The (Other) TADS Game List - Part 4 -------------------------- Maintained by Gerry Kevin Wilson and Paul David Doherty Provided by The Grue! Version 1.1 (March 25, 1996) @~Continued from Issue 46 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=SCIENCE FICTION: Deep Space Drifter (DEEP.GAM) "Find your way off the space station and explore the planet below. Visit the swamp and the caves. Defeat the maniacal Pinback and escape with your life." (author's blurb) Hide the service droids and bologna sandwiches. This thing has mazes. Big mazes. Really big. No, bigger than that. Two of them. Other than the mazes, DSD is generally held to be a very decent game. "The part of the game on the space station is good, with quite a bit of atmospheric details and generally good puzzles. But down at the planet things are less convincing. Everything is deserted, but no real reason for this is given. Several of the puzzles here are also very time-consuming and tedious. Among these puzzles are the game's two infamous mazes." (Lars Joedal, in SPAG #3) Authors: Michael J. Roberts , Steve McAdams <75204.1051@compuserve.com> (c) 1988,90 Shareware $15 (registration includes source, hints and map) Released: Latest Version: 1.0 (TADS 2.0.1, 7 Apr 1993) -=-=- Enhanced (ENHANCED.GAM) "Here you are, trying to survive yet another day in the big city with no money, no job and no hope. As you walk down the street in the government research project area, you suddenly see a sign reading: 'Volunteers needed for military research project! Do you want to make money? Do you want to help your country? Can you start at once? No special skills needed. Enter here.' Everything on the list sounds good to you, so you enter the door and sign up. That's when your nightmare begins..." (author's blurb) A short cyberpunk game in which you try to avoid donating your body to science. First part of the CyberVenture Trilogy. "...some of the actions that must be taken in the game depend upon the player's familiarity with certain cyberpunk terminology ('ice', etc.), and a lot of the in-jokes are *really* in. ... I enjoyed the game, for a while; when I began to have parsing problems, my enjoyment was diminished." (Roger N. Dominick, in SPAG #2) Authors: Hans Persson , Dominik Zemmler (c) 1993 Shareware US$10 (registration includes source and hints) Released: December 1993 Latest Version: 3/941004 (TADS 2.0.1, 22 Jan 1995) -=-=- High Tech Drifter (HIGHTECH.GAM) The very first TADS game! Not quite finished though. Seems to be a sort of mantra with us IF authors. Try to recover Ma and Pa's secret semiconductor formula from a big, bad corporation. Author: James B. Cser , Michael J. Roberts (c) 1988,90 Freeware ??? (only available as source) Released: Latest Version: 1.0 -=-=- The Legend Lives! (LEGEND.GAM) "A new chapter in the history of Unnkulia and the Valley unfolds. Find out what life is like on planet Tode (home to Unnkulia and the Valley) and the rest of the Unnkulian Universe 500 years after UU1. Written by a Ph.D. candidate at the MIT AI Lab, LEGEND is an epic of unprecedented depth that explores what can happen when networks and software get too powerful to control. As hacker Gavin Kelly, you'll be at your wits' end tracking down and battling a terrifyingly powerful virus unleashed on AkNet, the known galaxy's information and service backbone. All the while, you'll have to thwart its attempts to locate and terminate *you*. While sticking to the often humorous style of the Unnkulian Unventures, LEGEND nevertheless explores many serious themes about technology and its effects on society. It is not just a challenging and fun computer game; it is one computer science researcher's view of a future nearly destroyed by an entirely synthetic and substanceless entity -- a software construct." (author's blurb) Includes UU3. "The beginning of a new series. You take the role of a graduate student at Akmi Yooniversity who has made a terrifying discovery while exploring some old literature about the Unnkulians. The fate of the galaxy rests in YOUR hands. (Surprise.)" (David Baggett) "Fundamentally, Legend invites you to think about what life really is. What aspects of life do we consider the exclusive domain of biological entities, and why? What would a machine have to do to change our idea of what life is? ... Beyond the central theme, Legend also talks about good and evil [...]; fascism and how it creeps up on you when bureaucracies get too old and powerful, and how technology contributes to this; the nature of time; and how technology both brings people together and simultaneously eats away at their individuality --- particularly, how it helps people to work together much more efficiently, but likewise makes each person's individual contribution less significant." (David Baggett, in SPAG #5) "The NPCs are not developed well enough. ... The ending is a tremendous disappointment. Not because it's an emotional downer or anything like that; it's just totally unexpected and very unsatisfying. However, I cannot in good faith say anything *too* bad about the game, because it's one of the most visionary and daring works to come along since, well, 'A Mind Forever Voyaging' from Infocom. ... _Legend_ deserves to be played if for no other reason than to think about what David is trying to say. I mean, when was the last time you played an IF game which *really* had a message and a vision?" (M. Sean Molley, in SPAG #5) "The descriptions of many of the game locations are highly engrossing and impart a genuine atmospheric quality to that portion of the game. ... 'The Legend Lives!" is excellent proof that interactive fiction can be as much fun to read as to play." (Eileen Mullin, in XYZZYnews #2) Author: David M. Baggett (c) 1994,95 Freeware (Source available) Released: March 1995 Latest Version: 1.1 (TADS 2.2.0, 3 May 1995) (too big for standard DOS TADS -> needs GO32 version!) -=-=- The Light: Shelby's Addendum (SHELBY.GAM) "A strangeness has fallen. You first became aware of it with the darkening of the skies: the majestic, threatening storm clouds that seemed on the verge of deluging the earth in a torrent, yet hung motionless, impatient, as though awaiting further instructions from some unseen and malignant higher power... First the clouds, then the sudden silence of the birdsong, and the people. Where were the people? The village was deserted as you passed through. Not a soul to be seen. You knew you had to alert Barclay and Holcroft that something was terribly wrong with the balance of things, but before you had reached even the main gate an impenetrable mist had rolled in from below the cliffs and obscured the path to the lighthouse. When, at last, you reached the courtyard entrance, something even stranger happened. You began to feel suddenly and inexplicably weak, as though the very life were being drawn from your bones. You had eaten well on the train journey from the Commission's headquarters in the capital city, and passed your last physical with glowing colors, yet you felt as though you were at death's door. You had to see Holcroft. He, perhaps, could explain...." (from intro) Author: C. A. McCarthy Shareware US$10 Released: December 1995 Latest Version: 1.1/19960106 (TADS 2.2.0, 6 Jan 1996) -=-=- Lost (LOST.GAM) While searching for riches in the forest, you come across a spaceship which takes you to different places and times. Difficult, with multiple mazes, but rather engrossing. "The game is quite large (the code is over 10,000 lines long) and has the largest vocabulary that the compiler would allow." (Jeffrey Hersh) Author: Jeffrey Hersh (c) 1993 Shareware US$10 (Source available on request) Released: Latest Version: 2.0.2 (TADS 2.0.1, 20 Oct 1993) -=-=- Waystation (WAY.GAM) "While driving home one night, your car mysteriously dies. You get out, pop the hood, and wham! that's the last you remember...until you wake up trapped in a cell. With no idea of how you got there and no one to ask, you must escape and find out why you were kidnapped. Visit the lovely sewage dump Melica! Tour abandoned Comanis! Avoid Efric at all costs! The game is guaranteed 99.9% maze free, and is freeware." (author's blurb) A future with dial up teleportation booths called waystations. Has something of a twist ending. Entertaining. Author: Stephen Granade (c) 1995 Freeware (Source available for US$10) Released: January 1995 Latest Version: 1.1 (TADS 2.2.0, 19 Dec 1995) @~More next issue - o -