. Staff Writers BBBen is an AIF author. He has released six games, including the "Crossworlds" series and "Normville High" which won A. Bomire's 2004 mini-comp. "A. Bomire is the author of several TADS AIF games, including 'Dexter Dixon: In Search of the Prussian Pussy' and 'The Backlot'." A Ninny is an AIF player, author and frequent beta-tester. His one released game, “Parlour” was included in the second AIF Mini-Comp. A few of his numerous AIF testing credits include “Pool Party” by A. Bomire & Christopher Cole “Tomorrow Never Comes” by A. Bomire, “Crossworlds Part 3 - The Final Far Far Away Frontier” by BBBen. Web Master Darc Nite is a newcomer to the AIF scene. An avid gamer who heard the call for help with the AIF Newsletter.