InsideADRIFT ISSN 1743-0577
1
Issue 14 March 2004
Contents
News and announcements.
1. Main news (To hell in a hamper and
back; ADRIFT Beginner’s Guide)
3. Competition news
(DavidW’s One Room Comp;
InsideADRIFT Spring Comp; One-Hour
Competition; Summer Competition)
3. Forum news
(An updated forum arrives).
Regular features
2. Editorial
5. Drifters birthdays
6. Events diary
4. Drifters toolbox: Prose by Mystery
8. AD RIFT recent releases
6. Interview: Hanadorobou interviewed
by KF
Articles
7.
The (big) idea by KF
: Competitions: do
we need them.
10.
Failed game intro
Reviews
8. Humbug by Campbell Wild/Graham
Cluley (Reviewed by DavidW);The Last
Hour by Robert Grassi (Reviewer: Eric
Mayer); Dead Reckoning by David Whyld
(Reviewer: Eric Mayer)
Reference
13. Manual
Issue Details: March 2004
Issue 14 (Volume 2 no 5) Editor KF
Issue 15 due out on 27th Mar 2004
News and announcements
To hell in a hamper and back (With apologies to Poodle) by KF
Ironically I had this newsletter setup to welcome back several
of those who had drifted away. I was further going to
welcome the fact that Mercury had instigated some threads
that had brought back discussion of IF theory on the forum in
a way that we used to have on the old forum. I was
discussing things as follows:
Interactivity and nonlinearity got us started on the
relationship of these two authoring concepts and the
what is defined by interactive fiction. While Writing
took as it’s starting point an article, which Mercury
found on Eric Mayer’s blog, that details what the
author thinks makes a “strong” story.
Sadly Mercury caused an explosive row with some very
manipulative tactics, before once again leaving. In emails to
the moderators Mercury admitted that he had deliberately
stirred up a dispute, targeting DavidW with the aim of getting
a reaction which he did. He has since been banned from the
forum by Campbell.
I think it is fair to say that we should all feel betrayed by
anyone who uses the forum to play mind games. If any of us
have problems with other drifters there are plenty of ways of
discussing it and hopefully sorting things out without making
Campbell’s trust in creating the forum seem misplaced.
Unfortunately this was not the end of the dispute and there
was an extremely destructive thread where several of us did
ourselves and others no favours. I hold up my hands and say
I am not really satisfied with my handling of things as a
moderator, though at the time my only aim was to bring the
forum back to its users.
Some think I overreacted by taking my leave of ADRIFT, and
I may have, but at the time I felt tired and deflated by the
sheer ceaseless antagonism. As I said at the time it had got
to a stage where instead of coming to the forum for fun it was
InsideADRIFT Issue 14 March 2004
2
Editorial
I won’t comment again on the forum
disputes as they are covered
elsewhere. If anyone thinks I should
not have included it then I believe it
was an important enough matter that
it must be discussed here.
You may have noticed that this
publication now bears an ISSN, the
standard number by which serial
publications are recognized around
the world. It is a free service and I
thought it would signify that this is
aimed at being a long lasting
publication.
As most of you will hopefully have
noticed, I also launched a small
consultation exercise on the forum
with regards to the format in which I
publish the newsletter.
While most respondents were happy
with the PDF format, a significant
minority had concerns over the
speed of Adobe Acrobat Reader. I
am now considering the next move
and this issue will also be available to
read online.
Contact
Send any suggestions, requests or
comments concerning InsideADRIFT
to editor@insideadrift.org.uk
Find the newsletter at:
http://www.insideadrift.org.uk/
a chore and at times I dreaded what would come next. My
only defence for being so sensitive is that anything I was
doing was, I believe, with the best interests of the forum
members as a group in mind.
What I do regret was taking down the newsletter and my own
KF ADRIFT site, for a short time. It was unnecessary and
possibly an immature reaction to things.
As so many have found, leaving the forum isn’t as easy as
saying you are going. Somehow you just can’t go cold turkey
and have to pop back to see what is going on, even though
you try to make yourself step away. So a few short days later
I returned, having restored my sites.
Campbell Wild had been away from the forum for a few days,
so was only able to look back at it from. My walk out did have
the excellent result of having a new moderator appointed and
The Amazing Poodle Boy has now joined the team. We have
also got updated rules on the forum, which are linked to at
the top of the General Discussions forum.
Mystery releases the ADRIFT Beginner’s Guide
Early January saw the release of the ADRIFT Beginner's
Guide which is intended to help beginners get a quick start
with ADRIFT. It uses the creation of a simple first program to
give beginners a step by step lesson in using the ADRIFT
generator. They are taken through the basics of creating and
linking rooms, creating static and dynamic objects, creating
tasks, characters, and events, as well as teaching how to
use variables and the ALR.
This is the sort of project that, when well done as it is, can
only help ADRIFT to gain new converts. The approach is
initially simple, although Mystery intends to expand it in the
future, with each step explained and the user encouraged to
expand on the example.
Originally Mystery released the Beginner’s Guide using an e-
book format, but she has now moved it to the simpler HTML
format. The transfer was a simple move of the content rather
than a major change.
If you want to get your hands on a copy it is available from
the ADRIFT Network downloads page
(
http://home.gcn.cx/mystery/Downloads.html
). It is also
available from the IF Archive.
Also release on her site is a very attractive ADRIFT branded
skin for the GCN community software.
InsideADRIFT Issue 14 March 2004
3
Forum news
The whole One Room Competition
debate dominated the early days of
2004, before ultimately falling at that
most frustrating of hurdles lack of
entries, and being cancelled.
The end of January and beginning of
February also saw us limited to
spasmodic access to the forum as it
was unavailable for several periods.
Campbell’s updating of his webserver
was to blame for part of the problem,
but it certainly brought frustration for
many. With some (like DavidW)
agitating for a new forum, it should
be noted that Mystery’s ADRIFT
Network forum at
http://adriftnetwork.proboards22.com/
is the place to go when our normal
home is out of action.
The great schism of mid-February,
discussed in depth earlier, has
hopefully healed, or at least been put
to one side.
An updated forum arrives
Campbell has updated the
software used for the forum to the
latest available version of
Ikonboard, and it provides a
slicker performance with a
number of improvements. I think it
is fair to say the only real
complaint about the new look is
that the font it is displayed in is
rather small.
We now have an events calendar
where the moderators can link
threads to the calendar, and you
can see what is coming up in the
next 15 days listed on the front
page. Let one of the moderators
know if you want this done to one
of your threads, or I will try to do it
if I see something where it would
be helpful.
Competition news roundup
With nearly two months of the year has passed and we can look
back on a fractious start to 2004 with the great “what is one room”
debate.
For your diaries the dates of the InsideADRIFT Summer Minicomp
have been provisionally announced as 22-29 August 2004. No
details of the competition have yet been announced.
One Room Comp argument over rules
In mid January the competition threatened to descend into
farce as there was a great deal of discussion over the rules,
most particularly what actually constituted a one room game.
While I (and DavidW) tended towards the view that a one
room game meant one room in the generator, some wanted
it to be that the player was limited to one room, although
there could be more rooms he could not enter. Then again
others wanted to know whether it could be one room
spanning multiple generator rooms. Davidw then finally
compromised with words “
The game has to be take place in
one room which is defined as one room in the Generator (i.e.
no clever use of tasks to make one room appear to be many.
No making your character a fly (or something similar) who
can enter objects like boxes, cups, etc, as extra rooms.)
Other rooms can exist in the Generator but the player is not
allowed to enter these rooms.
”
Now all we had left was to actually come up with games to
enter!
One Room Comp cancelled
Sadly, after all of that argument over the rules, when it came
to it we failed to reward DavidW’s decision to run the event. I
for one failed badly as I kept on deciding I had a better idea
for a one room game. There are now half a dozen more
unfinished games littering my computer’s hard drive.
InsideADRIFT Spring Competition 2004
With judging at the end of April, there is still plenty of time to
make a full game to enter this competition. Further details
can be found on the newsletter website at
http://www.insideadrift.org.uk/comp_spr_04.html
New One Hour Competition announced
Woodfish has given us a chance to have another go at
writing a game in one hour. The last competition of this type
brought in 13 entries which was a hugely impressive total.
InsideADRIFT Issue 14 March 2004
4
Users can now set a default
colour to have their posts
displayed in, making identification
easier, of course we may just end
up with a multi-coloured forum.
You also get a notepad where you
can save some notes, an
incomplete post or private
message for use later.
A change that may not be
universally popular is that
moderators now have a warn link
next to each post. Clicking on that
link allows us to tell any user that
we believe that they have
contravened the board’s rules. If a
moderator chooses to they can
raise the warning level of that
user, and a small box is displayed
next to their posts. Repeated
warnings can result in suspension
from the forum. Allied with this is
the ability to display a link to the
forum’s rules at the top meaning
that no one should be unaware of
what is expected of them.
Wow, real game design
questions on the forum
Interestingly we also had the
return of a number of game
design questions on the forum,
something that has been in short
supply recently. In quite quick
succession we had threads about
moving a random object, selecting
a random character and making a
time system for a game.
The random object problem
brought several of us the
opportunity to play around with
the little known (and only
available) Task Command
Function
getdynfromroom(<room>). It
“The rule is that the game you enter must have been written
in an hour, give or take ten minutes - that includes all bug
fixes, writing and coding. Of course, no-one will know if
you've spent longer, so I'm leaving it to you to judge when
you've spent round about an hour working on it.”
You have until 1 March 2004 to complete your entry and
sent it in to
driftersmonthly@hotmail.com
for uploading and
judging.
InsideADRIFT Summer Minicomp 2004
The provisional timings for the Summer Minicomp were
posted in the ADRIFT Calendar. The competition in the
second half of August is for small games, and is designed for
those of us not madly trying to get games ready for the
Interactive Fiction Competition.
Wider IF community events
Voting for the
XYZZY Awards 2003
has taken place during
February. The way they were organized I couldn’t preview them as
the announcement came out on 30 January, and the two rounds of
voting over the next three weeks. With the way the games up for
the awards are arranged we all get our time in the spotlight, as any
game launched in 2003, however unworthy they might be, is on
the list including the many Minicomp entries.
The big news is that Poodle’s “To Hell in a Hamper” was in the top
five in five of the categories. The results are to be announced in a
ceremony on IFmud at 13:30 EST on Saturday 28
th
February.
Drifters toolbox:
Prose reviewed by Mystery
Through our course of adventures, the author often times
looks for other programs that might make things a little
easier. Over the past couple of years, we’ve found text
editors that help us to create a better, more organized
Language Resource file; we’ve come across word
processors that help make the writing easier with spell check
features; and there are other programs we try out to help
keep our files organized. Either way, we are always on the
hunt for something that will make creating IF easier.
I have come across another program that has helped me to
create better, more in depth characters. The program is
called Prose. Prose was designed for writers to help them
better organize their work by splitting it into chapters,
allowing for easy editing. It has a built in spell checker with
both American and British English dictionaries along with an
InsideADRIFT Issue 14 March 2004
5
could be useful, but is very tricky
to implement successfully.
Random character selection was
also awkward as competing
theories were put forward,
Mystery had one idea involving an
invisible object and assigned
rooms, while ralphmerridew
attempted to explain a method
using variables.
Finally Gigabyteman asked about
implementing a time system
having tried an old one of mine. In
this case I knocked up a different
demo, and The Amazing Poodle
Boy and ralphmerridew put
forward some other options. It is
safe to say there are many
elaborate ways of doing this.
This is what the forum used to be
about, the exchange of views on
game creation in a spirit of mutual
assistance. If we can return to this
real community spirit then the
future of ADRIFT will be rosy
indeed.
Drifters birthdays
March 2004
1 Lyle Brown (19)
3 Black _Mage (13)
4 lizparnell (23)
7 Kerikhan (18); onnodb (19); Pattra (15)
9 Axiom (43)
11 neo (16)
17 Superplonk er (20)
20 EdS (35); shadow_2014 (16)
21 icypenguin (20)
25 FireWyrm (21)
26 rgrassi (34)
27 merryjest (25)
28 chocolatecake888 (29)
31 JodoKast (17)
internal link to Word Web. You can also create word lists,
keep notes, and it also has an ASCII character viewer that
allows you to easily enter characters such as "
/
" into your
text with out the necessity of knowing the ASCII character
code.
One of my favorite features of Prose is the Character
creation Module. If you have ever had trouble with creating
interesting, detailed characters, then you really must give this
feature a try. It has built in name generation, occupations
list, and personality traits galore. Once you get started, it will
take you through a detailed questionnaire that will ask you
specific questions relating to your character. By the time you
are finished, you will have created a well-rounded, detailed
character just begging to be added to your ADRIFT game.
Another one of the great features of Prose is the ability to run
outside programs right from the interface. If you need to, you
can launch the ADRIFT generator, or runner, or any other
program that you like to use when you need it; and without
having to minimize or dig through your computer to find it.
This is one of the features that I would love to see ADRIFT
have.
To sum it up, Prose is a great program for any IF author or
any writer. It is feature packed, easy to use, and definitely
worth the download.
You can download the latest version of Prose and get the full
details from
http://www.hyperscribe.ca/prose.htm
InsideADRIFT Issue 14 March 2004
6
Events Diary
March 1, 2004
Fourth One Hour Comp - entries in
Woodfish is organizing the latest One
Hour Competition.
March 27, 2004
InsideADRIFT Issue 15 out today
The April issue of the ADRIFT newsletter
should be out.
April 18, 2004
InsideADRIFT Spring Competition
2004: entries due in
This is a competition for new ADRIFT
games, there is no limit on th game size
except that it should be less than 400kb
OR if larger it should be hosted
elsewhere and a link supplied. Judging
will tak e place in the 2 week period to 2
May 2004.
May 02, 2004
InsideADRIFT Spring Competition
2004
This is a competition for new ADRIFT
games, there is no limit on the game size
except that it should be less than 400kb
OR if larger it should be hosted
elsewhere and a link supplied. Judging
will tak e place in the 2 week period to 2
May 2004.
May 15, 2004
InsideADRIFT Issue 16 out today
The May/June Issue of InsideAD RIFT
should be out today.
22-19 August 2004
InsideADRIFT Summer Minicomp 2004
(Provisional)
Provisionally there will be a Summer
Minicomp in August. Entries in 22 Aug,
judging ending 29 Aug.
Interview: Hanadorobou questioned by KF
This issue I am interviewing Robert Goodwin, otherwise known to
us as Hanadorobou, author of probably the best known ADRIFT
game "The PK Girl".
Hi, firstly many thanks for agreeing to answer a few
questions for the newsletter. I hope you realise that there
was great disappointment within the community when you
decided to move on, even if we did understand why you did
it.
Q1.
I'll start with the obligatory question of what got you into
interactive fiction in the first place.
Infocom's Zork series was my first exposure to interactive
fiction. I remember Zork II being the first computer game I
ever purchased, and I loved it. On and off I've been an
interactive fiction enthusiast ever since. Interactive fiction is
of course a relatively new medium. I find it interesting to
watch it continue to evolve.
Q2.
Having been looking around I see the importance of your
time in Japan in your life. We have seen the influence of
Japan in the graphics of "The PK Girl", but how do you
reconcile your use of Manga graphics with the rather
unsavoury nature of some of the graphics in that genre.
Not all Manga art is unsavoury, and certainly not any of the
graphics used in "The PK Girl". Thus there is nothing to
reconcile. It was one of my goals for the "The PK Girl" that it
be enjoyable by the widest audience possible. In particular I
wanted younger audiences to be able to play it, and so to
include any objectionable material would have been out of
the question.
Q3.
When "The PK Girl" was released it very much split the
audience with it's theme and graphics. Can you understand
why it made some people rather uncomfortable. As it was a
big game with the graphics, do you feel "The PK Girl" came
out as you wanted, or did you still have to make
compromises.
Yes, I think I can. The very nature of the plot doesn't appeal
to everyone. Also, some players detected a sexist attitude
on the part of a PC that, they rightly guessed, was supposed
to be neutral. Whether or not it was enough to make a
player uncomfortable just depended on how sensitive one
was to that sort of thing. This effect, at least, was
unintended and easy enough to fix in later releases.
InsideADRIFT Issue 14 March 2004
7
The (big) idea by KF
Competitions: do we need them.
As I am guilty of running three
ADRIFT only competitions each
year maybe I shouldn’t be the one
looking at whether they are good
for the community.
I only ask this question because
there has been a noticeable
reduction in the non competition
games being produced. This also
means that the vast majority of
games are on the small side, as
they are aimed at rule limited
events.
As a writer, yes I do try to write
games, I find that I can come up
with game ideas quite easily for
one room games, even if I am as
unsuccessful in converting them
to the finished article.
What seems to happen is that
people throw themselves into a
Minicomp game as a break from
the game they are writing, but
they then find themselves unable
to return to their “proper” game.
I still believe competitions give an
impetus to game writing, but that
they should not be the only games
writing that goes on. When I
started doing the regular
competitions I thought of them as
a target for writing, but also
something for those of us who will
never write something up to the
Annual IF Comp.
What I would advocate is that
competitions should be planned,
not a spur of the moment thing.
Reminds me of an old “let’s put
on a show type musical.
Compromises over technical matters were many. For
instance, I had wanted the player to choose the PC's name
by means of regular command line input at an early point in
the story. In the first release of the game, for technical
reasons, I instead had to use the ADRIFT dialog box that
prompts for a name as soon as the game is loaded, and
wasn't even able to let the player know what the PC's gender
was before (s)he chose a name. There were other issues...it
was frustrating at times. But all in all I'm pleased with the
way the game turned out. Hearing the favorable reactions of
those who enjoyed it has been a source of great satisfaction
for me.
Q4.
Last year was certainly a difficult year within the
community, as we had to be patient while Campbell, quite
reasonably, was otherwise engaged. You decided to make
the break towards the end of the year to concentrate your
efforts elsewhere, was this a very hard decision or did it just
feel like the next logical step.
It was a hard decision. I want very much to see interactive
fiction recognized and enjoyed by a wider audience, and I've
always felt that by promoting easy authoring tools like
ADRIFT we as authors and developers can help play an
important part in making that happen. It was one of the main
reasons I chose ADRIFT as my authoring tool in the first
place. There are of course trade-offs that comes with using
any authoring tool. Coming to see that the trade-offs of
using ADRIFT were not suiting all that I want to accomplish, I
realized that a change was necessary. Though the decision
was for the best, now still a part of me misses using ADRIFT.
Q5.
You did come back to the forum and posted early in
January. Was this just a one off visit, or do you intend to
keep in touch with ADRIFT.
If I said it was a one off visit I'd look right foolish the next time
I post. :) ADRIFT is a special community. Its members are
intelligent, friendly, and on the whole quite well-behaved.
Internet forums where the topics of discussion are of a
creative nature tend to be that way, but even so I haven't
come across another community quite like ADRIFT, a
community which hardly any member can bare to leave
without dropping back in at least occassionally.
Q6.
Having started with a standard question, I will finish with
the normal one. What projects are you currently working
on/plan for the future.
It's been my experience that an author's best chance of
InsideADRIFT Issue 14 March 2004
8
ADRIFT recent releases
This will hopefully be a new regular
feature, bringing you the details of
recently released games, as
described by their authors on
release. The details listed here are as
posted on the ADRIFT adventures
page on Campbell’s site
Paint!!! (paint!!!.taf 54 Kb) By davidw,
released 19-02-04
An office decorator has to fight against
the odds (including a voodoo witch
doctor, an irate Thunder God with a bad
hangover and a meteor) in order to get
the job done. [one room game] [genre:
comedy]
The Last Hour (thelasthour.zip 21 Kb)
By Roberto Grassi, released 13-02-04
A short IF written for DavidW minicomp.
Probably something unusual... Have fun.
Hammurabi (hammurabi.taf 3 Kb) By
Ron Moore, released 31-01-04
Based on the 1969 Merrill/Ahl BASIC
kingdom simulation game. While the
concept remains the same, the
algorithms are completely modified and
some new wrink les have been added.
The Legend of Zelda: Legacy of a
Princess (legacyprincess.zip 40 Kb)
By Red Jett, released 25-01-04
A game set in the Zelda universe (or
perhaps, the alternate Zelda universe).
Why has the King been kidnapped. Who
wants Link locked up. And what really
happened to Sheik. These and other
questions will be revealed as you journey
through the land of Hyrule. Roughly the
size and difficulty of Wishbringer, will last
about 10-15 hours play time.
Dead Reckoning (deadreckoning.taf
80 Kb) By davidw, released 04-01-04
Drawn back to your childhood town of
Morrow after a distraught call from a
friend, you find yourself in a life-or-death
struggle against an ancient evil intent on
lifting an ages old curse. [Second place
in the ADRIFT End Of Year Comp 2003]
(genre: horror)
seeing a project to completion is to focus on just that project
and not start any others while the current project is still
unfinished. Well, I've been breaking my own rule lately,
which is probably why the WIP I'm most excited about isn't
making very good progress. But I hope to rectify that. This
project (unlike my last) will be very story-driven, with a
serious presentation, and (hopefully) strong characterization.
There is a peculiar element of this story that I am very
excited about, but I don't want to say more about it just now.
Many thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.
Game reviews
Humbug by Campbell Wild/Graham C luley (Reviewed by DavidW)
In Humbug, you play the part of Sidney Widdershins who has
been packed off to his Grandad's house for the school
holidays. You arrive here not knowing much but it soon
becomes clear that everything is not all it should be at
Attervist Manor.
Humbug is a sparsely written game for the most part but still
manages to derive considerable amusement value from the
brief descriptions, although quite a few left me wishing a little
extra effort had been expended to give them more depth.
The kitchen for example reads:
"I am in a long rectangular room with a heavy wooden table.
The walls are covered with pans, dishes and china plates.
There is a shallow doorway to my west labelled "Pantry",
whist an open archway leads southwards back into the
dining room. A kennel sits in one corner of the kitchen. There
is a door to my east. Exits are south and west."
Nothing really wrong with this but the literary soul inside of
me would have liked the description to be a little less
businesslike and a little more interesting. That said, the
descriptions are good for the most part and, while not flashy,
accurately show what is going on.
Like the writer's previous game, Jacaranda Jim, Humbug is a
remake of a Graham Cluley game, although how closely it
mirrors the original I couldn't say as I haven't played it. But,
as with Jacaranda Jim, the writer seems to have done a
InsideADRIFT Issue 14 March 2004
9
From the Demos Page
Character turns back demo
(characterturn.zip 1 Kb) By KF,
released 07-02-04
A demo where you want the characters
back to be turned to you so that you can
stab him.
Seated character demo (seatdemo.zip
1 Kb) By KF, released 31-01-04
A short demo with seated NPC who gets
up after a few turns.
Attack demo (attackdemo.taf 1 Kb) By
KF, released 29-01-04
A quick demo where if you pick up a
weapon attack ing a character kills him.
Without the weapon you are beaten up
and thrown out.
Clock demo (clockdemo.taf 1 Kb) By
KF, released 29-01-04
A short demo of a clock updated every
15 minutes, it keeps track of the days
and also morning or afternoon.
Task Command Functions
(movingobjects.taf 0 Kb) By Mystery
- modified by KF, released 15-01-04
This demo shows how to move dynamic
objects from a specified location
automaticlly. (This isn't the best
descritpion of what this can do- so you
might want to have a look at it for
yourself)
ADRIFT Beginner's Guide (bguide.zip
657 Kb) By Mystery, released 13-01-
04
The ADRIFT Beginner's Guide was
created to help new and beginner users
to quickly and easily get started using
ADRIFT. The guide will teach you how to
create and link rooms, create static and
dynamic objects (including object states
and doors that lock) You will also learn
how to create tasks, events, and
characters. There are also instructions
for creating an ALR (ADRIFT Language
Resource) and using variables.
Door with Sensor (doorwithsensor.taf
1 Kb) By Stewart J. McAbney,
released 10-01-04
This basic example demonstrates how to
make a door that is unopenable and
pretty good job of porting the game to Adrift and I liked this
quite a bit more than most recent Adrift games I've played.
However, enjoyable as it was, it would be nice to play a
completely new game instead of a remake. In a way, this
was a new game for me as I'd never played the original but
for many I imagine it would seem like playing a game they've
already played through before with a slightly difference
interface. But I guess if you're going to port a game to Adrift,
you might as well pick a good one. And Humbug is certainly
that.
Alas, it didn't come without its problems. There were quite a
few missing examinable items quite early in the game - a
long bramble hedge covered in frosty cobwebs couldn't be
examined or interacted with. Nor could the cobwebs.
Likewise a Viking longboat thrusting up through the ice was
unexaminable. As was the ice. Whether these were
remnants from the original games or bugs restricted solely to
this version, it was hard to imagine how they had been
missed in testing. I don't tend to go through games looking
for things that should have been implemented but haven't but
these sort of things tended to jump out at me.
There were some guess-the-verb issues along the way, the
worst culprit being on the Viking longboat where a rope is
hanging from the side of the longboat. All attempts to climb
the rope fail miserably yet "down" works fine. It also killed
me, which I was a tad annoyed about considering there
wasn't any kind of warning that this would happen (or if there
was a warning it must have been a very vague one because
I never saw it).
The puzzles hark back to the text adventures I used to play
back in the 80's and most involve finding an item (the
majority of which just seem to be lying around for the player
to stumble across) and then discovering what needs to be
done with them. Most, fortunately, are relatively
straightforward and an excellent hints system is there for
those who might be struggling to figure out how to defeat the
slug (harder that you might think because obvious
commands like "kill slug" just hit you with the default Adrift
response of "Now that isn't very nice". Maybe not nice but it
would have been easier than defeating it the way you have
to in the game. And also not nice that a new response wasn't
programmed for what was, in my opinion, the obvious action
InsideADRIFT Issue 14 March 2004
10
unlockable, and only responds to a
specific item in the player's inventory. In
this case, a keycard.