Audyssey; Computer Games Accessible to the Blind Edited by Michael Feir Issue 13: July/August, 1998 ++ Welcome Welcome to the thirteenth issue of Audyssey. This magazine is dedicated to the discussion of games which, either by accident or design, are accessible to the blind. We also discuss any concerns and issues raised by them. The third year of Audyssey starts off with this feature-packed issue. PCS has released two games which use extremely innovative approaches to mapping. You'll learn how Carl Micla deals with the most challenging mazes. In addition to the latest developments at PCS, we'll also discuss the issue of violence in games accessible to blind players. Please write articles and letters about games or game-related topics which interest you. They will likely interest me, and your fellow readers. They will also make my job as editor a lot more interesting and true to the meaning of the word. This magazine should and can be a highly interesting and qualitative look at accessible computer gaming. To insure that high quality is maintained, I'll need your written contributions. I'm not asking for money here, and won't accept any. This magazine is free in its electronic form, and will always remain so. PCS needs to charge a subscription cost to cover the disks and shipping costs that it incurs by making the magazine available on disk. I'm writing this magazine as much for my own interest as for everyone else's. Your articles, reviews, and letters, as well as any games you might care to send me, are what I'm after. Send any games, articles, letters, or reviews on a 3.5-inch disk in a self-addressed mailer so that I can return your disk or disks to you once I have copied their contents onto my hard drive. Please only send shareware or freeware games. It is illegal to send commercial games. By sending me games, you will do several things: first, and most obviously, you will earn my gratitude. You will also insure that the games you send me are made available to my readership as a whole. As a further incentive, I will fill any disks you send me with games from my collection. No disk will be returned empty. If you want specific games, or specific types of games, send a message in Ascii format along. *Never* *ever* send your original disks of *anything* to *anyone* through the mail. *Always* send *copies!* This principle may seem like it shouldn't even have to be stated, but when it comes to just about anything related to computers, there's always some poor soul who will act before applying common sense. Disks are *not* indestructible. Things *do* get lost or damaged in the mail, and disks are not immune to these misfortunes. If you have a particular game that you need help with, and you are sending your questions on a disk anyhow, include the game so that I can try and get past your difficulty. If you can, I recommend that you send e-mail. I have acquired a copy of the UUencode software, and can send and/or receive files which are encoded via this means. This way, no money will be wasted sending me a game I already have, and you'll get my reply more quickly. You are responsible for shipping costs. That means, either use a disk mailer which has your address on it, and is either free matter for the blind, or is properly stamped. I can and will gladly spare time to share games and my knowledge of them, but cannot currently spare money above what I spend hunting for new games. I encourage all my readers to give my magazine to whoever they think will appreciate it. Up-load it onto web pages and bulletin board systems. Copy it on disk for people, or print it out for sighted people who may find it of value. The larger our community gets, the more self- sustaining it will become. This magazine is published on a bi-monthly basis, each issue appearing no earlier than the twentieth of every other month. All submissions must be sent to me in standard Ascii format either on a 3.5-inch floppy disk, or via e-mail to my Compuserve address. I will give my home address and my Compuserve address at the end of the magazine. There are now several ways of obtaining Audyssey. To subscribe to the distribution list so that you receive all future issues, send a subscription request to J.J. Meddaugh. As he is running several lists, be sure to specifically ask to join the Audyssey list. His address is: jmeddaug@cris.com Travis Siegel has set up a list to facilitate discussions among readers between issues. To subscribe to this discussion list, send a message to listserv@softcon.com with "subscribe audyssey" in the body of the message. To post to the discussion list, send your messages to: audyssey@softcon.com You can find all issues of Audyssey on the Internet on Paul Henrichsen's web site at: www.thesocket.com/~henrich All issues are also available in the disability forum on Compuserve. If you have web access, Audyssey now has an official web-page, maintained by J.J. Meddaugh. There are links to other interesting sites, and all issues of Audyssey are available there as well. In the near future, software may also be posted there for you to down-load. The address for this page is: http://audyssey.home.ml.org If you have ftp access, all issues are also available at Travis Siegel's ftp site: ftp.softcon.com Look in the /magazines directory. For those of you who have trouble finding some of the software discussed in this magazine, or if you know someone who doesn't have access to the Internet, but would be interested in the magazine, this magazine is now available on disk. PCS has agreed to distribute Audyssey, as well as selected shareware or freeware software on disk for ten dollars US per year. To subscribe to Audyssey on disk, contact them at: Personal Computer Systems 551 Compton Ave. Perth Amboy N.J. 08861 Phone (732)-826-1917 E-mail: pvlasak@monmouth.com ++ Contents: Welcome From The Editor Letters Of Strife Unseen The Latest Finds Special Announcement for Game Developers News from PCS Game Reviews Hints and Tips on Maze Solving Contacting Us ++ From The Editor Well, folks, I hope everyone had a great summer. It was certainly hectic for me, I can tell you. Despite considerable effort, I must regretfully inform you that there will be no Adam the Immortal Gamer episode in this issue. There just wasn't time to think anything good up. this month, I received quite a number of letters and comments from readers I've met with to the effect that Adam is their favourite part of the magazine. I certainly hope we can bring him back to stay, but unless a lot changes, I can't guarantee much of anything. We're not getting enough articles and reviews for me to feel comfortable about devoting too much time to things other than searching for any games worth informing all of you about, and writing the major articles for issues. In order to boost overall quality of this magazine and give it a lot more permanence, I have decided to try once again to assemble a staff. The informal approach seems to have fallen somewhat flat, so we'll try something a bit different. First of all, I'd like to formally acknowledge the efforts of two members of my informal staff who I hope will agree to stay in their present positions. These are J.J. Meddaugh, our official publicist and distributor of Audyssey. His list has enabled a lot of you to easily obtain Audyssey by E-mail. Although circumstances have not always permitted him getting issues out as quickly as might be wished, he has done his best to insure that they were sent. for this service, I owe him much thanks indeed, and hope that he will retain his post as it is. J.J. will be the only staff member not required to write a quota of articles, although I certainly hope he finds time to do so. the other outstanding staff member has been Kelly John Sapergia, who has contributed a wealth of reviews and insights to this magazine over the past while. I hope that Kelly will agree to the new conditions and remain one of our hopefully two interactive fiction experts. The conditions for becoming a staff member are as follows: 1. Each staff member must agree to provide a means of contacting them for both myself and Audyssey readers. This can be either E- mail or a regular address, although at least one staff member from each portfolio should have E-mail access. This information will be placed in the "Contacting US" section at the end of Audyssey. 2. Any staff member with Internet access should join the Audyssey Discussion list set up by Travis Siegel and be willing to try and help readers and participate in discussions. 3. Each staff member should provide me, the editor, with their home addresses and phone numbers. This is so that I can send your copies of games from PCS, and so that I can quickly contact you should the need arise. Remember that you need only have one means of contacting you in the "Contacting Us" section of Audyssey. Additional information above and beyond that one means of contact will be kept strictly confidential unless you explicitly request that it be placed in the "Contacting US" section. 4. Each staff member must contribute at least three thousand words worth of contributions to the Audyssey magazine within two issues, or four months. Responses to individual readers will not count towards this quota unless they are of sufficient general interest or insight to warrant inclusion in Audyssey. What this magazine needs from its staff are qualitative reviews and articles, and not more letters. Letters should come from the readers of Audyssey who are not staff. Exceptions will be made for in-depth letters, but articles and reviews are what is most needed. while staff members will be assigned to portfolios, they may still write articles and reviews about games in other portfolios if they find themselves short of things to write about. Should circumstances prevent a staff member from meeting his/her quota within a four-month period, the staff member will have until the next issue, that is, two more months, to make thirty-five hundred words worth of material for Audyssey. Failure to contribute roughly thirty-five hundred words within this time will automatically forfeit your position. I will then offer the vacant position to readers in that issue of Audyssey after this last two months have expired. PCS is making a very generous offer, and I've got to make certain that it is not abused. Should game developers wish to offer their games to staff members within the portfolio which concerns the type of game they've made, they should contact both me and the staff members of that portfolio. I can then insure that staff members review such proffered games and be able to insure that you are notified if any staff members forfeit their positions or resign before the game is reviewed. While I cannot force the return of a product, I can try and make certain that your game gets reviewed at the earliest opportunity. 5. Each portfolio will have two staff members assigned to it. The portfolios include: A) interactive fiction/role-playing games. This includes all text- based interactive fiction and role-playing games which are deemed accessible to the blind. It may extend to commercial games in these genres, but members should not feel that they have to spend money buying or accessing commercial games. B) board and card games. Any board or card games fall under the jurisdiction of the staff members in this portfolio. Members may, but need not buy or access commercial games in this genre. C) strategy games. War and other strategy games fall under the domain of the staff members in this portfolio. Once again, these members need not feel obliged to buy or access commercial games in their genre. D) on-line games(MUDS, for instance) Any games played on-line either on BBS's or on the Internet fall under the auspices of the staff members in this portfolio. These members need not spend money accessing or buying commercial on-line games. E) commercial games. Members of this portfolio must be able to access commercial games either through friends who buy them, or through purchasing them on their own. Commercial games which show any promise of being accessible to the blind, either with or without sighted assistance are the responsibility of those in this portfolio. Bare in mind that companies often provide demos of their products on the net. it will be sufficient if you use these to review or write about games rather than purchasing the whole game. 6. It is important that you fully understand that as a staff member, you will not receive any financial payment for your services. This magazine is free to all readers, and I am not making any money doing this every two months. members must realize that they are volunteering their services, as I do, to further enhance the quality of this magazine. it is an act of charity which PCS has chosen to reward with free games. Other developers may do the same from time to time, but they may also withdraw such rewards at any time. Members should not expect any reward other than the satisfaction gained from helping others. 7. A reader who accepts a position on the staff of Audyssey commits him/herself to a minimum of one year of service. He/she may renew this commitment at any time before it expires. Well, i hope I've covered everything there. If anyone has any questions or suggestions, please contact me. the final note for this issue comes from Adam Taylor. He informs us that the next version of Adom is due out "soon". No specific date has been given. Because it is unfinished, no firm details regarding additions or changes is known at this time. Well, I guess that's all for this issue. Happy reading, and dare to play! here's to a successful third year of Audyssey. Michael Feir, Editor of Audyssey ++ Letters: + From Kelly John Sapergia: Hi Mike, I've got good news for you. That CD-ROM, "Masterpieces of Infocom Collection", is in fact still available! You may remember that I contacted Activision in April, to see how much the CD-ROM cost. I was really upset by the fact that the CD supposedly wasn't available. I guess it was just an error in communication, because I think they thought I was meaning the original games and not the CD. I think the sales rep must have been reading from an old catalog or something, because I thought that those game packs (such as the Science Fiction Collection) had been discontinued a long time ago. But they did say at the time, that the Comedy and Adventure Collections were still available. I'd like to apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. But at least I know that the "Masterpieces of Infocom" CD-ROM is still available, so I'm going to send in an order to Activision. (I haven't been able to find it at any computer stores.) I hope, however, that this situation doesn't happen again, but I blame Activision for this error. I thought you'd be interested in a new idea of mine. I decided to write reviews of some games by Infocom. These games are included on this CD-ROM. The reason I wanted to write reviews of Infocom's works is because there may be some readers who have never heard of Infocom before. I've included a review of the first mystery game I've ever played by Infocom, called "Moonmist". If you like my idea, I'll write some more reviews of these games. In other news, I managed to get a copy of the Hugo system, plus a sample game, and wasn't impressed. The system was fine, but unlike Inform, it isn't speech friendly. I haven't tested it with my ALVA braille display, but it might work better with a braille access device. Speaking of computer upgrades, I'm no longer using my Artic voice synthesizer, but the Accent PC synthesizer by AiCom Corp of San Jose, California. The reason I'm using this synthesizer is because the Artic doesn't seem to work with a fast computer. Sometime in May, Derek (who's currently taking a course in computer engineering) upgraded my 386 computer, which was an upgraded 286 computer, which was an 8088 computer, to a Pentium. He also gave me a 1 gigabyte hard drive, as well as a new sound card. The problem, however, was that the Artic sounded garbled and hard to understand when we tried it out in the Pentium. I finally decided to get my Accent PC synthesizer from my computer at school and exchange synthesizers. I can now play games like Jim Kitchen's excellent Baseball game, and there are no lock-ups at all! Another thing I like about the Accent synthesizer is that it sounds more natural and less monotonous. On the Artic synthesizer, I couldn't tell if there was a period or an exclamation symbol at the end of a sentence, because it sounded the same. Thanks for allowing me to apologize for the error about that CD-ROM, and have a great summer! Yours Sincerely, Kelly John Sapergia + It's certainly a relief to find out that the Masterpiece CD is still available. It is certainly one of the few which are worth buying for blind players. For those of you trying to access the documentation in .pdf files for the games, you should use Acrobat Access with the Windows version of the reader. I don't think there's an access version for Dos, but I could be mistaken here. I find that the best approach is to convert the documents into text. + From Patrick R Davis: Hi Michael, This is Patrick again. Sorry I haven't been able to write to you. I haven't really found anything interesting yet. I read in Audyssey issue 12 that someone was looking for Netsend. I have the address to find it at. It is located on Dave Poehlman's web page at http://www.clark.net/pub/poehlman/readme.htm I haven't been able to get the program to work for me yet, but now you know where to find it at. Jim Kitchen has his own web page on the internet. The address is http://www.now-online.com/jkitchen and he has all of his games on it. He even has a pagemaker program to down-load that he used to make his page with. He has made a Simon game, and he has some zipped files that contain wave files that you can use for the game. The game is challenging, because one wrong tone and you loose. It is a good concentration game because you need to remember certain tones, or in this case wave files, to in the right order. Well, I don't have much to report, but I do have a question. What happened to Adam the Immortal Gamer? Patrick + Good to hear from you Patrick. Thanks for the info on Netsend's location and on Jim's page. I'm sure a bunch of readers will find this information of interest. As to Adam, the Immortal Gamer, he'll hopefully make more appearances in the future. It's getting a bit harder to come up with good plots for him. However, I've gotten several inquiries into his fate, so special efforts will be made to keep Adam going. Submissions or ideas for good episodes of Adam, The Immortal Gamer are always appreciated. Let's get creative, people. + From Lynn Mclellan: Dear Ed I've just seen your magazine for the first time, and so far have only had time to glance through it. It's a great idea and I'll certainly subscribe. I've been playing a game called DrugLord for several years - that's how addictive it is. It's a DOS-based text game in which you begin as a small-time drug dealer with $500, and your aim is to make untold millions and become a druglord. You jet from City to City buying drugs where they're cheap and selling them at as great a profit as possible. You can borrow money from the loanshark at an exorbitant rate of interest, but he has this annoying habit of breaking your legs if you don't pay up on time. Then there are those cops who are on your tail about every five minutes. Should you run or have a shoot-out and hopefully kill them before they kill you? A great game in my opinion. It doesn't have a set plot which you have to solve, but depends on your skill and cunning. DrugLord is a shareware game. There are lots of sites where you can down-load it, but I've only found one site where it comes down as a ZIP file with instructions:- http://www.kolumbus.fi/kaleha/page1.htm Thanks for all the work you're putting into Audyssey - it looks great. Cheers Lynn McLellan + Glad you approve of our little magazine. Thanks for the tip on Druglord. It certainly sounds like an interesting game. I should caution here that anyone who is concerned about morality to an extreme nature may find the subject matter to be offensive or inappropriate. It is certainly not a game for young children. I find that games like Druglord have a value in that we don't often think about what such a criminal life would be like. Perhaps it will discourage people from trying it out for real. + From Dave Sherman: Hi guys, I am planning on putting a few text-adventure games together in the near future. I've down-loaded the basic TADS info that includes the run-time interpreter, and code compiler. I've also down-loaded the programmers guide. I picked them up from the ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/ site. Unfortunately, when I unzipped the manual I found that it had been saved in some sort of typesetting format. The "readme" file said to get a copy of a program called "TeX". This is supposed to be a compiler that will strip out the typesetting format code, and leave you with an ASCII text version of the manual. My problem is that I can't find a copy of TeX. I've searched the ftp.gmd.de site, and also searched for the program using several search engines. I've come up empty handed. I realize that the basic TADS package gives a " very basic" description of the language. Unfortunately, I am an EE and programmer. I have this awful habit of wanting to fully understand a language and all of its options, before launching into a programming endeavour. So, if any of you could help direct me toward a site where I could down-load the TeX program, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks, Dave Sherman or (use this address if sending any attachments) + Well, Dave, I'm not certain where to find the program you mentioned. there should be a few programs which do the same kind of thing. I have one called X-ray, but don't remember where I got it from. If anyone can send Dave a text copy of the Tads manual, or a program to pull text out of files, please do so. I certainly look forward to seeing what Dave will add to the growing universe of interactive fiction. + From Carl Micla dear Mike, I congratulate you for a job well done over the last two years. I am shore that most readers agree with me when I say "you are deserving of a tremendous ovation, and much more!" but I know you would rather have more subscriber participation. I also am surprised at the little feedback Personal Computer Systems has received over the last few years. It is nice to talk about developing software which could use other input devices than a keyboard, such as in David Lant's article, but to be quite frank, why? There is probably only a few people out there who would take advantage of the option at this time. There is a product available which gives the user tactile feedback as they use a mouse or joy stick over a graphical or text screen. One of these products is called the Feel-It Mouse, there is also a joy stick version. I took a close look at it and decided not to develop any software in that direction. The product cost was high, and P C S would have to buy an expensive developer's kit. I would rather see more work in sensory output, by making full use of the existing stereo sound card. P C S is also looking into producing games for Windows, but many of our customers are still using dos only. Distributing games on cd will happen, but there again, when? A large number of our customers do not have cd roms yet. It is a matter of dollars and cents deciding the direction P C S will go. If we were making a fair return on our time and effort P C S would love to explore new and alternative ways to develop game software. there are many interesting ideas and concepts, but there is just so much time in a day. Programmers should be encourage to pick up the torch and get into this market. However, I would tell them "there are many challenging concepts to explore, but do not expect to make enough money to keep your self in coffee while your working a project." I am still enthusiastic about producing quality games. However, I can not explore many new areas do to financial and time restraints. I would like to have a few more programmers working with P C S, but no one can be expected to work for free! This brings me to a comment and a couple of questions. I do hear much prays from customers, when I do hear from them, so I tend to think that our games are ok for the most part. I myself like very complex and strategic challenging games. I hope to be able to work on such games in the future. P C S has a mailing list of about four hundred addresses. Is that all of the blind people in the country interested in computer games? Or is P C S not getting the word out to all who would be interested? I know there are some people who have games and did not buy them. Is this practice so rampant that more bootleg games are out there then legal games? If so, it is hurting software development and the way P C S is approaching business. I hope in the long run I can keep working soli on computer games, but it does not look promising. In closing let me say, if the blind community would like to have a company working exclusively for it, then it should be expected to pay for the service rendered. Mike is producing a magazine for the blind gamer and has to beg, threaten, and pull teeth to get a little feedback from subscribers. I wonder if the blind community for the most part just wants to sit on their fannies and let someone else do all the work? After all if they can not afford to buy a game which they are playing, then they should have time to at least write an article, or comment on someone else's article. P C S will give a free game each issue to a subscriber who writes a quality article published in audyssey which contains two thousand words or more, and is not on Mike's staff. Mike will be the judge to determine who gets this game. Mike and his staff members will also receive a game from P C S every time a new game is released for the good work and effort they put out. One thing Mike I would like to see is the in-mortal adam in every issue. This is for all you people using bootleg software. I know that you heard it all before, but if you would like to see more products written and produced for you then keep this in mind. I like making computer games, but, I need to eat more. When I started programming my weight was 200 pounds and I worked in a nice penthouse office, but now I am 125 and going down, and I am looking at some discarded appliance boxes that might have real possibilities for a new office. You might not think your little contribution means much, but believe me, I and any other small time programmer really notice it! Yes, it honestly, really, really truly, really, yes believe me I am not lying or fooling you, it really matters! So, if you are using it pay for it, or else you will not be able to get it! at least not from me. I do not know how much longer I can keep things going, my cat moved out on me yesterday for better pickings! If you can not afford our games and would like to work to earn some of them. contact P C S and talk to me. P C S could always use some help with research, data organizing, mailing, and other such jobs. So, if your willing and able to help, I will try to find a task needing to be done. Respectfully carl mickla from personal computer systems 551 Compton Ave. Perth Amboy N.J. 08861 Phone (732) 826-1917 E-mail: pvlasak@monmouth.com once again congratulations and good luck in the up coming year! + Well, Carl, I hope some of our readers will take advantage of your generous offers. You've done some quite impressive work in the past, and I hope people will now understand what holds you folks back from doing even better work in the future. I can only hope that piracy is not as large a problem for you as you might suspect. It is certainly costing commercial game developers some grief. To all you pirates out there, if you like this magazine, consider that if people find that their blind-accessible games are being pirated, they won't make them anymore. PCS is the only company making computer games for the blind. Everyone else is working for free, or is using the shareware system. With the offers made in their letter above, PCS has shown just how far it is willing to go in order to expand its market. Any of you could receive a game for free, simply by writing two thousand words about games. If current levels of input of such quality articles remain as they are, I can tell you that it won't be all that hard to win that free game. You may also wish to join my staff. See the From The Editor section if you haven't already read it for conditions for becoming a staff member. As to Adam, the Immortal Gamer, I hope that I will have more time to work on episodes in the future as my staff starts pitching in. Feel free to write an Adam episode as your two thousand words for your chance at a free game. Are there any games you wanted to see Adam get stuck in? Well, why not take a shot at writing the episode yourself? With two months between issues, this should leave plenty of time for even those of you who must use regular mail. ++ Of Strife Unseen By Michael Feir We hear it from worried parents all the time: "There's so much violence in the games our children play!" There have even been news reports on TV about the new crop of 3D action shooters such as Quake and Diablo. When we look at it one way, there is nothing new about kids playing violent games. Cowboys and Indians has certainly been a North American favourite for at least the past hundred years. Contact sports such as Football are and always have been largely approved by society as a whole. So then, what is the real difference? These action games are really the equivalent of wargames like Cowboys and Indians for those less athletically inclined. The major difference is in the realism of the newer action games. They are designed to simulate actual combat, right down to having all objects in the games obey the laws of physics. Graphics have reached the point where guts and gore are depicted in full colour. Sound technology has also reached incredible heights of realism. Listening to one of these games, one can hear limbs being hacked off with chain-saws, or body parts being chopped or blown off and landing on the ground. This level of realism has not yet appeared in games for the blind. Violence is mostly depicted through words. For an example, let us look at Fallthru. There, you'll find descriptives such as: "You dodge the thrust of your opponent's weapon.", or, "Good hit! The nasty brute is bloodied." Games like Adom are even more heavily reliant on armed conflict. Things such as bleeding, disease, poisoning, etc, are simulated. It is a lot harder for us to become all that caught up in battle lust. We don't have the realistic sounds and sensory input required for such adrenaline build-up. Sighted people have games which rely heavily on quick reflexes and hand-eye coordination. For the most part, even screen-oriented role-players like Rogue, which is about as plotless as you can get, is a more passive experience to play. I personally think of it as just a different type of board-game. You must move your @-sign around a room shown by dots and other symbols. It is turn-based, so there is no rush to think through the best possible moves. The text descriptions of combat are very scarce, merely informing you of whether you hit or miss your target. There are some games which offer more descriptive combat, but the detached quality of the exercise still remains. I suspect that the only way this will change is if someone goes and makes an action shooter which is entirely sound-based. This is quite possible, and I would predict it could happen within the next couple of years. Until it does, however, us blind warriors will fight more distant battles against foes which seem a lot less real to us than those encountered by our sighted fellow gamers. This could turn out to be either a good or bad thing in terms of its effect on impressionable blind youth. Looking back to my early school days, I can distinctly remember how inaccurate my initial conceptions of school-yard fighting were. Even before I started playing computer games, I figured that fights proceeded move by move, and were confined to a relatively small area. I can see how this kind of eronious thinking might be encouraged by turn-based combat, where one has plenty of time to think through one's moves and options. On the other hand, action games deprive their sighted players of time to think as carefully. They try to simulate fighting as it actually is, chaotic and unpredictable. The slightest lapse in performance can cause your character's demise. When sighted youngsters become skilled in these games, they might imagine that they could do as well in real combat. Alternatively, the same youngsters might see how dangerous fighting could be, and avoid conflicts. Blind youth might get false impressions of some kind of orderliness to fights which does not exist in real life. An action game for the blind would certainly help dispel such illusions. Ultimately, even the turn-based games statistically simulate the chaotic nature of conflict probably as effectively as their real- time counterparts. The illusion of having greater control stems from having more time than one would have in reality. We can come to decisions which, even if wrong, are more acceptable since we had time to sift through various possibilities. Sighted players must plan their strategy and put it into action within fractions of a second. One interesting trend towards non-violence has occurred in interactive fiction. Since its beginnings with Colossal Cave, authors of interactive fiction have largely favoured logical problems and means of dispatching enemies rather than the hack-and- slash approach of a game like Rogue. Infocom was awarded several times by parental associations for their high standards of morality they set in their games. Since Infocom collapsed, interactive fiction authors have largely continued with Infocom's tradition. I am convinced that part of the reason for this is that programming combat simulation is quite a lot of extra or hard work. Adding any random variables to games makes them a lot harder to debug and test properly. However, I believe that the main reason why interactive fiction is less violent than other kinds of entertainment is that Infocom set such high moral standards initially. The majority of their players were eighteen and over. Economically, then, they were under no particular pressure to uphold such a high moral standard. Only one of their games was at all smutty. Not bad when you consider that Infocom made over thirty of the best text adventures ever invented. In all areas, including racism, the exercise of power, and most noticeably with the discouragement of violent solutions to problems, Infocom tried to provide gamers with an alternative to video games. It is unfortunate that graphics and special effects won so decisively over substance as they did. So then, you may ask, where has all this discussion taken us? For me, it furthers my conclusion that games are just another kind of tool. Even the most violent games, with their attendant guts and gore, can serve a purpose if used correctly. As much as I might find them lacking in stimulation, others out there will have their reflexes, judgemental abilities, and adrenal glands exercised by these creations. Action games for the blind have been long delayed by the relatively small market and the lack of technology. However, they will eventually emerge. There are many problems that any would-be designers will have to overcome. The most difficult is that of either conveying information sonically in real-time, or finding a way to keep the game advancing while providing blind players time to absorb enough information to make it worth their while to participate. There will be a lot of scepticism to overcome, as action games are about as unconventional as you can get when talking about blind-accessible games. However, just two years ago, screen-oriented games like Rogue and nethack were considered outside the sphere of possibility by the majority of blind gamers. For parents, the best advice I can offer regarding violence in games is to play the games yourselves, and discuss them with your children. Make certain they can tell the difference between the game and real life, and correct any misperceptions they might develop as they are discovered. You'll find that a lot of games will help you with this. I've come to realize that where most parents go wrong with games is to proceed in ignorance of them and make decisions about them without giving them due process. Ask yourselves what educational possibilities are offered by the game in question, and what your concerns are. Instead of simply telling your children not to play a game, you may want to simply address the issues you're concerned about. Role-playing games in particular have been harshly treated due to misperceptions concerning them. I looked into this quite heavily while in secondary school, but couldn't discover any cases where the game itself was clearly to blame for the various tragedies or nutty outcomes which were attributed to the games. There were always many other contributing factors, such as unrealistic parental expectations, alcoholism in the family, or other such circumstances. Despite the transportation barriers not faced by the sighted teens I grew up among, the chances are that if you ban a game from being played at home, they will play it somewhere else. I talked to quite a few students who did this sort of thing to play some blood-fest game or other. As long as they realize that it's just a game, let them play. ++ The Latest Finds PCS has released two games which represent a radical step forward in approaches to mapping. The Cops98 game puts you in control of a police car in pursuit of fleeing suspects. You must prevent them from exiting your city despite the obstacles placed in your way. These include people and dogs crossing the road ahead of you, traffic jams, children playing in traffic, school buses slowing traffic, etc. When you run into one of these obstacles, you will be delayed until the obstacle is removed. To help with this, you have a horn and siren. It is always safe to use your horn, but it is less effective at clearing hazards. Using your siren may alert the fugitives to your proximity if you use the siren too close to their location. Upon hearing the siren, the suspects will speed up. the sound work is excellent, with real horn and siren sounds, running suspects, and sounds of certain places as you drive by them. This is quite a novel approach to land-marking. you must become familiar with the city streets and buildings in order to have a better chance of catching the thieves. Orientation and mobility instructors will no doubt find this game to be of great interest. Learning the city is quite a challenge, despite the mostly logical layout of streets. When you are nearing the suspects, you will hear them running in stereo sound if your system is equipped for it. Stereo sound is not, however, essential to the game. It is merely a nifty enhancement. I urge all of you looking for something exciting and different to give Cops98 a try. It's worth your money. Haze Maze98 is the classic maze game brilliantly rendered accessible to the blind by PCS. Using sound as well as other clues, you must find your way through any of twenty different mazes which come with the game. These range from the very simple to the painful complex. There should be a maze to suit any level of experience. One thing that you should note is that when you encounter doors and such, there may be more than just the option it speaks. PCS uses its standard menu approach in the game, where arrows are used to toggle through options. As you move through the maze, you hear your footsteps in stereo sound if your system is equipped for it. I found that while it is possible to play without stereo sound, it is a lot harder. We cranked it up on my father's computer, and found that the sound information provided was quite impressive, especially for a first attempt. PCS has tried to simulate hearing, with footsteps echoing off of walls, and changing as you walk over different materials. As PCS becomes more skilful at employing stereo effects, games can only get better from here. This was an absolutely stunning experience. The game is much more atmospheric than other PCS games, with so much dependant on sound. the wind- chime placed at the exit of the maze provides a kind of mystical quality to the experience as it gets louder as you get closer or fades as you move away. While this game is not perfect, it is a very ambitious first attempt which succeeds admirably. Orientation and mobility instructors will find this game useful for teaching auditory skills as well as mental mapping. If you have a hankering for mazes, or just want to put your soundblaster to good use, buy a copy of this emersive game. The second release of Gevan Dutton's Zrogue is a fantastic improvement over the original release. It features extensive on- line help which was sorely lacking from the first release. With the "/" key, you can identify monsters and symbols you are uncertain of. Hitting the "?" key twice will bring up an extensive menu of help topics from basic instructions to command summaries to details on the current release. the game is fully speech-accessible, and I can find no obvious reason why it would not be accessible to braille displays. Rogue is a much simpler screen-oriented role- playing game than Adom or Nethack, having far less plot and scope. All you need do is kill monsters, collect gold, and find the amulet which will allow you to escape. When i refer to this game as simple, I mean in the playability sense. Be prepared for quite a challenge. The first time I won Rogue, I played for fifteen hours, nearly non-stop. The game is also different each time it is played. although I doubt that Dutton had blind players specifically in mind when designing this port of Rogue, he/she has nevertheless succeeded in making an easily accessible version of a game of truly historical significance in gaming terms. I therefore offer Gevan my sincere thanks on behalf of myself and Audyssey readers. You can find rogue.z5 at: ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/infocom Note that you'll need an interpreter such as dosfrotz in order to play. You can find this in the /if-archive/interpreters-infocom section of the ftp.gmd.de site. the final note this month concerns Once and Future, the game once known as Avelon. Legal difficulties forced the author to rename the project. At last, it appears to be nearly ready to ship. On the same web-site where Cascade Mountain Publishing tells developers to go concerning the Milenia Anthology, gamers will find the means of ordering Once and Future. This professes to be a full-length novel in which you are a US soldier who is in search of piece within yourself. your quest takes you across time and to other worlds in an effort to reclaim your sense of tranquility. If anyone obtains this apparently spectacular game, would they please send a review? The cost is around thirty dollars US. ++ Special Announcement for Game Developers Cascade Mountain Publishing (http://www.cascadepublishing.com) is now soliciting shorter works of IF for their _Millennia_Anthology_. This compilation on shorter IF works will encompass IF of all types by a variety of authors. Launch date for _Millennia_Anthology_ is second quarter of 1999. The goal of _Millennia_Anthology_ is to provide the user with a wide variety of interactive fiction experiences, a sampler of different styles, different structures, and different content. Participating authors will receive a share of the royalties, thus forever ruining their amateur status. There are no pre-set topics to which the author must write, nor are there any pre-set interpreters, target machines, size of product, etc. For further answers to questions you may have, feel free to contact Mike Berlyn at: mailto: mberlyn@cascadepublishing.com. Please reference Millennia in your email subject. ++ News From PCS P C S Expands into New Market by Carl Mickla PERSONAL COMPUTER SYSTEMS will introduce a new game playing station this fall. We will be able to produce better quality games with more stereo sensory sound effects. By writing games for our own game station we will be able to control the machine environment and how the programs will work with it. This means, there will be no more configuring problems. The games will not need any speech output devices like screen access programs or speech synthesizers. To play a game all you have to do is place the game floppy in the drive and follow the verbile instructions. Then place the game CD into the CD drive, and you are ready to roll! Games will have human recorded speech giving you all the information and descriptions you need. The best thing is that the game station along with three games will cost only four hundred U.S. dollars. Each additional game will cost about forty dollars. The game station will come equip with a set of high quality Yamaha speakers, keyboard, and a small central unit containing a floppy and CD drive. Also, included are three super games. We hope this product will interest people who are not comfortable using computers but would still like to play electronic games. We are also targeting people who can not afford a full computer with the additional cost of screen review software and speech synthesizer. Even computer owners may find using a game station for playing games is better then trying to get them to play on their machine. In the long run, the game station may be able to have games which use virtual sounds. This means not only using sound in stereo, but having sounds depicting left, right, up, down, in front, and behind. This could happen with a game station because we control the machine's Environment and do not have to try to come up with techniques to work with other computer systems. Having arcade game rooms for blind people is now very affordable, and we think places like camps, rehab centers, clubs, and schools could now afford setting up several game stations for a reasonable cost. Children who might be too young for the complex computer and what is involved with using it, could easily get started with a game station. After all the game station with three games only cost four hundred dollars. If you think about it, after subtracting the cost of the three games, the station would only cost two hundred and eighty dollars. That price is not much more then a video arcade game machine found in most homes today made to work with the television. P C S also Promises to create at least twenty games for the game station in the first five years. The game machine is a Pentium computer without a hard drive and could be converted into a full working computer for a small cost, if it was not used as a game machine any longer. P C S encourages programmers to develop games for this game station. We would give as much help as possible if any programmer needed to know some particulars to get their program to work on the machine. We will market the game for them if they desired. We really think this machine and supporting software is going to be very highly excepted by the blind community. There is now a very reasonably priced product to enable many blind people to enjoy themselves. If this is not a winner We would be stunned. Of coarse we will still be producing games for the regular computer folks. After all we will still program using text sent to the screen. This means the computer version must be made before the game machine version can be modified and improvements are made. Yes, games on the game machine will be better then the computer, but computer users will not notice the difference unless they experience the same game on a game machine. The bottom line for us is the more we sell the more we can afford to pay for work to be done. That means more game development, more data intense games, and more work can be explored with using virtual sounds. There is a price to do these things and in order to pay the cost we have to get a larger market base. If we succeed then all of us benefit, we get to work in a field we enjoy, and you the consumer get cool products to enjoy. contact P C S at: Personal Computer Systems 551 Compton Ave. Perth Amboy N.J. 08861 Phone (732) 826-1917 E-mail: pvlasak@monmouth.com ++ Game Reviews + "SPACE ALIENS LAUGHED AT MY CARDIGAN" Game by Andre M. Boyle Reviewed by Kelly John Sapergia One of the games I received for a Christmas present last year was "Space Aliens Laughed At My Cardigan". I thought the title was OK, but when I started to play the game, my opinion changed rapidly to "Not a good game!" This is one of those games that shouldn't have been put on the IF-ARCHIVE, or created in the first place. In my opinion, it's a exercise in software suicide! Why do I say this? Well, here are some reasons that should prove my point: - The game is virtually unplayable. It has got to be the first game that is totally packed with bugs! - The room descriptions are horrible, not to mention the attempts of humour! - In all the years I've played IF games, I've never seen a game that is littered with spelling and grammatical errors like this one is. You'll have to play this game to see what I'm talking about. This game is freeware. The author doesn't expect any registrations, but if you send him some money he'll write a game to your exact specifications, and will include your name as one of the characters in another game. (I don't know about you, but I can't imagine anybody registering a piece of software junk like this.) I, and possibly other players of this "game", have rated this game at 0. This means "Don't bother trying it." I think that the author should have played the game a few times to get all the bugs worked out of it. I personally got so disgusted with this game, that I wiped it off my hard drive just 2 days after receiving it, and in a way I'm glad I did. Games are fine if the humour is good, and if there are no bugs. But "Space Aliens Laughed At My Cardigan"should be awarded the absolute worst game to play. If you really want to try this game, go ahead. It was developed using the AGT system. But that, in my opinion, isn't the problem. I've played a lot of games created with AGT, and they're great. This game, to my mind, looks like the type of thing one might make to experiment with the AGT system. I myself have wrote some incredibly stupid games with AGT (both the Classic and the Master's editions), and I'm definitely NOT going to distribute them. However, if I do make a really good game that people actually like, then I'll distribute it. I don't think Mr. Boyle followed that rule for game distribution. One thing I forgot to mention is that Mr. Boyle also has another game on the IF-ARCHIVE, called (get ready for a creative title), "WHAT? NO LOW ALCOHOL MINERAL WATER!". According to the MASTER- INDEX file that I obtained from the GMD.DE site, you wake up and find yourself inside the data banks of a computer. Your life depends on performing the various tasks assigned to you by the computer. I haven't played this game, but I hope it's better than Cardigan. + "MOONMIST" By Infocom Reviewed by Kelly John Sapergia "Moonmist" was one of the classic Infocom games that appears on the "Masterpieces of Infocom" CD-ROM from Activision. However, I managed to obtain a copy of this game from a friend. (It isn't freeware, and the version I have isn't pirated.) You're probably asking yourself "Why is he writing a review of a classic Infocom game?" My reasons will be given at the end of this review. In this game, you play the role of a young American detective who arrives at Tresyllian Castle to solve a mystery. Apparently, a ghost has been seen at night, and the inhabitants of the castle are scared, especially your friend Tamara. She wrote you a letter that explains what's going on, and asks you to come at once. Your first task, when you arrive, is to question all the guests about the ghost. Then, you must get ready for dinner at 8:00 PM. After that, you're free to investigate the case. You'll have to examine everything, or search the entire room by typing "SEARCH ROOM" to find certain clues that will eventually lead you to the treasure. This was the first mystery story I've played by Infocom. Actually, this was the first game I've ever played by Infocom. (The second series of games I played was the Zork Trilogy.) Even though I didn't receive the letters for the game, and didn't get a copy of the manual or a solution for it, I was able to solve this game without any problems. One thing I like about this game is that there are four variations, and each is random. Anything can happen when you play the game a second time. Another thing I like is that the game uses your name for the name of the detective, as well as your favourite color. For instance, whenever I play the game, I enter my name and I'm addressed as "Mr. Kelly Sapergia". I've heard of this same trick being used in "Seastalker", but I haven't played this game yet. I think this game would be rated as a standard game. I could have used Introductory, but that level would have to have some form of online hints. But, I personally rate this game at 9 out of 10. The writing is excellent, as well as the characters. I particularly like the part when you eventually meet up with the ghost. It is different in every game, but the effect is the same. Notes 1. I read in the "REC.GAMES.INT-FICTION.FAQ" file that the text of the letters that Tamara refers to is available from the GMD.DE site. Look in the directory IF-ARCHIVE/INFOCOM/SHIPPED-DOCUMENTATION/. 2.Now here's my reason for reviewing a game from Infocom. Because I made an error about the "Masterpieces of Infocom" CD-ROM not being available anymore, I thought I'd do a review of an Infocom game or two for anyone who has never played an Infocom game. (By the way, that CD-ROM is still available. It costs about $16.95 US plus shipping from Activision.) + "MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE 3000: DETECTIVE" Game by C.E. Forman Reviewed by Kelly John Sapergia This is the first IF game that stars the crew of "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" (MST3K, whatever the K is for anyway). If you'd like more information about this show, read issue 7 of SPAG Magazine, available from the GMD.DE site. You also might want to try the second game in this series. The files to download from GMD.DE are MST3K2.ZIP, and, if you have a Sound Blaster or compatible sound card, MST2SNDS.ZIP. (The second game was created with the Master's Edition of AGT.) This game was written in Inform, but is a recreation of an AGT game called "Detective" by Matt Barringer. According to this game, you have to go through a city to find the killer of the mayor. However, while playing this game, I was actually doing more moving and less interacting with the characters with the game. If I had the original game, I would have probably done what I did with "Space Aliens Laughed At My Cardigan": wiped it off my hard drive. But this game is staying on my HD, because of the side commentary by the characters from MST3K. They had the same opinions that I had with this game, mainly that it was a horrible work of IF. One thing I really liked was the game's introduction. If you choose to view it at the beginning, you find out what some of the characters of MST3K have done with the Inform language. One of the characters of this series made a small game that starred her idol, Richard Basehart. (I've actually heard that this "game" has been recreated! For a more detailed review of this "game", read Issue 14 of SPAG Magazine.) I don't want to give away everything in the intro, so I'll just say that the intro is very funny. You'll have to play this game to see the whole thing. (I forgot to mention that I have the 1995 Competition release. I've heard that a silver-screen edition is available that features an interview with Matt Barringer himself, and part of another MiSTing of a game called "Caverns of Chaos".) Now for my ratings: I'm rating C.E. Forman's version 8 out of 10. The real game may be horrible, but this is much better. I think, and hope, that there are going to be more games released in this series as more "games" are uploaded to the IF-ARCHIVE. (This game, MST3K1, has also been converted to AGT by Graeme Cree. It's in the file MST1AGT.ZIP). ++ ++ HINTS AND TIPS ON MAZE SOLVING by Carl Mickla at P C S Maze solving is a methodical approach to a map puzzle. There has been many mazes designed throughout history. One application for a maze was used to confuse attacking armies when they breached through the outer walled defenses. Another use of mazes was to cause people from out side the area to become easily lost. This would make it more difficult for strangers to cause mischief and get easily away. The Egyptians used mazes in many of their pyramids and other great works. Here again the maze was used to confuse tomb robbers. You might ask how would a maze make it very difficult for armies to achieve the final stroke of the battle? Well, it works like this. When the streets of a walled city had to be navigated by a hord of attackers, and the streets were laid out in a maze, the mighty army would branch off into many narrow streets. The home defenders would be able to ambush, snipe, and trap large numbers of soldiers. Once an attacking army was scattered through the maze of streets and buildings, fires would be set and the attackers would be cooked. The same city designed to confuse attacking armies, would serve to make strangers lost. If a person is not sure of their selves to navigate through a city, they would be less likely to steal from a resident, because a quick clear getaway is in doubt. Street hooligans wood also take advantage of lost strangers, by giving them wrong directions. The strangers would be directed to an area where they would be set on by other members of the gang laying in wait. When the Egyptians employed mazes in the construction of their great works. It was to confuse workers, making it hard to talk to others about secret details. It would also make it very difficult for tomb breakers to find any treasures, and to find their way out again. Solving mazes is not impossible. There are no unsolved physical mazes from the ancient world up to today. However, there is the computer. With the aid of electronics defying nature, there are some unsolvable mazes out there. There are a couple of ways to approach maze solving. Here is how I approach the puzzle. First I order a pizza from Domino's, because they have the best boxes. then I get a sheet of braille graph paper from the American Printing House for the Blind. I then place the graph paper on top of the pizza box. I secure the paper with a map tack on all for sides. I place a box of different types of map tacks in easy reach. If I know my starting X, Y, position I count blocks across for X, and then I count down blocks for Y. If I do not know where the starting position is I then place a tack in the middle of the one side on the edge. then I work the maze by keeping the wall always to my right, placing a tack where every wall is indicated. If the maze breaks off, room, hallway, and so on I only check it out if it is to my right. I never leave the maze for another level, when playing multi level games, until I know every thing in the maze. The other thing I like to do is to turn the box or map when the maze changes direction. This helps me to keep the perspective of the map the same way as I am facing, allowing for me to synchronize myself with the map. Once I have completed the maze with the wall to my right I then work the maze by keeping the wall to my left. Then I go back and hit all the areas that I have passed by. This might seem a little slow, but it works. Every time I start getting tired, I just open the box and grab a slice! and keep going. I once played a Dungeons and Dragons game called Wizardry. There was an area in the dungeon where light would not work. Using the method described earlier I was able to navigate and solve the whole mapping puzzle. I do very strongly suggest using graph paper. After all the first mazes used on computers were not graphical and you had to use paper to solve them. Now the game creators do not want to make there games to tough and draw the mazes out for the players. I think this is wrong, because many people playing maze games are not getting the full challenge of solving mazes and the opportunity to sharpen map puzzle solving skills. If the maze goes beyond the sheet of graph paper, call Domino's and order another pie! So do not shy away from tough maze puzzles. Get some braille graph paper, map tacks, and call Domino's. Remember It is the box you want, not the snack inside! ++ Contacting Us I can be reached in two ways. The easiest is through Compuserve. My e-mail address is as follows: 72712.3103@compuserve.com Alternatively, you may correspond with me on 3.5-inch disks, provided you be sure to send them in returnable disk-mailers. I don't have the money to pay for postage. My mailing address is: 5787 Montevideo Road Mississauga, Ontario, Canada Postal code: L5N 2L5 I have acquired a copy of UUencode and UUdecode for dos, so you may send files to me via this means. Also, thanks to a reader named Frank Haslam, I have acquired a copy of something called Netsend. this is a program written and encoded so that it can be sent as a standard e-mail, but once it is cut from the rest of the message text, it can be run as an executable file. You will then have all you need to send and receive files over E-mail. this should go a long way to making sharing of files easier. thanks a bunch, Frank. Adam Taylor, star of Adam, The Immortal Gamer, and our resident ADOM guru, can be reached three ways. You can send him e-mail at: blade@ican.net Or, you can check out his homepage on the web: Blade's Armory http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/9111 His page is dedicated to providing help, cheats and solutions to many games. Send him a request, and he'll do his best to find what you need. He also has sections on ADOM and Nethack available. And, you can download the magazine from his page. Finally, if you wish to contact him at home, his address is: 3082 Bartholomew Crescent Mississauga, Ontario Canada L5N 3L1