Ratings and Reviews by Grunion Guy
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Ancient History!, April 5, 2008I can credit this game with my love of text adventure games. I played it when I was quite young on my Vic-20. And even though the game is sparsely detailed with a frustrating parser compared to today's games, it was quite exciting and kept me coming back to try and solve its unfair puzzles. Not really much to look at now, it might be worth checking out.
(Spoiler - click to show)The bear puzzle. Am I the only one who, even at the young age I was, solved it by becoming completely frustrated with the bear and typing screw bear? The old parser only read the first three letters of every word and the intended solution was, apparently, scream bear. So imagine my surprise when I typed Screw Bear and the response was 'The bear is so startled it falls off the ledge.' Awesome. I think it's the only game I ever had to resort to bestiality to solve a problem. Thanks Scott Adams!
If you've never played this Classic, hunt it down, March 24, 2008This is one of the very few Infocom text adventures I solved by myself and without hints way back in the Apple IIe days. That isn't to say the game isn't challenging -- it is -- but that the story is so well written that it kept me coming back and continually thinking about how to get past the next problem. The game would sit for days when I finally thought I'd reached an insurmountable obstacle yet my mind kept returning to the problem and mulling over the possibilities. I'd continually find myself back in this fascinating world and happily getting past some of the most satisfying puzzles in Interactive Fiction. The ending, more so than any other Infocom game I'd played, left me absolutely satisfied and actually proud of the protagonist and his actions.
So very entertaining!, March 24, 2008This is one of the best IF games I've played in awhile. Well-written with great NPC conversations and well thought out characters. All of the babies have different personalities and attitudes which you must get to know in order to solve the puzzles. The game isn't difficult, mainly because all of the puzzles are actually logical and rely on things you learn as the baby learns. Great humor throughout. (Spoiler - click to show)It's also well worth a 2nd playthrough with the Commentary track on.
I also wrote a Walkthrough for it at: http://www.placesandpredators.com/tads/ChildsPlayWalkthrough.txt
Nicely Executed, March 18, 2008A quick and thoroughly enjoyable game in an interesting Wild Apocalyptick West setting that I'd love to see fleshed out into a bigger game. It's nice to see shorter games that are interesting enough that they demand a few replays as you try to wring out every last piece of writing the author put into the work.
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