External Links


WiR1.zblorb
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
Original Website
Original inform-fiction.​org game website, preserved by the Wayback Machine.
Updated Website
Updated inform7.​com game website, preserved by the Wayback Machine.
Latest Website
Source text updated to compile with Inform 7 build 6M62.

Have you played this game?

You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in.

Playlists and Wishlists

RSS Feeds

New member reviews
Updates to external links
All updates to this page

When in Rome 1: Accounting for Taste

by Emily Short profile

Episode 1 of When in Rome
Science Fiction
2006

Web Site

(based on 27 ratings)
4 reviews

About the Story

Manhattan, May, 1954.


Game Details

Tags

- View the most common tags (What's a tag?)

(Log in to add your own tags)
Tags you added are shown below with checkmarks. To remove one of your tags, simply un-check it.

Enter new tags here (use commas to separate tags):

Member Reviews

5 star:
(2)
4 star:
(5)
3 star:
(13)
2 star:
(6)
1 star:
(1)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 4
Write a review


Most Helpful Member Reviews


8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
*A lunchtime game*, September 2, 2008
by Maze (Rome, Italy)

As the author says, this is a lunchtime game. Easy and brief: just some 15 minutes to reach the end (though it doesn't really *end*, cause 4 more episodes are coming - supposedly).
Manhattan, 1954. A dog starts pestering both you than an unknown girl. The matter is: that dog is not much doggy-like. As the cover art suggests, it seems that your turn to deal with aliens has arrived.

Judging from this first chapter, the story is nice and humorous, though somehow plain, and ends with an opening for more interesting episodes (and also for new peaks of chauvinism to come: that's fairly due to the chauvinist decade where this game is set, though I personally disliked that - but maybe a feminist revenge is ready to strike). Being a lunchtime game, the author doesn't want to cause you any stress: only a couple of very easy puzzles (imagine otherwise: you get frustrated by your precious lunchtime gaming, you go back to work, and all you want to do is to kick your colleagues/friends/anybody, just to see if they too are wearing a V.I.T.A.T.T.O.* armor). The drawback is that you really don't feel much involved: this looks too much as a linear tale where, at a certain point, you have to solve something to go on (and maybe it would indeed work better as a regular tale, without any interaction inside).
Anyway, as a lunchtime game this is nice. And the light and well crafted tone will surely cause many a satisfied smile.

*Violence Isn't The Answer To This One

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Oddly short, July 6, 2019
by simuloid (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

The quality of this game was top-notch, as one expects from Emily Short. I was stuck in the first prompt long enough to lose the first time I tried playing the game. I am not new to interactive fiction, but I must admit I've never been good at guessing the verbs and nouns I'm supposed to use in novel situations. I used the built-in help, but it was too generic to help me at the first prompt.
After I restarted, I determined to take my time and really think about what I was supposed to do and got past the first puzzle. That experience was longer than the 15 minutes the game was supposed to take. The rest of the game was pretty easy for me.
So 5-star quality, minus 1 star for what for me were inadequate hints for how to act at the first prompt, minus 1 star for not being a bit longer, perhaps (Spoiler - click to show)adding another round or two of the pick the creature's home-world game.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A short, mildly puzzly game about aliens, June 9, 2016

This game was the first in a planned series of five small games that were intended to be a gentle introduction to If.

The writing and pacing are excellent, with smooth scene changes.

It took me a while to understand the core mechanic of the first scene, but once I figured it out the rest of the game went smoothly.

The game is a sort of a mix between early 1900's-1950's American culture and a sort of gentlemanly version of the MIB.

The game was enjoyable overall.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

See All 4 Member Reviews

When in Rome 1: Accounting for Taste on IFDB

Recommended Lists

When in Rome 1: Accounting for Taste appears in the following Recommended Lists:

Inform 7 Standard Examples by Shin
Back in the era of I7 Build 6G60, there used to be a page on inform7.com which presented six games along with their source text. I think these still provide a useful introduction to the features and capabilities of Inform 7.

Polls

The following polls include votes for When in Rome 1: Accounting for Taste:

Solved without Hints by joncgoodwin
I'm very interested in hearing truthful accounts of at least somewhat difficult games (or games that don't solve themselves at least) solved completely without recourse to hints, walkthroughs, etc.

Multi-Part Games by Bloodsong
I was wondering just how many games out there, either completely text based, or text-adventure hybrids, are out there that involve a story line over the course of several games. I know for sure of the Sorcerer trilogy from Infocom...any...

Best Short Games (5-60 minutes) by Sasha Davidovna
I'm pretty new to IF and am having a lot of fun, but in between a toddler and a job and other real life stuff, I'm having trouble finding time to finish many of the longer games I want to play. Can you please recommend me some fun and/or...

See all polls with votes for this game




This is version 15 of this page, edited by Shin on 17 December 2020 at 5:06am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page