The Fourth One Hour Comp



GAME: ADRIFT Maze
AUTHOR: Mystery
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 17th March 2004
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20maze.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/adrift_maze.taf


Time to completion: slightly less than a minute. Yep, and no cheating either.

'Adrift Maze' seems to consist of little more than wandering around a very easy to navigate maze (which is easier still as the map function hasn't been disabled) and picking up a trophy at the end. I came across an alien at one point but he didn't seem to have a lot to say and so I ignored him.

I finished the game and then sat there wondering if I had missed something. A second attempt and I wandered into a location with an ugly troll which teleported me to another area of the maze but other than this there seemed to be very little here.

4 out of 10



GAME: Agent 4-F From Mars
AUTHOR: Marno
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 17th March 2004
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20agent4f.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/agent4f.taf


Agent 4-F From Mars annoyed me right from the word go. Okay, maybe that's a little harsh but any game that starts with lines of text which appear on screen at very slow intervals and can't be speeded up no matter what you do isn't going to impress me much.

After that, fortunately, it got better. The game seemed to have a reasonably engaging storyline (within the 1 hour confines) and I was just thinking it might not be a bad game after all... when it ended. Yep, all of 5 or 6 moves into the game it was over. I started again, waited an age while the text displayed itself, got into the game once more. And, lo and behold, it was over again. I managed to examine a couple of items this time and discovered that I wasn't carrying anything, but that was about the sum of it.

The intro started again... but not for me. My patience ran out and I went onto something else.

3 out of 10



GAME: ARGH's Great Escape
AUTHOR: Mystery
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 17th March 2004
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20argh.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/argh.taf


This was actually quite an interesting little game. Playing as Argh, a caveman inventor, you have to escape from Boulder Rock Prison and reveal your secret invention to the world at large.

I managed to finish this game in just a few minutes because it's very, very easy. The most logical thing to do generally tends to be the one that moves the game on and only the medicine left me stumped for a bit (it can be eaten but attempting to drink it ends in failure). Other than that, very good.

5 out of 10



GAME: The Cat In The Tree
AUTHOR: Reelyor
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 17th March 2004
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20catintree.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/catintree.taf


Guess the verb brought this game to a crashing halt. I successfully managed to take the ladder and attempt to climb the tree, but what kind of phrasing was needed to actually give the milk to the cat baffled me. Even after looking in the Generator I couldn't figure it out. No simple "give *milk* to *cat" here. Oh no. Here we have advanced task structures at their most incomprehensible: "[get/grab/hold/offer]{the/at the/at}{mil/cup of milk/cup}{to/to the}[cat/pussy]". After attempting a dozen different variations and being unable to get even one to work, I just quit.

3 out of 10



GAME: Cruel & Hilarious Punishment
AUTHOR: Mel S
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 3.9 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 17th March 2004
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20cahp.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/cah.taf


A game best played with the auto-complete switched off as I discovered the hard way. "Open cabinets" doesn't work (and this is what the Runner supplies when you start typing) yet "open cabinet" allows me to open the cabinets (plural) and retrieve an item I need. Painful.

Like Mel's other short games, this one is quite amusing although it also seemed a little too short - even for a game written in an hour. Maybe it could be expanded into a full size game and given a few more "hilarious" pranks to perform. Problems with the cabinets/cabinet aside, this was a reasonably easy game.

5 out of 10



GAME: An Evening With The Evil Chicken Of Doom
AUTHOR: Mel S
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 3.9 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 17th March 2004
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20ecod3.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/eveningwithecod.taf


Some hilarious moments (a woman declaring she wanted to have the evil chicken's baby, amusing references to other evil chicken games, setting a man on fire and his calm announcement that he'd better go to hospital) couldn't hide the cracks in this game, of which there were quite a few.

A character who needed to be examined couldn't be referred to simply as "usher" but instead as "the usher". And as I had turned auto-complete off, I had great problems with an "open door" command which had been shortened, for some reason, to "open doo" in the Generator!

Laughter and frustration throughout, but in the end the frustration won out.

4 out of 10



GAME: Get Treasure For Trabula
AUTHOR: DuoDave
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 17th March 2004
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20trabula.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/trabula.taf


With a little more descriptive text, I might have quite enjoyed this one but as it happened I found it quite annoying. Okay, any game written in an hour is going to have parts that seemed rushed and in all fairness there were a lot of locations here for a game completed in such a small period of time. Even so, I found myself very frustrated by having to unlock the shabby hut and open the shabby hut before I was able to enter the shabby hut. Once inside I encountered several chests which had to be unlocked and opened. Strangely enough, the iron chest had to be opened twice before I could get into its contents.

All in all, an interesting idea that really didn't suit the one hour comp and would have been better done as a full size game.

4 out of 10



GAME: Ice Cream!
AUTHOR: Reelyor
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 17th March 2004
WALKTHROUGH: n/a
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/icecream.taf


Guess the verb problems marred what was otherwise a reasonably interesting game. "Put ice cream in cone" didn't work yet, funnily enough, "put ice cream cone" worked fine. The game itself consists of little more than three commands endlessly repeated and after typing them in half a dozen times my patience ran out.

Amusing commentary from the customers at the ice cream counter helped raise this from a 3 to a 4 but here was a game with precious little to do.

4 out of 10



GAME: The Quest For Spam
AUTHOR: Whatever
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 17th March 2004
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20spam.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/questforspam.taf


Aghhh! Save me from the curse of ambiguity and undescribed items!

The spam is inside the can of spam. All well and good. But "examine spam" produces the ever-helpful "Which spam. The can of spam or the spam?" "Spam" I reply with. "That's still ambiguous" the game informs me.

Okay, this was only written in an hour so be fair and move onto something else. Let's examine what's in the kitchen: "x refridgerator". Nope. "X stove". Nope. "X groceries". Nope. "X kitchen"???? Nope!!!

My will to live just gave out then and the recycle bin beckoned. I know I shouldn't judge a game written within such a strict timescale too harshly but at the same time there's just nothing about this I could recommend at all.

1 out of 10



GAME: Shred 'Em
AUTHOR: DuoDave
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 17th March 2004
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20shred.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/shredem.taf


A small game even for an hour which seems to comprise of little more than opening a filing cabinet, getting some files, turning on the shredder (which isn't even described!) and shredding said files. Incredibly easy but a little repetitive - after all, once you've figured out the commands needed to complete the game (get files, shred files) it's pretty much just a case of typing them several times and waiting for the game to end. A little variety would have gone a long way.

3 out of 10



GAME: Topaz
AUTHOR: Woodfish
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 17th March 2004
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20topaz.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/topaz.taf


Playing 'Topaz' isn't like playing a game at all, but more like reading a story. There are few options for the player to take and the game is immensely linear, yet the style of writing is fairly accomplished (particularly if this was, indeed, written in just an hour).

The only problem I had was with a truly bad guess the verb puzzle involving picking up the sword. The descriptive text advised me I might be able to pull it out. Tried that. Failed miserably. Getting the item didn't work. After trying half a dozen different combinations, I finally went with "dig mud" and was rewarded with success. Sometimes the least obvious command seems to be the one that works best.

That aside, I enjoyed 'Topaz' and hope it gets enlarged into a full size game one day.

7 out of 10



GAME: Undefined
AUTHOR: 30otsix
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 17th March 2004
WALKTHROUGH: n/a
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/undefined.taf


Now this is the sort of "game" (for want of a better word) that I've just never had any patience with: one location, nothing in the way of descriptions, no actual point in playing. As far as games go, this isn't really a game at all. I messed around typing various commands for a few minutes but rapidly got bored. In fact, I probably spent longer writing this review.

Please, make an actual game next time. You're capable of a lot better than this.

1 out of 10



GAME: Vagabond
AUTHOR: Captain Obvious
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 17th March 2004
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20vagabond.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/vagabond.taf


I played this and finished it without ever really knowing what it was all about. You arrive on a planet, are given a note advising you to get off the planet as soon as you can, and then set about doing so. Very little seems to be explained - although a game written in an hour is never going to have a lengthy or detailed storyline anyway. Actually, considering the entire thing was completed in an hour, there's a surprising amount of depth here: locations are descriptive and interesting.

'Vagabond' doesn't have any actual puzzles and can be finished in the space of five minutes but it was well worth playing all the same.

6 out of 10



GAME: Woof
AUTHOR: Roberto Grassi
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 17th March 2004
WALKTHROUGH: n/a
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/woof.taf


The strangest thing about this game is that of the six locations on offer, four of them don't even have descriptions. Indeed, the two that do last for a line each. Hence, descriptive text isn't this game's strong point. There's very little I could find to recommend in 'Woof'. Text adventures rely on text (ergo "text" adventures) so one without even the most basic descriptions for two-thirds of the locations isn't one I'm going to have a lot of patience with. After wandering around the empty locations for a couple dozen moves, the game ended. And none too soon.

1 out of 10



GAME: Wreckage
AUTHOR: Tech
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 17th March 2004
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20wreckage.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/wreckage.taf


Quite a well written game for an hour, but way, way too hard. In particular, the puzzle with the repairbot and exactly what needed typing in order to get it to work was nightmarish (okay, I admit I weakened and looked in the Generator). Guess the verb games tend to work better when there's no time limit but here, with a time limit of perhaps 5 moves after the hatch is opened, I was dead before I even started to make progress.

Could have been a 6 but the hardness factor and the unfair time limit knocked this down to a 5.

5 out of 10