(there are a lot I like, I just went through my list of 5-star games about 2 hours long and picked ones I thought it’d be fun to get more discussion of. I picked 2 hours long because I figured it’d be more likely for people to completely finish them but long enough to be fun; I don’t think anyone else should be constrained to do the same time amount)
- Lime Ergot
- A Trial
- Winter Storm Draco
- Darkiss! Wrath of the Vampire - Chapter 1: the Awakening
- Delightful Wallpaper
Just some of my favorites. Delightful Wallpaper has already been nominated, but an additional nomination should help its odds, right? If not, I can pick another game.
Are Infocom games eligible? I can’t quite tell. The source code (which includes game files) seems to have been fairly released. That will change my lineup.
Not legally free to play, I assume, even if they are de facto.
The rules don’t say your pick can’t be an MS-DOS relic, but two things spring to mind:
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I expect (justifiable) howling from AmandaB when told that the only way to play something like The Adventures of Maddog Williams in the Dungeons of Duridian is to set up DOSBox or a virtual machine.
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I can’t think of how to handle something like that in a way that’s fair to both players and the games. Players must play both contestants in a match to vote, so the technical barrier could lock out many players from your contestant’s matches, including the nominator(s) of its opponent(s). Setting aside the “try both” requirement so that even players who can’t get your pick to work can still vote for their own picks seems unfairly weighted the other way.
I’m leaning towards regretful disqualification on technicality, but I know that the Internet Archive has an in-browser DOSBox interface for playing old games hosted there. Maybe you (or someone else here) can set up these gray area games with that and add the relevant link to their IFDB entries? That would satisfy the accessibility requirement in my mind.
If that’s a no-go, then you may want to revise your pick for Maddog (and possibly The Abbey).
Per previous discussion during FIFP, at least Hitchhiker’s Guide should be eligible, as I understand that can still be found free-to-play on a BBC site somewhere. (It would be necessary to add the link to its IFDB page, if it’s not already there.)
I’m not aware of anything comparable for other Infocom games, so per the rules they would be excluded.
- https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=ltwvgb2lubkx82yi
- Hunter, in Darkness - Details
- All Things Devours - Details
- DOL-OS - Details
- LAKE Adventure - Details
I wanted to put Never Gives Up Her Dead but I think it’s probably just a little too long for those who want to play it to do so in the time we have. If someone else wants to put that one, I recommend it. But I won’t, for that reason only…
I considered putting that, but I decided to limit myself to games I’d actually finished.
Can’t play 'em all. Something like that just whittles down the list to a more manageable size. But to conform to expectations…
hoooooooooowl.
does DOSBox require that much config? I thought it was relatively plug-and-play for most DOS games…
You mean I might be prohibited from nominating any games written in AAS just because the only existing interpreter was written as a joke in 2003 and hasn’t been maintained since?
Modified list to exclude DOS-relics, the old farts sitting in their rocking chair by the stove in the corner, mumbling important stuff about the old days which the kids don’t even attempt to understand, let alone engage with.
- Whom The Telling Changed
- Small World
- Ăśrs
- The Battle of Philip against the Forces of Creation (AGT version on IFDB, online version at the Internet Archive:(Battle of Philip against the Forces of Creation, The : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive)
- Firebird
1.) Seconding A Dark Room
2.) The Wand
3.) Illuminismo Iniziato
4.) Aisle
5.) And seconding Bogeyman
TIL that wasn’t in the Free IF Playoffs…I suppose I must have interpolated that in there by thinking “Who doesn’t like Aisle?” and that it of course must be in the IFDB Top 100…
I found The Abbey of Montglane on the Archive!
DOSBox SVN, CPU speed: 3000 cycles, Frameskip 0, Program: ABBEY
Would it be possible to replace my grudge-bad-game entry (Philip Against the Forces of Creation) with the Internet Archive online free-to-play version of Abbey>?
Do multiple votes cast for a game mean that it is on multiple slips of paper in the hat? So more nominations increases a game’s likelihood of being selected by chance?
Yes! All picks can be revised up until the deadline of January 11.
I’ve updated your picks.
Yes, that’s correct. Your two independent nominations have added extra tickets for Bogeyman and A Dark Room.
I’m quoting my entire apology and revision post here. As @otistdog rightly mentions, it’s important that all of you know which games are currently in the list so you’d know which you would second or choose not to.
Also, my grumpiness about the DOS-relics should be accompanied with the visual image of my “Brain King” avatar chewing on the stem of Magritte’s La Trahison des Images (also known as “Ceci n’est pas une Pipe”), which I have just read is now in the public domain. (Or not… )
