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Sylenius Mysterium

by C. E. Forman

(based on 4 ratings)
1 review5 members have played this game. It's on 1 wishlist.

About the Story

You are Sylenius Mysterium, video game player par excellence. At a mall, you discover a long-lost arcade game, and excitedly start to play. But nothing could have prepared you for what happens...
[--blurb from The Z-Files Catalogue]

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Average Rating: based on 4 ratings
Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 1
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A game about playing inside of classic arcade games, September 19, 2017*
Related reviews: about 1 hour

This game by a good author (see 'Delusions') reminds me a bit of Gris et Jaune by Jason Devlin, another talented author. Both games have very strong openings that hint at a great game full of polish.

However, both were not completely finished/polished in time for the competitions they were entered in. This game, in particular, falls flat in the most exciting part: the actual game simulation. You play as Mario, and you have to jump with timed Glulx effects, but it just doesn't work out, and later levels are, I believe, unfinished.

* This review was last edited on September 28, 2017
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2 Off-Site Reviews

Baf's Guide


An ambitious effort that didn't get pulled together in time for the competition (and has never gotten cleaned up). For the first half, you're a teenage video game junkie wandering around a mostly deserted mall, and things work fine, though it's a bit unexciting; mid-game, you become the protagonist in a real-time video game. There are no graphics--everything's described in text--but the real-time aspect is badly broken, and as far as I can tell the game's unfinishable. The mall segment, if you want to try that, is very thoroughly done--lots to ask NPCs about, lots to explore, etc.--but that's about all there is here.

-- Duncan Stevens

>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

It seems to me that text is good at certain things and so is graphics, and to make a text version of Pitfall makes about as much sense as a joystick-and-fire-button version of A Mind Forever Voyaging. It's great to know that the z-machine has realtime capabilities to produce a text arcade game, but surely those capabilities can be put to better use.

SM does have a prologue which operates in a traditional text adventure mode, and this section of the game is quite well-done, with the exception of a number of problematic bugs. The game does a very nice job of defining an engaging and convincing setting and characters, as well as creating a sense of nostalgia for the old gaming consoles. The Atari system was my first introduction to videogames that could be played at home, and I have many fond memories of days spent at friends' houses playing Missile Command or Donkey Kong or Pitfall. In fact, the game evoked nostalgia so well that my disappointment was all the sharper when I realized that its "arcade" section was nothing more than realtime text.
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Abuses of the IF engine by mjhayes
Although various interpreters were written to facilitate play and creation of interactive stories, it should be obvious that some people would find ways to write computer games using the various aspects of the interpreters.

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