Re: Is EXAMINE necessary? (was Fyleet, Crobe, Sangraal)

[pmt6jrp@gps.leeds.ac.uk (J R Partington)]

In article <37D3E284.FF6@cs.york.ac.uk> Iain Merrick <im@cs.york.ac.uk> writes:
>Fyleet, Crobe and Sangraal remind me of some of the early Acornsoft
>games, which were my first experience of 'IF' -- like Castle of Riddles
>and Sphinx Adventure. I didn't really get into IF much at that point
>simply because those games were so amateurish and badly-implemented. I
>had no idea that at around the same time, Infocom were producing much
>better games with much better parsers; I just wish I'd had the chance to
>play them back then. Many years later I played Curses, and it blew me
>away.
>
>I don't think it's just a case of games being 'good for their time'.
>Some games are Just Not Very Good. Many of the Infocom games are flawed
>by modern standards, but they're still good games. Sphinx Adventure
>isn't. And -- in my opinion, at least -- the Phoenix games aren't very
>good either.
>

Ouch! Well, that's put us in our place, hasn't it. 

I think we just have to accept that some people like the simple syntax
and the emphasis on puzzles, whereas others don't. I think if they
were being written now, rather than 12-15 years ago, we'd have gone
for a better parser---like the Topologika one, say---and provided
'undo' (for people who are not in the habit of saving games
regularly).  Not much else.

JRP

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In "Countdown to the Egyptian Goddesses of Fyleet," you escape the
cleaning lady by looking into the palantir but don't forget to burn
the amulet.