Ah, yes! I was doing a bad job of planning my route I see. So 7/9 with a medium course and 9/12 with a long course. And the remaining 2 or 3 will be a good chance to try out some IF that wasn’t previously on my radar, too.
Square B9 is Moondrop Isle, which, incidentally, is the combined product of all participants in the Third Quadrennial Ryan Veeder Exposition for Good Interactive Fiction.
If the title of a particular game on the field isn’t obvious, you’ll find an expandable key under the big board that lists every game on the field. It’s right below the expandable key for runner icons.
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A bit late, but I just want to say, in case someone feels adventurous: the game with a portrait of a girl, second to last on the last row, is Filaments, which is historically important since it’s the first modern original interactive fiction in French. (It’s at least the first original written with Inform or any “modern” authoring system.)
I haven’t played it myself, and it’s very likely to be buggy, but I believe it’s a good game otherwise. (I think its Italian translation won a comp or something.)
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OK, I’m officially signing up!
Color: #63A25C (‘Grasshopper’)
Type: Free Running
Starting position: Since I’m choosing randomly, can I start off the grid and choose on day 1? If need be, I can choose randomly now, but I’d rather not know yet.
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Welcome, runner #11: @lpsmith!
I’ve placed your runner’s icon on a randomly-selected square. If that one doesn’t suit you, you can change it any time before registration ends (which is April 30th, the day before the marathon starts) – just send a PM or post here.
That makes at least a dozen registered runners enrolled (including me). Can we get to fifteen?
Have I misunderstood how a long course works? I thought it had to include exactly two games from each row (one on the way up and one on the way down, or vice versa) which means it can’t be possible to hit more than eight of the ones @Draconis highlighted?
If I understand correctly, the short course is down/up, but the long course is right/left. And I thought you’d only play one game from the last row, instead of hitting it twice?
So, E1, [D2], [E3], E4, [D5], [E6], [E7], D8, C9, [C8], [B7], [C6], C5, [C4], C3, C2, C1
(Brackets are highlighted, non-brackets could shift if need be.)
If you hit the wall twice, you could pick up B9 after C9, but I think you’re supposed to go back to 8 after one from 9.
Unless I’ve got it totally wrong, a short course is top to bottom (6 games), a medium course is side to side (9 games) and a long course is top to bottom and back again (12 games). None of those options let you pick more than 7 games from the ones @Draconis highlighted.
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@lpsmith, what you’re describing is a hardcore free-running course of 17 games.
As jwalrus says, a normal long course involves 12 games, two from each horizontal row. A normal medium course is once across the board from left to right (or vice versa), like the E1 to C9 earlier portion of your hypothetical course (or C9 to C1 later portion). See the FAQ questions: “How does a short course work?”, “How does a medium course work?” and “How does a long course work?” for details.
Free-running courses are for those who don’t want a standard course type, and you’re welcome to create one that takes any path at all on the map so long as it dosn’t cross the same square twice.
Aha! Right, never mind me, then. Carry on!
Place me at F3 to start.
Done! I think that means all currently-registered runners have been placed.
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The Great Play Marathon of 2026 is coming up soon! Registration will remain open for four weeks, i.e. until Thursday April 30.
To register, post here or send a PM to me specifying your preferred color (preferably as a hex code), the type of course you plan to run (short, medium, long or free running; see FAQ for details), and your starting square (by letter/number or name of game). It is not required to specify your entire course in advance.
Right now there are a dozen registered runners (including me), but there’s room for as many people as want to play. There are new games, old games, classic games, experimental games, famous games and obscure games – over 50 from which to choose, in different formats and platforms, with different themes and moods. The one thing that they have in common is that they are all highly-rated using the IFDB Top 100 scoring algorithm.
I can certainly attest that the ones I’ve played – including some I only learned about since their inclusion here – have all been enjoyable, even the ones that I would normally skip. See the top post for the playing field and the key to the games on it. (Has anyone else already been tempted into jumping the gun?)
Get your virtual running shoes and join the fun!
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Just two weeks remain to register for the Great Play Marathon!
I’ve been working on a list of the awards to be handed out at the end of the Great Play Marathon. So far, I have the following:
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Rapidest Runner (multiple awards, one per course type) – for the runner who registers the fastest completion of each type of course
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Toughest Terrain (single award, by audience vote) – for the runner whose course is deemed most challenging by the audience
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Imbued with Iron (single award) – for the runner who registers completion of the longest single course (as measured by squares crossed)
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Scrupulous Scribe (single award) – for the runner who posts (and registers) the most reviews of games completed on intfiction, IFDB or other sites
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Honored Historian (single award) – for the runner who posts (and registers) the best reviews on IFDB, as measured by agreements
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Commendable Commenter – for the runner who posts the most comments in discussions about played games here on intfiction.org (during the marathon)
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Judicious Judge – for the runner who posts the best comments in discussions about played games here on intfiction.org (as measured by likes)
Note that all official tallies will be based on “registered” plays and comments, i.e. those that are post on the official marathon activity thread (which will be started on May 1st and be linked to from this thread). If you make a post to IFDB or to a personal website/blog, please post a link there so that I don’t miss it when determining award recipients.
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Only one week left to register for the Great Play Marathon, which begins next Friday, May 1st!
The FAQ has been updated with the official list of awards. If anyone has suggestions for other awards, let me know.
The field of 54 games offers all kinds of novel experiences for most people. There at at least ten games that I’ve previously played and enjoyed (and therefore won’t be on my course), but those point to pretty good odds that the ones I haven’t played will also be enjoyable. Remember: The entire field was chosen from among the top 15% of games as rated by the IFDB Top 100 algorithm – these are choice picks!
To sign up, post here with your chosen color (including hex code), course type (short, medium, long, free-running) and starting position (square code or game name). Even a short course offers hundreds of possible combinations of games to try – which one calls to you?
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While waiting for the Great Play Marathon to officially commence, I decided to play one of the games on the field that wasn’t on my course: The Bones of Rosalinda. I enjoyed The Universal Robot (Assembled by Hex), and I’d heard of Rosalinda several times, including in the Rosebush article “Guybrush’s Heirs.”
Rosalinda received a Best in Show ribbon during Spring Thing 2022, won two XYZZY Awards, and was nominated for four more. It’s reputation is well-earned: the characters are delightful, the puzzles are clever, and there’s comedy throughout. While there are darker elements in Rosalinda, it’s primarily a cute, heartwarming game involving a talking mouse and plenty of silliness. My favorite part was getting past Quintus the Gullible, specifically the moment when I realized Rosalinda was in no real danger.
The distinctive, endearing characters are a highlight of the game, and I was pleased to discover that the plucky protagonist’s story has been continued in a sequel.
I applaud author Agnieszka Trzaska’s technical abilities; SugarCube provides no built-in world-model, so everything in Rosalinda had to be built from scratch.
The gameplay isn’t quite as smooth as it is in The Universal Robot. For example, if you try to use the cup on the pot of goulash, the response is “That wasn’t a proper vessel for goulash.” More generally, where in Robot, the failure messages generally gave Hex’s reasoning for not performing a given action, many in Rosalinda were along the lines of Inform 7’s “That would achieve little.” This is only a minor quibble, though. The implementation on the whole is very well done.
All in all, Rosalinda is a lot of fun, and I’d recommend it to anyone up for a lighthearted adventure game.
The only other game on the field that I’m familiar with is Miss Gosling’s Last Case. I played it shortly after its release during IFComp 2024, where it placed sixth. It’s a very enjoyable puzzle game in which you play as a ghost trying to solve your own murder (which mostly involves instructing your pet dog how to overcome obstacles). Unusually for the mystery genre, it’s not only focused on discovering the culprit, but also proving the innocence of several suspects. My favorite puzzle was the attic segment. Daniel Stelzer did a good job of keeping the writing in character for the protagonist, a Miss Marple-like detective. I really like that the entire game can be played either by typing in commands or by using hyperlinks, as I think it makes parser games much more accessible for new players.
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Hi. I’m hereby naming this colour Firekeeper’s Dream™℠(©)(®).
#FFFF00
(How do I insert images…?)
Please airdrop me on Cyberqueen, D8.
Also, how is youse getting that cool text on the colours all professional-like?
And I’ll be a freerunner, please.
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Hello,
I´d like to play as well!
Color: #660000
Starting position: A7
Type: Long Course
Looking forward to this event!
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Welcome, runners #12 and #13: @Ordon and @harren! You have both been duly registered, and your icons have been placed in your starting squares. (Thank you for providing all necessary information in your signup posts.)
We’re over a baker’s dozen now (including me). It’s getting to be a decent-sized crowd, with something like a hundred-plus different plays lined up. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s comments and reviews!
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Oh right, I need to actually choose a starting position! Now to remember which type of run I wanted to do…