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Showing All | Show by Page - Max Fog, February 23, 2024
- Space45, November 25, 2023
- Edo, November 17, 2023
- ENyman78 (Gold Beach, OR), October 29, 2023
- Inarcadia Jones, July 24, 2023
4 of
4 people found the following review helpful:
Greetings from the Near Future, July 19, 2023There's a rather famous quote about the Velvet Underground's first album. It comes from an LA Times interview with Brian Eno:
“I was talking to Lou Reed the other day, and he said that the first Velvet Underground record sold only 30,000 copies in its first five years. Yet, that was an enormously important record for so many people. I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band!"
In 1985, Steve Meretzky was hardly a Lou Reed. He was probably one of the better-known game developers in America, thanks to the success of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Infocom, for its part, was hardly Verve Records. They had published some of the most successful microcomputer games ever made, and were making a play for big, corporate software dollars.
And yet, for all of Infocom's lavish production and post-production resources, A Mind Forever Voyaging has the aspirational earnestness of a small art film. According to Jimmy Maher, people around the office referred to it as "Steve Meretzky's Interiors," an unflattering comparison to Woody Allen's 1978 film of the same name. In fairness to Meretzky's contemporaries, amused bafflement is a possible reaction to something that one has never seen, anticipated, or imagined.
I could go on like this for hours. In fact, I already have elsewhere. So let's let this review be a review. In A Mind Forever Voyaging, the player guides an artificial intelligence, Perry Simm, though various iterations of a simulated future. The point of the simulation is to evaluate the effects of a sweeping legislative package usually referred to as "The Plan." The author of said plan is "Richard Ryder," and he and his policies are meant to remind us of Ronald Reagan.
The gameplay here is radically different from what one would have been used to in 1985. Perry must observe and record events and conditions that the game considers significant in terms of enriching or expanding the simulation. The AI is expanding its data set, in other words, while we guide Perry through daily life in Rockvil, Dakota. What is popular entertainment like, for instance, across the decades following the implementation of The Plan? How does the Simm family - Perry, Jill, and little Mitchell - get on? How are things at Perry's favorite Chinese restaurant?
Contemporary reviewers sometimes gloss over these innovations, missing the significance of centering human experiences and relationships in interactive narratives in 1985. Perhaps it is because we see these things everywhere nowadays. It can be easy to miss the influence of A Mind Forever Voyaging because it is everywhere. It can be hard to find an absence from which we can begin, from which we can detect its presence.
It has problems as a video game, and some of those problems are serious. It is not always clear what data is and is not useful for Perry, which can lead to feelings of being stuck. There is a climactic puzzle that has no relationship to the gameplay in the rest of the game. A game should train the player for its endgame, which A Mind Forever Voyaging fails to do.
I encourage contemporary players to refer to the Invisiclues - written by Meretzky himself - when stuck. If you don't understand a word or phrase in a Shakespeare play, do you look it up? The language of 1980s interactive fiction can seem equally arcane. Sometimes, these old games can feel mechanically obsolete. Which is fine! We have resources to help us through them as needed.
Some critics have invested significant ink in characterizing the model of AI in AMFV as unrealistic or incredible, as if A Mind Forever Voyaging was ever meant to be about computers. Despite appearances, it is about human beings. Humans wielding power, humans making art, humans forging friendships and families. Humans getting old together, humans insisting - rather shockingly in this context - that care, thoughtfulness, and imagination are essential to well-lived lives.
Adventure Classic Gaming
There are no traditional puzzles until the endgame, and even then, they are innovative, requiring you as the player to think like the machine you are supposed to represent. Rather, A Mind Forever Voyaging is about watching the life of a singular individual as it is effected by global changes and about observing a city's descent into mismanagement, neglect, and despair.
Yet, it is because of its innovative premise that A Mind Forever Voyaging ultimately falls short. The story that it casts is too simplistic, with few shades of grey. Like too many works of science fiction, it tells of a socialistic government obsessed with order and security that lapses into totalitarianism, a techno church that can preach only wacky space babble and a medieval strain of intolerance, and credit card breadlines that run dry. As well, the characters encountered tend to be as flat as a computer simulation in 1985—they have no personality.
-- Joseph Lindell
Adventure Gamers
Part of me is tempted to use the patronising cliché that A Mind Forever Voyaging is remarkably good “for a game.” There's no getting around the fact that the prose is mostly utilitarian, the characters are markedly thin, and the ideas presented often lack nuance. Infocom boldly compared the game to Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four, comparisons which only highlight these complaints further. But in the end, I feel its best aspects are in fact because it is a game. The great sense of exploration and non-linearity make you feel more like a historian researching for a book than a mere reader and player, curiously gathering evidence to evaluate The Plan for Renewed Purpose, all in a clearly-imagined and at times frightening world that seems more contemporary now than when it was written. For those who enjoy games heavy on exploration or with a political bent – or just want to experience a fascinating moment in gaming history – you should definitely check it out.
--Steven Watson
3 of
3 people found the following review helpful:
An interesting early attempt at political commentary in interactive fiction, May 7, 2023by Cody Gaisser (Florence, Alabama, United States of America, North America, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, Known Universe, ???) A Mind Forever Voyaging (1985) is quite good and recommendable, even if it's not quite the masterpiece I was anticipating. The biggest strengths of the game are the dystopian sci-fi setting, the author's lack of inhibition with regard to including political commentary (a rarity at the time, I suspect), and the relative lack of traditional adventure game puzzles. The biggest weaknesses are (I suspect) artifacts of the game's vintage (such as: the manual is required to look up passcodes at various points in the game).
AMFV is less about unlocking doors and solving problems than simply observing changes in a society over time. The player assumes the role of a sentient AI tasked with exploring simulations of the city of Rockvil over the course of 50 years, recording evidence to determine whether or not a proposed policy called The Plan will benefit or harm society.
I found Rockvil difficult to navigate early in the game when there was a checklist of specific tasks to accomplish; however eventually I got used to the layout of the city and found exploration much easier to deal with in the mid-game when the objectives were more open-ended. I still recommend looking up a map, as my several attempts to map the game myself were consistently thwarted.
Likewise, I found the climax (the closest thing in AMFV to a puzzle) to be counter-intuitive. A walkthrough revealed that I needed to be using mechanics which I'd gone the entire game without even realizing existed. This section of the game played out rather dramatically, but the actions required for progress were not well signposted.
There's more to AMFV than just the intro and the climax, though, and the game managed to surprise me a number of times. I especially appreciated the news feed and the unexpected events that will happen from time to time while running the simulation.
I enjoyed my experience with A Mind Forever Voyaging and would recommend it for its historical significance and unique gameplay. I don't feel any regret about utilizing a map or consulting a walkthrough for the climax, though.
- Kastel, April 6, 2023
- jinnturtle, October 5, 2022
- thesacredbagel, July 25, 2022
- penguincascadia (Puget Sound), March 24, 2022
- cgasquid (west of house), February 11, 2022
- Lance Campbell (United States), December 24, 2021
- Nomad, August 20, 2021
8 of
8 people found the following review helpful:
Great Introduction to IF, August 12, 2021by ccpost (Greensboro, North Carolina) As a recent convert to interactive fiction, I have been looking for good games to get started with. Although this is perhaps not a typical work, I was intrigued by the sci-fi dystopian premise and encouraged by the wealth of critical praise heaped upon AMFV. Rather than detailing specific aspects of the gameplay or plot that I found especially effective, I want to focus this review on the merits of AMFV as an introduction to IF.
In short: I found AMFV quite stunning in its own right and also an effective introduction to IF more broadly. The work opened my eyes to the artistic potential of IF as a form and delivered a playing experience that was easy and engaging for someone with only minimal prior exposure to IF.
A few more detailed points:
I appreciated the relative lack of puzzles. Though I'm not averse to puzzle-heavy IF, I wanted a work without punishing puzzles or cruel game design (e.g. unwinnable states, lots of learning by dying). I loved that the main mission of the game is to explore the simulated versions of Rockvil, which still requires some careful attention to the description of places and objects without the demands of a typical puzzle (e.g. finding just the right use of an object to get past an obstacle). AMFV helped to ease me into the playing mechanics of IF without suffering the pain of banging my head (literally or metaphorically) against some puzzle to make progress.
I also thought that AMFV did a great job of introducing the a novice player to the poetics of IF, that is, the joys (and challenges) of navigating a simulated world via a text interface. Cleverly, the simulated versions of Rockvil can be seen as sorts of IF worlds within the broader IF work -- Perry Simm is in the same role as the player. This effect was achieved quite well and not in an eye-winking kind of way.
Finally, this work is clearly significant in the broader history of IF, which is obvious even to a newcomer like myself. Playing it definitely helped me to better understand the historical foundation of where more recent IF works have come from, but the experience was not that of an 'eat your vegetables' history lesson. The work is still fresh and enjoyable on its own terms, and indeed the satirical thrust of the work is still very relevant (even if the political satire could be heavy-handed at times -- probably my only real complaint about AMFV).
- Karlok (Netherlands), April 14, 2021
- beecadee, November 14, 2020
- mifga (Brooklyn, NY), October 15, 2020
- jcompton, June 22, 2020
- The Defiant, June 16, 2020
- Arrowhead12 (Edmonton, Alberta), June 11, 2020
- Zape, May 24, 2020
- Artran (Taipei, Taiwan), May 1, 2020
- plutonick, February 7, 2020
- Sobol (Russia), December 9, 2019
5 of
6 people found the following review helpful:
A Deserving Classic, October 3, 2019I knew two things about the game before I started playing:
* There's not much of a "game" in it, with only a few puzzles near the end
* Steve Meretzky intended it as a blistering attack on Ronald Reagan's policies
The first point is definitely correct--most of the game feels of a piece with the more recent walking simulators, where the focus of the experience is just to explore an environment and get a general sense of what's happening. This isn't a complaint! Wandering Rockvil, watching the decay, was fascinating; the dread from witnessing just how bad things got was palpable.
For the second point, though... Maybe it's just a consequence of being 30-some years removed from Reagan and no longer viscerally angry about or afraid of his platform, but I had some quibbles about the politics--it's hard for me to draw a straight line between the Plan as described and a fascistic cult coming into power, for example. And since 2041 is pretty OK, wouldn't it be possible to implement the Plan now and then change course in 10 years? (Also, just from a writing perspective, the 2071 segment is so, so bleak, it's almost funny that Dr. Perelman's response is, "Well, maybe it turns a corner at the 50-year mark." (Spoiler - click to show)The state's running gladiator fights to punish ration cheats!)
Despite my reservations there, I really did enjoy this game and have no qualms about recommending it.
- Otheym, August 18, 2019
- jjsonick, August 17, 2019
1 of
1 people found the following review helpful:
Infocom at its finest., May 1, 2019Lauded by critics and mostly ignored by the public, A Mind Forever Voyaging is more of a story than a game, being essentially puzzleless. But man, what a story. Taking place in the year 2031, America is doing poorly and some crackpot scientists have developed a sentient computer named PRISM. Its purpose: to enter a simulation of the future to see if popular conservative Senator Richard Ryder’s plan for renewed national purpose will lead to prosperity. You are PRISM.
If you can set aside the ridiculous notion that a simulation of the future would ever come close to being accurate (hell, we can’t even predict next weekend’s weather with certainty), then you should enjoy this entertaining look into Steve Meretzky’s political vision of a possible future. While your goal is to record evidence of what’s going down in the years to come (from banal activities like eating a meal in a restaurant to more charged activities like meeting with government officials), the real purpose and joy of the game is to simply explore. The town of Rockvil, South Dakota is vividly imagined and detailed, and one could complete the game without visiting 90% of what the town has to offer. And while the story’s progression is fairly predictable, it consistently remains a poignant and touching story of self-exploration throughout and boasts one of the best endings out there.
My only criticisms are that things can be a little repetitive at times and the NPCs are not as developed as I prefer (especially your simulated wife). But in the grand scheme these are mere trifle. More of an experience to be enjoyed than completed, A Mind Forever Voyaging should be at the top of any gamer’s list of classics to try.
- mils32k, January 7, 2019
- Zach Shifflett (VA, United States), December 12, 2018
- oscar-78, December 5, 2018
- Sergio (Trento, Italy), November 30, 2017
- Xavid, November 22, 2017
- lobespear, October 31, 2017
- jakomo, September 21, 2017
- sushabye, September 2, 2017
- nosferatu, July 5, 2017
- Laney Berry, June 12, 2017
- Kyriakos Sgarbas (Hellas (Greece)), May 25, 2017
- Denk, December 17, 2016
- leanbh, December 17, 2016
- Robin Johnson (Edinburgh, Scotland), March 9, 2016
4 of
4 people found the following review helpful:
Explore a simulation of a giant city 10, 20, 30 and more years into the future, February 3, 2016In this Infocom game, you play PRISM, a sentient computer who has been designed to simulate the future for planning purposes.
This game has no real puzzles until the end. You simply explore. First, you explore your interface, which is very large (having 30+ distinct files you can open). Then you explore the actual simulation, which is a large downtown city, with what felt like 30-50 locations. Once you explore it long enough, the simulation accumulates enough data to simulate another decade into the future.
You must record interesting events and places in the future to bring back for planning purposes. I somehow missed out on a simple mechanic, and got very stalled in the game. (This is not a spoiler, because it is not a puzzle or a surprise, more of a guess-the-verb): To present your recordings, you must tell people "look at recording".
The developer has stated that the game was intended as a criticism of Reagan's policy.
The game is fun. You need to explore; don't just rush through, trying to do what they say. You need to record a lot of each decade to win, so try and get a mental map of the game.
I played this game on the iPad's Lost Treasures of Infocom app, which provides most of Infocom's games (except Nord and Bert, and the already-free Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy).
- Yekrats (Indiana), October 9, 2015
- DrX, July 4, 2015
- chux, May 21, 2015
- Thrax, March 11, 2015
- Janice M. Eisen (Portland, Oregon), November 10, 2014
- shornet (Bucharest), March 23, 2014
- Snave, March 7, 2014
- lynd, February 2, 2014
- E.K., January 16, 2014
- KidRisky (Connecticut, USA), December 20, 2013
- bigotitos, November 8, 2013
- N.C. Hunter Hayden, October 30, 2013
- Avrak, October 27, 2013
- The Custodian (The Cloud), April 10, 2013
2 of
2 people found the following review helpful:
All-time Favorite, February 22, 2013First of all, I'm biased, because this kind of story is right up my alley. I regard it as my all-time favorite because the story is masterfully written, the descriptions are robust and entertaining to read and overall, it makes you think, not so much about the puzzles, but about what is happening, both to your character and to the world around him. As Infocom stories go, this will remain one of the tops in my book.
- Stewjar (USA), January 29, 2013
- Perry Simm (Vienna, Austria), December 2, 2012
- Puddin Tame (Queens, NY), October 27, 2012
- AADA7A, September 19, 2012
- kala (Finland), May 25, 2012
- Andrew Schultz (Chicago), May 9, 2012
- EJ, April 3, 2012
- Robb Sherwin (Colorado), March 27, 2012
- Nav (Bristol, UK), November 25, 2011
- Jeff Zeitlin (Greater New York Area), September 6, 2011
- Corwin71, July 10, 2011
- Jizaboz (U.S.A.), June 16, 2011
- André St-Aubin (Laval, Québec), May 31, 2011
- Rotonoto (Albuquerque, New Mexico), May 16, 2011
- MKrone (Harsleben), May 4, 2011
- Kevin Norris, April 12, 2011
- Jonathan Blask (Milwaukee, WI, USA), April 4, 2011
- Walter Sandsquish, February 2, 2011
- Narcisse, November 26, 2010
- karcher, July 11, 2010
- Mr. Patient (Saint Paul, Minn.), June 22, 2010
- Matt Wigdahl (Olathe, KS), April 26, 2010
- Aina Grey, April 16, 2010
- A. Margo (Southern California), March 6, 2010
- thion, August 19, 2009
- Mark V. (Madrid, Spain), June 2, 2009
- Mastodon, March 26, 2009
- ., March 3, 2009
- albtraum, February 8, 2009
- Gemma Bristow, January 25, 2009
- Linnau (Tel-Aviv, Israel), October 31, 2008
- Nathan (Utah), October 26, 2008
- Genjar (Finland), August 31, 2008
- LisariaUS, July 17, 2008
- Ben Treat (Maine, USA), July 11, 2008
- TCWT, May 2, 2008
- Dave Chapeskie (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada), April 23, 2008
- Samuel Verschelde (Stormi) (Lyon, France), April 20, 2008
- aaronius, April 14, 2008
- mrsambarlow, April 5, 2008
- bolucpap, March 19, 2008
- Ghalev (Northern Appalachia, United States), March 16, 2008
- flatluigi (Massachusetts, USA), March 6, 2008
- jfpbookworm (Hamburg, New York), February 25, 2008
- tfbk, January 10, 2008
- Miron (Berlin, Germany), December 11, 2007
- Matt Kimmel (Cambridge, MA), November 29, 2007
- Benjamin Sokal (Elysium pod planting enclosure on Mars), November 14, 2007
- Wesley (Iowa City, Iowa), November 11, 2007
- Maureen (California), November 2, 2007
- Steven (Honolulu, Hawaii), October 23, 2007
- PDearmore (Central New York), October 22, 2007
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