* Compressed with ZIP. Free Unzip tools are available for most systems at www.info-zip.org. |
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Game Details
Language: English (en)
Current Version: Unknown License: Freeware Development System: AGT Baf's Guide ID: 48
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Awards
1st Prize - Softworks AGT Competition 1991
Editorial Reviews
Baf's Guide
A dead-on satire of BBS culture, with a small built-in BBS simulation. You're a computer programmer (and plumber), and must get your code working by morning, a task that turns out to involve playing games in virtual reality in order to track down the source of a sinister virus. In the meantime, there are message boards and conferences to explore, a surprising proportion of which turn out to be relevant to the game. Numerous time-sensitive puzzles, internal speaker sound effects, and an endgame that quizzes you on a few details of the game - you will definitely not win this game on one pass. Save frequently and use the built-in hint system.
-- Carl Muckenhoupt
SPAG
I think that Cosmoserve is my favourite non-commercial text game, and certainly the all-time best AGT game. [...] The plot is delightfully interwoven, as the simple task of finding your patch file takes you on a trip through a myriad of forums, file directories, conferences and e-mail encounters. (Graeme Cree)
The novel atmosphere more than makes up for the flat characterization. The puzzles are clever and logically solved, and the plot is tightly written, with only 86 locations. (Donna McCreary Rodriguez)
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SynTax
CosmoServe is one of the most original ideas I've come across for a long time because about 85% of the game takes place while you're using the computer, either running programs or using the BBS. [...] The author has not only re-created the atmosphere of the BBS so that you really feel you're on-line to one, she's also managed to introduce suitable screen displays and sound effects for using the computer.
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Xyzzy News
It's an excellent intermediate game with broad appeal for all hackers, text adventurers and BBS addicts. (Melissa Katz)
See the full review
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Member Reviews
| Average Rating: Number of Reviews: 1 Write a review |
Difficult but great, November 3, 2013I was a little wary about trying this game out - older games can be both extremely difficult and require a lot of 'guess the verb'.
However the parser here is excellent (though you can't use x for examine) and there are usually several things you can try at any one time.
You play as RJ Wright, a programmer and a plumber, and you have an important project due tomorrow. The game takes place both in Wright's house and on his computer. Using the computer is amazing - DOS is faithfully recreated which is especially fun for those of us who remember using it for years and you also log on to the BBS and exchange messages.
There are many different puzzles, a virus and virtual reality to navigate through and with a great atmosphere and excellent writing there is really only one flaw - the difficulty. The game has a fairly tough time limit and it took me several tries as well as looking at one part of the walkthrough to complete it.
Still it was worth it.
This game seems to only be available for DOS so if anyone has any trouble with this you can follow these instructions:
Download and install DosBox (at dosbox dot com)
Unzip the cosmoserve97 file to your c drive (if you unzip it anywhere else just change the instructions to match)
Go to the Dos Box folder (this will probably be C:\Program Files (x86)\DOSBox-0.74)
Open DOSBox 0.74 Options in notepad and at the end of the file just under [autoexec] type:
MOUNT C C:\COSMOS97
C:
cosmos.bat
Then when you run dos box the game will automatically start.
If you enjoyed Cosmoserve...
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Recommended Lists
Cosmoserve appears in the following Recommended Lists:Noteworthy Games Which Aren't Z-Code or TADS Bytecode by Walter Sandsquish
So many text-adventure games have been written with some version of ZIL or Inform or TADS that we might forget other methods get used too. So, here is a list of noteworthy games which don't live on a Z-Machine or a TADS VM. By...
Games I consider to be excellent by Packhandle Failure
I freakin' love these games, man
Polls
The following polls include votes for Cosmoserve:AGT must plays? by Rovarsson
I've recently started playing Cliff Diver 1 and I quit because I got impossibly stuck. I don't want to give u^p on a potential treasure trove though. Recommendations for AGT games?
Games with unique hint systems by delano
I'm looking for games that offer hints in any way, except for printing them in sequence on the screen. For example: characters that offer hints; objects that, when examined or used in a certain way, suggest actions to the player; etc.
This Is Who We Are by Sam Kabo Ashwell
A considerable number of games exist largely as the commentary of the IF community (or some subset of it) upon the medium and the community itself. These works are likely to be befuddling to outsiders, but provide windows onto blah blah...
This is version 6 of this page, edited by Zape on 15 December 2020 at 11:17am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item