Ad Verbum, a 2000 competition entry. Heir to Infocom's Nord and Bert, this is a wordplay game that in some ways improves on Infocom's effort, though the puzzles aren't quite as good.
Aisle, an unusual experiment--it's a one-move game, repeated as many times as you choose, with all sorts of different avenues to explore in that one move.
All Alone, a very short stalker-horror piece, very atmospheric. There's not much here besides atmosphere, though--no puzzles, and not a lot to do.
All Roads, the winner of the 2001 competition--a deeply confusing game involving multiple protagonists and lots of body-switching. Things eventually come together, but expect some head-scratching. Still, creative and well-imagined.
Anchorhead, a Lovecraftian horror piece set in a New England town--long, not too difficult, extremely atmospheric and well written.
Arrival, a 1998 competition entry. You're an eight-year old who witnesses, Calvin-style, aliens landing in your backyard while your parents ignore the whole thing. Features some very funny graphics.
Augmented Fourth, a vastly entertaining effort, somewhere between fantasy and satire, about a trumpeter who falls out of favor with the obnoxious tyrannical king. Funny and charming.
Aunt Nancy's House, a 1997 competition entry. You are in a house, and you wander around and look at things. No ending, no puzzles.
Babel, a 1997 competition entry. You wake up alone in a lab somewhere in the Arctic, with no memory of who you are or how you got there. Atmospheric, suspenseful, an effective twist at the end.
A Bear's Night Out, a 1997 competition entry. You play a teddy bear wandering around the house at night. Cute, consistently teddy-bearish, with lots of IF reference and some good puzzles.
Best of Three, a 2001 competition entry that consists almost entirely of a conversation between the protagonist and one NPC, exploring each character's psychology and past. Both characters are well-realized, and the conversation is intriguing and wide-ranging--as a game, it's not much, but as NPC interaction it's pretty impressive.
Bliss, a 1999 competition entry. The most interesting things about Bliss can't be revealed without spoiling the game, so don't read this unless you've finished it. Really.
Break-In, a bizarre effort that crosses genre boundaries repeatedly and ends up being nothing in particular. It's a fusion of a spy story, a fantasy quest and, um, a chicken-comp game.
Cask, a 1997 competition entry. You are stuck in a wine cellar, and have to get out, battling poor coding all the way.
Change in the Weather, the winner of the 1995 competition, a short but very difficult game wherein you get caught in the rain. Well-written and atmospheric.
The City, a 1998 competition entry. One-room in style, though there are other locations; you're trapped in a looping prison and you try to break out of the loop. Intriguing premise, imperfectly executed.
Common Ground, an unusual work about shifting perspectives. You play all three members of a family over the course of an evening, and the insights that emerge about the various characters are intriguing.
Congratulations, a 1997 competition entry. You have a new baby, so you have to take care of it. Minimal, strictly common-sense.
The Cove, a short "art show" effort dedicated mostly to exploring a seaside landscape. The scene is vividly rendered; unfortunately, there's an ostensible plot which doesn't work as well.
A Day for Soft Food, a 1999 competition entry. Another point-of-view experiment: you're a cat dealing with some typical cat problems, along with some that aren't so typical at all. The puzzles have some problems, but the overall feel is quite cattish.
Deephome, a fantasy game with some originality, but also a lot of implementation problems.
Degeneracy, at first glance a fantasy game but upon closer examination something more interesting. Pokes fun at fantasy in some amusing ways.
Delusions, a 1996 competition entry, very complicated but also rather thought-provoking. You play a member of a VR research team, but things get out of hand quickly.
Djinni Chronicles, a 2000 competition entry. You're a djinn, seeking to serve your masters while also advancing your own ends. Thoroughly done--the spirit world is nicely fleshed out, so to speak.
Down, a 1997 competition entry. You wake up alone on a hilltop with a broken leg; you must figure what's going on. Some _very_ improbable actions here that undermine the story.
Downtown Tokyo, Present Day, a 1998 competition entry. Parody, short and entertaining, but there's not a lot to it as a game. Still, funny and well-written.
Dungeons of Dunjin, an old one written in Pascal, essentially a treasure hunt in a cave but innovative in its way.
E-Mailbox, a 1997 competition entry. Tiny and not very interesting. You get mail! Time to read it! That's about it. The Edifice, the winner of the 1997 competition. Through a strange stone edifice, you move through several stages of evolution. Well-written, with one of the best puzzles ever written in IF.
Enlightenment, a 1998 competition entry. One of 1998's many one-room games; you're almost at the end of your quest, but you have to get past a troll guarding a bridge. Very difficult, but funny and engaging.
Everybody Loves a Parade, a short but vastly entertaining effort from Cody Sandifer, involving a move across country that gets bogged down in an Arizona town, bizarre and colorful locals, and a thoroughly surprising twist late in the game. Very funny, and also very telling.
Exhibition, a 1999 competition entry. A Russian painter has died, and four characters are wandering through an exhibit hall filled with his paintings; you play all four characters. The painter comes to life, as it were, as much as any character in IF-but the playing experience is a bit distancing.
FailSafe, an odd little sci-fi effort. The protagonist is stranded on a damaged spacecraft, and you, the player, are trying to help him fix the ship (via IF commands, you see). Creative, but hindered by some unnecessary puzzles.
Fallacy of Dawn, a game with negligible plot and lousy puzzles but sublimely funny writing--good enough to (mostly) make up for its other faults.
Fear, a 1996 competition entry. You find that you're irrationally afraid of spiders, sounds, heights, and the dark, and you won't get back to sleep until you've conquered your fears. Some excessively hard puzzles, but nicely atmospheric.
Firebird, a small game derived from a variety of Russian folk tales. Fairly easy and entertaining, well-written.
For a Change, a 1999 competition entry. "The sun is gone. It must be brought. You have a rock." With intriguingly off-balance writing reminiscent of e.e. cummings, this is an unusual experiment in IF.
Frenetic Five vs. Sturm und Drang, a 1997 competition entry. A spoof of the superhero genre, sort of, very funny--you lead a motley band of five superheroes against two villains who are trying to make life more melodramatic--but a real pain to play.
Frenetic Five vs. Mr. Redundancy Man, a sequel to the Frenetic Five game entered into the 1997 competition, and an improvement in many respects. Consistently funny.
Friday Afternoon, a 1997 competition entry. You have to leave your office in an hour, but you still have several things to do before then. Not particularly innovative, but thoroughly solid nonetheless.
Foggywood Hijinx, a chicken-comp game that got released outside the comp--short, but very funny.
Four in One, a 1998 competition entry. You're directing a Marx Brothers film, and you're trying to assemble the cast on the set so filming can proceed. Marvelously complex NPC daemons, but frustrating to play.
Frustration, Golden Fleece, Holy Grail, and The Mission, four games by Jim MacBrayne that are so similar that they're almost indistinguishable--fantasyish, whimsical, puzzle-oriented. Not bad, but a bit dated.
Galatea, an art-show entry that consists entirely of one NPC--but what an NPC it is. Impressively subtle.
Glowgrass, a 1997 competition entry. You are an alien sent to research earth, but your ship has crashed and now you have to figure out some Earth technology. Mostly well-written and engaging, though very short and occasionally a tad cryptic.
Golden Wombat of Destiny, a short, peculiar game set in a city in the middle of a mangrove swamp. Very surprising ending.
A Good Breakfast, a 1997 competition entry. You wake up, very hung over, and try to find something to eat. Not much more riveting than it sounds, though it does have some strange puzzles thrown in, and the ending is, um, not appetizing.
The Gostak, a 2001 competition entry that's in a language of the author's own devising (whose syntax mostly resembles English, and which borrows articles, conjunctions, and most prepositions from English). Difficult to get into, but enjoyable for linguistics types.
Halothane, a 1999 competition entry. Complicated story involving an author getting drawn into his own work. The story is told mostly through infodumps, and the interactivity aspect suffers. Still, nicely written.
Heroes, a 2001 competition entry with no less than five protagonists, all out to accomplish the same goal--you can do it five ways. Nicely done, with a twist that lifts it out of its apparent stock-fantasy realm.
Hunter, in Darkness, a 1999 competition entry. An update of sorts on the old BASIC game Hunt the Wumpus-marvelously described, intensely claustrophobic.
Inheritance, a short, puzzle-dominated game set in a mansion; you're looking to inherit your uncle's fortune. Not bad, but not particularly interesting either.
Intruder, a short game involving breaking into a house on behalf of a woman who wants evidence for a divorce proceeding. Well-plotted, but rather frustrating.
Jewel of Knowledge, a medium-sized dungeon crawl, reasonably well written but a bit preachy in spots.
John's Fire Witch, a short game involving your friend's basement and its supernatural denizens, nothing special but nothing particularly wrong with it, either.
LASH, a highly unusual and creative science fiction game involving time travel (of sorts) and bringing up some interesting questions about the disjunction between player and player-character. The story doesn't leave as much impact as it might, unfortunately, but it's still worth trying.
Leaves, a 1997 competition entry. You escape from a prison--or something like that; it's not clear--and, um, wander. Not awful until the end, but not very interesting either.
Little Blue Men, a 1998 competition entry. Bizarre, subversive, often funny and more often disturbing. Starts as office-tedium, becomes, hmmm, horror-comedy-dystopia.
Lock and Key, a short, cruel (but also wildly funny) game by Adam Cadre--you're endeavoring to get rid of a pesky adventurer. The game consists of one large, complex puzzle, which takes many, many tries to solve.
Losing Your Grip, a long, complicated game heavily steeped in symbolism, in which you are a recovering nicotine addict exploring his own mind and dealing with some of his repressions. Imaginative and thought-provoking.
The Lost Spellmaker, a 1997 competition entry. Lesbian romance/fantasy/comedy? Some combination of them. You are sent to find a missing magician, and hope to win the heart of the cute librarian on the way. Lightweight, a little nonsensical.
Madame L'Estrange and the Troubled Spirit, a 1997 competition entry. An uneven effort--lots and lots of story, but the interactive part needs lots and lots of work. You are a medium sent to find out what happened to a scientist who committed suicide and what sort of beast is stalking Sydney citizens. Many grammar problems.
Metamorphoses, a 2000 competition entry. Haunting little game about change, perfection, and loss. Try it.
The Meteor, the Stone, and a Long Glass of Sherbet, by latter-day IF demigod Graham Nelson (author of Inform, one of the two best authorship systems currently in use)--a rediscovery of sorts of the Zork universe, but with a rather complex plot of its own. Well-written and atmospheric, and generally excellent despite a few glitches.
Moments Out of Time, a 2001 competition entry. You're time-traveling, exploring a well-realized world, but you're also fighting some unfortunate game design choices.
Mother Loose, a 1998 competition entry. You're in a world of nursery-rhyme characters and situations, and your brief is to set things right, in some cases, and stay out of trouble. Witty, not too hard.
Mulldoon Legacy, a huge puzzlefest that flits between a variety of genres. Extremely difficult, but well implemented on the whole.
Muse: An Autumn Romance, a 1998 competition entry. An elderly British clergyman (you) lingers in a French village, smitten by a German girl. Low on puzzles, heavy on good writing; nice atmosphere.
My Angel, a 2000 competition entry. Interesting formatting tricks, but the best thing about this game is the story--the relationship at the center of it is as well realized as any relationship in recent IF.
Nevermore, a 2000 competition entry. An adaptation of Poe's "The Raven," Nevermore takes plenty of liberties with the original; if you share the author's interpretation, you'll enjoy this, but if you don't, you might not. Either way, it's imaginatively done.
A New Day, a 1997 competition entry. A meta-game of sorts; you explore the programming of interactive fiction to track down an evil virus. Interesting, but a software crash section where the text is utterly garbled was NOT a good idea.
9:05, a short, funny entry from Adam Cadre. The humor can't be revealed without spoiling the game, however, so this is a spoiler-filled discussion; please don't read unless you've already played the game.
Not Just a Game, a unusual little game centered around the game of Go. Interesting blend of Chinese and Western cultures.
Not Just an Ordinary Ballerina, a puzzle-fest set in a shopping mall. It's Christmas Eve, and you're seeking a certain doll for your 7-year-old daughter. Lots of clever puzzles, though the story is only sort of intermittently there.
Obscene Quest of Dr. Aardvarkbarf, a 1997 competition entry. A college-campus quest. You have to go find something for the professor you work for, which entails getting into a locked building, and where is that professor anyway? Fun story, but not well executed.
On the Farm, a 1999 competition entry. You're trying to help your grandparents patch things up after a fight, and you're also exploring a rundown farm. Nicely crafted-the grandparents are thoroughly rendered.
Perilous Magic, a tiny game built around a joke in the manual for one of Infocom's games. Not bad, but nothing special either.
Persistence of Memory, a 1998 competition entry. Another one-location entry: you're on a battlefield, stuck on a land mine, fighting various afflictions. Well-realized, but short.
Photopia, the winner of the 1998 competition. Had everyone but me raving, it seemed. The plot is fragmented and confusing at first; there's a moment when it comes together that may or may not have some emotional impact. Didn't for me, but I'm in the minority.
Pintown, a 1997 competition entry. You've had an argument with your girlfriend, so you have to find her and make up with her. Unfinishable in its current state, as far as I could tell, with many other coding problems as well.
Phred Phontious and the Quest for Pizza, a 1997 competition entry. A silly fantasy-esque romp. You gather up the ingredients to a pizza, then deliver it to the nasty lord of the manor. Some clever puzzles, and the prose isn't bad, but nothing special here.
The Plant, a 1998 competition entry. With your boss tagging along, you witness a hijacking outside a mysterious plant, then break in to see what the fuss is about. The plot is silly at times, but this one's a lot of fun.
Poor Zefron's Almanac, a 1997 competition entry. A "cross-genre" effort, this game starts out as fantasy--a dragon is attacking your town, and your mentor isn't around--and ends up as science fiction. There are funny moments, but the gameplay is weak.
Purple, a 1998 competition entry. You escape nuclear holocaust and try to survive in the new world. Some bugs, but still playable, and rather imaginative.
Ralph, a 1996 competition entry and the first of the point-of-view experiments that have become popular in latter-day IF. You're a mutt seeking a lost bone. Short and simple, but fun.
Rameses, a 2000 competition entry that manages to make a virtue out of noninteractivity. You're a sullen, withdrawn Irish teen, and getting past your character's neuroses is the main challenge of the game. Artfully done.
Rans, an uneven effort about an author with writer's block who gets drawn into his own story. Inventive in spots, but not as well implemented as it might have been.
Rematch, another in the burgeoning genre of one-move games, though this one requires that you solve an extremely complex puzzle. Features an enhanced parser.
Sangraal, originally released for the BBC Micro back in the '80s and recently ported to Inform. Highly literate, but also highly obscure in places, and fairly difficult.
Shade, a 2000 competition entry by Andrew Plotkin. Surreal and disturbing little one-room game open to multiple interpretations. This review contains spoilers, so avoid unless you've already reached the end.
She's Got a Thing for a Spring, a 1997 competition entry. Your husband has sent you a note asking you to meet him at a hot spring this evening; you have to get there and get ready. Lots of attention to natural detail; a well done setting.
Shrapnel, a bizarre, hallucinatory game by Adam Cadre, so full of ideas that none of them really get developed enough. Intriguing but unpolished.
A Simple Theft, an extremely short fantasy-based game from Mark Musante that feels like a prologue to something longer. Reasonably solid, but nothing special
Sins Against Mimesis, a 1997 competition entry. In-jokes, in-jokes, in-jokes; this game consists entirely of references to IF, sometimes to specific games, sometimes not. Those who've played a lot of GMD games find it amusing; I've only played some, and I didn't, not much.
Small World, a 1996 competition entry. You're the master of your very own planet, but the planet's only ten feet in diameter. Wittily done, with an immensely amusing devil tagging along.
So Far, a large and complex game by Andrew Plotkin that eschews plot in favor of theme. Apparently in the throes of a breakup, you wander a surreal landscape that reflects your emotional state, and eventually near a resolve or catharsis of sorts. Very difficult--both in that the puzzles are difficult to solve and in that the logic of the game is difficult to follow--but rewarding.
Space Under the Window, an experimental work that does away with commands as usually known and reduces the player's input to single words appearing in the text, which in turn lead to changes in the scene. Strange and cryptic, Space... pushes many of the traditional IF boundaries, and Andrew Plotkin's writing is good enough that the game remains compelling.
Spider and Web, another ambitious Plotkin work: you are a spy being interrogated about how you broke into a top-secret lab. As usual, nothing is what it seems--and Plotkin subverts many common IF themes in innovative ways.
Spiritwrak, an homage of sorts to the Zork and Enchanter series that captures the feel of the originals nicely. The game design doesn't quite measure up, however.
Stone Cell, a 1999 competition entry. Somewhat overwritten tale of a young girl in a medieval village fighting injustices of various sorts. Promising bits of story, but they don't really hang together.
Sunset Over Savannah, a 1997 competition entry. Trying to decide whether to quit your job, you wander a deserted pavilion on a Georgia island. Beautifully written, well-imagined, absorbing.
Sylenius Mysterium, a 1997 competition entry. You (a) wander around a mall and (b) are thrust into a real-time arcade game, described only in text. Clever idea, and (a) is diverting, but (b) is so bug-ridden that it's impossible to make any progress.
Symetry, a 1997 competition entry. Very small, shaky grammar, rather surreal. Your mirror is haunted, and you wake up and confront it.
Tapestry, another 1996 competition entry, less a game than an argument: you have the chance to change certain key moments in your life. Should you? Interesting, even if I don't entirely agree with the position it takes.
The Tempest, a 1997 competition entry. A bold experiment that doesn't really work, this is an "interactive performance" of the Shakespeare play in which you play the spirit Ariel and must move the plot along. Though not much as a game, it's wittily done and deserves a look.
Temple of the Orc Mage, a 1997 competition entry. A promising, well-written introduction leads only to a dungeon crawl, not well described or particularly interesting, even--lots of unlocking doors and looking under things.
Time: All Things Come To An End, a very long and rather flawed science-fiction action-movie time-travel drama, entertaining in its ways but also frustrating to play. By Andy Phillips.
Town Dragon, a 1997 competition entry. A rescue-the-damsel fantasy quest thing, this suffers from irritating time limits and lots of coding problems. The writing is rather sparse.
Transfer, a 2000 competition entry. Set in the well-trodden research-lab-science-fiction genre, but still creative with some fun puzzles.
Trapped in a One-Room Dilly, a 1998 competition entry. Another one-room game, this is a puzzle-fest: you're trapped in a room with lots and lots of stuff, and you endeavor to get out. Not too hard, but entertaining.
Travels in the Land of Erden, a 1997 competition entry. Huge fantasy quest that suffers from severe coding problems. Some good puzzles, but many suffer from "guess the verb" disease.
Triune, a 2001 competition entry. A semi-feminist fantasy tale--it has feminist elements, but it doesn't advocate them very consistently. Still, it has its moments.
Unholy Grail, a 1997 competition entry. You are a scientist who must find the causes behind the deaths of local marine life. Well-written, but plagued with gameplay problems.
Vacation Gone Awry, a fairly long game with a 1980s feel--cardboard characters and rather artificial puzzles--but reasonably solid and well-written.
Varicella, a complicated game of intrigue and murder, difficult--there's a tight time limit--but rewarding.
Virtuatech, a 1997 competition entry. You have to print out your paper, but the power's down and the program's buggy, so you do some virtual traveling. Not much to it, but not much wrong with it either.
Wearing the Claw, a short fantasy game entered in the 1996 competition. Small, but well-written and well-imagined.
The Wedding, by Neil Brown, a generally solid little romp involving a school friend who disappears on the eve of his wedding. Relies on characters rather than objects for many of its puzzles.
Winchester's Nightmare, an intriguing though not entirely successful experiment that disables many features that have become standard in IF. The story itself is intriguing--you're exploring two halves of a dream landscape--but it's hindered by some gratuitous puzzles.
Winter Wonderland, the winner of the 1999 competition. Charming fantasy romp, heavy on puzzles. The sweetness level is high enough that this may not suit everyone.
Worlds Apart, a rich and complex blend of fantasy and science fiction, somewhat inaccessible at first--there's an awful lot to learn before the game's world make sense--but thoroughly rewarding.
Zero Sum Game, a 1997 competition entry. You've reached the end of a hack-and-slash treasure hunt, but now your mother insists that you undo everything. _Very_ funny; a witty send-up of the fantasy genre.
Zombie!, a 1997 competition entry. Somewhat atmospheric monster-chase game, this would work better if the puzzles made more sense and if there weren't so many syntax problems.
Zuni Doll, an attempt at slasher-movie IF that doesn't quite work, unfortunately, though the start is impressive.
Questions? Comments? Mail me and tell me what you think.