Reviews by Wade Clarke

two-word parser

View this member's profile

Show ratings only | both reviews and ratings
View this member's reviews by tag: ADRIFT ADRIFT 3.8 ADRIFT 3.9 ADRIFT 4 adventuron ALAN Apple II BASIC browser-based choice-based Choicescript comedy commercial Commodore 64 CRPG Eamon educational fantasy Halloween horror Hugo IFComp 2010 IFComp 2011 IFComp 2012 IFComp 2013 IFComp 2014 IFComp 2015 IFComp 2016 ifcomp 2020 ifcomp 2021 IFComp 2022 IFComp 2023 incomplete Inform Introcomp 2020 Lovecraft mystery Python Quest RPG science fiction Scott Adams spring thing 2016 spring thing 2020 spring thing 2022 StoryNexus TADS The Quill thriller Twine two-word parser Undum Unity versificator
...or see all reviews by this member
1–1 of 1


Ghostship Delgado, by Tony Kingsmill
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A Quill game with good narrative wraparound & mercifully free of pirate-speak, November 3, 2024
by Wade Clarke (Sydney, Australia)
Related reviews: The Quill, two-word parser

Disclaimer: I tested the Amstrad CPC version of Ghostship Delgado.

At the time I wrote this review, I hadn't previously played many Quill-created games. This is probably a symptom of cultural differences in IF traditions. My understanding is that The Quill made its strongest impacts in the UK and Europe. I'm Australian.

Ghostship Delgado is a 2024-new game produced with The Quill, initially for the Acorn Electron and BBC Micro, then ported to the Amstrad CPC, which was the version I tested and played in emulation. The game is split into two parts, with a password granted at the end of part I opening the second half.

The game's PC, George Pike, falls asleep on his rented yard and wakes on the deck of an old abandoned ship, along with his dog Ruffles. The adventure starts sparse to establish the geography and abandoned status of the ship, then gets busier below deck. There are nautical-themed puzzles, mechanical ingenuity puzzles, helpful and unhelpful animals, and backstory bits to read.

The Quill's parser is a small-vocab one, but it's reassuring knowing that USE will handle most tricky situations, the way it often does in Quest adventures. The tech is old school but the design aesthetic isn't; you can't wreck your game unknowingly and there aren't any time-limited resources. Locale descriptions are thorough and good at cueing the puzzle brain. The player should certainly be thorough in EXAMining stuff. There are a good number of items to be found behind other nouns.

For me, the island-set part II of the game is the more exciting one. It's bigger and with varied terrain, creating opportunities for more atmosphere in the writing and more spread-out puzzles. The backstory is developed further from part I, with the player involved in something of a spiritual quest.

The post-script is especially satisfying. A lot of two-word parser games just finish with THE END, but this one has a thoughtful afterword that is designed to please.

Ghostship Delgado gives a fresh performance of old-school adventuring without a lot of the hassles, and has a wraparound of more narrative than usual for such games, too. It also comes with feelies, and quality instructions and set-up docs.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 


1–1 of 1