Baltimore:24 - author Howard Malinche

                      Reviewed by Sue

     Another fine day in the Internet Service provider business.
     You hang up the phone as you complete the order for that brand
     new MUD you're going to install on the server. It's Saturday
     night right before Easter and in the heart of the Spring
     Break. Your customers are going to love the new game.  You'll
     have it up and running in just a few minutes in the nick of
     time for all those people with alot of spare time.  You turn
     to your computer to begin downloading the new game file so you
     can wrap up and go home. Thunder rumbles.  A storm is coming.

     As you begin to glide your mouse to the top of your browser to
     enter a URL there is a flash outside and the lights flicker!
     Instantly you hear lots of loud buzzing noises as the many
     reserve power supplies in your office come to life to keep
     your internet server online. The buzzing stops, the lights
     stay on.  Satisfied, you enter the URL of the web page you
     want to visit and hit [Enter]. Your browser tells you it is
     unable to find the server.  Impossible! In a split second a
     wave of fear crosses your mind as you realize the one way this
     could happen...

     In panic you run into the computer room and it looks like
     Christmas; Your Cisco router, that magical box that puts your
     server onto the internet, is hysterically blinking. Your worst
     nightmare becomes real: You are an Internet Service Provider
     without the Internet.

This game was written by Howard Sherman. He runs the Malinche site
(www.malinche.net) that I told you about last issue. He's written
several games, his latest being Pentari: First Light. Howard is now
working on a new game called Greystone, set in a psychiatric
hospital. See the designer's journal in this issue.

Baltimore:24 is one that he wrote in 1997. It was his first effort
in IF and, as he explains in the Info section, it was more of an
exercise in using Inform than a game as such. It's the true story
of one of his experiences as an Internet provider and took place
one Easter.

So, this is a very simple game but sometimes it's nice to play one
that doesn't require too much effort. The storyline is simple
because all you have to do is solve the obvious problem - get your
system up and running again. I had to play it three times to
complete it, once because I left a location too soon and couldn't
work out how to get back to it.

I didn't find any bugs in the game. Its main failing is that it
recognises very few words and objects. But knowing its history and
why it was written, it makes sense. Yes, a simple but enjoyable,
basic game that won't take you more than 20 minutes to complete.
If you've got 20 minutes to spare while having a cup of coffee (or
tea, I don't mind) why not give it a whirl? I've put it on this
issue's disk. And though I'm sure no-one will need it, I'll put the
solution into next issue, if only because it's the first game I've
finished for about a year!
                              - o -