External Links


Story File
The latest release.
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
Story File v1
The original competition entry.
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.

Have you played this game?

You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in.

Playlists and Wishlists

RSS Feeds

New member reviews
Updates to external links
All updates to this page

Being Andrew Plotkin

by J. Robinson Wheeler profile

Screen, Satire
2000

Web Site

About the Story

"Zarf? you think to yourself. Could it be? The one and only Zarf? Xyzzy Award winner? IF Competition winner? The mighty Inscruitable One?

Gosh. What it must be like to be Zarf...

You begin to crawl forward, the tunnel floor oozing and pliable under your knees and palms. The secret door bangs shut and disappears. The tunnel begins to shiver, and from up ahead a roar like a waterfall issues from the darkness."
[--blurb from Competition Aught-Zero]


Game Details

Off-Site Reviews

>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

I was the perfect audience for this game, or near-perfect anyway. I've seen and enjoyed Being John Malkovich, the film by Spike Jonze. I've hung around the IF scene for a long time. I've played every Plotkin game, even Inhumane. I've also played every Infocom game, which turns out to be helpful as well. Even with all that, I'm not sure I caught every reference (especially given the prodigious list of such references provided by the author in the endnotes), but I think I caught a lot of them. Consequently, I'm not sure how somebody who doesn't fulfill some or all of the above criteria would react to BAP, but I can tell you this: I thought it was a delight.
See the full review

SPAG
[...] it turned out that the author very carefully both stuck to and deviated from the movie, in exactly the right way so that he could work economical fragments of humor by referencing the movie, and yet deliver jokes all his own.
-- Sean T Barrett

I found the execution of the idea hilarious (and I'm beginning to think I may have to go rent the movie if it's -anything- like this) and particularly with the bits and pieces that let you see the world in different ways (again, more under "NPCs"). To be perfectly honest, I didn't get the optimal ending, and I was in too much of a hurry to try replaying and fixing this, but for some reason that didn't faze me; perhaps just because what I'd experienced up to that point was... cool.
-- Tina Sikorski
See the full review

SynTax
Being Andrew Plotkin is meant to be a humorous game but I failed to appreciate it or to understand most of what it was about.
-- Dorothy Millard
See the full review

Page Update History

  v.12: 10-Feb-2024 19:31 - JTN (Current Version) - Edit Page - Normal View
Changed Web site URL
v.11: 06-May-2022 23:45 - Paul O'Brian
Changed external review links
v.10: 24-May-2020 14:57 - Zape
Changed download links
v.9: 23-Mar-2013 07:57 - Edward Lacey
Changed external review links
v.8: 31-Aug-2009 06:19 - VK
Changed download links
v.7: 23-May-2008 18:49 - Emily Boegheim
Changed IFIDs, version number, download links
v.6: 28-Apr-2008 13:03 - Paul O'Brian
Changed external review links
v.5: 15-Mar-2008 08:53 - Emily Short
Changed cover art
v.4: 28-Feb-2008 09:05 - Eriorg
Changed author
v.3: 27-Feb-2008 22:47 - David Welbourn
Changed description
v.2: 18-Feb-2008 23:02 - Emily Short
Changed cover art
v.1: 16-Oct-2007 01:49 - IFDB
Created page