@~Now, two reviews, from John Ferris and Bev Truter, of ... Zero Sum Game - author Cody Sandifer (TADS, freeware adventure, part of Disk 1211) 1. Reviewed By John Ferris To start with, I have to admit to being one of the play-testers for this game, although my input was fairly limited (a subtle disclaimer) but I'll try for a subjective review. Zero is set in the traditional fantasy pseudo-medieval world we all know and love and begins at the end with a full 75 points in 5000 turns. However, Mother isn't having any "rare, mystical, hard-won treasures" in her house so the aim of the game is for the conquering hero or heroine to undo every action that scored points. This is a great idea for a game and like most great ideas is a simple and fairly obvious one in hindsight. The "full score" command lists the actions that scored as well as the overall score and in this game acts as your guide. For example, you had scored five points for stealing hard candy (American for boiled sweets, seaside rock etc.) and you find a baby, fast asleep. Taking sweets from a baby might be easy, but the reverse isn't. There are several characters around including your faithful chipmunk called Chippy, Maurice the Follower, a sorcerer / sorceress tied to a bed (ahem, yes) and an Adventurer. Chippy is cute and useful and Maurice is just cute and both contribute to the humour in the game. Puzzles range from the fairly obvious to difficult and a good sense of timing is required at two points in the game, so regular saving is required although once you find out how events run their course you won't need to worry. I had to play guess the verb in just one situation. There are a few red herrings in there as well. The atmosphere of the game changes as you progress and becomes somewhat darker and colder than the rather cheery beginning. It's a case of the end justifying the means and some players might not like the means. The ending is rather unexpected as well. There are a few bugs (so much for my play-testing) the most noticeable is the handling of the numerous acorns in your inventory. When I tried to throw one of the four acorns in my possession I got something like: Which acorn should I throw? The acorn, the acorn, the acorn or the acorn? Acorn Let's try that again. Which acorn should I throw? The acorn, the acorn, the acorn or the acorn? Any (TADS should do this sort of thing including either, both and all) I can't use more than one object with this verb. This required a restart and a little careful thought to get around. The other noticeable bug is that the "warning on" command which is supposed to tell if you are about to put the game into an unwinnable state doesn't appear to work. Overall I enjoyed playing the game. The bugs can be worked around and once the game is solved the author provides a list of commands to try. Zero Sum Game is Freeware and can be downloaded from the if-archive at ftp.gmd.de in the 1997 IF Competition directory. ------------------------------------------------------------------ @~Bev's review follows next : 2. Review by Bev Truter It's that time of year again when the gamewriting competition on the Internet is under way for 1997, and Zero Sum Game was one of the entries in the TADS section. It's distributed as freeware and all the author requests is that you contact him if you want to pass on any criticisms, opinions, etc. about the game. Zero is a `must play' game for text adventurers. Although it is very small geographically (only 23 locations) an enormous amount of programming, talent and writing skill makes Zero one of the wittiest and most captivating games around today - a delight to play. The only slight hiccup in smoothness of running was that hidden files were unceremoniously dumped on my hard drive now and then; and a few attempts to 'restore' a previously saved game just crashed it and sent me back to DOS; but these minor problems were negligible given the high entertainment value and quality of Zero. The game begins with the rather startling announcement that YOU HAVE WON, with a score of 75/75 in 5000 moves. Congratulations, and type FULL SCORE to see how you achieved this..... Then your mother's voice bellows out from the front door of your home as you return with your bulging magic sack full of hard-won treasures, berating you for causing havoc and stealing other peoples' prized possessions. She indignantly cuffs you over the ear, and demands that you return all your loot immediately and right all the misdeeds you've committed before you'll be allowed to come home for your supper. Examining your magic sack reveals what treasures you've swiped, and typing FULL SCORE indicates what you've done along the way to achieve the points. So the very novel aim of Zero is to return the stolen goodies and somehow undo all your adventurous deeds, until you have a score of 0 points, which will enable you to return home for your meal. You can choose to be "Mamma's Girl" or "Mamma's Boy" in this lovely tale of heroic deeds to be undone, and as Charlotte / Duffie you'll have to roam back and forth through the game discovering how to gradually lower that winning full score of 75. The whole game is liberally sprinkled with marvellous characters, who can be interacted with and talked to and questioned, and almost everything you do and say in anyone's presence elicits a funny response. There's Maurice the Follower who's a bit dim-witted and thinks you're the bees' knees; there's the angry fruit merchant who you diddled out of a pear; there's your pet chipmunk who responds to a few one-word commands from you (vital for solving one of the game's more intricate puzzles); and last and best of all there's the magnificent Darlene / Benny, the incredible Adventurer and Warrior you have to free from captivity. Most of the humour in Zero comes from watching the interaction between these various characters, and their responses to some of your actions. So although Zero is teensy in geographical size it's enormous in depth of character, intricacy of puzzles and scope for interaction - I guess this could really be called interactive fiction, a label I've previously avoided in preference to 'text adventure'. Another interesting facet of Zero is that you gradually build up a strong sense of personal identity - i.e. as Charlotte/Duffie. You soon realize you are *not* the little goody-twoshoes that at first glance you might assume from the introduction. In fact, not only are you a bit of a wimp, you are also a bratty little horror; not really much of a hero at all. Each time you lose a few points you get a great buzz of satisfaction - either imagining how proud your mom would be, or what she would say in praise of your point-losing behaviour. I never realized losing points in a game could be so much fun! The puzzles in Zero are clever and absorbing, and if they prove too much of a strain there's a separate hint file provided, which includes a brief solution after the hints. But tackling the puzzles on your own is far more fun than peeking at the hints - a lot of the game's humour comes from responses to your incorrect problem-solving attempts. I haven't played any of the other 20-odd competition games (yet), but I find it hard to imagine that any would be as entertaining as Zero Sum Game. There's a vague flavour of Infocom's "Leather Goddesses of Phobos" in Zero - amusing and deliberately outrageous without being tacky or offensive. - o -