Undertow

Download

	tow11.gam For all systems. To play, you'll need a TADS 2 Interpreter - visit tads.org for interpreter downloads.
	tow.zip Contains TOW.GAM original competition entry, game file and instructions For all systems. To play, you'll need a TADS 2 Interpreter - visit tads.org for interpreter downloads. (Compressed with ZIP. Free Unzip tools are available for most systems at www.info-zip.org.)
	Undertow.sol Walkthrough
	ClubFloyd transcript

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 downloadable files
All updates to this page

Undertow
by Stephen Granade profile

Mystery
1995

(based on 7 ratings)
1 member review

About the Story

Go sailing on a yacht with three friends, and a corpse.
[blurb from The (Other) TADS Games List version 1.2]

Game Details

Language: English (en)
Current Version: Release 1.1
License: Freeware
Development System: TADS 2
Baf's Guide ID: 224

IFIDs:	TADS2-8EA46A79ABF2E86E2AA13E38B97DDE34
	TADS2-E431EE9405A3FB836F7D4F964C610E44

TUID: g0b7u3xlo585dt5y

Awards

4th Place, TADS Division - First Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (1995)

Editorial Reviews

Baf's Guide

A small murder mystery, very imitative of Infocom's mysteries, set on an expensive little boat in the middle of the ocean. Lots of irrelevant detail for the player to sift through. The characters are a bit buggy and disappointingly mechanical for a character-based genre. The whole game has a time limit. It is possible to win without figuring everything out, which gives the game some replayability.

-- Carl Muckenhoupt

Member Reviews

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

Average Rating:

Number of Reviews: 1
Write a review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

A short-to-mid length murder mystery on a yacht, February 3, 2016

by MathBrush

This game was entered in the first IFComp ever, taking 4th place in the TADS division. This was the first year that Stephen Granade had ever written a game, and he is one of my favorite authors.

This game doesn't show the polish of his later games, but it is relatively sturdy. You are on a yacht, and a large variety of time events happen around you, like Deadline. You find locked compartments and safes, you see people walking around, a murder happens (!), you are given a series of commands to fulfill, and then you must discover and stop the murderer before even worse can happen.

The NPCs are the focus of the game, yet they are sparsely implemented. They have one-line responses to most comments, and don't react as much to items that they should react to (although this can be a hint).

Overall, good for fans of murder mysteries. Granada's technical ability and panache for storyline are already evident, but the puzzles and NPC interaction are not yet up to his later standard.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

More Options

| Add a comment

If you enjoyed Undertow...

Related Games

People who like Undertow also gave high ratings to these games:

Unraveling God, by Todd Watson
Average member rating: (11 ratings)

A Change in the Weather, by Andrew Plotkin
Average member rating: (60 ratings)
"Walking away from a picnic, you are suddenly caught in a country storm. You must protect a bridge from being destroyed. An ultra-linear game." [--blurb from The Z-Files Catalogue]

Paint!!!, by David Whyld
Average member rating: (9 ratings)
[Entry in the cancelled ADRIFT One Room Comp 2004]

Suggest a game

Polls

The following polls include votes for Undertow:

Nautical IF by Felix Larsson
I know there was a couple of commercial high-sea text adventures. Now I am on the look-out for ‘modern’, post-commercial IF with a nautical theme. As far as I can tell, there is a definite shortage of bucaneers, boatswains, able seamen...

Cool Murder Mystery/Detective Games by Christopher Caesar
Hey everybody. I am looking for a murder mystery text game. I finished An Act of Murder a while ago and want to play more games like that, where to get to solve the murder yourself. If you could tell me some of your recommendations that...

I'm looking for mysteries. by MCCLUTCH32
I like a game with a good story, good puzzles that aren't too difficult to understand and a good mystery. I was thinking more along the lines of horror, but murder mysteries work as well.

This is version 5 of this page, edited by Eriorg on 4 October 2009 at 4:20pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item