The Third One Hour Comp



GAME: Apprentice Of The Demon Hunter
AUTHOR: The Mad Monk
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 3.9 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 16th November 2003
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20aotd.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/demonhunter.taf


For a game written in just an hour, this had a surprising amount of depth and there was a genuine sense of unease as my demonhunter character wandered about the ruined village. The mood was further heightened by some atmospheric locations.

The only bad point from my point of view was the kind of jokey style of writing which conflicted with the general feel of the game: comedy and horror seldom mix well and here was an example where it didn't.

That minor qualm aside, AOTD was a great little game and I'm hoping the writer rewrites it as a full size game one day. It certainly has potential.

8 out of 10



GAME: The Curse Of The Revenge Of The Evil Chicken Of Doom... Returns!
AUTHOR: Mel S
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 3.9 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 16th November 2003
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20ecod2.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/ecod2.taf


The title was about the most normal thing about this game which was, if anything, even crazier than the original.

The evil chicken of doom has returned and only YOU can stop it. The hows of completing the game are pretty much explained right at the start and it's then left to you to figure out exactly how to do them. A few guess the verb problems arose but these were relatively minor and didn't spoil the game one bit.

For a one hour game, there were a huge amount of clever ideas used here and more than a few laugh out loud moments (the Smell-O-Matic being particularly hilarious). A contender with "Doom Cat" for funniest ever one hour game.

7 out of 10



GAME: Doom Cat
AUTHOR: Eric Mayer
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 16th November 2003
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20doomcat.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/ticktick.taf


Undoubtedly the maddest game in the comp (and I'm saying that despite the fact that I've not played them all yet), this was sheer lunacy from start to finish.

Your cat is ticking. Yep. Ticking. So you need to find a way to dispose of it before it explodes and kills you.

Saying any more would spoil the game and this is a little gem of a game that you don't want spoiling; the ending is hilarious (I think I almost wet myself when reading the cat's message). It would be difficult to review the style of writing used here but the widely varying font sizes added a further mad element to the proceedings.

Funny, mad, great.

7 out of 10



GAME: The Farthest Shore
AUTHOR: Stewart J. McAbney
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 16th November 2003
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20tfs.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/shore.taf


A very well written game, although one without any real point to it as far as I could see. Indeed, it can be completed (if that's the right word) in a mere three moves. There are others things to do during the course of the game - wander around the island you are shipwrecked on, feed a cow - but these are pretty much just filler and make no difference to the ending or the way the game plays.

As an exercise in writing it was certainly well done but I couldn't help but feel that it was a wasted opportunity.

5 out of 10



GAME: Forum 2
AUTHOR: Woodfish
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 16th November 2003
WALKTHROUGH: n/a
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/forum2.taf


All in all I didn't enjoy this game anywhere near as much as "Forum" - it was better written but lacked the inspired craziness of the former game and while I'm sure it was intended as a comedy game it didn't come across as comical for the most part. And as for the ending... well, the less said the better. Strange just doesn't describe it.

So... better writing than the first game but a far lesser game overall.

4 out of 10



GAME: Just My Imagination - Musings Of A Child
AUTHOR: Mystery
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 16th November 2003
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20moac.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/imagination.taf


I couldn't really say I liked this game but it had a kind of charm that was amusing for the time I spent playing it (not long - it was a very small game in a competition of small games).

Puzzles were nice and easy to solve and none required any great deal of effort to figure out. The standard of writing was fairly okay throughout although the opening paragraphs could certainly have done with some tidying up as far as punctuation was concerned.

Amusing for five minutes but not much longer.

4 out of 10



GAME: The Pyramid Of Hamaratum
AUTHOR: KFAdrift
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 16th November 2003
WALKTHROUGH: http://www.shadowvault.net/wt%20poh.htm
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/pyramid.taf


Even for an hour, this was a remarkably small and straightforward game. It basically involvespicking up one object and putting it somewhere - and that's it! There are no real puzzles along the way.

Unfortunately grammtical errors abound and aren't helped by the style of writing which was a lot less fluent than I would have expected.

A first effort but, unfortunately, not a particularly memorable one.

3 out of 10



GAME: Quest For Flesh
AUTHOR: Tech
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 16th November 2003
WALKTHROUGH: n/a
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/questforflesh.taf


Despite being well written, I couldn't get into this game at all. There seemed to be precious little to do and the only tasks involved eating a cat and a man. It also seemed to be one of those strange games that didn't have a proper ending - the player leaves the start location and dies. A couple of events - the cat and the man - give you a boost to your score but are unable to prevent the inevitable ending. The word "pointless" sprang to mind a few times while I was playing.

In a way it's a pity this game isn't better because the idea behind it seemed like a good one. Unfortunately it wasn't very well executed and left me feeling that, for this author, an hour just wasn't long enough to write a proper game.

4 out of 10



GAME: Saffire
AUTHOR: Woodfish
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 4 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 16th November 2003
WALKTHROUGH: n/a
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/saffire.taf


The writer's liking for strange games seems to have hit a low here. "Saffire" started off quite promisingly - you're backed up against a wall with a gunman closing in - but then goes rapidly downhill. I'm not quite sure what to make of what happens after that but it certainly wasn't anything I found very likeable.

"Saffire" came across as a very non-user-friendly game that didn't even have a hint or two for when the player got stuck.

3 out of 10



GAME: That Crazy Radioactive Monkey
AUTHOR: Mel S
PLATFORM: ADRIFT 3.9 http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 16th November 2003
WALKTHROUGH: n/a
DOWNLOAD: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/radioactive.taf


I'm not sure if I should be liking this game or being horrified over the idea of a gameshow where the audience wet themselves with laughter whenever you injure your poor co-star, Jojo! Reality TV has nothing on this game for sheer twisted novelty value.

There were quite a few laugh out loud moments, mostly whenever you figured out a new and unusual way of hurting Jojo. I'll say one thing for the writer: he's sure got a warped sense of humour (although I guess the same could be said for me as I found it very funny indeed).

One of Mel's usual problems - guess the verb - was the game's only real letdown. "Take" had to be used on one item but "get" wouldn't work, and quite a few of the Jojo-murdering-tasks were pretty much trial and error. And this game also contains the weirdest line I've ever read in an IF game: "Small springs stick out of the couch like weirdos at a mall."

But bad points aside this was well worth playing.

6 out of 10