@~Two reviews now for the same game, the first from Bev and the @~second from Tim Kemp. RE-RUNS AGAIN A Text Adventure for the PC on SynTax disk PD 561 Author: Neil Sorenson (1992) Review by Bev Truter Well, the first phrase that sprang to mind while playing this game was "lighthearted romp" - I know that's a hackneyed description, but it's one that fits this novel text adventure very well. This is certainly a different sort of game, using a large dose of humour and a tongue-in-cheek style. Written with ye trusty olde AGT, Re-runs is not very large (38 locations), but has been well thought-out and carefully programmed, and would probably keep you entertained and amused for about 2 to 4 hours. I got the impression that this game was fun for the author to write; it has a light touch to it, as though it were all effortless and didn't involve all the usual hair-pulling and angst in its production. Also I didn't come across any of the nag screens asking for money/registration/donations to the author, so it looks as though this one is another Freeware product. Continuing in technical mode, the author has provided responses for a wide variety of actions, so there are none of those annoying glitches commonly found in some AGT games, eg.... "You see a sofa and a chair."... > ex sofa .... "What sofa? I see no sofa here". Re-runs has all the usual AGT features, and the author has the default screen colours set to green text on black background, with your input in white. Maximum score is 133, with most points being added in large chunks after reaching certain locations. Spelling and grammar are faultless and flowing, and there seemed to be a touch of professionalism about the whole game. You begin Re-runs in your "home", which is strangely devoid of real furniture - the magazines on the table all have blank pages, and the contents of the 'fridge are all horribly fake. The entire southern wall of your living room is made of opaque glass, through which you occasionally glimpse a hint of movement on the other side. Hmmmm, it's beginning to look like you are trapped inside a television, and reinforcing this idea, bits of a cryptic conversation you had with someone a few days ago begin to drift through your mind. Something about re-runs of old TV shows, where you end up doing the same shows over and over, with no chance of escape.....but escape to where? And how? The object of the game then is to discover how to avoid this fate of becoming stuck in a never-ending re-run, and to find a way back to the real world. After fiddling about with the remote control on your telly in the living room, you soon discover how to zap yourself into episodes of various '60s TV shows such as "Star Trip" and "The Bradley Bunch", and interact with all the characters there. You can change the course of events quite drastically, and the Bradley Bunch episode in particular was delightful to explore; perhaps all the assorted Bradley/Brady offspring aren't quite so perfect after all......? While skipping around between the old shows on your TV, you suddenly remember a bit more about why you are lurking around in your television living room when no-one else is around. You recall Eddie and Buttsky, your two lovable companions (one human, the other canine) from a show called "He's the Boss". After 8 seasons of good ratings the show was cancelled, and not wanting to risk the endless purgatory of re-runs you decided to find a way to escape through the glass wall in your sitcom living room. One of the old-timers on the show said it might be possible to slip through the wall if it ever weakened, but that was a rare event. It would take the major restructuring of a re-run to weaken the line of events enough to affect the solidity of that glass wall. So that's why you are trying to sneak into other re-runs and re-order events - to weaken the south wall in the living room; and what better way to do so than by helping the castaways find a way off "Mulligan's Island"? The problems in Re-runs are interesting and fun to solve, and interacting with the various well-known and thinly-disguised characters from corny old favourite(?) television shows is a delight - staunch Trekkies prepare to take offence. For example, Chief Engineer Snott appears to be permanently intoxicated, and has great difficulty operating the Transporter; and Spark is magnificently condescending and supercilious. Watch out too for the conversations between Captain Kirby and Spark. The main problem, that of helping the castaways find a way of escaping Mulligan's Island, can only be solved by finding objects scattered about in other re-runs, and working out how to use them. Most of the characters will obligingly provide hints if asked relevant questions, and you soon realize what has to be done if the crew are to be rescued from their island. Re-runs Again is a lightweight and lighthearted game - undemanding, amusing, and fun to play. No late-night sessions swearing at your monitor! No poring over maps and chewing your nails! No relentlessly tense atmosphere! And despite its typically American flavour, or perhaps because of it, I found this a strangely appealing game. Americans being able to send themselves up cheerfully like this seems all too rare. ENJOYMENT: 6/10 ATMOSPHERE: 5/10 DIFFICULTY: 4/10 FINAL COMMENT: Good entertainment for a few hours. ------------------------------------------------------------------ RE-RUNS AGAIN REVIEW: Game By: Neil Sorenson Review By: Tim Kemp First impressions normally count for quite a lot in adventures, and I have to say that neither the title 'RE-RUNS AGAIN' nor the storyline (more of that in a moment) had me dashing to the PC to pop this game in and play it. As it happens the game is a really good effort and just goes to show that one shouldn't be put off by game title or storyline alone. Your adventure begins when you awake from a particularly nasty nightmare and find that neither your roommate Eddie or faithful dog Buttsky are anywhere to be found. There's a strange feeling about your surroundings - even though it's clearly your house things just ain't right... You find yourself standing in the living room. Presumably you must have sleepwalked there from the bedroom which lies to the east. Strangely once in the bedroom you discover a distinct lack of furniture. No bed, no wardrobe, no nuffink! Just a blank room. The kitchen is more densely furnished, but on closer inspection you find that things still tend to look a tad odd. Plastic food in the fridge, empty cupboards ... what's going on? Only the living room looks normal - but even that has its peculiarities. And what on earth has happened to the south wall? It's made of smoky glass and on the other side you glimpse large figures moving around. Spooky! The key to making any progress in the game lies in the top-of-the-range SUNY T.V. to be found in the living room. Many of its channels are de-tuned, though several are showing old sit coms, sci-fi series and public broadcast stations. It was after fiddling with the T.V. for a while that I realised that the games title 'Re-Runs Again' referred to what was showing on the 'in-game' T.V. The only way to get out of your house is by selecting a channel and actually entering the T.V. show. In this way you get to take part in several different small adventures - all with a nice line in humour! The game's got a decent parser (the computer / human interface) and allows for all manner of input from the simplest: "Get Remote Control" to the more complex : "Point The Remote Control At The T.V. and Press The Button" or "Throw The Plastic Lemon At The Glass Wall". There's a reasonable Help facility built into the game, as well as a very good set of instructions that tell you all you need to know to get up and running. I found that after spending half an hour wondering what to do at the beginning things started moving quickly, and the vast majority of this small game was conquered in a pleasurable evening's adventuring. There's loads to do from the word go, plenty of objects to manipulate and different scenarios to chuckle at. It won't strain your brain but that's no bad thing. I reckon that 'Re-Runs Again' is ideal fodder for beginners, although more experienced players should also enjoy it if they fancy a quick and satisfying game. Another AGT (Adventure Game Toolkit) game that's a credit to the system! - o -