Seeking review of Uninvited

Playing Game Hints
1

I was wondering if someone would be so kind as to do a review of my latest game, “Uninvited” for SPAG, IFDB, or wherever.

2

Hi David!

I had been waiting for someone to re-release Uninvited for so long! I was beginning to wonder if I had merely imagined hiding under the desk our Apple computer sat on as my friend’s brother played it.

I was SO excited to find your port a few weeks ago and it was great to relive the memories. Thank you so very much for doing that. I realized that I don’t think I ever finished the game. Honestly, it still creeps me out! even without the graphics or nail-biting sounds. Well done!

I’d love to write a review, yet I’ve never done so so I feel unqualified. I’m in the midst of writing my first game.

3

Hey –

I started to look at this, but I’m encountering some behavior I’m not sure is intentional.

[spoiler]Front Yard
You stand at the front porch of a house. This old, Gothic mansion casts gloomy shadows all around you. A sharp wind cuts through your flesh to chill your bones. The pounding thunder grows louder and more threatening. A curiously-shaped knocker adorns the front door. Flanking the front door is a pair of marble statues.

You can see a mailbo (which is closed) here.

BOOM! There is a mighty explosion behind you as your car bursts into flames. That will at least save you the cost of a tow. Better try to find your younger brother and have him call a cab instead of a tow truck.

open mailbo
You see no mailbo here.

open mailbox
You open the mailbo, revealing an envelo.

x envelo
You see no envelo here.

It looks to me as though there’s a cross-up between names shortened for a six-letter parser (except those are being printed rather than understood) and the actual understand names I7 wants to match – which is pretty confusing for the player. But if that’s an intentional preservation of some bug in the original, then… then, er, I still think it’s odd, but it changes my view of the problem, I guess.[/spoiler]

4

I’d like to review this and I’ve added it to my radar, but I concede it may be sort of a bigger thing for me to review than other games I’ve got on my list just due to personal circumstance stuff. This stems from my lifelong awareness of the original game. I’ve actually only played it a few times, but I’ve also read a lot about it, but because of those things, looking at how it’s been translated into all text when the original features conspicuous design choices based on its graphic design (like the way the icons and scenery fob off brute-forcing solutions) - it’s just the kind of thing I’d like to take my time over dealing with and thinking about. And also, I’d probably want to try to beat the original game without leaning on too many hints, which could also take a while! So I’m just one guy who’s letting you know I personally want to review it, but my review might not happen for a fair while.

  • Wade
5

The bug seems to be specific to Parchment. It looks fine in Gargoyle and Spatterlight, but it’s broken here: iplayif.com/?story=http%3A%2F%2F … invited.z5

6

I’m guessing that recent changes to either the Inform6 compiler or library might have tickled this bug. I’ll go to the Parchment development group on Google to see what I can do.

7

The library hasn’t changed since 2004, and the compiler has changed very minimally – we have tried to only add new features, not change existing code. Is there an earlier version of the game that does work correctly in Parchment?

EDIT-ADD: No, wait – I see you’re using the 6/12 unreleased library. I don’t have any experience with that, so I can’t say that it isn’t the problem.

8

Definitely looks like the library. I compiled a baseline I6 game:

Include "Parser";
Include "VerbLib";

[ Initialise;
  location = Kitchen;
];

Object Kitchen "Kitchen"
  with description "This is the kitchen.",
  has light;

Object -> macaroon "macaroon"
  with name 'macaroon';

Object -> glovebox "glovebox"
  with name 'glovebox' 'glove' 'box';

Include "Grammar";

I used the 6/12 library as found in frotz’s recent inform-6.33.1-b1 upload. Bug appears:

iplayif.com/?story=http%3A%2F%2F … est-612.z5

9

Compiling the same game for Glulx doesn’t show any obvious problems. (In either glulxe or quixe.)

10

I fear that David’s reimplementation is not getting the love it deserves. He managed to convert the humor, suspense, and horror of the original graphic game into a more pungent text version. All the hidden surprises are there, too. This game should be high on people’s best-game lists!