Canalboy

London, UK.

Top 50 Reviewer
Member since February 15, 2016
Last visited October 20, 2025
Profile ID (TUID): yin4qf9ohkuqdbqf

E-mail: [click to reveal]

55 year old IT analyst, Wine Buff and Arsenal supporter. IF acolyte. A bit battered with pieces falling off. Lover of the Seventies and cheese. Although not cheese from the Seventies as it tends to be a bit too mouldy.

A magnificent life defining second place in the egg and spoon race at Manor Junior School 1978. Alright yes I glued the egg to the spoon when no-one was looking.

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Recommended Lists by Canalboy

Games Where The Shape Of The Map Is Relevant To Game Completion - 4 items   March 7, 2025
As an inveterate cartographer of text adventures I was considering which games require accurate map construction to solve at least one...

Excellent IF Games With Unfair Puzzles - 5 items   May 18, 2017
A Selection Of Enjoyable IF That Contain(s) Ridiculous Puzzles. All the games mentioned are enjoyable to me and of a very high standard...

Polls by Canalboy

Games Where Moving In The Dark Is Essential - 19 votes for 16 games; created March 16, 2025
As a compulsive map maker I recently came across two games where you have to know your location exactly as you need to move in complete...

Games With Extended Underwater Sequences - 24 votes for 23 games; created October 24, 2024
That is games that have immersive (pun intended) sub aqua areas of more than, say ten locations.

The Most Humorous Scenarios /Characters in IF - 18 votes for 18 games; created August 1, 2022
I was recently re-essaying Castle Ralf and if you "Cogitate" in a certain location there is a seemingly authentic sequence which appears...

Games That No-one Has Ever Knowingly Finished - 8 votes for 7 games; created June 23, 2022
I mean games that have no posted solutions. I realise that a lot of these could be buggy and therefore unfinishable but some will be just...

Games With Unfair Beginnings - 23 votes for 16 games; created October 7, 2021
By this I mean games that can be made unwinnable near the start or have hellish opening puzzles.

Reviews by Canalboy

Skullduggery, by David Jewett   October 12, 2025
"Skullduggery is a pretty obscure piece of revenge horror written initially in C for the Apple II by the author then later revised and..." - See the full review

Dr. Death's House of Horrors, by John Olsen   October 6, 2025
"Dr. Terror's House Of Horrors is the largest game in John R. Olsen's trilogy of horror games collectively entitled Nightmare From The..." - See the full review

First Things First, by J. Robinson Wheeler   July 31, 2025
"The time travel dream-as-narrative has, of course a long and distinguished history in literature - H.G. Wells, Charles Dickens and J.B...." - See the full review

Heist, by Andy Phillips   July 29, 2025
"Heist is one of Andy Phillips's mid-era exercises in masochism. It is more user friendly than his earler TATCTAE but then that wouldn't..." - See the full review

Village of Lost Souls, by Martin Moore and Glenn McAuley   May 6, 2025
"Village of Lost Souls is an excellent and rather creepy puzzlefest set in the once sleepy village of Dinham. You play as a fairly..." - See the full review

See all 56 reviews by Canalboy
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Canalboy's Played Games List

Skullduggery, by David Jewett
Dr. Death's House of Horrors, by John Olsen
Cave Adventure, by Russell Wallace
Lost Pig, by Admiral Jota
Thief's Adventure, by Anonymous

See all 120 entries in the Played List