SPODGEVILLE MURPHY & THE JEWELLED EYE OF WOSSNAME A text adventure written by David Fillmore Part of Disk 1310 and on this issue's disk Review by Bev Truter Well, who could resist a recently written (1999) text adventure with a name like this? Certainly not me. Although I must confess to having played several games with brilliant-sounding titles in years gone by that turned out to be pretty mundane, and written obviously by some youthful teenager with no idea of programming, plot, or grasp of English. Spodgeville Murphy, I am pleased to say, isn't one of these. SPODGE was written using Inform, for the 1999 annual IF competition, and is now freely available on the .GMD and mirror-sites for download. If you haven't got Net access, pester someone who has to download it for you, I reckon it's a "must play" for text game fans. SPODGE takes an idea first seen in the game ZERO SUM GAME and then in ENLIGHTENMENT, and plays around with it in a short one-location game, in a very witty way. That is, you begin the game at the end of a long and arduous quest, instead of at the beginning, and all you must do to "win" the game is escape from the final location with the Jewelled Eye of the title clutched in your greedy little hands. You play the part of Spodgeville Murphy. You have just found the fabled Jewelled Eye, you have a score of 6720 (and in only 969 moves too!), and untold wealth and glory await you . if only you could find a way out of here. Unlike ZERO SUM, you don't have to backtrack through the game to get rid of your accumulated score and goodies; all you have to do is get out of the Shrine of The Jewelled Eye, with the Eye, and thus win. This sounds simple, and in fact it is, but the whole point of SPODGE is not in the winning of it, but in the playing of it. This is one of the funniest adventure spoofs I've played in ages, and its extreme brevity means that the humour never has time to wear thin. From the two-screen introduction (essential reading if you want to learn how to access the hint system) to the final move, SPODGE entertained and amused me for a solid thirty minutes. The introduction tells how you were chosen for this quest by the wise old crone with an unpronounceable name - Z'Hbfm - to find the Jewelled Eye..."The Eye is a powerful object. We dare not send anyone who knows of its power. Another champion must be sought, an idiot unskilled in anything but adventuring, who cannot know the price of failure, or recognize the face of death . I can think of no one better qualified than that arrogant fool, Spodgeville Murphy." All the action takes place in the single location, the Shrine of The Jewelled Eye, and all you have to do is pluck the Eye from its resting place. And then the fun starts. Probably because of SPODGE's brevity, the author has ensured that absolutely everything in this one location can be examined, interacted with and fiddled with in every conceivable way, producing some memorable items and responses to your interactions with them. After finishing the game, take a look at the full score (type FULL) which shows all you did to obtain your final score. As an affectionate spoof of text adventures in general SPODGE succeeds admirably, wavering happily between references to Infocom, Indiana Jones, a mediaeval setting and a thoroughly modern inventory. Unlike a few other one-location games I can think of, SPODGE cleverly remains a very short, easily winnable game, uncluttered with vast quantities of furniture and objects, which is what ruined the one-location AGT game MOP AND MURDER for me. I'd describe SPODGE as essential viewing for all fans of adventure games, a treat to play. - o -