SOFTWORKS ANNOUNCES WINNERS
IN FIFTH ANNUAL ADVENTURE GAME WRITING CONTEST
MISSION SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA -- Softworks today announced the winners in
its fifth annual (1991) contest for the best computer text adventure game
developed using the Adventure Game Toolkit (AGT) system.
The Adventure Game Toolkit is a computer program which allows MS-DOS,
Macintosh, Amiga and Atari ST computer users to create their own "interactive
fiction" or text adventure games. Games developed on one of these computers
may be played on any of the other computers.
The 1991 Contest inundated us with excellent entries. Playing,
completing, and rating over 20 mega-bytes of material was an endurance test
with which our judges struggled...but proved themselves worthy. The
excellence of the entries resulted in an unprecedented Honors Circle of
eleven games. Picking a single winner from that distinguished group proved
impossible. Instead, we have a tie. Both games are very unusual and both are
truly outstanding adventures!
So ... a forty-two gun salute for... the two First Prize ($100) winners
for the 1991 Contest (in alphabetical order):
COSMOSERVE - AN ADVENTURE GAME FOR BBS-ENSLAVED -- by Judith Pintar
and
THE MULTI-DIMENSIONAL THIEF -- by Joel Finch
A little more about the winners ...
COSMOSERVE - AN ADVENTURE GAME FOR BBS-ENSLAVED by Judith Pintar begins as
follows: It seemed like such a good idea at the time. As a self-employed
computer consultant, working at home was the logical decision: no more long
commutes, no expensive office to lease, no boss. Unfortunately you also have
no secretary, no janitor and no weekends. Your living room has become a
glorified break room and your only human contact is by Electronic Mail.
Thank God for your computer. It is 3:30 PM on Friday the 7th of
September, 2001. Everyone else in your time zone is finishing up work and
looking forward to a relaxing evening. But you, R. J. Wright, overtired
undernourished overeager programmer that you are, have promised to deliver a
finished program to a client by 8:00 tomorrow morning.
Time to get to work.... You sit down at your computer and sign on to
CosmoServe, your favorite BBS....
In COSMOSERVE your world and your adventure are inside a BBS (complete
with sound effects for logging on, switching the computer ON and OFF, etc.)
COSMOSERVE is a very, very original, innovative and unusual game! Judith
"customized" the Turbo Pascal source code for AGT to create a game that is
bigger than any game ever written with AGT. Available in a "ready-to-play"
IBM version only. (Requires a hard disk and at least 512K of memory.)
THE MULTI-DIMENSIONAL THIEF -- by Joel Finch. In this game, you are a
thief; an exceptionally good one. Naturally, you aspire to join the largest
and most prestigious of organized thieving bodies, the Multi-Dimensional
Thieves' Guild. One day you are approached by a tall man wearing a long
cloak. His face is hidden in the folds of the hood and his voice is
deliberately muffled. Making no introductions, he tells you that your recent
activities have been monitored with interest, and offers you a provisional
membership in the M-D.T.G. All you have to do is pass a simple test. Since
this is a childhood dream come true, you eagerly accept. The test goes like
this; you begin in a specially prepared set of rooms, and your only objective
is to get out of them. Your prowess as a thief is not in question, however
there are other talents to be tested. The rooms are pieces "borrowed" from
other universes and magically spliced together to test your ability to deal
with rapid changes of scenery, a prerequisite for any work in the
Multi-Dimensional Thieves' Guild. A number of useful items have been added to
the rooms, to make your test just that much more interesting -- including the
infamous "portable hole." Oh, and one more thing -- you must think small and
symmetrically.
Filled with wonderful puzzles that will remind you of Infocom's finest,
THIEF is extremely well-written, clever and very funny. Joel was one of the
co-authors of WHATEVER WE DECIDE TO CALL THE GAME, one of the "best of the
contest" in last year's contest. THIEF has "pop-up" hints and uses a "beta"
version of the new MASTER'S EDITION of AGT. A complete solution (walkthru) is
also provided -- just in case. "Ready-to-play" IBM version only -- although
the source code to the game is also provided. (Requires a hard disk and at
least 512K of memory.)
OTHER WINNERS
In addition to COSMOSERVE and THIEF, the contest had a number of other
excellent entries. Among them, the judges have singled out the very best
adventures as deserving an "Honorable Mention." These winning entries include
(in alphabetical order):
APPRENTICE -- THE TESTING OF A MAGICAL NOVICE -- By Bert Lee. Your
Initiation as a Apprentice Magii has been approved, but you must prove
yourself by taking a long journey. Along the way, you must listen, learn,
hone your magical skills, pass some basic Apprentice-level tests, and guard
the treasures entrusted to your care with your life.
DEADLY LABYRINTH -- by Frank West. The Deadly Labyrinth is an adventure
game loosely based on the Death Gate Cycle novels of Margaret Weis & Tracy
Hickman. To reach the final gate, you must struggle through eight different
levels, each with its own monsters, puzzles, mazes, and spells to learn.
There is no high score to reach -- survival is the only criteria of success,
and losing all heath points is often too easy.
DISENCHANTED -- by Joseph S. Licari. The members of the Circle had hoped
to summon a Hero, a man of legendary deeds and valor; a Champion of the Ages,
to save the world from falling into Darkness... Unfortunately, there was a
mistake (sigh) and they summoned you. It is too late to correct this mistake.
You are their only hope and you must return the Artifact to the Circle or the
world is doomed.
LIBRARY -- by Frederick D. King. You are a college student. The end of
the semester is near, and you have a paper due at 8:00 in the morning. You
have been working furiously on it for the past week, and you are almost
finished. Unfortunately, just as you are revising the last page, you realize
that you need to check a quotation on erotic symbolism in early pulp science
fiction. The quotation was written by the professor who assigned the paper,
and it is essential that you get it right. If you don't, you will fail the
class and be sent home in disgrace... Your dog will pretend not to know who
you are... The only job you will be able to get is mining coal in Vermont...
At night... Without tools. Therefore, you must obtain this reference
immediately. You sneak over to the library in the dead of night to begin your
search.
MOP AND MURDER - A MASTERFUL MURDER IN ONE ROOM -- by Brad Friedman. You
must solve a murder mystery in the CIA Headquarters building where you work as
a janitor. You must examine the various clues you find at the scene of the
crime and ultimately apprehend the murderer -- before he/she kills again --
and you are the most-likely next victim. A very clever and original adventure
that takes place in a single room. MOP AND MURDER comes with "pop-up" hints.
NEW ENGLAND GOTHIC -- by Simba. Somewhere in New England, in the little
village where the author grew up, exists this very house and its immediate
surroundings. When you play this game, you are a young woman in the year 1899
who lives and works in New York, supporting herself as a secretary after her
mother passes on. Suddenly you receive word that your Great Aunt (your
grandmother's sister) in New England has died and left you an old colonial
house and a lot of debts. You will need luck and patience even more than
money if you are to solve the mystery surrounding your Great Aunt's reclusive
life, realize the full potential of your inheritance and (of course) find true
love. A classic Gothic tale of sinister intrigue and romance.
SANITY CLAUSE or, WHY SANTA DIDN'T MAKE IT TO YOUR HOUSE THAT YEAR -- by
Mike McCauley. In this game, you play the role of Santa Claus facing the
challenge of making your rounds while staying within the night-time hours of
Christmas Eve as you move around the globe. You must visit several key
locations, but you cannot do it all in one trip. (The best combination of
routes takes 5 trips.) Your trips will not be without obstacles, however.
Your companion is an apprentice elf named Dudley who has a penchant for
fouling things up. You also seem to be having a great deal of trouble with
your "Christmas magic" getting cross circuited with various other forms of
magic that you encounter -- with very disturbing results. You will need to
stay on your toes to get through this night and complete your rounds
successfully.
Mike was the author of SON OF STAGEFRIGHT which won the 1989 AGT game
writing contest. He says he has been working on SANITY CLAUSE for almost two
years.
SHERWOOD -- By Charles Williams. This game is a D&D-type adventure
(complete with a unique scheme for MELEE) in which you play the role of Robin
Hood in and around the area of Sherwood Forest. You must rescue Maid Marion
from the clutches of the Sheriff of Nottingham and return her to safety in
your hide-out deep in the middle of the forest. Your task will be difficult
since you have a price on your head and all of the Sheriff's men have orders
to kill you on sight. SHERWOOD is a big game with 300 rooms, 200 nouns and
over 100 people/creatures.
THE SPELUNKER'S TREMENDOUS CAVE ADVENTURE -- Converted to the Adventure
Game Toolkit by Douglas Harter. This game was converted from an English
adventure game creation product called CRL (a precursor to AGT) that ran on
the Sinclair Spectrum computer. Doug converted the game (which was originally
written by a bunch of students at an English "Public" Boys School named St.
Brides) to work on AGT.
The game is a parody of the Colossal Cave adventure and is quite funny --
especially if you are familiar with Colossal Cave.
WINNING GAMES AVAILABLE
All of the winning games are available from Softworks, the publisher of
the Adventure Game Toolkit.
Because of the shear magnitude of the games (almost 5 mega-bytes of code,
hints, solutions, maps, plus a complete working copy of the latest AGT "BIG"
version -- when completely unzipped), all games require a hard disk and at
least 512K of memory.
Three different options of the "Best of the 1991 Contest" disks are being
offered this year:
OPTION 1: A two-disk set containing just the two First Place winners,
i.e., COSMOSERVE and THIEF. $17.50 covers the total cost of both disks.
Available in IBM "ready-to-play" version only.
OPTION 2: A three-disk set containing all of the games mentioned above --
EXCEPT COSMOSERVE and THIEF, i.e., only the "honorable mention" games plus
the complete latest AGT "BIG" version. All three of these disks are
available for only $17.50 (total for all three).
OPTION 3: A five-disk set containing all of the games mentioned above --
COSMOSERVE and THIEF, plus the "honorable mention" games, plus the
complete latest AGT "BIG" version. All five of these disks are available
for only $30 (total for all five).
All of the games on the "1991 Best of the Contest" disks are provided in
AGT source code form -- with the exception of COSMOSERVE and SHERWOOD -- which
are provided in "ready-to-play" versions only. These AGT source code games
require AGT's COMPILE and RUN programs (version 1.2 or later) which can be
ordered separately.
EARLIER CONTESTS
Softworks has sponsored four earlier adventure game writing contests.
The winner of the first contest was ALICE, written by Douglas Asherman. ALICE
put the player in the role of Alice in Wonderland, meeting many of the same
characters described in Lewis Carroll's 19th-century book while also adding
some humorous 20th-century perspective.
The 1988 contest winner was A DUDLEY DILEMMA, by Lane Barrow, a Ph.D
candidate at Harvard. In this game, the player assumes the role of a Harvard
student in his/her quest for knowledge, adventure and a diploma. Along the
way, the player experiences a student sit-in and meets panhandlers, MIT
students and other bizarre characters roaming Harvard Square.
SON OF STAGEFRIGHT, by Mike McCauley was the 1989 winner. In this
game, you play the role of an actor (or actress) trying to get out of an old,
abandoned theater. This is an adventure game in three "Acts", where each Act
has a different theme and a different challenge. The game is fun(ny),
frightening and very clever.
CRIME TO THE NINTH POWER by Patrick Farley was the 1990 contest winner.
In this game, the player helps Cliff Diver, a San Francisco private
investigator escape from the deadly milieu of the Zamboni crime family's
secret headquarters. Cliff Diver is cut from the same cloth as such famous
PI's as Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe.
AGT BACKGROUND
The Adventure Game Toolkit has been favorably reviewed in a number of
personal computer publications including "PC Magazine", "Computer Gaming
World", "Big Blue Disk", and "Public-Domain Software & Shareware." According
to those reviews, AGT "allows for creating remarkably complex and
sophisticated games in a fairly simple way," that "anyone with an ounce of
imagination can create adventure games...similar in layout and sophistication
to those from Infocom," and "the process is easy...and you'll have hours of
fun doing it."
The Adventure Game Toolkit is distributed as shareware, so that MS-DOS,
Macintosh, Amiga and Atari ST computer owners can try out the program before
buying it. Copies of the program disks may be obtained from user groups,
bulletin boards, and authorized disk vendors for a nominal fee, or directly
from Softworks. Included on the program disks are a dozen sample adventure
games with complete AGT source code. Registration is only $20, or $40
including a printed copy of the 223-page manual, which can also be purchased
separately for $25. Registered users may also purchase the Pascal source code
for AGT for only $50.
For more information, contact Softworks, 43064 Via Moraga, Mission San
Jose, CA 94539. Telephone (510) 659-0533.
