Inside Erin: The AIF Newsletter Volume 2 Number 5 May, 2006 Letter from the Editor Congratulations are due, right off the bat, to A. Bomire for WWE – RAW’s New GM’s first-place result in the 2006 AIF Mini-comp. Full details on the all the mini-comp results are published on page 5 in this edition of the newsletter. This is the second mini-comp win for A. Bomire – the man’s clearly unstoppable. Or at least it appears he is. The rest of us will have to crank it up a notch or two! Most of this edition is dedicated to the mini-comp results. We’re providing several reviews in addition to the results article. The response to the comp has been very active. Twenty-one players voted which is a far higher number than in previous comps, and there has been a lot of chatter on the message boards about the merits of specific games. Several of you who voted also provided some comments which will be forwarded to authors soon, now that the results have been published. Outside of this focus on the mini-comp, I don’t have much to discuss in this letter. I’m grateful that A. Bomire and BBBen felt it useful to interview me for the newsletter and what I have to say in my responses to their questions takes the place of anything I could contribute through my editorial, so go read that interview instead. * * * This month in AIF by BBBen I really like it when I get a month where the activity in the world of AIF has been sufficient that my column pretty much writes itself, and I can focus on games rather than reaching for subjects to waffle on about. This was one such rich month. I’ll start off with non-mini-comp news. There were a couple more games this month, and that's despite this being a short month (by which I mean that it’s only been three weeks since the delayed release of Inside Erin’s last edition). AIF seems to be back in the swing of it, for the moment at least. One is a new game from Blue Meanie - haven't heard from him in a while - and the other is the fixed-up version of the game that was retracted last month. Sometimes the "fixing-up" never gets done in these cases, but in this case the game has been rereleased. Apart from those two games it was generally quiet, so it’s on to the mini-comp! The entries to this year's mini-comp showed a great deal of comprehension about the format of a mini-comp game. In past some entries have either been concepts that were somewhat unsuited to the restrictions of the comp, or that were simply too limited and failed to take advantage of the freedoms available. This year's entries seem to be of a breed that is much more savvy to the ins- and-outs of mini-comping. This must, no doubt, be partially because we have three Erin winners (two of whom have actually run mini-comps themselves) participating in the mini-comp this year, and partially because all the games were beta-tested, but also I think because we have now had two mini-comps and a full comp in the past few years. Entrants are able to look back at successful entries in past and understand what can be done along the lines of, and beyond, what has been done in past. There were some interesting trends as well. In addition to the aforementioned three games by established authors, there were also three games that were in some way fan-fictions (if you count Warlock as a fan-fic of Charmed), and three games about sex in a high-school setting. There are more similarities in this year’s selection than the eclectic range in past years. Fundamentally, the format of the mini-comp encourages authors to boil down a game to what makes it essentially interesting, cutting out the crap and leaving only what is really necessary. I think that mini-comps have a really positive impact on the community, and this one is no exception. One day I’ll manage to pull off a themed mini-comp like I’ve always dreamed. High schools are popular; maybe we could set the comp in a high school? Or maybe a hospital… I guess it’s a moot point right now, as public opinion seems to be against themed comps. As for the actual results, I found a few points surprising, and a few not so surprising. A. Bomire winning was not a great surprise, but the wide spread of results over the different categories was a little surprising. It’s good because it shows that voters have been thinking carefully about each category, and that’s significant because we had the largest voter turn-out for a mini-comp so far. I’m tired of reading those comments that come after every comp and Erin ceremony that say something along the lines of “I didn’t feel like I could give a fair response because I didn’t know the games well enough.” You people know who you are (Newkid, I’m looking at you) and my response is: Bollocks! You’re just lazy! Anyway, I did think a couple of games perhaps should have done better, but I for one found it really hard to separate the games when filling out my own ballot. It was a quality competition with a real sense of consistency. I’ll finish with some random thoughts about the games in the comp. WWE - Raw's New GM - A Bomire has certainly captured the feel of the WWE, and has implemented an impressive wrestling combat system into the game. I'm almost annoyed that again A. Bomire has put together such a high quality product that it almost had to win. I really liked Shamelessly Slutty: Teacher. I hope that the colon in the title means that we'll be seeing more "Shamelessly Slutty" games from Rip_CPU, as it could be a cool series. In A Dream Come True I was impressed with the way Purple Dragon had his characters improvise Shakespeare-ish poetry to profess their love for each other. Detention is quite successful at creating a hot little sex scene, and Kelly is cool. I must admit that I've never found the word "arse" terribly sexy, which is why I favour "ass" in sex writing even though I'm Australian and usually prefer to use British spelling. Clairvoyant - a hot girl and a nice sense of humour make this game entertaining, and I always like really big tits in a game. Super Blow - Not being American, I've never seen a Super Bowl. Warlock - Since I beta-tested this game I have to limit my comments about it, as per the beta tester's code. It’s also nice to see the extensive body of Neon Genesis Evangelion porn (it may be the most pornographised anime show) extended into the AIF world. And finally, to all the new authors who entered this mini-comp, I’d like to say that in past a number of authors have first entered a game into a mini-comp and then gone on to be enjoyable regulars in the community, either as game writers or through contributing in other ways. I hope that regardless of how your individual game went, we will see more of all of you, as when the games are of this quality there are little credible grounds for those who would label the majority of AIF as crap. Thank you all for your participation. New games The GameMaster Saga - Resident Lust by Night_Owl, ADRIFT 3.9, released 25th April 2006. Because of a strange computer hooked up to games machines, you find yourself in the Resident Evil world. Paradise Hotel by Blue Meanie, ADRIFT 4.0, released 28th April 2006. You are a young man working in a hotel on a tropical island, trying to satisfy your customers in order to impress the hot hotel manager. * * * A. Ninny Interview by BBBen and A. Bomire A. Ninny is the editor of this newsletter. He has written two games, Parlour came equal second in A. Bomire’s 2004 mini-comp and won the 2004 Erin Award for “Best One-Night Stand Game”, while Sex Artist won the 2005 CCAB competition and received numerous Erin nominations. A. Ninny is a frequent beta tester and won the first Erin for “Best Beta-Tester” in 2005. He also ran the Erin Awards for 2004 and 2005 (and there’s certainly no suggestion of impropriety there – nothing at all about him tampering with the ballots... at least as far as I’ve heard) and he has just finished running the 2006 AIF mini-comp. He has also reviewed numerous games and has conducted many of the interviews in previous editions. This time we thought we’d turn the metaphorical microphone around and ask a few questions of this silly ninny. AB: What can you tell us about 'A. Ninny'? AN: Well, in my real life I’m an architect living in a suburb of Big Midwestern US City. I have twin sons and I drive a minivan. wOOt! That tells the story, doesn’t it? I come to AIF the way most of us did, I think. I was looking for good IF one day and noticed a pornographic games category on Baf’s Guide. Who knew such a thing existed? I looked up the game that had the best review, played it, and I was hooked. That game, of course, was Moist. Some time after that, I had the opportunity to beta-test some AIF games and I was hooked again. Suddenly, I found I liked beta-testing them even more than I liked playing them, and I still do. Around the same time, I tried my hand at creating my own AIF and posted a zillion questions about programming in TADS (that first game eventually became The Sex Artist). The generosity of time and knowledge I received from members of this community were what essentially made me stay and give something back and become the ‘A. Ninny’ that does stuff around here. BBB: What’s with the name? Are you, in fact, a ninny? AN: That’s my real name. Didn’t you know? Actually, the name grew out of an inside joke I shared with an Internet (and subsequent real life) friend I met at an online game site called Sissyfight.com. My Yahoo! ID (sissyninny) came from being a sissy on Sissyfight (SF). ‘A. Ninny’ wasn’t even my primary avatar at SF – it was a sock puppet for my avatar. A pseudonym for my pseudonym, if you will. By the way, I became a player of SF when it was created, over six years ago. It was seriously cool then, but it ain’t so cool anymore. I no longer play it or recommend it to anyone. As for my being a ninny... well... I guess it depends on who you ask. BBB: Why have you taken on so much organisational responsibility in the AIF community in recent years? AN: I saw a void and stepped into it. That’s pretty much par for my personality, I think. Besides that, I felt a need to give something back to the community after having received so much patient guidance when I was first learning TADS. Having said that, though, I’d like to start spinning off some of my projects, particularly the Erins. BBB: Do you feel that being the editor of the newsletter, running the Erins and the recent mini-comp, beta testing games, and all the rest of it might get in the way of your actual writing of AIF? If so, does that bother you at all? AN: To some of those, mostly including the newsletter and Erins, the answer is a definite ‘sometimes it bothers me’. Those projects do put a crimp in my writing, but to be honest, it takes me so incredibly long (it seems to me, at least) to write an AIF that the side projects probably have little effect in the overall picture. When it comes to beta-testing, however, I really almost enjoy that more than writing, and it doesn’t bother me to set aside my writing project to test a game for someone. BBB: As you've pointed out yourself, for authors of AIF, AIF is a hobby. What is most satisfying about the hobby for you, and what are you most pleased with from what you've accomplished? AN: I enjoy writing and beta-testing AIF games, so those are the most personally fulfilling parts of the hobby. Sending my games off into the world has been a big thrill. I’m also happy that I’ve been able to contribute some efforts into making the community more connected through the newsletter. It is odd, though, having a hobby that is so inherently reclusive. Anything dealing with porn is hard to explain to real people, and most of them don’t know what IF is anyway. So first I have to explain about IF, and then, once they understand that, I’m supposed bring up, ‘oh, and by the way, my games are all pornographic’? BBB: You've released two games, both of them into competitions. You're also running a competition now. What is it about competitions that interests you? AN: Actually, that the games I released were competition entries says more about my need for a deadline than my interest in competitions. The mini-comp into which I released Parlour was simply an opportunity to crank out a quick game and see how it would be received. That there was a deadline made it possible. And again, without the deadline for the CCAB comp, Sex Artist could very well still be in production. I had originally scoped it to be a larger game, anyway. When I decided to make it an entry in CCAB, it was with the definite aim to slash away at its scope and get it done. As for the 2006 AIF Mini-comp, I was just hoping to kick start what seems like a period of dormancy in game production, and I had heard from potential authors that they wanted to have another mini-comp similar to the first two. One of the missions of the newsletter is to hold competitions, so as editor it seemed a natural for me to just go ahead and run it. AB: Parlour was unique in that it had, for lack of a better term, layered sex commands. I.e., you could, in effect, perform multiple sexual interactions at once. This is an innovation in AIF. How hard was that to write? What sort of problems did you run into? AN: It wasn’t hard at all to write. TADS is amazingly flexible and it seemed an easy fit to make TADS do what I was asking of it. To wit, I devised a simple function to track what the player was doing, and it worked as designed. The biggest problem was just the volume of descriptions that needed to be written. As an example, in any other game, a player types ‘suck Amy’s tits’ and the game responds with a single ‘you grab her tits and lick them all over’-type response. It’s very easy for the author to create one or two ‘suck Amy’s tits’ descriptions and move on. With the Parlour system, I had to write multiple ‘suck Ruby’s tits’ responses depending on whether the player was just sucking her tits or if he was groping her vagina or fucking her in one of several positions (for example) in the previous turn. The other thing I had to do to make it work was slice up the cutscenes in order to allow the player to interject other commands. The whole idea was to make the sex scene more interactive and more like real sex, wherein you choose as you go whether to doubly-please your partner by groping while fucking or whatever. AB: Sex Artist had a couple of threesome scenes in it. These are notoriously laborious to write. As a fellow author, I have to agree with that assessment. Most authors write one and then vow never to write another, but you put two into a single game. Whatever possessed you to do that? And, will you try something similar in any future games? AN: Insanity? The Liz/Jim/Buzz scene was just plain awful to write. Really. In addition to being a threesome, it was two twosomes (Liz/Jim and Liz/Buzz), and most of the sex description changed depending if the characters were in the living room or the bedroom. Plus, the code library I was using (NewKid’s Chick.t) didn’t have anything in it for a male NPC participant and I had to create that from scratch, brute force-style. It took months to write those scenes. I hereby vow to never do that again. Luckily, most of Liz/Jim/Buzz was complete before I decided to enter the game in the CCAB comp. By comparison, the Buzz/Claire/Toni scene was relatively (and intentionally) simple, mainly because there are some things that Claire won’t do in it and because the player has limited time with those two characters before the scene ends. Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending whether you’re me or someone playing my games) I am still insane. My current project is planned to have three threesomes in it, but I’m hoping to keep them somewhat manageable. BBB: Where do you see the AIF community going in the next few years? Where would you like it to go? AN: I think the community is more cohesive now than it was a few years ago, and I’d like to think I had a participatory role in making it so. I think some ways it can get more cohesive still have already been discussed in the various forums. Projects like the creation of collaborative game environments were beginning to be discussed and I think they would help strengthen the community if implemented. In addition, it seems like the bulk of the serious lifting is done by authors. I’d like to see players getting more involved. Besides posting requests for hints, they can do things like sending helpful feedback to authors and providing some theoretical or critical input into AIF gaming in general. I tried to elicit some of this participation through my “Erin Street” interviews, and I plan to have more such conversations with players in future issues. AB: What do you have planned for the immediate future? AN: I’m going to finish my current game. I really would like to have it done in the current Erin year, but I’m not certain how likely that is – it depends on how busy my real life gets. After that, I may pick up my suspended animation game (see March editorial), or I may begin working on another idea for a game I’ve had kicking around for a while, one in which the PC is Sir John Falstaff, the portly rogue knight from Shakespeare’s “Henry IV part I”, “Henry IV part II” and “The Merry Wives of Windsor”. To date, A. Ninny has released two AIF games: Parlour and The Sex Artist. * * * 2006 AIF Mini-comp Results by A. Ninny Once again it is time to announce the results of a competition, and once again a familiar name tops the list of entrants. We offer sincere congratulations to A. Bomire, whose game WWE – RAW’s New GM is awarded the overall first prize. Second place went to Inkybus’s game Detention and Third to A Dream Come True by Purple Dragon. The lists of results in each category are provided below. Thanks to all the authors and to everyone who voted. Overall Finish Results: 1. WWE – RAW’s New GM by A. Bomire 2. Detention by Inkybus 3. A Dream Come True by Purple Dragon 4. The Clairvoyant by Priapus Rex 5. Warlock by Christopher Cole 6. Shamelessly Slutty: Teacher by Rip_CPU 7. Super Blow by Herrdu 8. Neon Genesis Evangelion : Nightmares by der’morat’aman Category: Concept/Writing 1. WWE – RAW’s New GM 2. A Dream Come True 3. Detention 4. Warlock 5. The Clairvoyant 6. Shamelessly Slutty: Teacher 7. Super Blow 8. Neon Genesis Evangelion : Nightmares Category: Characters 1. A Dream Come True 2. The Clairvoyant 3. WWE – RAW’s New GM 4. Warlock 5. Detention 6. Shamelessly Slutty: Teacher 7. Super Blow 8. Neon Genesis Evangelion : Nightmares Category: Technical 1. WWE – RAW’s New GM 2. Detention 3. Warlock 4. A Dream Come True 5. Super Blow 6. The Clairvoyant 7. Neon Genesis Evangelion : Nightmares 8. Shamelessly Slutty: Teacher Category: Hotness 1. Detention 2. WWE – RAW’s New GM 3. A Dream Come True 4. The Clairvoyant 5. Shamelessly Slutty: Teacher 6. Warlock 7. Super Blow 8. Neon Genesis Evangelion : Nightmares Category: Enjoyment 1. Detention 2. A Dream Come True 3. WWE – RAW’s New GM 4. The Clairvoyant 5. Shamelessly Slutty: Teacher 6. Warlock 7. Super Blow 8. Neon Genesis Evangelion : Nightmares * * * 2006 AIF Mini-Comp Response by Bugfilledcrapfest Editor’s Note: Bugfilledcrapfest submitted a voting form for the mini-comp with these comments included. He (or she) graciously allowed them to be published here. Bugfilledcrapfest states that the games were all of incredible high standard this year. Bugfilledcrapfest goes on to say that Bugfilledcrapfest enjoyed playing them all but felt that some of the categories on the voting form were misleading. Specifically Bugfilledcrapfest had trouble separating the concept/writing; for example, the game RAW's New GM has (what Bugfilledcrapfest considers) the most original concept but for reasons Bugfilledcrapfest cannot place felt the writing was not of the same standard. On previous occasions Bugfilledcrapfest has enjoyed many games by A. Bomire but this one felt a little flat for some reason, how does one rank the game in this situation? Equally, two games get Bugfilledcrapfest's thumbs-down on the character portion, the two games which rely on established characters (Bugfilledcrapfest considering the wrestlers as personas of the real people and thus fictional characters) and one's knowledge of them to make player have the 'best' game experience, they were not the worst-written characters but lacked something because of the implied knowledge needed to get the most out of the game. Warlock was another of the Christopher Cole's games in which you were forced to do sexual things in a specific order. While this is undoubtedly a style at which Mr. Cole excels and works well for the genre, Bugfilledcrapfest prefers his AIF with a modicum of I when it comes to the A. Mr. Cole's games continue to delight and amaze Bugfilledcrapfest with the amount of variety he has given us but now feels as if Bugfilledcrapfest is just going through the game doing what the author would like to do to his characters. On his site it has words to the effect that “I don't want to play a game were I can't indulge my particular fetish” which Bugfilledcrapfest originally read as “Must cover most sexual fetishes to be an AIF game I enjoy.” but Bugfilledcrapfest now reads as “Must cover Christopher Cole's particular sexual fetish to be an AIF game Christopher Cole enjoys.” That is not to say that his games are bad or unenjoyable, just lacking in variable paths when it comes to the girls. Bugfilledcrapfest wonders, did not previous years only ask for your top three or such? [Editor: no, they asked for all. In the last true mini-comp, there were thirteen games that had to be ranked in order in six categories.] Bugfilledcrapfest had a hard time ranking them all, superficially because of the time needed to invest in order to get out the most of each finely crafted specimen but mainly because it is difficult to remember 40 different nuances as the players progress through the games. Is one merely remembering the past through rose tinted memory spectacles or another possibility that occurs to Bugfilledcrapfest is that one always had to rank the whole competition but that this year saw an influx in the number of entries, which would negate the point of this particular observation of memory as surely this would be considered a good thing. As a mild observation on the voting form itself, Bugfilledcrapfest prefers the term Sexiness to Hotness as (to Bugfilledcrapfest's considerable mind) hotness merely conjures up images of frat boys talking about how hawt that girl who walked by was and Sexiness alludes to slinky nightdresses and lacy panties. Bugfilledcrapfest does however appreciate the time you put into this endeavour without any compensation and applauds for the heroic efforts you make to keep this community on it's feet. * * * Seven Seas of Theah—Episode 6 by Christopher Cole OPTIONS: At the end of this story each month, you will be given a number of options. Choose the option that you like and vote in the poll at the Yahoo AIF Archive. The option that gets the most votes will determine how the story continues in next month’s newsletter. NOTE: You can read background information and other tidbits about this story here: http://ccole.aftermath.cx/theah.htm. Magnus and Violetta kept low as they ran down the path towards the docks. There didn’t seem to be any sign of pursuers as the swordsmen probably thought they were hiding out on the upper floor of the tavern. They ducked behind some large sacks that were piled on the ground beside the docks and peered over them. There were two ships docked at the moment, alongside numerous smaller crafts. Only one of the ships showed activity, with some deck hands doing some final preparations before setting sail. Magnus knew the signs well. “That one’ll be leaving in minutes,” he whispered to Violetta. “It’s now or never, I suppose,” she replied. Magnus nodded and the two waited for their moment. While the deck hands had their backs turned loosening the moorings, Magnus and Violetta snuck past them and hopped over the railing of the caravel. Magnus spotted the name of the ship as he jumped on board: “The Hurricane”. They could hear voices and noises coming from the stern, and so they dropped through an opening on the lower deck as quickly as possible, knowing the hands would be securing it just before setting sail. They landed in the hold and quickly took a look around. The hold was filled with sacks and small crates and had a sickly sweet smell to it; sweat mixed with fruit. They ducked behind a few of the larger crates and caught their breath. One of the boards on a crate was loose and Magnus pried it open with his dagger. He reached inside and pulled out a nearly ripe mango. Smiling, he sliced it in two and gave half to Violetta. “Travel in style,” he said, biting into the juicy fruit. Violetta sat quietly, taking small bites from her fruit. Magnus looked at her. “What is it?” “The Portẽ Mage,” she said. “That’s heavy firepower for such a minor offence.” Magnus frowned. “I know,” he said. “That’s been troubling me too. I can’t believe all this is because I made his Royal Lowness look silly. No… something else must be behind this…” Magnus stopped talking when they could feel the ship begin to move. They waited in silence as they listened to the crew above them going through the motions. After nearly half-an-hour, the bustle died down and they could feel the ship moving smoothly through the calm waters. “So,” Magnus said. “What now?” WHAT SHOULD MAGNUS DO? 1) Hit on Violetta? 2) Get some sleep? 3) Search the hold? 4) Sneak out and explore the ship? 5) Attempt to commandeer the ship? * * * Complete Mini-Comp Review by Anonymous Editor’s note: This set of reviews for all eight mini-comp games was submitted for publication by an author who wished to remain anonymous. This year’s mini-comp brought a bunch of games that were, as a group, much better than games in previous comps. Unlike the last mini-comp, there were no games (Like Late Work or The Prostitute) that could be immediately discarded as unworthy, untested trash. All of the games in this comp were tested and it showed – they were free of serious bugs and even guess-the-verb issues were few and far between. Kudos to the authors. Still, as is the case with any competition, there will be winners and there will be losers, and it’s the job of us critics to separate them out. With that in mind, here is my personal take on the qualities of each game. The Clairvoyant by Priapus Rex Overview: In this game, you are brought by your friend Miranda to a psychic who claims to be able to contact Miranda’s dead husband Roberto. Through various machinations, you manage to convince Miranda that the séance (and, indeed, any contact with the husband) is unnecessary and that you’re the man for her. What works: I really got caught up in the atmosphere and the characters in this game. It sets the scene very nicely in a few lines of introductory text and it’s more than you really get from loads of descriptions in other games. I love that the player keeps telling Miranda to keep her eyes on the road – that kind of detail really helps round out the story. I also really liked the relationship between the PC and Miranda. The author sets the relationship as one in which Miranda used to babysit the PC and now they’re friends (but of course, the PC has had a crush on her forever). This aspect of the relationship isn’t forgotten and is carried nicely through the game, including the sex scene. The sex scene is quite hot, and it adds something that every time Miranda has something really dirty to say, she says it in Spanish. What doesn’t: Actually, I’m a bit hard-pressed to say anything really negative about the game. It is technically quite clean (though there’s a bit of a guess-the-verb problem at one critical point), though not ambitious. I felt that Madame V (the psychic) didn’t transition well from her persona to her ‘real’ self in her dealings with the PC. Maybe she should have kept her accent? Concept/Writing: 1st Characters: 1st Technical: 2nd Hotness: 1st Enjoyment: 1st Warlock by Christopher Cole Overview: You’re a sorcerer living a solitary life in a tower and you create a succubus for pleasure. What works: The writing style and atmosphere are the strong suits of this game – stronger than the story or characters. The sex is also quite hot and the characterization of Treela the demoness during the sex scene is probably the strongest individual aspect of the game. The game is technically sound. Chris Cole has long since mastered the ADRIFT system, as shown by his ability to not only avoid any of the odd random-sounding parser responses that that program often throws but to customize responses in such a way that they fit within the overall character of the game. What Doesn’t: I just didn’t buy the whole story. It just didn’t hold together for me. For instance, the opening announcement, “You are Damias! Shadowmancer and Warlock! And you will not be silenced…” is simply a lie! It takes but twenty minutes in the hands of me, the player of this game, to silence Damias permanently. And here’s another problem: for all his bluster, Damias is simply too nice a guy. He has a corpse of a woman in his study, but he didn’t actually kill her. He has a crush on a farmer’s wife, but won’t act on it – in fact his magical voyeurism is kind of pathetic. The game’s intro talks about an ongoing dispute between Damias and some of his former masters, but from my point of view, Damias is too much a wuss (he even blows himself to bits with his own magic, ferchrissake) for them to go to any trouble about. If some aspect of that epic battle had been part of the game, it would have been a lot more convincing. Finally, I realize it is possible to reach an ending in which Damias doesn’t die, but that ending is the wussiest ending and results in no ‘fun’ anyway. Perhaps there should have been a way to win the game that would uphold the “And you will not be silenced…” promise. Concept/Writing: 5th Characters: 5th Technical: 5th Hotness: 5th Enjoyment: 5th Super Blow by Herrdu Overview: You play a female college student who invites her boyfriend over for sex. Unfortunately, it’s Super Sunday, and all he wants to do is watch the Super Bowl. Can you score the touchdown or will you be penalized for (wait for it…) pass interference? What works: The story has a reasonable progression from start to finish. It has some fun little puzzles to solve in order to defeat your boyfriend’s obsession with the Super Bowl and get his buddy Buddy out of the way of your fun. The sex is decent, though somewhat too penis-size- focused, and is enhanced by different actions in the multiple available locations. This is the only Inform game entered in the comp. The author seems comfortable with the system and I didn’t find any serious bugs in the game. It gives you the option (once you’ve finished playing) of changing the third-person orientation of the game to more traditional second-person orientation, but some pronouns and verb forms don’t work properly with the transition. What doesn’t: Moby, the main NPC, might as well be a statue with a penis, and this kills my evaluation in all five categories. He doesn’t have a realistic (or, truthfully, any) reaction to numerous fairly traumatic or arousing events in the game. For instance, he doesn’t react to his friend passing out cold. He doesn’t react if Missy shows him her breasts or pussy or traipses around naked. The only event he reacts to is if I try to turn off the TV, but the text never mentions that he reacts to an event in the Super Bowl itself. Then, once he is actually interested in sex, he seems to inexplicably go back and forth between being involved in the sex and involved in watching the football game. I think there should be a progression, where he starts off not really being too involved in sex (after all, what could be better than watching the Super Bowl while getting a blowjob) and as the sex progresses he should forget about the game and get more into the sex scene. Concept/Writing: 6th Characters: 6th Technical: 7th Hotness: 7th Enjoyment:7th A Dream Come True by Purple Dragon Overview: Returning from a road performance of your high school’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, your tour bus breaks down. You’ve been separated from your girlfriend for the whole trip by an over-zealous chaperone, and now you have one last chance to hook up with her. What Works: This is a very solid entry to the comp. It’s idea and execution of that idea are very competently done. The use of Shakespeare makes it seem very literate while at the same time realistic. After all, what teenage Shakespearean actor hasn’t tried to improvise his own Shakespeare? Also, you really feel for the PC and his girl. The frustration they feel at being chaperoned is extremely palpable and the release they achieve during the sex scene is welcome and powerful. I liked the environments in the game and the main characters came across as more real than those in most AIF. What doesn’t: The game feels very crowded. I guess that technically it conforms to the mini- comp NPC limit rule, but I think the bus driver, the chaperone and the girlfriend’s roommate feel enough like non-player characters - even if in the guts of the game’s coding they aren’t - that the game should have been disqualified or revised to meet the limit. Perhaps either the chaperone or the bus driver could have been the NPC and then the roommates could have been eliminated or minimized. Aside from this, my other complaint would be the length of the Shakespearean interlude. These kids have pretty damn good restraint to be able to go through all those speeches (some of which are neither Bottom’s nor Titania’s) without jumping one another’s bones. Concept/Writing: 4th Characters: 2nd Technical: 3rd Hotness: 3rd Enjoyment: 3rd WWE – RAW’s New GM by A. Bomire Overview: This is a fan fiction of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). In this game, you play a new wrestler who, on his first day on the job, is railroaded into a grudge match against WWE CEO Vince McMahon. What works: A. Bomire comes up with a masterpiece of TADS programming in this awesome recreation of a WWE wrestling match. If this game doesn’t win first place in the Technical category I might have to give up on this community. I loved the way the wrestling match ran, with its intuitive command structure and brilliant WWE commentary ("He's making a move to the top rope, King, hoping to drop onto Vince McMahon!" "I don't think Vince is going to let him get away with that!" "No he is not, King, as Vince catches Torture’s leg and SLAMS him to the canvas!") instead of “You make a move to climb to the top rope…” I’m not a WWE follower, but for this game it doesn’t matter. There’s more than enough background information provided in the game (and also a detailed description of all the available wrestling moves) that I felt like I could relate to the characters’ motivations and personalities. What doesn’t: I can’t say that anything in this game really doesn’t work, but there’s one thing I must pick on – and you’ll have to understand that my pick is really not as severe a problem as I make it sound. That issue is that the sex in the game is too… well, too A. Bomire. With each new game, A. Bomire invents some new TADS wizardry (car chases! free-fall pursuit! WWE wrestling!), but his sex scenes haven’t expanded in complexity to keep up. Not to say this sex scene isn’t very hot, but after the awesomeness of the wrestling scene, the implementation of the sex is a bit ordinary. If there’s one author I’d hope to expand the boundaries of the interactive part of AIF sex, it’s this one. Concept/Writing: 2nd Characters: 4th Technical: 1st Hotness: 4th Enjoyment: 2nd Neon Genesis Evangelion : Nightmares by der’morat’aman Overview: This game is a fan fiction of “Neon Genesis Evangelion”, a Japanese science fiction animated television series. In this game, you and the NPC are both young teenage space pilots. What Works: This game is extremely simple, which works to its advantage and disadvantage. It certainly isn’t a bad game, but I think it will end up at the bottom of the pile, simply because of this overarching simplicity. Its simplicity works for it technically – it’s quite bug-free. It works for it in the game’s hotness in that there is a certain air of innocence that is inherent to characters’ young age that is captured by the fact that the game doesn’t get bogged down with a complicated story or hunt for puzzle solutions. What doesn’t: The main fault of this game is that we are given nothing whatsoever about the characters. They live in a pre-made TV show world, and maybe if you’re a fan of the show (which I’m not – I’d never even heard of it) you’d recognize something in them that resonates with you. Without knowledge of their background, however, they feel like nothing other than a couple of teenagers having sex for no reason. This is the great risk of fan fiction. If you can’t capture and recreate the feel of the fictional universe in such a way that non-fans will find interesting, you won’t have much of an audience for your game. And if you can’t expand upon the fictional universe in such a way that resonates with fans, they’ll tune you out. Concept/Writing: 8th Characters: 8th Technical: 6th Hotness: 8th Enjoyment: 8th Detention by Inkybus Overview: You’re in a high school classroom, in detention with your girlfriend, being supervised by one of your teachers. Can you steal a fuck, even in this most unlikely situation? What works: The great strength of this game is in the very unlikeliness of its premise. The entire setup is completely impossible. But for players willing to suspend their disbelief (and pretty much that means anyone who plays AIF), it makes for a great sexy fantasy: hiking up your girlfriend’s skirt and doing her right in the classroom with anyone likely to walk in on you at any minute. It’s so smutty, I just love it. Inkybus’ fairly terse but vivid writing style in his sex scene supports this nicely and as a result, the sex is very hot. What doesn’t: There are some technical oddities about the game, and it can be fairly rigid in parts. For instance, to perform anal sex with your girlfriend, her ass must be lubricated. But there’s only one roundabout way to accomplish this, even after you find the lubricant. Also, the sex scene could have used a little more variety (we’re given only two sexual positions, but with the amount of furniture in the classroom, others could have been possible). Finally, the characters are a bit flatter than those in some of the other games, but are certainly adequate for a mini-comp. Concept/Writing: 3rd Characters: 3rd Technical: 4th Hotness: 2nd Enjoyment: 4th Shamelessly Slutty: Teacher by Rip_CPU Overview: You play a horny young female high school teacher working late with one of your students to help him improve his grades. What works: I think the idea of a saucy young teacher having sex with one of her students is a fantasy that has some appeal and I think this author creates the atmosphere and the attitude to carry it off. What doesn’t: It’s a fantasy that has some appeal – but not really to me. As a result, I’m not too enthralled with the game from the get go, but that’s my own personal preference. My other problems with the game come from its rigidity. It has the structure of more linear AIF that are generally regarded as inferior – in that the order of actions is strictly prescribed and many things can’t be done more than once. Also, the ‘puzzles’, if you can call them that, are made up of nothing more than a couple of hidden items. The characters are too flat to be even a little believable and that tends to negate the impact of the sex writing which otherwise is fairly eloquent. Concept/Writing: 6th Characters: 7th Technical: 8th Hotness: 6th Enjoyment: 6th * * * Game Reviews Resident Lust, The Gamemaster Saga: Chapter 1 A review by A. Bomire Name: Resident Lust, The Gamemaster Saga: Chapter 1 Author: Night_Owl Platform: ADRIFT 3.9 Size: 95K Content: m/f Type: Horror Length: Short Warning: There are spoilers contained within this review! Basic Plot This game is a work of fan fiction based upon the video game/movie series Resident Evil. If you are unfamiliar with the game, don't worry. You don't need to know anything about the games or movies to play this game, although those familiar with either will be able to pick out characters and scenarios from those storylines. You play a hero battling against an enigmatic villain known as "the Gamemaster". You have defeated him at his latest lair where you discovered an odd game system using an equally odd game controller. Whilst working on the controller you are accidentally transported to the world of a video game. While in this world, you need to track down Jill Valentine (a character from the Resident Evil series of games and movies), who is mentioned in a note you found. It won't be easy as the world is full of undead zombies and huge spiders, all eager to add you to their lunch menu. Puzzles / Game Play The game is fairly linear in play, requiring you to solve a puzzle before more of the game is open to you. The puzzles are relatively easy, with most of the difficulty lying in their sometimes difficult syntax. For example, in one instance you need to kill a "Zombie dog". At the time, I was carrying two different guns: a shotgun and a gun. I attempted to "shoot zombie", "shoot zombie dog", "shoot zombie with shotgun", "shoot zombie dog with shotgun", etc. After a series of tries, I finally discovered that the correct syntax is simply "shoot dog". There are a couple of instances like this (see the Technical notes), but nothing that stopped me for more than a few turns. The linearity of the game may be frustrating for some players. If you get stuck, there is nothing to do to continue the game experience. You cannot move on to another puzzle or another area and then come back later. However, when you solve a puzzle you are led directly to the next area to explore, which virtually eliminates the "What do I do next?" sort of problem that some games have. Technical The game was released once already, recalled for bug-fixing, and has been beta-tested by a wide range of players before being released again. For this reason, the problems remaining in the game surprised me. There were no game stopping problems, but I did discover a few areas that may have worked smoother. Most of the problems have to do with simplification - the solution is actually much simpler than you may suspect. In one instance, you find a medical kit with detailed instructions on how to cure someone of an ailment (required to complete the encounter). The detailed instructions can be completely ignored as the solution is just to type "cure name". The detailed instructions in this case are misleading as it appears that they are required when they are actually not. There are a few cases (such as the "shoot dog" scenario above) of things like this. Sex The sex is ok - it didn’t put me to sleep, nor did it set my computer on fire. Not all sexual commands are implemented for each woman you encounter, and some of the commands are implemented somewhat haphazardly. For example, in one encounter asking the woman to remove her own clothing works sometimes, but not others. In no case are any of the women's body parts implemented as examinable objects, although you can interact with them. This may be off-putting to players wanting the fullest interactive experience. Final Thoughts This game is pretty average for a first time author. The things I didn't like about it are the strict linearity of the game and the bugs still remaining after being recalled and retested. Night_Owl suggests that additional chapters are forthcoming, and despite the rating I am giving this game I am looking forward to them. I would recommend that the author take the constructive criticism presented within this review and use it to improve upon any future games. Rating: D+ * * * Erin! Adventures in Fantasy Download comic strip image from http://newsletter.aifcommunity.org/images/adv16.jpg * * * AIF Wants You If you can write game reviews, articles, opinion pieces, humorous essays, or endless blather, we want you. Contact the Editor for suggested content or just write what you want and send it to us. * * * Staff Editor: A Ninny is an AIF player, author of two AIF games and frequent beta- tester. His Parlour received an Erin for Best 'One Night Stand' game. Webmaster: Darc Nite is a newcomer to the AIF scene. He is an avid gamer who heard the call for help with the AIF Newsletter. Staff writers: A Bomire is the author of several TADS AIF games, including Dexter Dixon: In Search of the Prussian Pussy and The Backlot. His Games have won numerous awards and Erin nominations. BBBen is an AIF author. His games have received two Erin awards, numerous nominations and first place in A. Bomire's 2004 mini-comp. Grimm Sharlak is the author of two AIF games: Breakout and Of Masters and Mistresses: Abduction. Christopher Cole has written many ADRIFT AIF games, including Camp Windy Lake, Gamma Gals, and Mount Voluptuous. He is the 2005 winner of AIF’s Badman Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award. * * * Submitting Your Work to 'Inside Erin' Please direct all comments, articles, reviews, discussion and art to the Editor, A. Ninny, at aifsubmissions@gmail.com.