Interactive Fiction All-Stars Get Narcoleptic

Thanks to GrandTextAuto for pointing to the newly-released multi-author text adventure called Narcolepsy, spearheaded by multi-XYZZY Award winner Adam Cadre, and featuring contributions from IF luminaries such as Emily Short, Andrew Plotkin, and Stephen Granade. The fairly mysterious readme file promises: "Narcolepsy has several very different plot threads, so even if you get to an ending, you may have only seen a small fraction of what's possible", and the graphics-enabled Blorb-format game should work on a variety of platforms using the correct interpreters.

I highly endorse the xyzzy award...

[xyzzy]

...and recommend you check out all the games! Plugh!

Wow, that's a pretty impressive group.

[Pluvius]

Those guys are probably the best authors IF has to offer right now, and they all worked together on one game. I know they say that too many cooks spoil the broth, but I won't be surprised if this game is an exception.

Rob

Re:massive slashdotting

[Recoil_42]

erm... no. check again.

Re:massive slashdotting

[XO]

ok, now HOW can this be REDUNDANT? It was the third comment posted!!!!!!! Moderators, get your heads out of your arses!

Andrew Plotkin is evil. EVIL!

[fm6]

WTF are those tickets????

Re:Andrew Plotkin is evil. EVIL!

[fm6]

No need for the graphic. I know a total asshole when I see one!

Re:Andrew Plotkin is evil. EVIL!

[fm6]

What do you mean "offtopic"? You ever play "shade"?

I was going to try it...

[neonstz]

...but i fell asleep.

Haven't tried it (yet), but I gotta say...

[Mirkon]

Andrew Plotkin is amazing. Mac users should try his System's Twilight [eblong.com] freeware game, which is somewhere between charming and mind-bending.

If Narcolepsy has even a shade of the stuff Plotkin used in Twilight, conceptually or in puzzles, it can't help but be great.

Adam Cadre: +++

[X_Caffeine]

I played Adam Cadre's "Shrapnel" a few years ago... it scared the living hell out of me. Play it on a dark and stormy night. If you're an old school IF fan, you'll dig on the Zork 1 references too.

Seems broken

[metamatic]

Tried running it under Zoom, and Zoom says: "fatal error (PC = #0) This blorb file is not executable". It unzipped fine, though...

Re:Seems broken

[Richard Poole]

It's in GLUL not in z-machine (strictly speaking this is an over-simplification). You'll need a glul interpreter such as Andrew Plotkin's glulxe [eblong.com] to play it. I had to change a couple things to compile one of glulxe's supporting libraries - email me if you'd like a hand with this.

Re:Seems broken

[metamatic]

Where's the OS X graphical glulxe? I can't find it.

Shade

[Painaxl]

Off topic, but Shade by Andrew Plotkin is the craziest IF game I've ever played. Unbelieveable. I couldn't stop playing it while my head was exploding. Follow the link in the blurb on Andrew's name and then click on his name on the next page to find it. It's just... spooky.

Interesting choice of link for Plotkin.

[andfarm]

However, this [eblong.com] is his home page, rather than a game based around him. (!)

9:05

[Hard_Code]

I just finished 9:05 (or at least i THINK i finished it). Was this as short as I thought it was (like...ridiculously short)?? Or did I miss something?? I don't get it.

Same with Shrapnel. Um, I think I finished it, but it was so damn short I'm not sure. Maybe I did something wrong.

Re:9:05

[Reorax]

There are two endings. It's a bit short to have major spoilers, but I'll play it safe anyway. Basically, there are two endings: one that you get by playing the "normal" way, and another by using some clues from the first ending.