Hi,
my Inform game “Perseus and Andromeda” needs beta testers. It’s a v6 z-code game with Blorb graphics. While the pictures are meant to integrate with the story, they are not necessary for playing. For more details, I include in the following the file blurb.txt included in the distribution.
<<–BEGIN blurb.txt
PERSEUS and ANDROMEDA
An Interactive Mythological Diversion
Copyright (c) 2016 by Lua do Nascimento
About playing
This is a standard Inform 6 game, written for the V6 z-machine. Yes, it has graphics; indeed, it might be classified as an illustrated text adventure. It should be played on a blorb-graphics-enabled interpreter, such as:
on Windows: Windows Frotz (tested on v1.17)
on Linux: sfrotz (tested on v0.02)
However, while the pictures are meant to integrate with the story and to maximize your playing experience, they are not strictly necessary for playing (no hidden hint). Indeed, the game is playable and winnable with any text-only interpreter that understands V6 z-code, such as Frotz (and xfrotz, on Linux, with quite minimal graphics support).
As said above, this is a standard Inform 6 game, with all the usual parser stuff (TAKE LANTERN, GO SOUTH, ATTACK OGRE WITH SWORD etc.) In addition to that, I’ve added some verbs and extended existing ones; you’ll have to discover which and how. I only mention here the verb RECAP, that may be (marginally) useful for summing up the (more or less) interesting places you have visited and the (more or less) interesting people you have met during your quest. There’s also a CREDITS verb for, guess what?
As I said, you’ll meet people during your quest. To exchange information with them, you may use the standard forms ASK SOMEONE ABOUT SOMETHING and TELL SOMEONE ABOUT SOMETHING. You may also try to give orders, as in GUARD, GIVE ME YOUR SWORD, but that won’t work too frequently.
Please note that, this NOT being a LucasArts ™ game, your hero can die, or behave so stupidly as to put the game into an unwinnable state. Modern z-code interpreters allow UNDO, and in fact many levels of UNDO, but saving your game now and then shouldn’t harm.
About the game
So, why Perseus and Andromeda? Well, the first idea came to me when I got from the if-archive Brian Howarth’s Mysterious Adventures converted to V6 z-code, with pictures. I was intrigued by Perseus’ myth, and said to myself: why not revamp Howarth’s Perseus game with a more powerful parser, less concise text and prettier pics? I also had in mind Ekphrasis, which is a Glulx game, and wondered if it would be so difficult to make something similar with the good old z-machine.
Therefore, I began to code a story, following more or less literally the myth as bequeathed in books (e.g. Pseudo-Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca). But when I was about halfway, I realized that what I was doing wasn’t as exciting, after all. So I decided to introduce some (IMHO non-trivial) twist in the story, and this is the result.
As Jorge Amado wrote in the opening of one of his novels: “It’s been fun to write; if someone else has fun reading it, I’ll consider myself satisfied.”
So, enjoy!
–END blurb.txt
Anyone interested in testing the game may contact me at