book and volume
Wow. Over 2 months and not a single blog post. Not intentional, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. (Which in my case has been 10,000 lines of C++ and a workshop paper.) So, what’s new? Lots really, and I will write more as I wait for my 10,000 lines of C++ to run over the next few weeks, but for now, I’ll just mention the following: yesterday, Nick released Book and Volume, his latest piece of interactive fiction. I played it over a period of several months in my official role as “beta tester” and have the honour of being one of only four people to have (at this point in time) completed the game. It’s great. It’s immensely satisfying and very funny, offering a unique take on the life of a stressed system administrator and the corporate nature of American culture. You can read more about the piece on Grand Text Auto and on Nick’s site, which also contains instructions for installing an appropriate interpreter (apt-get install frotz, for the Debian kids) and a link to the the game itself. For now, however, I shall leave you with the opening paragraphs:
Your pager tickles you awake.
Upstairs in the house of your childhood, in your room, and it must be time for school because—no, it’s the weekend, you remember, but your alarm is going off anyway. You should have been awake already. You’re going to miss the bus. Your mother climbs in the window. You’re dreaming.
You’re a grown-up: It opens to you again, a sluggish window summoned by a mouse click. Waking up now in your own apartment, your new apartment. Your pager is buzzing and vibrating both, serious. It is in fact the weekend, but you’re not in elementary school. No one is crawling in through the window. You’re a system administrator for nWare. Waking up urgently, here in nTopia.
November 26th, 2005 at 6:12 pm
Hi,
Haven’t completed it yet, but if I was this guy I’d have gone insane by now, great fun.
Is is considered cheating to draw a map?
Ben
November 27th, 2005 at 12:35 am
Thanks for the heads-up. I played and completed this game last weekend. I didn’t like it, but it’s always good to give these things a try!
Ben: the game (to its detriment) forces you to go to every location and examine everything in order to find what you need; unless you’re some kind of savant, you’re going to have to draw a map. (As Zarf wisely suggests, the game should come with a map so that the player is spared the chore of constructing one.)
November 27th, 2005 at 10:20 pm
Ben—you’ll most definitely need to draw a map. As Tom says, I think it would be near impossible to complete the game without doing so.
Richard Bos has actually drawn a rather nice map, which is available online here, though as Zarf notes, it’s more of a spoiler map than a feelie map. Still, it might be what you’re looking for, Tom.
November 30th, 2005 at 6:22 am
Nick just pointed out that Richard Bos has now made a feelie map, so if you don’t feel like mapping the city yourself, but don’t want spoilers either, check this one out instead.