Lost New York

This well-researched difficult game takes characters on a tour through the history of New York, much like A Mind Forever Voyaging took players through a fictional city's history.

Unlike Voyaging,this is a very hard puzzle game. I've been playing many early XYZZY awards, and this is a classic late 90's game. Excellent writing, clever puzzles, but no way on earth you'll get them. Multi-object puzzles involving creative uses of items from every area of the game, bizarre required actions, etc. This is not bad, it's just the period's ideal. I used a walkthrough the whole time.

I loved the writing, and the obvious love of the author for New York and its history. The various ranks you get correspond to real historical New York mayors.