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- Story file with bundled multimedia
This file contains all the multimedia resources as well as the game, bundled into one.
Requires a TADS interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
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About the Story
After losing control of your car during a blizzard in the mountains of British Columbia, you make your way to a rundown shack and sleep. You wake up elsewhere and soon encounter a mouse, a pair of drawing compasses, a tin robot, a pirate monkey, and a pocketwatch — all human-sized, alive, drinking tea, and telling stories. They need you to lead them away from the Darkness.
Awards
Nominee, Best Use of Medium - 1999 XYZZY Awards
3rd Place - 5th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (1999)
Ratings and Reviews
| Average Rating:   Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 3 |
Sadly, I couldn't get the full experience of this game. As a blind player using a Mac, I'm severely limited in the interpreters I can use. As a result, I had to play this with no sound. Maybe the game would have been more immersive with it.
There were some frustrating error messages about not being able to exit buildings because I was already outside, and I actually needed the walkthrough because I got stuck on the one puzzle in the game. I knew what I was supposed to do but had no idea how to accomplish it with the items I had. I think it could have been better clued.
It was also tough to suspend enough disbelief to swallow the story. The characters and settings were cute, but I wanted to interact more with them. You can't really explore or talk, and I didn't really see the point of what happened.
Don't think the game is worth looking at if you can't see graphics or play sounds, but if you can, I didn't find any critical bugs and the game is pretty short. Some neat customization options and the parser is probably the most polite one I've ever encountered thus far. The game is nice, light entertainment. I probably won't remember much about it in terms of emotional impact or excellence in scenery/imagery, but worth looking at if you have a spare hour and multimedia capability.
Six Stories is an interesting game. I came across it because it did will in 1999 IFComp.
Six Stories was notable at the time for using sound and graphics as an integral part of the game. The game contains six short stories, which are narrated (I had to use HTML TADS, and download the sound files with the non-bundled game. The bundled game didn't play the sound). The graphics are mainly backdrops.
I enjoyed the short stories. There is a brief sequence before hearing them, and then one short puzzle after hearing them. The imagery in the game is imaginative and enjoyable.
If you enjoy fables/fairytales, you will enjoy this game.
When i read the story line i said "it was ok" but when i started playing the game i was "amused" the way the author used multimedia features. The game play is not as good as Ditch Day Drifter(my favourite) but it will keep you busy and enjoy the graphics as you play. I personally recommend this game to any one who wants to know about HTML TADS because this game shows a real good example of the features of HTML TADS.
3 Off-Site Reviews
Baf's Guide
Not the first HTML-TADS game, but possibly the first to use the graphics and sound options available in HTML-TADS to add significantly to a game experience. The game itself is quite simple--you get stuck in a snowstorm, you go exploring, and you meet some strange characters--and the one puzzle isn't all that novel, but the graphics and sound are elaborate and enhance the mood considerably. The game is quite short, unfortunately, but as a multimedia experience, it's very polished.
-- Duncan Stevens
SPAG
I found the experience, though all too brief, to be thoroughly charming. Puzzlewise, the pieces all fit together with a satisfying little snap. Storywise, there are many insinuations and ambiguities and loose ends--enough that I plan on a second play-through to get a clearer picture of the whole. The author doesn't go out of his way to explain what any of this means and why it's happening. This is obscurity done right--unlike some other entries this year which shall remain nameless.
-- Suzanne Britton
See the full review
>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction
For a game that isn't a product of a mainstream company, Six Stories' graphics and sound maintain a remarkably high level of quality. In particular, some of the photos accompanying the game's eponymous "stories" were just gorgeous. Multimedia represents a daunting challenge to the prospective IF developer, because it adds whole new layers of artistic forms, each of which could sink the game if it's not up to snuff. IF writers already face the difficult demands of combining quality writing and design with good programming; as difficult as it is to both write well and program well, how much more difficult then to be also a good photographer, a good actor, a good sound technician, and to be skilled with all the software necessary to get these things in digital forms? I can't imagine we'll see too many multimedia text games that approach the level of Six Stories, simply because not only must it have been a hell of a lot of work to take all the pictures, record all the sounds, do the appropriate tweaking with Photoshop, SoundEdit, etc., and write the code that gets all these things going together, but I can't see many developers doing all these things as well as Guy manages to do them.
See the full review
Tags
Game Details
Current Version: Release 1.0
License: Freeware
Development System: TADS 2
Baf's Guide ID: 606
IFID: TADS2-A2591A5F417103D92497E059369427CD
TUID: p9ci8ridqcdcpw5b
Six Stories on IFDB
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Polls
The following polls include votes for Six Stories:Games with graphics and/or sound by eyesack
I couldn't find an easy way to search for this, so I figured I'd ask the hivemind: What games use graphics and/or sound to enhance the gameplay, similar to City of Secrets and Necrotic Drift?
Most unique games by Jeremy Freese
Whatever else might be said about ___________, there's not another game like it.
Artistic Games by WriterBob
I'm interested in games that take the fiction of IF to new levels. These are not straightforward, plot driven games. Think instead of games that play like poetry, or games that focus on a character's revelation.
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This is version 8 of this page, edited by David Welbourn on 29 March 2024 at 7:47pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page
