Yearly Archives: 2008

IFComp: Screening Capture

Forging onward with the next batch of IFComp entries, as I review my initial impressions of each game’s opening (introduction, “About” screens, and the first location), summarized by the Capture Score from 1 (intriguing; a definite play) to 4 (dreadful and forgettable). Just a reminder, no spoilers here, just early impressions.

Games covered here include “A Date With Death”, “When Machines Attack”, and “Berrost’s Challenge”.


“A Date With Death”, by David Whyld

Whyld’s game, subtitled “being the further adventures of the king who wished to die but whose subjects just weren’t ready to let him go”, is the third game in a series that began in 2004 with “Back to Life… Unfortunately” and continued in 2007 with “The Reluctant Resurrectee” [More...] Read the rest

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IFComp: Capture Quest

After a brief intro yesterday, my filtering of this year’s IFComp entries shifts into gear as I continue to walk down my randomly generated list of games. No spoilers here, just some initial impressions of each game’s opening, which includes any introduction, “About” screens, and the first location, summarized by the Capture Score. The range is from 1 (intriguing; a definite play) to 4 (dreadful and forgettable).

Bear in mind that my intention is not to judge the the complete piece, only to report my first impressions of the entries to see which ones engage me enough to pull me in for more. I’ll play the ones that do to see if the experience matches the anticipation, and afterward if any games that I [More...] Read the rest

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And In Other News, Generalissimo Francisco Franco Is Still Dead

With October comes once again the start of the annual IFComp, this being the 14th competition. It’s hardly breaking news at this point, of course, what with the bevy of blogs and websites reporting it to the world and already posting early game reviews. We’re not even a week into October and I feel like I need to catch up.

Comp time is a sweet time, though, because once it arrives we get a huge bolus of new IF games to play, and who knows what we might discover in the collection. The IFComp is where we got Vespers, and some really fantastic games have won over the years. But unless you keep up with it you can miss some really entertaining games [More...] Read the rest

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The End of September Vespers Thing

Another month has come and gone, which means it’s time for a quick Vespers update.

Nope, it’s not finished yet.

Was September a good month? In general, I’d say it was pretty good. On the one hand, another student animator has left the project, which means we’re down to three. At least I’m assuming he’s left the project — like so many that came before him, he’s just no longer responding to e-mails. It’s not too troublesome since he never really got off the blocks with this project, but still…is it just animators, or are other people like this as well? In the face of overcommitment or disinterest, is it everybody’s instinct to lie low and hope nobody notices? Or just animators?

On the other [More...] Read the rest

Posted in Vespers | 3 Responses

A Treasure of LucasArts and Sierra Oddities


I caught this one from GameSetWatch, through Unseen64.net. A website by ATMachine that showcases a pretty impressive amount of info on some of the old LucasArts and Sierra adventure games, much of which was probably unseen. Not sure why or how it came to attention at this point in time, considering the site appears to have been around for a few years, but I’m glad it did since I hadn’t noticed it before.

There’s a wealth of cool stuff there. Development and design images from games, early (WIP) screenshots, alternate art and GUI interfaces that were never used, comparisons of the same games on different platforms, comparisons of demos and full releases, and other oddities. Some of the games featured include LucasArts’ Monkey [More...] Read the rest

Posted in adventure games | 3 Responses