Thanks for clarification. I’m just in it for fun (and maybe to write some reviews) so free run is the right choice for me.
It suddenly occurs to me that there should be an option where you only make knight’s moves. A free-jumping course. Maybe next time. 
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Don’t know if I’ll really have time for this, but some of the games are ones I’ve heard about for a long time yet haven’t played. So I’d like to sign up while I still can, just in case. Can you put me on D9 with a free-running course? I don’t really care about the color, so I’ll take #000000, I guess.
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Can we run multiple courses at the same time?
Only if you enter the same commands into the two games you’re playing at once.
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You know how some people write “polyglot” programs that are valid in multiple programming languages at once? I wonder if anyone’s ever designed separate games that can be won with the same sequence of moves. The only ones I’m aware of are 19 Once and Zugzwang (which had a metapuzzle if you noticed this similarity)—but those two have all moves act the same between both games, not just the winning ones. I’m imagining a broader sort of similarity where only one winning path has to be identical.
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Welcome, runner #18: @Lurker!
We’re almost at twenty registered runners, and there is still a little over two hours now until the registration deadline, so there’s still plenty of time to pick a color code, a course type and a starting square to join the fun. If you’re just learning about the marathon now, see the FAQ (second post on this thread) for details.
I seem to recall an idea floated years ago for a Walkthrough Jam where different games would be made based on the same walkthrough. I suppose you’d want to make it broad enough to support a large range of genres. I don’t think any such Jam was ever attempted but I’d like to be wrong.
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Indeed! That’s what got us ‘Lighan ses Lion’, among many others:
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Interesting idea, but I don’t think so. Each runner gets only one icon with which to track a course.
However, I suppose anyone is free to play extra games in between those of a chosen course, if desired. If it’s not a legal move from your current position, it won’t count as a move that extends your official course, but related activity will count for discussion/review awards.
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OK, final registration is my own as runner #19, for a short course starting on F6 (The Owl Consults).
There’s a pretty even split among the types of courses, so there should be plenty of overlap.
- Short (6): kaemi, JohnD, Hellzon, Melisande, Scrooge200, otistdog
- Medium (4): Lionstooth, iaraya, EJoyce, Draconis
- Long (4): Rovarsson, Crazyqix, Joey, Harren
- Free-Running (5): Doug_Egan, lpsmith, Ordon, Zed, Lurker
The official thread for logging runner activity will be posted shortly…
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[sound of a starter pistol being fired]
And they’re off! The official activity log thread for the marathon is now up! I’ll be updating the copy of the big board at the top of this thread at least weekly, but if you want the freshest information, see the new thread.
If you’ve missed the registration deadline, you can still participate in discussions and post reviews. (Feel free to make your own posts on the activity log thread alongside those of registered runners.)
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[I had originally posted this to the official activity log thread, but then realized it didn’t fit that thread’s purpose, so I moved it here…]
High five to @EJoyce, my game-mate at A1, Cat Petting Simulator 2014, and fellow cat person. See you on the other side! whatever that means…
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A late update: The game at F7, 18 Rooms to Home by Carolyn VanEseltine is unfortunately no longer available online, as confirmed by the author. My apologies for not discovering this earlier – though there are links aplenty on the game’s IFDB listing, none of them are functional.
As a result, the game is being replaced by the next eligible game in the sorted list, which is It is Pitch Black by Caelyn Sandel.
(@Scrooge200: Since the game that you chose as a starting square is impossible to actually play, you can either start from the replacement or select a different starting square.)
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I saw Peter Pears talking on a thread about 18 Rooms to Home a decade ago. I know at one point he had an enormous 100s of GBs file of IF games. There were links to a torrent of it on the archived version of intfic (but I don’t use torrents).
If you know anybody that ever grabbed that mega download of his, it might have copies of the gblorbs in it.
Edit: apparently it was only 1.9 gb.
A post was merged into an existing topic: Great Play Marathon: Runners’ Reports