Reviews by MathBrush

In this game, you are a computer, and you explore a physical representation of the internet and computer programs. Search engines are obelisks, the blogosphere is a bunch of balloonists, and so on.

Your goal is to keep your master from going on a date with someone of the wrong gender or sexual orientation. You have to access their phone, their work, and more to achieve this goal.

The game allows for some customization at first, because you also are a character in an MMORPG.

There are 3 endings, each better than the last.

Recommended for those interested in a physical representation of technology.

Resource management games aren't super common in IF (Suspended and the Geisha part of When Help Collides come to mind). In this game, you have to manage 30 orphans over several weeks. You can buy equipment for them, assign them various tasks, discipline them, clean them, etc.

The goal is to have a lot of money and to have your kids do well in society. I ended up having 28 of them run away, even though I never disciplined and gave the best food.

As a resource management game, it's very enjoyable. Recommended for fans of sim-type games.

This game was nominated for an xyzzy award for best individual pc. It is a vast world, a city with 8-10 locations, each with a night or day mode, each with 2-4 sublocations, each with a couple of rooms.

The story and puzzles are hidden away in this vast expanze, with only 4 or 5 things to do in the game.

You are sarah winschester, representing gun manufacturers. You confront and stop the horror of gun violence. I didn't finish the last puzzle because I got frustrated.

The game is all in third person, and abbreviations are disabled.

In this short game, you play the troll in Zork. You wait around for adventurers, and deal with them as they come.

The PC is well implemented, and the game was nominated for an XYZZY award for best individual pc.

The about text changes each time you read it, which is amusing.

Recommended as a small treat for Infocom fans.

In this game, you play a graduate student who does investigative work with their supervisor, Dr. Todd. Dr. Todd accompanies you, and was nominated for an XYZZY award for Best Individual NPC.

The idea is that you are investigating a magician who's staying at a hotel, and you want to determine if they are legitimate or fake. You have to solve a series of puzzles to do so, such as breaking in, collecting evidence, etc.

The story is a bit odd; an old knitting lady is a bodyguard, a random child seems to have snuck into the magicians apartment (neither of these have anything to do with the rest of the story).

Overall, not strongly recommended.

This game was written to showcase the German extension of Inform 7. You play someone who wakes up with scanty memories and some wounds in a dark and deserted castle/hospital, in the care of a nurse named Mariel.

The game demonstrates a lot of Inform's capabilities: scripted scenes, openable containers, movable objects, alterable exits, consumable objects, hidable objects, conversation, locks and keys, books, and so on.

The atmosphere really worked for me. A large, dirty, empty castle/cathedral converted into a hospital, the combination of freedom and restriction under Mariel, etc. But the game felt like it just suddenly cut off at the end, with no real resolution. This makes the game more like a toy demonstration, like Graham Nelson's Balances or Michael Robert's Ditch Day Drifter.

Overall, though, I enjoyed this game. Recommended for horror fans.

This is the kind of game that I enjoy much more than most people would, as I am a big fan of Lovecraftian horror and of atmospheric puzzlefests.

This mid-length game has a bit of a bottleneck opening, followed by a non-linear map area. It's more of an old-school feel, with some actions that are not really fair but not too bad. Two or three of the puzzles are solved by returning to an old area.

You have a recurring nightmare, and this time you can't get out. You explore an abandoned city that is a mix of R'lyeh and of the fortress in Enchanter by Infocom. Ancient writing, mystical texts, haunting memories from a half-forgotten past, violent cultists, gibbering horrors, this hits up a lot of the best parts of Lovecraft.

The NPCs are a bit weak, as you can't talk about much.

This 1997 IfComp game is notable for several reasons. It was nominated for best PC and best NPC in the XYZZYs. It features a romance between two women and also a character of indeterminate gender, which is unusual for a 90's game. Finally, it is an allegory.

The game is set in a town of little people who love chatting, eating sweets, reading books, etc. Your character is a member of the secret service in this town, and has to investigate the disappearance of one of its members.

The puzzles generally lead you on bit by bit. There is one annoying thing in that you know you need a very specific kind of help from someone, but only one person in the game can actually do it, and you have very few clues who.

Bizarrely, the game is an allegory for the conflict between home brew video game programmers and the Big Consoles. The names of characters and places in this game are anagrams for Usenet groups and for programmers.

This game was nominated for an XYZZY for best individual NPC.

You are a dog named Ralph wandering around the yard with a cat and a boy name Christopher Robin, after the Pooh stories. You have to find your bone.

This game is cute and short, with only three puzzles. I did use hints.

This game was entered in one of earlier IFComps. You play a treasure hunter with a furry sidekick. You explore 5 or 6 different rooms with a variety of people and objects.

There is really no rhyme or reason to the game at all, but your pal Leo will give you hints. You explore moose lodges, ancient temples, and the end of the world, while collecting crayons.

Fun for fans of nonsense-surreality, or of good npcs.