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Terminal Interface for Models RCM301-303

by Victor Gijsbers profile

2018

(based on 21 ratings)
2 reviews

About the Story

A text terminal interface for interacting with your model RCM301-303 remote controlled mech.


Game Details


Awards

Nominee - Lemmy, Best Individual NPC - 2018 XYZZY Awards

16th Place - 24th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2018)

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Member Reviews

5 star:
(3)
4 star:
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3 star:
(6)
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Number of Reviews: 2
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Strong, well-written drama that packs a punch, November 22, 2018

In Terminal Interface for Models RCM301-303 you control a robot with one of your employees, Lemmy, inside. An explosion has occurred elsewhere in the facility, and Lemmy wants you to use the robot to destroy some incriminating evidence before the police show up.

This is just a bare outline of the plot. I don't want to say much else on the story other than there's more to this game than appears at first - which shouldn't surprise anyone who has played other games by Victor Gijsbers. (Check out some of his other titles to get a sense of what I mean.) Also, discovering what that more is led to one of the strongest emotional reactions I had to any game in IFComp 2018.

The writing is quite good. Lemmy's character comes out clearly from his patter. If I were more familiar with the UK's regional dialects I would probably be able to place Lemmy, but this American's ears couldn't do any better than "working-class" and "British."

Implementation is also strong. For example, to nail down the effect of controlling a robot remotely Victor had to replace many of Inform 7's standard error messages. It must have been a lot of work.

(Fun fact: This game is one of three in IFComp 2018 to feature a character who drives a Ford Fiesta.)

Overall, Terminal Interface for Models RCM301-303 is a strong, well-written, and well-implemented game that... packs a punch.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
An excellently polished short sci fi game with multiple endings , April 25, 2019
by MathBrush
Related reviews: 15-30 minutes

This game by Victor Gijsbers contains many of the best elements from his former games, including an examination of player agency and strong NPCs.

You play as the commander of a mech, complete with manual and custom parser messages. Unfortunately, your visual components are damaged, so the on-scene pilot Lemmy has to do the talking for you. But Lemmy's quite the character, making life pretty difficult.

The parser is constrained to those verbs recognized by the mech, and even by the nouns which Lemmy 'tags'.

This game is shorter than I would like, but it's pretty good when my main critique is that I want more of it.

Contains some strong profanity in some paths.

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Terminal Interface for Models RCM301-303 on IFDB

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Polls

The following polls include votes for Terminal Interface for Models RCM301-303:

For your consideration: XYZZY-eligible Best Individual NPCs of 2018 by MathBrush
This is for suggesting puzzles in games released in 2018 which you think might be worth considering for Best Individual NPC in the XYZZY awards. This is not a zeroth-round nomination.This is not an official list. The point of poll is...

Split-up PC functionality by baf
In a normal game, there is a single fictional entity that is considered to be: - The protagonist: the character that the player is meant to identify with, and whose goals you are trying to achieve - The viewpoint character: the character...

For your consideration: XYZZY-eligible Best Individual Puzzles of 2018 by MathBrush
This is for suggesting puzzles in games released in 2018 which you think might be worth considering for Best Individual Puzzle in the XYZZY awards. This is not a zeroth-round nomination.This is not an official list. The point of poll is...

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This is version 6 of this page, edited by cas on 25 November 2019 at 8:56pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page