Inside Erin: The AIF Community Newsletter Volume 5 Number 11 - December 2009 A Letter from the Editor - Purple Dragon The holiday season is officially upon us. I've seen the decorations, heard the music, I think I even caught a glimpse of some chestnuts being roasted over an open fire the other day. Here at Inside Erin things continue on. We have another top 10 list this month and another game discussion. A. Bomire also sent in a couple of game reviews so check those out, and GoblinBoy takes advantage of this month's centerfold to wish you a happy holiday via a little lass from his upcoming game. In other news, there is just a little over a week left if you want to enter the Christmas Micro-comp. Just to remind you, the due date for those is Dec 14th and should be sent to aifsubmissions@gmail.com. Also remember that the cutoff for the Erin Awards is Dec 31st. So if you want to have a game considered for the awards this year, that's when it needs to be released by. Now, let's get right to things shall we? Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all, and we'll see you next year. * * * This Month in AIF by BBBen A fairly quiet month came after several months of more active AIFing in November. There was a fair amount of buzz around the Christmas micro-comp, however, which is good to see. I foolishly suggested I might be entering before all my AIF energy was diverted into working on another WIP. It's interesting to me that we always get a lot of fuss about the "letter" of the rules in these comps, when it's always seemed clear to me what the intended purpose of the rules were, and that the most important thing is to stick as close as possible to the spirit of the rules... oh, well, I guess it doesn't really matter in the end, so long as people get involved. Actually, while I say it was quite, there was at least a fair amount of chatter on the boards about all manner of topics (which probably aren't worth going into here). I'll give a little word of thanks to GoblinBoy and Raul here, as I think the release of SD3 served to get things moving again somewhat, as well as Raul's release of Last Week, which was another major game that had been in the works for a long time. The community thrives when we have games to talk about. No new games to talk about this month, but... let me see... oh, Johnny Freebase popped his head out after being absent several years. Hmmm... that seems like about all I've got to talk about on the subject of AIF this month. Time to go back to speculating about the draws for the World Cup tomorrow. * * * This Month at TF Games Site by Nandi Bear I've spent the last month trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to cut down on the time spent just looking at sites and waiting for them to update. That and (more successfully) having a little me time. It has helped me to remember that all this business really isn't a business at all, it's a hobby that we all volunteer our time to. I've gone on about this in the past, but it's nice to remind myself that it's something I do because I enjoy it. The other major realization is that there seems to be two types of writers. The first type is the programmer, who wants to construct the perfect game. Whilst the story is just as important, the main focus is the construction of the engine to allow the player as much control over the game as possible. To them the most important thing is to choose the game engine that will allow them to do that. You'll find most now choose Inform or TADS. The other type is the storyteller, to whom the story is of course the major importance. The game is a journey to a conclusion, even if there are multiple ending. To the storyteller the system isn't important, normally the simpler and easier to use the better, RAGS and ADRIFT seem to dominate. In fact many story tellers seem to give up because the actual system is just too much effort to master just to tell the story they want to tell. The strange thing is that some, but not all, programmers don't seem to realize that the storytellers out there really aren't interested in the system. Some get quite irate at how people ignore the perfect system in favour of a flawed system that suits their need better. Just remember programmers some people aren't interested in constructing a game this way line by line, and both involve a large amount of time and effort to construct. That's enough ranting for the week now on to the monthly news. This month has been quite bountiful game wise. First and most importantly is a successor to the godfather (or is that godmother?) of all TG games TG-TADS, the mighty Decker has done his own interpretation in TG-ADRIFT (ADRIFT). After a false start and an unfortunate drive crash Lily managed to rebuild a version of her RPG-Maker, Adventure. On the RAGS front several demos have been posted. SJack's Congressional Redirection and The Promotion, Kagenod's almost finished Adventures in Magic, and finally, Mjenrutxx has an as yet unnamed game. Well that's all for now, feel free to contact me and see you next month. * * * Collectively Made: This Month at the Collective by TeraS November in the Collective was a somewhat quiet month although there were a few announcements and games that appeared... Tinab updated her game The Maid to run on RAGS, she noted that: Well, I'm updating my old game The Maid to a RAGS version. This game has heavy mind control in it and contains TG/TF/CD. This is an older game I wrote and the text is quite x-rated. I got a bit embarrassed as I rewrote it for this version, but I kept the text pretty much the same as I originally had it. You can find the game here: http://www.tfgamessite.com/phpbb3/download/file.php?id=216 And the discussion thread is here: http://hypnopics-collective.net/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16491 Please note that you need the latest beta version of RAGS to run it. Node posted his first attempt at a RAGS game called Escape From Lethe. He would really appreciate comments and thoughts about his work and how to make it better. You can download version 1.1 of the game here: http://rapidshare.com/files/304286408/Escape_From_Lethe_1.1.rag or http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L1K5OG7U The discussion thread is here: http://hypnopics-collective.net/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16451 Nadibear posted the latest version of The House That Jack Built, that being available in two parts here: http://www.4shared.com/account/file/154926767/cae4e7f0/The_House_Jack_Built_042.html?sId=IByPWx ZGPNYvbDuf and http://www.4shared.com/account/file/154931296/9c07184b/The_House_Jack_Built_2- 023.html?sId=IByPWxZGPNYvbDuf It was noted that the Slavemaker game is now at version 15 and can be found here: http://masterbloodfer.creatuforo.com/viewforum.php?f=62 While the game itself has not changed, the descriptions, actions and so forth have been improved and expanded upon. The link to a Buffy the Vampire game was updated this month by dr753. It's been around for a while so please be aware of that. You can find the game here: http://rapidshare.com/files/313876225/BuffyGame-CallOfTheSiren1-04.zip Comments can be posted here: http://hypnopics-collective.net/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=10465 Newdoria posted his first game called Dolls and Reunion this month. There is little information on it in the thread on the Collective, so sorry for the lack of a description here... You can find it here: http://www.ragsgame.com/Downloads/Ragssuitesetup.0.9.9.2.exe and as well at the Collective at: http://hypnopics-collective.net/cpg132/displayimage.php?album=1642&pos=22 And the discussion thread is here: http://hypnopics-collective.net/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16567 Lastly for this month, Vengeance1701 has a XXXmas contest underway on the Collective. The theme is... TWISTED CHRISTMAS. The idea of this is...what can go wrong at That Merry Time of the Year? All of the games to be entered into this content have to be posted by Christmas more or less. You can find the discussion thread here: http://hypnopics-collective.net/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16441 And that was November at the Collective! Oh and for those that know who Tabico is... She's still working on a RAGS game... Stay tuned... * * * Top 10 List Each month we will be bringing you a new top ten list. You should not for a minute believe that the following represents the newsletter's official view on the matter (we don't have one). Rather, this is one person's personal list of favorite games. Speaking from personal experience, it's hard to narrow the list down to ten games, and even harder to rate them in order so you should probably consider any game on any list to be well worth playing. If you don't agree with something, then by all means feel free to write up your own list and send it in. I'll be more than happy to print it. This month's list is by 'trix Moist This is the game that got me and lots of other people hooked on AIF. It's nonlinear. There are four women, and several useful objects to play with. It invented the multiple-turn sex and arousal variable system that lots of games still use. It had anatomy objects, girls with different personalities, optional non-consent, variable descriptions. This game pioneered all the things that you find in the best AIF. Dear Brian I always thought this one was very underrated. Switching sex is something that occurs to every AIF author as an interesting idea, but it's so hard to do it right, and it's lots of extra work that you could put into a load of other interesting ideas. But Dear Brian makes it look effortless. It has a large cast, it has a storyline and interesting characters. And multiple endings. And it's well written and well plotted out. British Fox (also try: Magpie) This was a game that stood out as very good despite being in Adrift. Then it graduated to TADS and became excellent. Any game with a female p-o-v gets me on side immediately, and any that involves imprisonment, domination, bisexuality and corporal punishment is almost guaranteed to be a favourite of mine. Key to Eternity (also try: Baron's Plot and School Dreams) GoblinBoy had already impressed everyone before he suddenly blew everyone's socks off with this one. A female and a male pc. A richly created world. Being able to play as a slutty virgin. And lots and lots of pictures. I know some people discount pictures in IF, but the pictures made Dania and the other characters a lot more real to me. Also, Dawn from Buffy was in it, and who's not going to like that? BJ Drifter Probably this won't be in anyone else's list. But this was the first AIF game I ever played, and it caught me at a time when the subject matter was very close to my heart. It's funny, it's unique, and it's in Inform, otherwise I probably never would have played it or any other AIF game. If only it was from the point of view of a female protagonist instead of a male recipient it would be perfect. One Girl There are a lot of problems with this game. It had no story at all. It's certainly not to everyone's taste. It can come off as misogynistic or sick if you're of a mind to read porn that way. But it seemed to be pushing the boundaries of AIF towards a sort of sandbox, where the author implemented as many actions as he/she could think of, in as many ways as possible, and let the player decide what would be interesting to try. And lots of things that I think are interesting hardly exist in other AIF games. Academy of Spies (also try: Theatre and Peril from the Skies) One of the pioneering female protagonist games. Not only that, a beautiful female spy investigating some kind of mcguffin I don't remember. OK, Candy's p-o-v is a fairly transparent male fantasy depiction, but lots of people like putting themselves in male pornographic fantasies, especially when they're this well written. Sam Shooter IV (also try: Sam Shooter 1-3) Any the Sam Shooter games might have made it into this list. Particularly SS3, just for the ability to pimp girls as bets on car races and then deliberately lose. Sam Shooter was cheerfully untroubled by morality, and had two sisters generally waiting around to sexually service him, or each other, or anyone necessary to get you out of a jam. In Sam Shooter IV you get to play as the girl, which gives it the edge over the others. Rogue Cop Rogue Cop is like walking into the middle of a suspense thriller, and then have sex with nearly all the characters. I know that's not the most impressive simile ever written. But the unique setting always made Rogue Cop stand out, and make it still worth playing. There's plenty to explore and exploit with every character, and during the way you can uncover the storyline of what happened in this house. GNA (also try: HI and IPCU) NewKid's games kicked the crap out of everyone else's at the time. GNA is set in about 6 America sit-coms where you get to have sex with all the female characters. It's a well-done parody, it's funny, and it has (faked) naked pictures of celebrities. With also being well written and really big (like all NewKid's work), it's an absolutely classic game. * * * Game Discussion This month we are discussing Moist by Scarlet Herring and Malaise by A. Ninny. In addition to the regular newsletter staff, ExLibris was good enough to join us for this month's discussion. Anyone who has been around the AIF community for more than a couple of weeks has probably heard of Moist. Not only is it a wonderful game, but due to the author releasing his source code for the game, it also helped to spawn a whole new generation of games. A. Ninny calls Malaise, "a return to Moist." I believe that it is the only time when the sequel to a game was written by a different author than the original. Regardless, if you liked Moist, you need to check this one out as well. I have broken the discussion into two sections, one for each game. However, due to the nature of the games, there will obviously be a lot of overlap between the two sections. As with last month, this discussion contains some pretty large spoilers so read on at your own risk. An interview with Scarlet Herring is mentioned a couple of time during the discussion. If anyone is interested in reading it, it appeared in the December 2005 issue of the newsletter, which you can find here: http://newsletter.aifcommunity.org/2005-11-30.pdf Moist Purple Dragon: I think it's amazing how well this game still holds up 10 years after its release. I've been thinking lately about just what it is I like about it. I think a big part of it is the characters. It is almost impossible to imagine four characters being more different from one another. The contrast in general interaction, and in the sex scenes gives the game variety that a lot of games don't have. More than that, the characters just feel more 'real' than do a lot of the NPCs in games. It feels almost as if SH was describing people he knew in real life. The gameplay itself is also a big plus. I tend to be a fan of puzzles in AIF. They are games after all. Now, I'm not particularly great at them, but if they make sense, I'm usually able to muddle my way through. I think the puzzles here fall into that category. They make sense, and they are fun. I especially liked the blackjack game with the option (nearly requirement really) to cheat, nice bit of coding. Add all that to the fact that there are multiple ways around some of the obstacles and it is really no wonder why so many people like this game. A. Ninny: For me "Moist" holds up as one of the most replayable games in all of AIF. It was the first AIF game I ever played and I keep coming back to it because it does so much with such a minimal environment. When you actually go back and read the descriptions of the rooms it's amazing how little detail Scarlet Herring gives, but I feel it hits exactly the right balance between giving descriptions and allowing the player to use his imagination. Purple Dragon: I've often wondered about this very thing. If you look at the environment, the descriptions are very brief and there are some objects that aren't described at all. I normally don't like that in games, but for some reason it has never struck me as a weakness in this one. The environment just seems right, but it's hard to put into words why that is. A. Ninny: I'll also second what PD said about how the characters' attributes come out almost entirely in the sex, especially with Fanny and Ilsa, but I'm not as convinced that they're so thoroughly fleshed out. With Morghana especially it seems like Scarlet Herring was struggling to figure out who she is. Purple Dragon: I'll concede that point. I was really thinking about the other three girls at any rate. Since you don't have nearly the opportunity to interact with Morghana until the end, it made more sense that you wouldn't know as much about her, that she would be a bit more mysterious and aloof. Hell, it could even be argued that that detachment is itself part of her character, but I don't think I'll do so. A. Ninny: On the other hand, I really always connect with Kim. There's no particular reason to give her the diamond but I do every time - I feel like she really earns it. 'trix: I think the reason the player connects with Kim is that she's the only one that you have to seduce: she has all this non-sexual activity (the card game) that the others do not have, and you have to figure out what she enjoys so you can get her pleasure levels high enough to get her to cop off with you. As the player, you can choose to do stuff she doesn't enjoy, but to complete her part of the game you have to do the things she likes. Hence the connection. Also, hers is the best puzzle in the game by a long way. By the way, PD, you *have* to cheat in order to win the blackjack game: it's rigged. Purple Dragon: Hmm, is it the dice game in Malaise that you can get through without cheating? I could have sworn that I was able to muscle my way though at least one of them. When I replayed the games recently I didn't even try to win without cheating, so I'm working off memories a couple of years old. A. Ninny: The fact that you can get through the craps game without using the magic dice is a fuckup. The intent was that the puzzle mirror the original. I actually went back later and fixed the code but never released the corrected version because I figured it's too minor a detail. Purple Dragon: As far as Kim goes, I've thought about that same thing myself. The other two girls are very easy to get with. You can have Fanny anytime you want, and if you're not careful, Ilsa will have you anytime she wants, but Kim is another matter. From a technical standpoint, the sex scenes themselves could all be just as well written, but the fact that you have to work to get to the one with Kim is liable to make it stand out more. A. Ninny: The sex in "Moist" is another draw for replaying the game. By today's standards the writing is brief and not very detailed, but again I feel like it strikes the right balance and gives the player enough so that he'll easily fill in the blanks in his imagination. Ilsa, Fanny and Kim, at least offer very different attitudes toward the player and toward sex, and that makes their interactions very interesting and very worth prolonging - you want to try out every different toy and every action in every situation. 'trix: Moist wasn't the first AIF game I played, but it was the one that made me realise what AIF could be like. Unlike any previous (and nearly all subsequent) games, it's very sandboxy. You have three girls (before the Boss girl), each of whom needs to be approached in a different way, which you can do in any order. And the sex is even more sandboxy: you have a set of possible actions, a set of possible anatomical choices for the action, a set of objects that you can use that will influence the action, and the girl has a state that will influence the action, and you can explore that in any way you like. The only requirement is that each girl has an orgasm. Beyond that, you can tie them up, spank them, go down on them; you can be nice or you can be rough and nasty. In the few other games with non-vanilla content, it's generally required to advance the plot. Virtually no other AIF game gives you the freedom to do things however you want: One Girl perhaps, but that's a far more limited game without half the character of Moist. A. Bomire: This wasn't my first AIF game either - that honor belongs to NewKid's "Generic New York Apartment Building". However, Moist was my second AIF game. If there were ever two games that could spoil you with regards to AIF expectations (especially in the late 90s), those games certainly qualify! What I liked about Moist, and still like, are the same things that 'trix pointed out - every time I played it, I found new stuff to do. At the time of its release, AIF was still very fundamental. (I hesitate to say the word "infancy" since AIF games had been around for over a decade when Moist was released.) To parallel it with the movie industry, Moist reminds me of movies like "The Wizard of Oz", "Star Wars" and "The Matrix". After those movies came out, the effects standards against which other movies were gauged suddenly went up. The same thing with Moist - the amount of interactivity with NPCs suddenly had a much higher bar. I, too, have always been partial to Kim for reasons that I couldn't put into words until reading 'trix's post. Yes, that probably is the reason - you have to seduce Kim where the other girls have different triggers. Knight Errant: Moist was the second AIF game I played, but it was the first good one. Unlike many AIF games, each of the characters is very distinctly different from each other. Also unlike most AIF games, Moist included a hint system, which is very helpful for people like me who need a bit of assistance but don't want to rely on the crutch of a walkthrough. Also unlike many AIF games, Moist has more of a "classic IF" feel to it, the PC enters the world knowing nothing of what he is going to encounter and explores as he goes along. However, Moist does show some age and it needs to be judged accordingly. For example, it's less sparsely implemented than most modern games. One of the most amazing things about this game, in my opinion, is that it's nonlinear, complex, with a wide range of sexual options and an arousal system ... and Scarlet Herring programmed the freaking thing in a week! I can't even code a minicomp game in a month. A. Bomire: You know, I had forgotten that detail. Not that it had the arousal system (which, by the way spawned almost all of the TADS related arousal libraries), but that Scarlett Herring wrote such an AIF masterpiece in such a short time period. (According to his interview in "Inside Erin", he actually took almost three weeks to write it, but that is still incredible for someone learning TADS as he went!) A. Ninny: That he wrote "Moist" that quickly really is incredible. Other than the threesomes, "Malaise" doesn't have that much more content than "Moist", was built on existing TADS AIF libraries, and still took me well over a year to finish! ExLibris: I think Moist is probably the most important and influential game in AIF history. In 1996 I was just discovering the joys of the internet and I stumbled across alt.games.xtrek in the course of my wanderings. The games interested me, but not being a fan of either fanfic or Star Trek they didn't hold my attention very strongly. I probably would have wandered away before too long had it not been for two games which appeared around that time. Moist was one of them (the other being Emy Discovers Life), and they cemented an interest that's lasted thirteen years now. Of those two games, Moist has undoubtedly had the greater long-term influence. Before Moist came out, adult text adventures were Xtrek. After Moist came out, Xtrek started its transformation into AIF as we know it today. At the most basic level a plot needs to present the protagonist with both a problem and a reason to solve that problem. Moist's plot may be quite simple, but it achieves that goal admirably. The PC wanders into a cave and becomes trapped, giving him a clear motivation: find a way out. This also gives him a motivation for interacting with the female characters beyond a simple desire for sex, since they hold the key to his freedom. The PC himself is a prototypical player avatar. We learn almost nothing about his life before the opening of the game, apart from the fact that he takes holidays at nudist camps (a nice touch to explain his lack of clothes). But the story doesn't require that we know anything about the PC, as the initial event (the cave-in) is the catalyst for everything that follows, rather than the story depending on any particular aspect of the PC himself. The greatest strength of the female characters is probably how different they are from each other, which I think is the main reason why they remain so vivid in the minds of players. If you compare the characters of Moist with say Becky, Molly, Alison and Melissa, there's a certain blurring at the edges between the members of the latter group because they have so many commonalities (all being 16-17 year old schoolgirls for a start). By contrast Kim, Ilsa, Fanny and Morghana are completely distinct, and that comes across in all the ways that the PC interacts with them. I'd agree with AN that Kim is probably the strongest character, while Morghana is the weakest. Ilsa and Fanny are essentially 'stock' characters (the dominatrix and the 'French' maid, which their names reinforce quite nicely), although they're written well enough that they have a life of their own. Kim is the character who has the strongest personality, and comes closest to being a real person in her own right. I think Morghana's main weakness is her passivity. The other characters are defined by their activities, but all Morghana seems to do is lounge on her bed so she doesn't seem as 'alive' as the other characters. For its time, Moist was a technical masterpiece. It still stands up pretty well now, but back when the dominant authoring system was AGT it was a revelation. I think Moist probably spelled the beginning of the end for AGT, and was the chief reason why the AIF community adopted TADS over Inform. Among the technical innovations that Moist introduced was the arousal model for sex scenes which, via MMX, has been pretty much the de facto standard ever since (I think it's starting to wear out its welcome now, but that's another story). Moist was also one of the first (if not the first) AIF game where the author made the source code available, which is another reason why it's had such a great influence over subsequent games. For a game that's thirteen years old, Moist has aged pretty well. The most obvious thing that marks it as being of its time are the descriptions, which are a little sparse compared to what we've come to expect from modern games. The economical writing is still effective, although there are a few places where I find myself wanting just a little more detail. The puzzles are another marker of Moist's age, as the game was written at a time when puzzles were the raison d'être of the text adventure. As a result the puzzles are more elaborate and difficult than is the current fashion. The fact that they're difficult isn't actually a bad thing in my opinion. I find that I tend to enjoy sex scenes more when I've had to do something to achieve them, rather than having them handed to me on a plate. A. Bomire: I agree that the descriptions are sparse, but I also allow for the fact that Scarlett Herring has admitted that English is not his first language. I keep referring back to the interview he gave for the AIF newsletter (which I didn't remember having conducted but apparently *I* interviewed him!) where he laments the same thing about sparse descriptions and bad prose. A. Ninny: Scarlet Herring put in lots of ornaments. There are several rooms in the "Moist" castle that are totally unnecessary for the player to enter but if you don't you'll miss out on some fun. There is the graffiti in the bathroom, for instance, and the pornographic stories in the library. There are the numerous fun hints for the pedestal at the outside of the castle. All of those things combine to make the game feel very robust, because the author took the time to put flavor in all the nooks and crannies, even though the walls themselves were left pretty rough. A. Bomire: Agreed! Those are some of the things that really impressed me after my initial play through. I loved discovering all of the "Easter Eggs" that he left for those who were interested in looking. A. Ninny: On the other hand it's odd to me that some careless gaffes were left to remain - like how if the battery in the vibrator dies you can never finish the game. I think SH should have either given us another way to satisfy Morghana, hidden the recharger somewhere in the castle rather than outside it, or simply given us a 'you lose' message. That, and a few other dead ends make aspects of the game seem unfinished to me. A. Bomire: Another aspect of the game that SH laments in his interview. A. Ninny: I'm a fan of "Moist" too because of the magical items in the game. AIF especially (and much of IF as well) has an atmosphere of non-reality, so why not load up the game with magic potions and X-ray glasses and the like? They're a connection for me to classic IF games, which "Moist" most resembles. I love the description of Kim - the PC's palpable excitement - when you first look at her through the magic glasses. That's so damn sexy. Malaise Purple Dragon: Two words spring to mind when I think about this game. Puzzles and sex! For the most part, the puzzles made sense to me, and while some of them are certainly not easy, I didn't have a lot of trouble with most of them (although I seem to remember having a bugger of a time finding that damn switch behind the refrigerator). I think that the story here works extremely well. Having the characters and the environment change as progress is made not only gives a feeling of accomplishment, but also (for me at least) produced an emotional response as if my spirits were lifting right along with the occupants of the castle. Did someone say sex? I'm sure I don't know what mad compulsion drove AN to include three threesome in this game, but I'm glad for the extra work. And of course, the fact that this is on top of individual scenes with each of the gals is all the more impressive. 'trix: Moist isn't a linear game that you start, do the required actions, and reach the end: it's a game world you can go into and visit, and then do whatever you like. That's what gives Malaise such immediate appeal: you can go back and visit the girls, see how they're doing, and get some new activities to explore with them. Purple Dragon: Exactly, Moist is like that book or movie that you really like, where you get to the end and ask, "What happened next?" The characters have become real enough that you care about what happens to them, where they go from here. For Moist, Malaise answers that question. We get to see the girls again. We get to find out what they have been doing, and what has happened to them. Most importantly, we get to spend some more time with them. Of course, a project like that could just as easily have gone horribly wrong. Luckily, the person who decided to do it not only had the skill to pull it off from a technical standpoint, but the writing ability to make it hot and a love and respect for the original, which insured that the feeling and spirit of the first game was incorporated in the second. ExLibris: I have to admit that I don't like Malaise as much as I like Moist. Part of that is for objective reasons, but it's also partly because in my mind Malaise isn't suffused with the same roseate glow of nostalgia that Moist is. I find it difficult to think of Malaise as a true sequel to Moist. In my mind it's closer to a modern remake of a classic movie. It's filmed in HD, the special effects are better, and everything is generally shinier. Yet somehow it doesn't manage to capture the spark of the original. That impression is reinforced by how close Malaise is to Moist in terms of structure and plot, and ultimately it comes across as more homage than sequel. As is not uncommon with AN's games, Malaise has an ungodly amount of well-written sex, combining not just quantity but quality as well. The scenes also reflect the characters of the participants, which is one of my main requirements for a good sex scene. You can't really imagine any of the major scenes being the same if you substituted one character for another (and the final scene explicitly proves that). A. Bomire: I liked this game because it didn't try to become "Moist II". It would have been easy for Ninny to take the Moist characters and just change the puzzles to create a second Moist. Instead, he did the right thing (in my opinion) in extrapolating from the base established by Scarlett Herring. This game could have been one that the AIF community looked at and said "Oh, look - it's Moist in a different package". But it isn't. I mean, it's Moist - the same characters with much the same personalities - but not so much better (you can't improve upon the original) as different. Oh, and still good! Like PD, I am astounded at the amount of work Ninny put into the sex scenes. Having written at least one threesome myself (only one that I released), it just floors me when an author spends this much time on scenes like that. Knight Errant: In my opinion, what makes "Malaise" such a successful game is that A. Ninny didn't just remake Moist, he took Moist's foundation and extrapolated in every direction. Whereas Moist was content to leave the castle isolated in the world, Malaise explained where they got their money and what the effects of their isolation were. Whereas in Moist the three girls are completely independent of each other, in Malaise they talk about, worry about, and help each other, which makes all the characters feel more real. Malaise even answered the question of how Fanny gets unlimited goat's milk. Whereas Moist just had one- on-one sex, Malaise also has three fully implemented threesomes! Whereas the castle in Moist was completely static, in Malaise your actions are reflected in the improving state of the castle. The only thing Moist had that Malaise didn't was a whip and 10 years of nostalgia. Purple Dragon: One of the first things I noticed when playing Malaise is that the room descriptions were the same as they were in Moist. What the hell? Was AN just being lazy in not making new ones? Well, since we have already talked about the ungodly amount of time it took to write three threesomes for the game, I really don't think that is the answer. I actually really liked this. It immediately brought home the fact that this is the same place that we visited all those years ago, while at the same time, adding the extra descriptions for the dilapidated state of the castle showed that something had changed. You know right away that there are some serious problems, even before you see anybody. When you do meet the characters you find they are the same ones you knew, but at the same time, a bit different. This is one area where Malaise could have gone horribly wrong. If AN had tried to keep the characters exactly the same as they were in Moist I believe that it would quite simply not have worked. Fiction or not, game or not, if several years have passed, then the characters should be at least a bit different under any circumstances, and I think how they were handled works well for the most part. A. Bomire: I agree - the game had to be the same, and it had to be different. If it wasn't the same environment - if Ninny had added, for example, new rooms, it just wouldn't have been true to the original. What was he going to do? "I know you've explored this castle a thousand times, but oh look, over here there's a door you've never seen!" And yet, as you point out, it has to be different - the player HAS played Moist over and over and is probably intimately familiar with every aspect of the game - so Ninny has to change something otherwise we'll get the same feeling you thought. "How lazy is this guy?" That is what I found so remarkable about "Malaise" - it is the same, yet different enough to feel like a new game. It could, as you say, have gone horribly wrong (it could have been "Godfather III"), but it didn't. A. Ninny: Malaise was always planned as "A Return to Moist" rather than "Moist II" - the distinction being that the action would take place in the same castle with the same characters, rather than have a similar storyline located somewhere else entirely. I did add new rooms, actually - where the golem 'lives' but it's not too big a stretch to say that you simply didn't notice the secret door in the Library before. Obviously, when I wrote "Malaise" I was working with the same four characters, but I felt different levels of freedom in putting my own interpretations on them. I decided to start with my own ideas for the queen because SH gives us so little on her. She needed to be a more real character in "Malaise" because she plays such an increased role. I took Fanny and Ilsa from "Moist" and exaggerated their main attributes (cruelty and strength for Ilsa and hapless servitude for Fanny), which made them easier to figure out. Kim was the huge challenge, first to carry over her character from the original, but also to decide what her new motivation was to have sex with the PC. I guess I'd like to know whether this group feels like I made the right decisions when it came to my translations of the characters, which you feel were successful and which less so, and what you thought would have made them more true to the way Scarlet Herring envisioned them? Purple Dragon: I think that Fanny and Ilsa work perfectly. As life in the castle stagnates they naturally drift deeper into their assigned roles. Ilsa gets tougher and stronger as building her body becomes her only focus. Fanny drops so deeply into her role as a servant that she almost looses herself altogether. If a malaise of despair has actually fallen over the castle this is pretty much exactly what I would expect to happen to them. Kim was always a bit harder to tack down. In Moist she was much less of a stereotype than the other two, and that goes for Malaise as well. Having her throw herself into her work was a good idea. Yes, she had to do something to support the castle when the diamond mine was shut off (nice touch explaining that one by the way) but did she really need to be working 20 hours a day (or whatever it was)? Probably not, but since there is nothing else to do it makes sense that that is what would happen. For the queen I'll just say that nothing really flew out at me as being wrong with her. As we have already discussed, she was the least developed character in Moist, which I still think worked okay there. In Malaise she plays a larger role. A little larger in the game as a whole, but a hell of a lot larger from a sexual point of view. As a result, she really needed to have a bit more done with her. What we see is a monarch who is nearly physically sick at her inability to control the situation that she finds herself in. We also find out how much she cares for her subjects, and her failure to properly care for them only escalates the problem. All in all I think she, and all of them, work well. I have a hard time thinking of any major changes that I would have liked to see that would have made them better. ExLibris: I agree that if the sequel was going to be set in the same location as the original, then the room layout had to be maintained (with the odd secret passage). However, I think that using the same room descriptions is less of a given. Some years have passed between the two games (possibly ten if you're literal), so the PC isn't the same person that he was in the first game. It follows that he wouldn't necessarily see things in the same way (though I guess that depends on how much of a division you think there is between PC and narrator), so there is some room for tweaking the room descriptions if desired. I think the decision to keep the descriptions largely the same emphasises Malaise's relationship with Moist, specifically that underneath the layers of slime the castle is the same place it was in the first game. As others have pointed out, there's a much stronger argument for changing the characters. Since they're flesh and blood rather than stonework and masonry, it's only natural for them to have changed over the years. It's also one of the places where Malaise makes itself distinct from Moist. The characters are such a big part of the game (and most AIF for that matter) that not changing them in either personality or location would have made Malaise too similar to Moist in my opinion. It's a nice touch that the malaise affecting the castle merely exaggerates pre-existing personality traits. There is a small risk with that kind of exaggeration that it might turn characterisation into caricature. For me Ilsa comes closest to that, largely because her exaggerated personality is accompanied by an exaggerated physical appearance. She's also the character who seems the least changed once she's 'cured'. I think that's part of the reason I find Ilsa to be the character I can least see the PC walking off into the sunset with (which was also the case in Moist). For me this particular line of discussion raises the question of how much you have to have played Moist in order to fully enjoy Malaise? I have to admit that I'm not so familiar with Moist that I immediately noticed that the room descriptions were the same, which makes me wonder if I've missed out on anything else. A. Bomire: That's a good point. Personally, I think that having played and enjoyed "Moist" for 10 years prior to playing "Malaise" you get a feeling of nostalgia when you encounter your old favorites once more. But, I also think that "Malaise" stands on its own. I'd like to think that players who played "Malaise" and hadn't yet played "Moist" would then be inspired to go back and play the original not so much because they felt required to pick up the storyline but because they enjoyed the sequel and wanted more. A. Ninny: I think that someone who plays a lot of AIF but who may happen to play "Malaise" before he plays "Moist" would recognize a lot of technical conventions (in SSS's particularly) being followed in "Malaise" that simply didn't exist when "Moist" was written. At a very basic level, using the phrase ">fuck Kim" works in "Malaise" but in "Moist" you have to specify that you want to fuck her pussy. In "Malaise" you're allowed ">Kim, fuck me" but in "Moist" you're not. In "Malaise" I programmed a few different sex positions for each NPC for when you >fuck NPC. In "Moist" you're only able to get the girls to orgasm by fucking their pussies or asses. As an homage, I made it a requirement that you make them orgasm for the first time by fucking them, but for subsequent orgasms I went back to the current convention of allowing them to come from oral or digital stimulation, as well as through use of toys and from masturbating. None of those conventions (multiple sex positions, multiple orgasm actions, NPC on top) I used in "Malaise" are new ideas anymore, but try to write a game without them and it will feel flat. On the other hand, a number of conventions were originated with "Moist", such as the incremental arousal system, and in the subsequent years we've been able to expand and improve it, but we still owe Scarlet Herring a big debt of gratitude. BBBen: This doesn't really fit with anything that anybody else has been saying, but I thought I'd bring it up anyway. I've wondered for a while why Malaise seemed not to get quite the level of recognition that it deserved within the community. Moist is always cited as a timeless classic but Malaise, which goes beyond Moist in many ways, does not seem to have gotten that attention in its own time. This must have been discouraging for A. ninny, who obviously poured a lot of work into the game. My thinking is that there are two main reasons: 1) The game has kind of a slow start. True, this is in keeping with Moist, but I think players, with a wealth of games now available and so much porn just a click away nowadays, are less patient than they might have been when Moist first came out. The start of the game doesn't give the same 'suggestion of sex to come' that some other game concepts can provide, like "Hey, here's a bunch of horny schoolgirls! Who knows what's going to happen next...?" 2) The second reason is connected to the first, and it's that the game is rather challenging - at least compared to many games that don't require much work to get to a sex scene or two. It comes into the patience thing again; if a player isn't patient then they aren't going to give the game the time it needs to impress them. Still, I imagine that A. Ninny has at least received interest and feedback from the more committed and thorough players in the community (maybe you can clarify whether this is the case, Ninny). I've tended in my more recent projects to gravitate more towards putting in things like easter eggs and hidden details just because this is something those more committed players enjoy, and they are the most gratifying players to have, as they give good feedback. A. Bomire: That always puzzled me as well. The game seemed well received by the community, but you hardly hear it mentioned other than "Moist's sequel". Perhaps that is part of it as well - it is overshadowed by its "big brother". I agree that in many ways the game outdoes the original, but perhaps it doesn't engender the same warm feeling because it is "just a sequel". A. Ninny: It's really the same old story when you talk about the feedback I received from the community: almost all the feedback I received was from my beta-testers and reviews in the newsletters. The comment about the slow start seems valid, though. It takes a lot longer to get into a sex scene in Malaise than in Moist - you can't have any sex in Malaise without solving puzzles, and they're puzzles that require multiple steps to solve. This isn't necessarily a hangup for the community, though. You don't get any 'free' sex scenes in many other highly regarded games, IPCU being one example that comes to mind. Perhaps that's it, or perhaps it's because it was written in an era where bigger and more complicated games are commonplace. Remember that it was competing for attention against "Key to Eternity" when it was released. I can think of other games that similarly didn't get much attention, even though they were elaborate, well-written games. Knight Errant: Yeah, I think A. Ninny had the misfortune to release Malaise in the same year that GoblinBoy released Key to Eternity. Let's face it, given how freaking gigantic K2E is, it would overshadow any other game out there. Not because K2E is the best game ever, but because it's the longest and has tons of pictures. K2E was good, but Malaise is the one that I play repeatedly. ExLibris: I don't think that would be the case if they were merely released in the same year. But according to IFWiki, Malaise was released on 17 October, and K2E eight days later (25 October), which is some seriously bad timing. Comparing the two games, K2E is obviously a lot 'shinier' (people like pictures, all arguments to the contrary). By contrast, Malaise plays and feels a lot like Moist (a game that was already ten years old at the time) and in consequence it seems rather 'old school'. Unfortunately I think 'new and shiny' is always going to beat out 'old school' in capturing the hearts and minds (and other places) of a mass audience. 'trix: I think that Malaise might have suffered a bit from how influential and (excuse me) seminal Moist was. Because I've played Moist so many times, every bit of it is fun and effortless. Malaise isn't slow by comparison with games in general, but it's slow in comparison with Moist. The dice-throwing game in particular is a bit of a chore because I have to struggle to understand all the rules and terminology, but when I find the magic dice, it all boils down to "bet 100 on the betting option that you understand and then roll the number than works". I still don't understand the rest of the dice rules. Whereas the blackjack puzzle in Moist is much more comprehensible, and cheating at it involves using your advantage and your understanding of the rules in combination. That's much more fun. Fanny is immediately accessible in Moist, and it's fun to have one girl you don't have to jump through hoops for. Also, with Fanny (and the other girls) you are free at least to explore and see the effects of being a dick and doing things the girls don't like. That's one of the most unique features of Moist, and it's a freedom which is noticeably curtailed in Malaise: the player-character is less of a moral blank slate. In some ways Malaise is more impressive than Moist: the characterisations are much fuller, particularly Morghana and Fanny. The setting, showing the time and degradation since your last visit, and the way it changes, is a clever way of showing tangible signs that you are saving the girls. In any case, Malaise is a really good game. Probably no sequel, no matter how good, could really surpass Moist at its own game, but it adds to and enriches it, and if it hadn't been released coincidentally with K2E, it probably would have received a lot more praise and attention. A. Ninny: I actually agree. The dice game is a lot more work to play than I thought it would be. I originally wrote the craps game as a standalone game when I was learning TADS to see how hard it would be. That's why there are so many different betting options in the craps game in "Malaise" - way more than you'd really need. I really struggled to figure out a game that Kim could play that would feel like the original and and I don't think there is one. Other casino games have already been done (roulette in "Cruise", baccarat in "Tomorrow Never Comes"), and poker is at least as complicated as craps. Purple Dragon: Well, that's it for this month. Next month we will be discussing The Reunion by Moriarty. Anyone interested in participating in the discussion should drop me a line in the next day or two and let me know. We'll be starting up in a few days. * * * Game Reviews Generic New York Apartment Building Reviewed by A. Bomire Game Info: Generic New York Apartment Building Author: NewKid Platform: TADS 2 Size: 901K without pictures and sounds 1.87M with pictures and sounds Content: M/F, M/FF Game Type: Fanfiction, Puzzle Fest Length: Long Extras: Pictures and Sounds Basic Plot You are the building superintendent in a New York apartment building. And, it seems that every tenant is having a problem of one type or another. It is your job to fix all of the problems and get your tenants to renew their leases at the same time. Of course, the female occupants are are suitably grateful for your efforts! Overall Thoughts This game was written at a time when it seemed that every TV sitcom was based in New York city, and all of them were in an apartment building. The author, NewKid, collected the main characters from several TV shows and lumped them into one "generic" building. Because the referenced TV shows were all hit shows in the mid- to late-90s, they may not be recognized by players today - especially some of the minor characters such as the older lady who lives across the hall from the Buchanans/Buckmans. Of course, with syndication and re-runs many if not all of the shows are still playing somewhere today so if players are interested they can find the original stars. If you ignore the TV tie-ins and examine the game just as an AIF game, then it boils down to the standard "handyman" theme. The player spends most of the game checking his answering machine for tenants reporting problems, and then finding the tools and supplies necessary to repair them. While it sounds like a well-used theme (and has been used in many games), it is really well done by NewKid. The problems are well thought out and for the most part realistic for an apartment building (well, an AIF apartment building). The characters would have been familiar to players from their portrayal on TV, but NewKid doesn't let them rest on just that. Understanding that not everyone would recognize every character he builds them with his characteristic fullness. Puzzles/Game Play NewKid is well known for his puzzles, and this game doesn't disappoint. The puzzles aren't mind-bending head scratchers, but neither are they simple. They blend easily into the game, with only one puzzle that I found that seemed to be thrown in simply to take advantage of a famous character in a TV sitcom: the Soup/Sundae Nazi. Other than that exception, the other puzzles represent problems that are typical of building maintenance. Not all of the puzzles are just "find it - fix it" either. There are personal problems of your tenants that need addressing as well. This is nice, as the player gets a chance to build a relationship with the tenants (especially with the "prize": Jane Buchanan). The game play is good as well. The apartment building is laid out well, with none of those false dead-ends that are sometimes found in large games like this. (Example: "There are more apartments down that way, but you don't need to go there.") While the player can enjoy the game without knowing just who all of the characters are, the game is a little more enjoyable when you encounter familiar faces who reflect their on- screen personalities. Sex The sex in this game is well done, as is customary with NewKid. The one drawback is that it uses an arousal system that forces the player into a set path instead of allowing him some leeway in sexual exploration. For example: Kiss her, then touch her, then remove her shirt, then kiss again, then remove her pants, then touch again, then remove bra, then...etc. The player is given a written verification that he can proceed in sexual exploration with a message such as "She purrs as you feel her excitement rise." This may put off some players. Some more familiar sexual acts aren't implemented, relying instead on variations. For example, you can't ask a character to "suck cock", but she will be perfectly happy to respond to "blow me". This is an indication of the early time period in which this game was written, when the "standard" AIF commands had not yet been established. But aside from that, the rest is great. There are many characters in the game, each with a fully-fleshed personality. As such, the sex is varied from one character to another. Some of the characters have multiple encounters, such as two roommates who are willing to share as well as have individual encounters with you. And if you play the game with the accompanying pictures, you are also treated to some original graphics of the characters. Technical As mentioned, some of the common AIF commands are not implemented in this game (although there are alternatives), as well as some AIF body parts (the player is apparently not anatomically correct, missing a very important body part). Once you realize NewKid's way of doing things, then it is better as each girl will respond to the same actions (perhaps not performing those actions, but at least responding). However, coming from today's standards and going backwards may throw some players off. The only other technical glitch that I could find has to do with the pictures, and this one only shows up if you play with the pictures turned on. Some of the pictures are displayed at the end of the accompanying text, causing the picture to display off of the bottom of the screen. So, you'll sometimes see just the top of a character's head until you scroll down. It isn't anything game shattering, just a little annoying. Other than that, the game is very clean, technically. Intangibles As mentioned, NewKid includes pictures and sounds in this game. He takes full advantage of the then-new HTML-TADS interpreter, allowing the player to click on words and pictures to perform tasks. For example, the player can click on the picture of his tool belt, and the game will assume he means "remove tool belt" (or "wear tool belt" if the tool belt has been removed). Clicking on the red answering machine button will trigger the "play message" task. Clicking on a character's name will display that character's description and accompanying picture. And so on. This is something that is hardly ever used in today's games, and is used in just the right amount here. NewKid doesn't fill the game with clickable objects and pictures, but they are there if you need them. And, you don't need to take advantage of them if you don't wish. Along with this, NewKid realizes that many players will recognize the characters in the game as their on- screen personalities, instead of his re-imagining of them. So, he provides the capability of referring to characters by their TV screen-names, and even their real-life names. This is really nice, as more than once when I was first playing the game I accidentally referred to characters by their TV names and was pleased to find that NewKid had accommodated me. Final Thoughts Compared against modern games, this game may seem worse than it really is: dated commands and characters from old and possibly forgotten TV sitcoms. But trust me, this game is a winner. Forget the TV shows the characters are based upon and just play the game for what it is: a fun, puzzling and sexy romp through a well-populated apartment building. This game is one of the first AIF games I ever played, and still stands out today as one of my top 10 games of all time. Oh yes, you're probably wondering which American TV sitcoms are represented in the game. Well, from my memory they are: "Mad About You", "Caroline in the City", "Friends", "Seinfeld" and "Becker". Rating: A Voyeur Reviewed by A. Bomire Game Info: Voyeur 2.5 Author: 'PG' Productions Platform: MS-DOS Size: 179K Content: Voyeurism, underage Game Type: Sex Romp Length: Short Basic Plot You are outside of Kim's house with a 'Thought Transferrence Device' that you ordered from the back of a comic book. You use the device to direct Kim to move about her house and perform various actions, leading her through more and more "fun and interesting activities" - i.e., having Kim play with herself. Overall Thoughts Much like a previous game that I reviewed (Young Stuff), this game was originally developed to run on a BBS (Bulletin Board System) - which were the old dial-up community boards that were precursors to the Intranet. The game was originally released in 1991-1992, and has since been converted to run in MS-DOS. This may give some players trouble (especially if you use Linux or Mac). Players interested in playing this game may need an emulator like DOSBox to have this game work correctly. Puzzles/Game Play This game doesn't play like typical AIF games. Instead of the player wandering around and performing various actions, you (as the player) direct the actions of Kim, a 17-year old young girl who is home alone. The game is described from the viewpoint of the player, but the player never actually gets involved in any of the action. So, you could think of it as an AIF game described in the third person. The screen is divided into windows: one for descriptions, one for actions, one for objects and one for status. The descriptions are described in a tiny six-line window that may frustrate players used to the full-screen experience of modern games. With regards to commands, they are limited to a set of menu choices: Change Room, Walk To, Look At, Get, Use, etc. When you select a base command of "Look At", for example, you are presented with a sub- menu that lists all of the objects which can be examined. Once you've made your selection, the result is described to you in normal text adventure style. Before attempting any further actions, the player will need to direct Kim to Walk To the object. This can be a bit confusing at first for players used to more modern games. The puzzles in the game revolve around getting Kim more and more willing to perform certain actions upon herself. If you try something that Kim isn't yet willing to do, she will refuse. You can come back to it later if she is in a more willing mood - and you have enough time. There are various objects hidden around the house that can be used to increase Kim's libido - such as magazines, candles, butter, alcohol, etc. The overall theme is finding these objects and directing Kim to the right rooms to use them, at the right times, all within the limited time frame. The player has but 180 turns (called "minutes" within the game, and representative of the battery life of the device) to explore all of Kim's actions. Last, but not least, since the game was written for old Bulletin Board Systems - which had limited available connections - it has a built-in timer. If you spend too much time thinking about what you are going to do, you will be presented with a time-out message. If you still wait around - you are kicked out of the game and will have to restart. Sex The sex scenes are long cut-scenes, a surprise when you take into consideration the slow speed of data modems at the time of the game's release. And, more pleasantly surprising is that they are fairly well written. Kim performs a wide variety of sexual actions from rubbing herself down in the tub to shaving herself and using a rather large sausage for a purpose that Hickory Farms never intended! There is an arousal system, so that Kim won't just jump into actions without you working her up first. Technical As I mentioned in the "Overall Thoughts" section, this game was originally designed to run as a part of a BBS, and has been converted to run under MS-DOS. It runs fairly slow, and players will find the interface clunky. One odd thing is that the game was written before most keyboards had separate keys for the arrows, and uses the numbered keypad for UP, DOWN, etc. So, press "2" for down, "8" for up, etc. Players using Vista or Windows 7, or any non-Microsoft operating system, may require the DOS game emulator, DOSBox, to play the game. It seemed to work just fine on my Windows XP system, however. Intangibles One thing I always liked about this game when I first acquired it years ago is that unlike most AIF games, you can alter it to fit your fancy. The cut-scenes are all available as .DAT files, and they are simply text descriptions of Kim's actions. So, if you want to alter what happens when Kim performs an action you can find the appropriate .DAT file and re-write it as you wish. Of course, the file will only be displayed when Kim performs a particular action in the game. So, you can't, for example, have Kim open the refrigerator and use the wine bottle in all types of nasty ways. However, you can alter the description of her performing some other action in the kitchen to include using the wine bottle if you wish. Doing this gave me my first taste of writing an AIF game, although in a very limited fashion. Final Thoughts I'll be honest - most AIF players are probably not going to enjoy this game. It's clunky interface and limited actions both look and act like very early DOS games. Perhaps its only draw is a feeling of nostalgia for those of us who remember the hiss and buzzing of a 2400 baud modem connecting to the local BBS. For its time, it is well done, and if you treat it as a rather oddly implemented "A Night With" game then it fits fairly well in with other games. But, its DOS interface may be too clunky for some players, and may even be non-playable, which detracts somewhat from its overall score. Rating: C+ Note: Those wishing to find the DOSBox program can find it here: http://www.dosbox.com/ * * * 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. Submitting your work to Inside Erin: Please direct all comments, articles, reviews, discussion and art to the Editor at aifsubmissions@gmail.com. * * * Staff Editor: Purple Dragon has written six AIF games including Archie's Birthday - Chapter 1: Reggie's Gift, A Dream Come True, and Time in the Dark. He has received one Erin award and been nominated for several others. Staff: A Bomire is the author of several TADS AIF games, including Dexter Dixon: In Search of the Prussian Pussy, Tomorrow Never Comes and The Backlot. His games have won numerous awards and Erin nominations. He was the co-recipient of the Badman Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. A Ninny is an AIF player, author of four AIF games and frequent beta-tester. His Parlour received an Erin for Best "One Night Stand" game in 2004 and his most recent game, HORSE walked away with three Erins at the 2007 awards show. BBBen is an author of a number of Adrift AIF games. His games have received numerous Erin awards and nominations and first place in A. Bomire's 2004 mini- comp. He was also the recipient of the 2007 Badman Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award. Bitterfrost is a longtime IF/AIF player working on his first (and last) game, How I Got Syphilix. Dudeman has released one game and is working on a second. He has also released an impressive Inform 7 sex extension to help make it easier for others to write games of their own. Knight Errant is an AIF player who has released two games and is currently working on a couple of others. 'trix has released one game, Casting, which was written in Inform 6, and is sporadically working on another in TADS 3.