|
The game "Curses" was, at the time, by far the longest amateur (i.e. non-Infocom) adventure game written for the Z-Machine. The author, Graham Nelson, wrote the Inform
compiler which he used to create the game. A seemingly simple quest to find a street
map of Paris leads you into odd corners of an old mansion, your imagination, and
ultimately into the ancient past. It's perhaps the most "literate" work of IF to come
along in years. You'll find numerous puzzles ranging from simple (not many of those)
to difficult (lots) and hair-tearingly frustrating, spread across the years from
ancient Egypt to the present. And you will find literary allusions, references to
historical events and legends, and a family history that literally meanders all over
the map, but remains centered about the ancestral Meldrew Hall in England. The game's
on-line hint system has been personified in the form of supernatural agencies - alas,
the hints present are rather cryptic, and if you can't figure out a puzzle from the
hint, there won't be any more hints. |