Reviews by MathBrush

This game is fairly tedious, but it's well done, and has some great writing. It paints you as the pong paddle, but with a very unusual view on the world itself. It also has some nice text styling.

But getting even 2 points takes just forever. I can't imagine playing to 15 points.

This game is in the IF arcade pack. It has you as a pinball, with very little control over your actions and destiny.

It has a strong narrative with a metaphor between the ball and the human soul.

As a game, I found Enlightened Master to be a better working of a text pinball game.

There is a famous alternate version of the pac-man story where pac-man is an astronaut who is having hallucinations about the ghosts of his compatriots, and the dots are pills.

This game is not the same, but it's fairly similar, and has some profanity and violence. Was this game the origin of that pac-man story, or is it parallel development, or do they have a common source?

In any case, an interesting game from a famous author who has disavowed all of their speed-IFs.

This is essentially a joke game in the IF arcade pack spoofing Lode Runner.

It shows the logical result of assuming everything in the game is real, including the more unreasonable parts of the original game.

It's short, but I found it amusing.

This game was part of the IF arcade pack, most of whose games were sci-fi related. Just like the way the original game was unusual for taking a fantasy-based viewpoint, this game is unusual in the IF arcade pack for the same reason.

Wizards, trolls, pterodactyls; though this game is short, the setting is fun and inventive.

This TADS game is part of the IF arcade pack, and is probably the most creative of the 3 reworkings of space-invader type games.

You are in a line of bunkers, and you can dodge left and right, in and out of them as you shoot the invaders.

There are intriguing hints of a storyline, but they seem to go nowhere.

This game was in the IF arcade pack.

Unlike most other games in the IF arcade pack, this is pretty much just a straight-up implementation of space invaders in text. The invaders go left, and right, and so on, and you shoot. I feel like the 2 other invader-like ports had a better implementation.

This game from the IF arcade pack is a reworking of the classic arcade game Galaxian.

It portrays what it would really be like for the main character in Galaxian. Considering that there are also two space invader clones in the IF arcade pack, this game actually was pretty well put together.

It's super short.

This game has you wandering around in a certain unlabeled arcade game (when it was first released in the IF arcade pack, it was even titled Unlabeled).

It's just a joke game; once you realize what's going on, it's over really quickly. But it's fun while it lasts.

The original arcade game night driver had you barreling down a road, swerving left and right down an endless field of white pegs.

This game has a text version, where you can speed, brake, and turn each turn. The conceit, though, is that you're a dad, late at night, and your wife and kids are having an endless conversation with you as you drive. The game eventually ends in a strange way.