Wow, I'm a genius (Shrapnel)

[John Hill <johnhill@onefuse.net>]

Not only did I catch the rvafgrva nanpuebavfz (spoiler), but also, also,
I refrained from posting something like "Hey, Cadre, lbh shpxrq hc!"
(profanity)

Wow, I'm a travhf.

I really enjoyed Shrapnel. The funky ascii special effects gave me an
adrenaline rush, and reminded me of Bad Machine.

I'm not such a fan of screen-wipes. The screen buffer is my friend. If
Shrapnel had been a puzzle game, the wipes would have bothered me.

I'm wondering about the pause-for-emphasis device. It worked for me. I
didn't get tired of it. But my attention span might be a little...
modern. Pause could be an innovation in IF grammar, or it could be a
gimmick. I'm thinking that for it to work, it needs to be established
early in a game, so that it doesn't break mimesis later.

There are lots of games I haven't played. Is the pause device relatively
new, or has it been around for a while?

Cheers,
JH

-- 
One equals spamblock.