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The Rocket Man From The Sea
Contains The Rocket Man from the Sea.gblorb
(Author's site) Release 2 containing a hint system, debugging and additional proofreading.
Requires a Glulx interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links. (Compressed with ZIP. Free Unzip tools are available for most systems at www.info-zip.org.)
The Rocket Man from the Sea.gblorb
Contains The Rocket Man from the Sea.gblorb
Release 2 (IF Archive)
Requires a Glulx interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.

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The Rocket Man From The Sea

by Janos Honkonen profile

Science Fiction
2012

Web Site

(based on 17 ratings)
3 reviews

About the Story

On the old pilot station island, where you live with your parents, the war fought with Earth and Martian rocket-ships and Atomic Heat Rays exist only in the sonorous voice of the newscaster on the radio, and as food for your imagination. Today your parents have left you alone to mind the station while they head for the mainland for some supplies. A big job for a six year old, who is about to have an encounter that changes his life forever.


Game Details


Awards

1st Place - Spring Thing 2012

Editorial Reviews

Narrativium
Spring Thing 2012: The Rocket Man from the Sea
The moral of the story is not particularly profound, but it doesn't need to me. This is not a game about hitting the player with a sledgehammer to make its point, there is some politics and some subtext, but it stays out of the way. The realities of interplanetary war would seem strange and far-removed to a kid living on a remote island. It is an exercise left to the player to make the connections with the global conflicts of today.
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Member Reviews

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Number of Reviews: 3
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Bees, roses and a dark sea, June 28, 2012

Citing Ray Bradbury as a primary influence, this feels very much like a SF short story from the 50s or 60s, the sort of SF you could make a movie about without any need for a special effects budget. The protagonist, a child, lives with his parents on an island across the bay from Astro City. Earth is at war with Mars, and the protagonist plays make-believe games based on this distant conflict. But then a rocket-man washes up on the shore, and reality and fantasy intermingle. (There is a general feeling of WW2 fiction here.)

Though capable overall, both the writing and the overall design have some rough patches. The prose feels a little first-draftish in places. Most of the gameplay is quite narrowly focused -- probably too much so, in the make-believe sequence -- but there are a couple of points where the solution is a little counterintuitive. The denouement is rather heavily foreshadowed, the protagonist is perhaps a little bit too much of a Disney innocent. But there are many gleaming moments here, little bursts of rich, world-grounded imagery that make this feel less like a fantastic piece and more like a childhood memoir.

As science fiction IF goes, it's uncommonly good in that it has its feet planted on the ground, it grasps and is concerned about the flight-of-fancy aspect of the genre.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A mid-length sci-fi game with multiple viewpoints and a vintage Sci-fi feel, September 28, 2017
by MathBrush
Related reviews: about 1 hour

This game feels just like all of the 60's scifi stories I read growing up, in a good way.

You play as a young child on a lonely outpost in the sea during a war between Earth and Mars. Alone for the day, you get to use your imagination around the island, until events take a sudden turn.

The multiple viewpoints reminded me favorably of Rover's Day Out and Delphina's House.

There were a few parts where the interactivity just didn't do it for me, which is why I deducted one star.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting Premise, Abrupt Ending, October 23, 2015
by RickyD (South Carolina, USA)

Really liked the premise of the game, and I thoroughly enjoyed the imagination sequences. What kid hasn't dressed up and pretended his house was some sort of fortress (be it a space fortress, fort in the old west, or whatever)? Then you actually find (Spoiler - click to show)the titular rocket man from the sea, and just when you think the story might get interesting, it ends, with a Twilight Zone-esque twist.

Or rather, after one more "puzzle" it turns into exposition, exposition, exposition followed by talk to, talk to, talk to, until time runs out. The End.

Played several times, getting a couple different endings, eventually deciding that one of the ones I initially considered a "bad ending" (interestingly enough, the first ending I tried) may have been the best for all involved.

Gameplay itself is OK. There are several spots were a seemingly obvious object (mentioned in the narration) can't be examined or interacted with, and there are several areas that are mentioned but permanently blocked off for one reason or another. Not a deal-breaker, but a bit annoying.

The game had a lot of potential, and it was good for what it was, but I would've preferred more interaction in the second half, and perhaps even a chance to change the outcome ((Spoiler - click to show)talk to your parents, attempt to send a radio message, let someone know what you've found out.) I would love to see another IF game by this author, but sadly, it doesn't appear there are any at the moment.

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The Rocket Man From The Sea on IFDB

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Polls

The following polls include votes for The Rocket Man From The Sea:

Neil Armstrong Commemorative Space Poll by Joey Jones
I'm hankering to play a good space-themed game. That is to say, a game not necessarily set in space, but a game that is in some way about space or our relation to space. Any takers?




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