Pick Up the Phone Booth and Aisle

Baf's Guide

Take the structure of the poetic and experimental one-move game Aisle, combine with the premise and stupidity of the one-gag game Pick Up the Phone Booth and Die, and add a liberal sprinkling of in-jokes and references to other games. The result: self-indulgent silliness. Sample quotation: "Pants? What pants?"

-- Carl Muckenhoupt

SPAG
The result is one of the most side-splitting things to ever be uploaded to the IF Archive. Not only do we see the two games mentioned above being ripped to shreds, there are more inside jokes than you can shake a stick at. This has Sins Against Mimesis beaten hands down.
-- Adam Myrow
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5 star: (16) 4 star: (34) 3 star: (26) 2 star: (10) 1 star: (2)

Average Rating: Number of Reviews: 9 Write a review

Most Helpful Member Reviews

The Gateway Drug of IF, February 20, 2008
Despite being admittedly wholly self-indulgent and packed with in-jokes, this is actually the work of IF that I've had the most success evangelizing with. It's a one-turn game, so there's no investment of time, the large development team means there is an enormous amount of widely varied responses are available, and a half-dozen or so players each on their own copy will end up bouncing off one another's attempts and - in some cases - actually working out a lot of the basics of IF interaction on their own. It's one thing to read up on how to give commands to NPCs in the standard IF idiom; it's another thing entirely to be rewarded by five or six new endings for ordering the booth around.

And even if they don't, a lot of the in-jokes are pretty funny even without the context. I approached this game entirely ignorant of the newsgroups and the general community in question, and not only did it enthrall me for hours, I laughed until I cried at least twice.

* * * You have read a review * * *

Hilariously nonsense, witty, free-roaming fun, August 7, 2008
This is one of the games you just download and keep there forever, to give it some more try. One turn (yep, it's a one move game), and then fun ensues. And, other than an "ending", you also get an "ending title" which is overtly funny by it's own.
The guys (and girls) that did this not only have a great nonsense of humor (i felt some heavy Monty Python nostalgia here), but they're also very intelligent. Mix the two: you get a blast. Or better: a one second blast (you won't need much more time to reach an "ending").
Only thing that disappointed me: the beginning ends with "a shiny metal booth sits in the center...". But there's no "Booth, stand" command!!! :-D

Oh so silly!, November 2, 2010
First I played pick up the phone booth and die. As I began to play this, I had no idea how there could possibly be so many authors. What did the original take, like 10 minutes to program?

But then I tried it. Of course, the responses to the old game's commands were here, and silly. (This game assumes you played the other). Then there are endings for just about whatever you do (or at least whatever I tried to do).

The writing is very clever (and some reminiscent of Monty Python!). What's nice is it's a game about PLAYING, and not WINNING. Just go out and see what they thought of, and what the responses are, instead of trying to get ye flask or finding the torch room, or SUVEH TIA ANI MATO... instead it's just a nice little game to play with, I'd give it my vote for IF game that most resembles a Flash Game you would find on addictinggames.com.

My only regret is that it didn't seem to understand "Dial".

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