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Current News

24 November 2004
The Three Hour Comp is now underway and I have to admit that I'm not that impressed with most of the entries. It looks like we might be having a few too many comps.

Updates to the Calendar, Database, Facts & Figures and Most Prolific pages.

19 November 2004
My entry in the second Three Hour Comp is done, a very silly very short comedy called Buried Alive. The Comp should kick off tomorrow but as the Adrift forum is currently undergoing a bit of down time, it's likely it might well be delayed.

16 November 2004
The results of this year's IFComp are announced and I came a lowly 23rd. :( Well, there's always next year... The game isn't available on my website yet as I'd like to fix a few of the bugs that people spotted.

My IFComp Reviews are done and dusted. I didn't play all the games but got around to about 3/4 of them and, for the most part, I was decidely unimpressed. One classic game and several other good ones, but a lot of really dire efforts.

12 November 2004
A long overdue update!

The first issue of the Reviews Exchange is now done, featuring reviews of:

The Merry Murders
Murder In Great Falls (2 reviews!)
Mount Voluptuous
Neighbours From Hell
Shards Of Memory
Where Are My Keys?
The Woodfish Compendium

A big thank you to everyone who participated.

Relevant details of the reviews entered in the Database and the games I reviewed have been added to the Reviews page.

Almost finished with the IFComp games now. Still only one rating of 9 but at least a couple of the recent games I've played have at least been decent. Current ratings: 9, 7, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1 and two NOT RATEDs.

31 October 2004
Still not much happening here due to lots of time spent playing the IFComp games and not much time doing anything else. Current ratings: 9, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, NOT RATED. Still waiting for another classic to come along and surprise me but I'm now getting a sinking feeling that this year's Comp might only be producing one such game.

Changed the author of AIF game Handy Man to DeLaFlunk to accord with the author's wishes.

Current progress on Who Didn't Wash Their Hands?: KB 58, Locations 15, Objects 63, Tasks 614, Events 2, Characters 17.

19 October 2004
A slow time for updates due to the fact that I've been playing the games for the IFComp 2004. At the moment, my ratings are: 9, 6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1 and NOT RATED for one game which I couldn't get to run at all.

In the meantime, I've started work on a short comedy game called Who Didn't Wash Their Hands? which is coming along nicely. Current progress: KB 21, Locations 12, Objects 26, Tasks 182, Events 1, Characters 10.

My other works in progress at the moment - The Rage and Second Chance - have been put on the back burner while I get ...Hands done.

Updates to the Calendar, Database, Facts & Figures and Most Prolific pages.

10 October 2004
Updates to the Calendar, Database, Facts & Figures and Most Prolific pages. And the Links page gets a long overdue update.

9 October 2004
Updates have been a little thin on the ground lately due to the IFComp now having got underway. Most of my time has been spent playing the games - some good, some bad, some downright appalling.

A minor update to the Database is about it for now.

30 September 2004
As the deadline for submitting a game to this year's IFComp has now passed, details of my entry - A Day In The Life Of A Super Hero - have been entered in the Calendar, Database, Facts & Figures and Most Prolific pages.

Current progress on The Rage: KB 83, Locations 34, Objects 136, Tasks 470, Events 4, Characters 16.

29 September 2004
The new issue of SPAG (the Society for the Promotion of Adventure Games - a major Interactive Fiction newsletter) is out and contains a very nice review of my game Dead Reckoning by Michael Bechard. Thanks Michael! The review can be found here.

Second Chance is now nearing completion and looking like it should be done well in time for the Spring Thing 2005. Stats: KB 103, Locations 41, Objects 309, Tasks 853, Events 7, Characters 23.

20 September 2004
Wrote a review of a Quest game: Get Out Of The House by Steve Lingle.

19 September 2004
Added a walkthru for Bruce Humphrey's Tears Of A Tough Man.

Properly started work on The Rage, a sequal to Shards Of Memory. Currently progress: KB 12, Locations 3, Objects 25, Tasks 32, Events 0, Characters 1.

Updates: Database.

12 September 2004
Two new Walkthrus added. For my maze game The Mystery Of The Darkhaven Caves and for Red Jet's The Legend Of Zelda: Legacy Of A Princess. Many thanks to Mark J. Tilford for supplying the walkthru for the second of these.

Current work in progress is Second Chance, which will be my entry in the Spring Thing 2005. At the moment it's around 75% complete and should be done by the end of this month, or early next month. Stats: KB 91, Locations 41, Objects 232, Tasks 691, Events 6, Characters 17.

5 September 2004
Review added for Red Jet's The Legend Of Zelda: Legacy Of A Princess.

Updates: Calendar, Database, Facts & Figures and Most Prolific.

3 September 2004
Added the 100% a walkthru of Purple Dragon's AIF game Ghost Justice. Thanks to the author himself for providing the list of required tasks necessary to boost the score. I got 72 on my own and a good few of the remaining ones I doubt I would ever have figured out.

30 August 2004
Wrote a review of Purple Dragon's AIF game Ghost Justice.

29 August 2004
The ADRIFT Summer Comp 2004 is now finished. I jointly won with Choose Your Own.... Well done to everyone who took part. Full results on the Competitions page. I also wrote some Reviews of the other entries.

After several months I've finally got round to finishing the second version of Paint!!!. It's available from here and shortly from the IFArchive.

Updates: Calendar, Database, Facts & Figures and Most Prolific.

22 August 2004
The ADRIFT Summer Comp 2004 is underway. Six entries in total, split into two categories:

Size Limited: 10 rooms or less
The ADRIFT Project by Mystery
Choose Your Own... by Davidw
Tears Of A Tough Man by Bruce Humphrey
Ticket to nowhere by Richard Otter

Build A Better Maze
The Mystery Of The Darkhaven Caves by Davidw
Shadrick's Underground Adventures by Mystery

Updates also to the Calendar, Database, Facts & Figures, Release Schedule and Most Prolific.

17 August 2004
Updated the Release Schedule to add several new games which should be out before the end of the year.

Currently working on a couple of games for the ADRIFT Summer Comp 2003: Choose Your Own... - a gamebook-style game which is about 75% complete. - and The Further Adventures Of Clueless Bob Newbie which is for the time-based comp.

11 August 2004
Walkthru added for MileStyle's Panic. Also added my Reviews for the Three Hour Competition.

As I'm unlikely to host another competition, I decided it was high time I redesigned the Competitions page. Rather than any comps I might be hosting, it's now a list of all the ADRIFT comps (those I have been able to find details of at any rate). Spot any mistakes? Let me know: me@dwhyld.plus.com

Updates: Facts & Figures.

8 August 2004
Started work on a couple of small games for the forthcoming ADRIFT Summer Comp: Choose Your Own... and The Mystery Of The Darkhaven Caves. The first is a gamebook done as an interactive fiction game and the second is - of all things - a maze game!

Updates: Facts & Figures.

2 August 2004
A Day In The Life Of A Super Hero - my entry into this year's IFComp - is 99% complete. Total stats: KB 160, Locations 35, Objects 244, Tasks 1425, Events 23, Characters 23.

Added two sections to the Most Prolific ADRIFT Authors - page: Most KB (being a list of who has written the Most KB worth of ADRIFT games) and Average Game Sizes (which, like the name probably suggests, is a list of the average game sizes for all ADRIFT authors).

30 July 2004
Added two new Walkthrus for Daniel Hiebert's The Amulet and Amber Rollins-Walker's Zombie Cow.

New action added - Articles - collecting the articles, three to date, that I've written for the ADRIFT Newsletter.

24 July 2004
Three new Walkthrus added for my game Jailbreak Bob, Mel S' Lost Souls and Mystery's Shadrick's Travels.

Updates also to the Calendar, Database, Facts & Figures and Most Prolific.

18 July 2004
The Three Hour Comp ended and I came second with Jailbreak Bob. Full results:

1. "The Briefcase" by Woodfish
2. "Jailbreak Bob" by Davidw
3. "Zombie Cow" by Amber Rollins-Walker
4. "Lost Souls" by Mel S
5. "Amulet" by Daniel Hiebert
6. "Shadrick's Travels" by Mystery

Well done to everyone who entered. Jailbreak Bob is now available on the Games page.

15 July 2004
Added a walkthru for Campbell Wild/Graham Cluley's Humbug.

11 July 2004
A Day In The Life Of A Super Hero now finished and gone off for beta-testing.

Added a review for The Case Of Samuel Gregor. Wakthru for the same game added.

6 July 2004
Update to the Calendar, Database, Facts & Figures and Prolific pages to take into account the games entered in the Three Hour Comp.

4 July 2004
Minor update to the Release Schedule.

Also gave the Previews page a long overdue update.

Progress on A Day In The Life Of A Super Hero: KB 124, Locations 33, Objects 217, Tasks 1033, Events 15, Characters 18.

27 June 2004
Completed my entry for the Three Hour Competition: Jailbreak Bob, being the fourth Clueless Bob Newbie game.

Update to the Calendar, Database, Facts & Figures and Prolific pages.

25 June 2004
Three new reviews added, this time for a trio of old text adventures for the ZX Spectrum: The Big Sleaze, The Hobbit and Tower Of Despair.

Many thanks to Erik for his rather nice review of A Day At The Office in the latest issue of the Inside ADRIFT Newsletter.

Progress on A Day In The Life Of A Super Hero: KB 76, Locations 21, Objects 142, Tasks 598, Events 5, Characters 16.

19 June 2004
Added a new part to the Wakthrus section, this time listing the games by virtue of lenghtiest walkthru first. The new page is at The Longest Walkthrus. Tidied up some of the formatting on the various Facts & Figures sections to make them quite a bit quicker and easier to update. New additions added to the front page.

Progress on A Day In The Life Of A Super Hero: KB 76, Locations 21, Objects 142, Tasks 598, Events 5, Characters 16.

13 June 2004
Added a Review for A. Bomire's The Backlot, a pretty decent AIF game. Walkthru for the same game also added.

Progress on A Day In The Life Of A Super Hero: KB 40, Locations 10, Objects 58, Tasks 308, Events 5, Characters 7.

6 June 2004
Finally got around to uploading a walkthru for Sophie's Adventure and also did To Score Or Not To Score at the same time.

5 June 2004
Added a further two walkthrus, this time for DuoDave's Get Treasure For Trabula and Mystery's ADRIFT-O-Rama.

Made a start on a new game provisionally titled A Day In The Life Of A Super Hero, almost certainly the game I enter in the IFComp 2004 in favour of The Day I Died which seems to have slowed to a crawl recently. Progress on the former title so far: KB 15, Locations 3, Objects 22, Tasks 88, Events 3, Characters 1.

31 May 2004
Three new walkthrus added for Eric Mayer's Doom Cat!! (surely the only text adventure in existence to revolve around an exploding cat), Marno's Agent 4-F From Mars and Mel S' An Evening With The Evil Chicken Of Doom.

Current progress on the rewrite of Paint!!!: KB 58, Locations 1, Objects 35, Tasks 556, Events 40, Characters 8.

30 May 2004
Added release dates to the games list featured on The Database.

28 May 2004
Three new Walkthrus added: Eric Mayer's Wax Worx, Mad Monk's Montahue Scott & The Mobius Belt and Mystery's Crimson Detritus.

Finished linking all the reviews of ADRIFT games I've been able to find on the web to The Database.

Three game reviews I've written appear at Baf's Guide To The IF Archive: ADRIFT games Albridge Manor and Three Monkeys, One Cage and an old Spectrum classic (upon which a couple of my games) were based: The Big Sleaze.

24 May 2004
Several more gamebooks added to Amateur Gamebooks.

The Links page gets a long overdue update.

23 May 2004
Opened up a new section - Amateur Gamebooks - containing no less than 18 gamebooks. None written by myself at the moment but I live in hope that I'll get one finished one day.

16 May 2004
Review by Emily Short of The Saga Of Percy The Viking at Baf's Guide To The IF Archive (for some reason down there as The Sage Of Percy The Viking).

Walkthru added for Reelyor's The Cat In The Tree.

Finished the basic storyline of The Day I Died, my entry for this year's IFComp. Just a case now of fitting all the elements of the story together. Progress at the moment: KB 74, Locations 40, Objects 147, Tasks 496, Events 4, Characters 11.

Also started to go through Paint!!! and rewrite a few of the annoyances. Ted will now give a hint whenever he swipes something, and the meteor smashing through the ceiling won't come as much of a surprise. Hopefully anyway.

14 May 2004
The latest issue of the Inside ADRIFT newsletter is out. Many thanks to Tech for his rather good review of Shards Of Memory.

Three new Reviews added: Eric Mayer's Wax Worx, Mystery's The Curse Of DragonShrine and SFzapgun's Sommeril.

13 May 2004
Added links to several more reviews to the Database Games page.

Minor update to the Calendar, Database, Facts & Figures and Prolific pages.

Current progress on The Day I Died: KB 51, Locations 29, Objects 97, Tasks 319, Events 4, Characters 5.

9 May 2004
New walkthrus added for my game Jim Pond & The Agents Of F.A.R.T., Mark Silcox's strange The Cave Of Morpheus and Mystery's The Curse Of DragonShrine.

7 May 2004
Fixed several broken links on the Database Games page as well as adding links to a couple dozen reviews.

A whole horde of new games added to the Release Schedule. Current progress on Blood Relatives: KB 153, Locations 93, Objects 366, Tasks 1082, Events 10, Characters 44.

Current progress on The Day I Died: KB 29, Locations 15, Objects 56, Tasks 169, Events 4, Characters 1.

3 May 2004
Added three new Walkthrus for my game Shards Of Memory, Mystery's ARGH's Great Escape and Tech's Wreckage.

Finally decided to go back to Blood Relatives and get it rewritten. Current progress: KB 151, Locations 93, Objects 358, Tasks 1063, Events 10, Characters 44.

2 May 2004
Shards Of Memory wins the ADRIFT Spring Comp 2004! Yay! Many thanks for everyone who voted for me. The game is available to download from the Games page.

Minor update to the Calendar, Database, Facts & Figures and Prolific pages.

1 May 2004
Many thanks to Emily Short for a very nice review of Paint!!! which can be found at Baf's Guide To The IF Archive.

Many more updates to the Database Games page. Links to download locations, reviews and walkthrus now about 95% finished.

Tidied up the Reviews page to make it easier to find reviews of competition games.

30 April 2004
More updates to the Database Games page.

26 April 2004
Uploaded my latest game To Score Or Not To Score to the Games page. In the AIF Min-Comp it came a lowly 8th. Oh well, I liked it...

Major update to the Database Games page as I've begun adding links to where the games can be downloaded. Eventually, this will also contain links to reviews and walkthrus for the games in question.

22 April 2004
Update to the Links page and also added a walkthru for my game Paint!!! to the Walkthrus section.

18 April 2004
The ADRIFT Spring Comp 2004 is now underway, including my own entry Shards Of Memory.

Update to the Database, Facts & Figures, Prolific Authors and the Calendar.

11 April 2004
Added a new section - the Calendar, a list of every ADRIFT game and its release date. Hardly a complete list at the moment but hopefully it will be one day.

Also added several long overdue additions to the Links page.

8 April 2004
Minor update to the Database, Facts & Figures and Prolific pages.

Current progress on Shards Of Memory: KB 93, Locations 68, Objects 192, Tasks 598, Events 4, Characters 5.

4 April 2004
Three new walkthrus added for Mystery's ADRIFT Maze, Captain Obvious' Vagabond and DuoDave's Shred 'Em.

1 April 2004
Quite a large update to the Database, Facts & Figures and Prolific pages to take into account the ten new Adrift games in the Minicomp currently being run by A. Bomire.

26 March 2004
Walkthrus added for my own game Goblin Hunt as well as Topaz by Woodfish and Cruel And Hilarious Punishment by Mel S. Update to the Database, Facts & Figures and Prolific pages.

Current progress on Shards Of Memory: KB 86, Locations 67, Objects 148, Tasks 522, Events 4, Characters 5.

Current progress on The Day I Died: KB 23, Locations 13, Objects 43, Tasks 128, Events 4, Characters 1.

20 March 2004
Finished my entry for the AIF Mini-Comp: To Score Or Not To Score.

Minor update to the Database, Facts & Figures and Prolific pages.

Also, courtesy of the author himself, the walkthru for The Quest For Spam.

17 March 2004
Results of the 4th One Hour Competition announced. I came 4th with Goblin Hunt. The full results (with marks given as an average out of 10) are:

Vagabond = 6
ARGH'S Great Escape = 5.89
Topaz = 5.7
Goblin Hunt = 5.67
Wreckage = 5.6
An Evening with the Evil Chicken of Doom = 4.89
Get Treasure For Trabula = 4.56
Agent 4-F From Mars = 4.4
Cruel and Hilarious Punishment = 3.7
Cat in the Tree = 3.6
ADRIFT Maze = 3.5
Undefined = 3.3
Woof = 3
Ice Cream = 2.9
Shred' Em = 2.8
Quest For Spam = 1.56

My reviews of each can be found on the reviews page.

14 March 2004
New review added for Dennis Matheson's The Awakening.

9 March 2004
Wrote my first ever review of a TADS game - House by Owen Parish. Available from the Reviews page.

Current progress on Shards Of Memory: KB 82, Locations 67, Objects 127, Tasks 475, Events 4, Characters 4.

Current progress on To Score Or Not To Score: KB 14, Locations 3, Objects 30, Tasks 99, Events 0, Characters 2.

5 March 2004
With the 4th One Hour Comp now underway there are several major updates to the Database, Facts & Figures and Most Prolific Authors pages.

My entry is available from the My Games page.

28 February 2004
Updated the front page of Shadow Vault. Why? Bored with the old look I guess you could say.

Several new games added to the Release Schedule page. Also added details of three new games I'm working on to the Previews page.

Shards Of Memory essentially finished and just the final touches being added to it. Current progress: KB 80, Locations 66, Objects 118, Tasks 458, Events 4, Characters 4.

Review of Graham Cluley/Campbell Wild's Humbug added to the Reviews page.

22 February 2004
Minor update to the Releases page.

Current progress on Shards Of Memory, a possible entry in the IFComp 2004: KB 44, Locations 27, Objects 96, Tasks 256, Events 4, Characters 1.

19 February 2004
Finished my one room game Paint!!! and this is now available from the Games page.

Updates to the Database, Facts & Figures and Most Profilic Adrift Writers. New review added for Roberto Grassi's The Last Hour.

15 February 2004
New review added for Roberto Grassi's The Last Hour.

14 February 2004
Had a little redesign of the front page. Partly prompted by the realisation that it had stayed the exact same way for quite a while now, and partly because someone pointed out how difficult it was to get hold of me due to my e-mail address being hard to find. Rectified now. The only other change layout-wise is that this section is now called "Updates", which seemed more appropriate than "News".

Second One Room Comp cancelled due to lack of entrants. Thanks to Rgrassi who did submit a game. Shame on those who didn't. My own entry - Paint!!! - is finished but due to the Comp being cancelled, I'm adding a few extra bits to it now no time limit is imposed.

Due to a few changes over at the main ADRIFT forum and the Inside ADRIFT Newsletter no longer available, I've uploaded it here .

8 February 2004
Added a wakthru for Mystery's Mystery Manor.

Current progress on Paint!!!: KB 34, Locations 1, Objects 30, Tasks 277, Events 35, Characters 8.

Current progress on The Game: KB 29, Locations 32, Objects 38, Tasks 125, Events 0, Characters 4.

31 January 2004
Updates to the Database, Facts & Figures and Prolific pages.

Current progress on Paint!!!: KB 32, Locations 1, Objects 29, Tasks 242, Events 33, Characters 8.

22 January 2004
Walkthru for my game Barney's Problem added.

Current progress on Paint!!!: KB 27, Locations 1, Objects 29, Tasks 203, Events 31, Characters 8.

Current progress on Second Chance: KB 17, Locations 9, Objects 34, Tasks 95, Events 2, Characters 1.

21 January 2004
Added a review for Johnny Reb's The Birthday.

Made a start on my second AIF game, imaginatively titled The Game.

19 January 2004
Updates to the Database, Facts & Figures and Most Prolific Adrift Writers pages.

Current progress on Paint!!!: KB 23, Locations 1, Objects 25, Tasks 173, Events 31, Characters 8.

18 January 2004
Added a walkthru for the full length version of my game ASDFA.

Updates to the Database, Facts & Figures and Most Prolific Adrift Writers pages.

12 January 2004
Added a walkthru for my game Halloween Hijinks.

Minor update to the Release Schedule, Facts & Figures and Most Prolific Adrift Writers pages.

10 January 2004
Walkthru added for my own game Dead Reckoning.

A couple of games by Mel S added to the Release Schedule.

Courtesy of MileStyle, several new games and several new authors added to the Database, Facts & Figures and Most Prolific Adrift Writers pages.

9 January 2004
After several days down due to a "technical" problem, Shadowvault is back online.

As a way of keeping track of the countless ADRIFT games announced on the main forum, I've started compiling a list of them all which can be found on the Release Schedule page. Expect the list to grow to gargantuan proportions by the end of the year.

Over the past few days, the ADRIFT End of Year 2003 Comp was announced. For the second year running Poodle won (this time with To Hell In A Hamper). I came second with Dead Reckoning and third with Sophie's Adventure.

Several games on the go at the moment:

Paint!!! - my entry in my forthcoming One Room Comp. An office decorator has to fight against the odds (including an ancient curse, a voodoo witch doctor and an irate Thunder God with a bad hangover) in an attempt to get an office painted. Progress: KB 11, Locations 1, Objects 14, Tasks 71, Events 9, Characters 4.

Second Chance - a possible entry for the IFComp 2004. Beginning with the death of the main character, the game backtracks through the course of his/her life and shows the player where it all went wrong. Progress: KB 6, Locations 3, Objects 12, Tasks 26, Events 1, Characters 1.

Starfall - another possible entry in the IFComp 2004. A science fiction game with the player in a race against time to thwart an evil alien menace hellbent on conquering the galaxy. Progress: KB 14, Locations 4, Objects 20, Tasks 60, Events 0, Characters 2.

Minor updates to the Facts & Figures, Database, Previews and Most Prolific Pages.

4 January 2004
New competition announced! Details are on the Competitions page.

Added a walkthru for Johnny Reb's The Birthday.

2 January 2004
First update of the new year! Finally finished Barney's Problem which is available from the Games page and, shortly, The Adult Interactive Fiction Portal as well.

Added my mini-reviews from the ADRIFT End of Year Newsletter to the Reviews page.

Details of a couple of games by me and four by Ravenous have gone onto the Facts & Figures page.

Minor update to the Database and Most Prolific Adrift Authors page.