Audyssey; Computer Games Accessible to the Blind Edited by Michael Feir Issue 4: January/February, 1997 ++ Welcome To all my readers, both new and old, I offer you a warm welcome to 1997, and to the fourth issue of Audyssey. To start the year off, and also to respond more fully to a lot of your letters, I thought it would be appropriate to build this issue around two themes. The first of these is thoughts on the future of gaming. Quite a number of you have asked for my thoughts on what kinds of games we're likely to run into this year, and whether any new kinds of games might emerge. You'll find my thoughts on this in the first of two articles which I have composed for this issue. In the second, I will discuss another subject which I have often been asked about; Games as education tools. My thanks go out to Ken perry for a very interesting article on muds, or, multi-user dungeons which are on the Internet. they are also extended to Theresa Van Ettinger, who gave us this issue's episode of Adam, the Immortal Gamer, as well as some game reviews. My good friend Adam Taylor wrote an amusing, if not wholly modest introduction of himself, and we also have him to thank for our first contest. Last, but certainly not least, we have J.J. Meddaugh, the manager of the Audyssey distribution list on the Internet to thank for his short article about the new trivia game which has started on the Internet. Good work, all of you, and to everyone, keep those articles coming. This magazine is published on a bi-monthly basis, each issue appearing no earlier than the twentieth of every other month. All submissions must be sent to me in standard Ascii format either on a 3.5-inch floppy disk, or via e-mail to my Compuserve address. I will give my home address and my Compuserve address at the end of the magazine. There are now several ways of obtaining Audyssey. To subscribe to the distribution list so that you receive all future issues, send a subscription request to J.J. Meddaugh. As he is running several lists, be sure to specifically ask to join the Audyssey list. His address is: jmeddaug@cris.com You can find all issues of Audyssey on the Internet on Paul Henrichsen's web site at: ftp.psnw.com/pub/users/h/henrich All issues are also available in the disability forum on Compuserve, and also in the gamers forum. For those of you who have trouble finding some of the software discussed in this magazine, or if you know someone who doesn't have access to the Internet, but would be interested in the magazine, this magazine is now available on disk. PCS has agreed to distribute Audyssey, as well as selected shareware or freeware software on disk for ten dollars US per year. To subscribe to Audyssey on disk, contact them at: Personal Computer Systems 551 Compton Ave. Perth Amboy N.J. 08861 Phone (908)-826-1917 E-mail: pvlasak@monmouth.com Please write articles and letters about games or game-related topics which interest you. They will likely interest me, and your fellow readers. They will also make my job as editor a lot more interesting and true to the meaning of the word. This magazine should and can be a highly interesting and qualitative look at accessible computer gaming. To insure that high quality is maintained, I'll need your written contributions. I'm not asking for money here, and won't accept any. This magazine is free in its electronic form, and will always remain so. PCS needs to charge a subscription cost to cover the disks and shipping costs that it incurs by making the magazine available on disk. I'm writing this magazine as much for my own interest as for everyone else's. Your articles, reviews, and letters, as well as any games you might care to send me, are what I'm after. Send any games, articles, letters, or reviews on a 3.5-inch disk in a self-addressed mailer so that I can return your disk or disks to you once I have copied their contents onto my hard drive. Please only send shareware or freeware games. It is illegal to send commercial games. By sending me games, you will do several things: first, and most obviously, you will earn my gratitude. You will also insure that the games you send me are made available to my readership as a whole. As a further incentive, I will fill any disks you send me with games from my collection. No disk will be returned empty. If you want specific games, or specific types of games, send a message in Ascii format along. *Never* *ever* send your original disks of *anything* to *anyone* through the mail. *Always* send *copies!* This principle may seem like it shouldn't even have to be stated, but when it comes to just about anything related to computers, there's always some poor soul who will act before applying common sense. Disks are *not* indestructible. Things *do* get lost or damaged in the mail, and disks are not immune to these misfortunes. If you have a particular game that you need help with, and you are sending your questions on a disk anyhow, include the game so that I can try and get past your difficulty. If you can, I recommend that you send e-mail. I have acquired a copy of the UUencode software, and can send and/or receive files which are encoded via this means. This way, no money will be wasted sending me a game I already have, and you'll get my reply more quickly. You are responsible for shipping costs. That means, either use a disk mailer which has your address on it, and is either free matter for the blind, or is properly stamped. I can and will gladly spare time to share games and my knowledge of them, but cannot currently spare money above what I spend hunting for new games. I encourage all my readers to give my magazine to whoever they think will appreciate it. Up-load it onto web pages and bulletin board systems. Copy it on disk for people, or print it out for sighted people who may find it of value. The larger our community gets, the more self- sustaining it will become. ++ Contents: Welcome Contents From The Editor Wrapped Up In Tomorrow Letters The Latest Finds Tellnet Gaming Adam, The Immortal Gamer Portrait of a Gamer and Long Live the Gamer Contest The Learning Game Game Reviews Chat Channel Starts Trivia Game Contacting Me ++ From The Editor Hello, everyone. I hope all of you had a good festive season. I certainly did. A lot has happened in the past couple of months. Thanks to some thoughtful suggestions made by a few of you, Audyssey has been made easier to navigate through. Two plus-signs will now proceed each new article or section. A single plus-sign will indicate the beginning of a subsection, such as a letter or game review. A few of you are starting to send me your articles. To those who have, my deepest appreciation goes out to you for giving me some very interesting reading. I encourage all of you to try your hand at writing articles for this magazine. As you will likely benefit from the efforts of those mentioned in the Welcome section, so they might benefit from your particular points of view, or areas of expertise. Due to a stroke of genius on the part of my good friend Adam Taylor, the first official contest to be held by this magazine has arrived. PCS has expressed a willingness to donate a free game for a prize to a contest, so we'll be having more in the future. The prize for this contest is having your episode of Adam, The Immortal Gamer published in the next issue, and being the one to earn the thanks of your fellow readers by getting Adam to reveal the wizard's password to Nethack. If any of you have ideas for contests, please send them my way. A lot of you expressed an interest in maintaining the list of top- quality games that I started in the last issue. While there's no way I could maintain the top fifty games every two months, PCS suggested that the top ten games be kept track of. I think that this is an excellent way to encourage interaction among you. therefore, I will accept one vote from each of you for games to be included in the top ten. These votes should state the name of the game being voted for, and offer a brief description of it as well as a place where others can obtain it. These entries need not be too long, but feel free to write out full reviews as well if you like. Well, folks, that's about it for now. Let's see some more articles for the next issue, and of course, keep those letters coming. Have a good start to the year. ++ Wrapped Up In Tomorrow By Michael Feir Over the past year, the universe of accessible games for the blind has expanded largely in the same directions that it always has. More interactive fiction has emerged, much of it of very high quality. Screen-oriented games have been refined and improved, but no completely new entries have emerged except one. The Vip611 collection, as well as the games by Jim Kitchen represent the only additions to the word/card game categories. Two new elements were introduced into the gaming environment. First, and most importantly, PCS, a company which programs unique games for blind players has emerged. It came out with an impressive collection of games featuring simple interfaces and multi-media sounds. For the first time, blind players with sound cards can put them to entertaining use. Many of Pcs's games are also multi-player, and while this quality is not entirely new, it is still all too rare. Gaming is still a largely solitary experience for many blind gamers. the other element is the start of the production of a CD- ROM which is almost guaranteed to be accessible to the blind. it is a collection of interactive fiction and related materials being developed by members of a newsgroup on the internet dedicated to interactive fiction. Based on this, what then can we expect in the coming year? The most obvious thing to be expected is, of course, more of the same. The largest infusion of new games will be interactive fiction. If the past couple of years are anything to go by, we can expect quality to remain at its current exceptional level, and possibly, even to increase overall. Size and complexity of interactive fiction cannot be measured since so many authors are responsible for it, but we can expect more traditional offerings as well as some unusual and radical experiments. I expect to find at least a couple of games which surpass normal size expectations. The Inform language will likely remain the platform for the highest quality games, as it has for the past two years. However, the AGT system, [adventure game tool-kit], could possibly make a come-back. Two of the best AGT games ever made have been updated and re- released for 1997. They are Shades of Grey, easily the best of the AGT games, and Cosmoserve, another top-quality game. The programmers at PCS have demonstrated a high degree of talent and original thinking. They have quickly made a blend of traditional and unique games, all enhanced by sounds and descriptive text. In the near future, they plan to venture into new areas of development, such as a war-games series, and a Dungeons and Dragons line of games. They are currently working on refining their mapping system, used in the Fox and Hounds game reviewed later in this magazine. The company always welcomes ideas from anyone interested in games for the blind. If they continue to exhibit the willingness to try out new concepts and ideas, we're all in for an exciting year. For those of us with access to CD-ROM drives, it appears that we might soon have something to use in them other than business applications. The interactive fiction CD should be out sometime in the next year. Apparently, many authors are contributing original works to the CD. All issues of Xyzzynews will also be on the CD. As more blind people purchase or are given computers with CD-ROM drives, the interest which is beginning to emerge in making cd-rom products accessible to the blind should continue. This growth will take time, however. We should not expect a wide range of accessible cd-roms to appear this year, or even next year. A trickle, perhaps, but not more than around six titles. In conclusion, I think some key changes have begun to happen, the results of which we'll be exposed to in the next twelve months. Interactive fiction, our oldest standby, will continue on its exciting course of development, with its writers constantly exploring diverse and new ways to entertain and challenge. PCS will at last fill the void for those of us who look for unique and/or classic games for our computers outside the interactive fiction genre. The more they are supported by us, the community of blind gamers, the better and broader their scope of development will get. Jim Kitchen is another developer of games who might have some surprises in store for us in the months ahead. If even half of the rumors of buried text-based treasures on the Internet are true, I and my fellow internet explorers might uncover some spectacular finds. The strongest and most persistent rumors currently are of a supposed sequel to Fallthru which was made, and of an advanced version of the classic game Hunt the Wumpus. This version, which I've seen and heard referred to only as Super-Wumpus, is apparently out there somewhere, waiting to be found. Regardless of the success or failure of this ultra-modern form of archaeology, the future looks bright and full of new possibilities. As editor of Audyssey, I look forward to covering events in the issues ahead. ++ Letters: + From Travis Siegel: On Tue, 21 Jan 1997, Paul Henrichsen wrote: > I have been asked by Personal Computer Systems if I would post their games > to my ftp and web sites. Well, they ar all there. Yes! There are seven of > them and all speech friendly waiting to be played. There is a shooting > gallery, a bowling game, a scavenger hunt, monopoly, a football game and > more. I am glad to help the folks at Personal computer systems out. These > are some nice games. My personal favourite is the shooting gallery, I'd also like to point out that I have a rather large collection of text based games at my ftp site as well. I don't have them all indexed yet, but I'm working on it. Anyway, the site is; ftp://softcon.com/textgame/ It seems that most of these games came out before the file_id.diz description file got popular, (and indeed, most of them before it was even thought of) so very few of them have descriptions on the index.htm file there, but feel free to grab whatever looks interesting. I'll eventually get to indexing every file on the site, (over 9,000 of them) but for now, that's not happening, as I have lots of things to do. *grin* But anyone with a computer (msdos compatible) can play these games, and they all talk to varying degrees. Have fun. There's about 120 games there, as far as I know, it's the largest collection of text games on the internet. + To Paul and Travis, I offer my hearty thanks and my full support. Your efforts to make accessible games available and easy to find on the Internet are very much appreciated by me, and I trust, by the readers who will surely give your sites a visit in the near future. I have yet to explore Paul Henrichsen's page, but have given Travis Siegel's page an initial examination. He has managed to collect some fairly rare games, including an excellent Monopoly game which is very speech-friendly. He has also indicated his willingness to expand his collection. I plan to send games from my collection his way in the weeks ahead. If anyone else is planning to set up a site on the Internet, or a bbs, and wants games from me, just send me the disks to put them on and you'll get them. Also, send a message telling me which games you want. + From: Anthony Baechler Hello. I am a reader of Audyssey and like the concept of the magazine but have a question. Where can I find a large collection of games on the Internet besides interactive fiction (or text adventure) that can be played by the blind? I am not interested in RPG or D&D games. + The kinds of games that you and a lot of other readers are after are somewhat limited relative to the amount of interactive fiction and role-playing games out there. While you'll find shareware and/or freeware trivia and word games relatively easily, finding speech-friendly games of these types is another matter entirely. A trivia game which works well with speech is yet to be found at all. There are a few word games out there, and some sports and board games. Jim Kitchen has programmed a fair assortment of these kinds of games. Refer to his letter for further details. I might also recommend the vip611.zip collection found in the disability forum on Compuserve. It contains a number of games of chance, and also has a good word game called Gegs which can effectively play many different word games. I would hope that this wonderful collection is available on the Internet, but have yet to find where it can be found there. If anyone out there wants it, just send a message to that effect and we'll see what we can figure out. That goes for any freeware or shareware game I've discussed in my magazine. Also note that PCS has made some games along these lines, and is planning to make more in the next while. + From: Susan Stokes I would like to be added to the Audyssey distribution list. I work with visually impaired students. I am currently searching for text-based games for a 3rd grade student. Thanks, Susan Stokes + Finding suitable text games for young children can be a bit tricky. The game which first springs to mind is Alice, based on Alice In Wonderland. It is very well crafted, with points being scored for such things as charity, the use of powers, and various other categories. Excerpts from the book are also placed in the game, and some offer clues to particular problems. You'll need to be able to review the screen to play. For some reason, it doesn't speak out directly, at least on my system. Adventureware came out with some games for younger children. They can be found in the Gamers forum on Compuserve, and are almost certainly somewhere on the ftp.gmd.de site. PCS has made a version of Snakes and Ladders called Mobius Mountain which teaches children Mathematics. This game can be played by multiple players at once, so it may be especially suitable for classroom situations. + From: Ken Perry Well I hope I got your address right I hate the compuserve addresses to much numbers to remember *grin*. On with my questions. First off I love your magazine and please subscribe me to it as soon as your done reading this. The first question is do you stick totally with Dos games or do you want games for other OS that are playable by the blind I am a Linux (free unix) user and I have found many games that I can play in that OS. Second I noticed you have a few AGT Masters games and I wanted to know if you have more than just the few you have put in your book. The reason I ask is I know the writer of AGT masters and I was a judge for 1 year for the AGT contest so I have about 30 games and could get much more if you would like them some of the ones I have are Tempest (shakespeare in a game), Pork, Cosmos (compuserve game). and many many more if your interested just write back and I will dig them up and we can work out the best method in sending them. Third question do you happen to know PCS email address if they have one it sure would be easier to get a hold of them and I myself am a blind programmer and would love to help or suggest if they need it. Oh you mentioned muds in one of your articles and I wanted your friend the chess player to know that I run a Commercial mud made by the guy that made the first Diku mud and our mud will soon have a chess game that he can play with one of many of 30 to 60 players we have on from around the world. I know the chess game will be accessible to the blind because I myself am writing it and if I can write it any blind person can play it. If he is a mud player just have him telnet on over to valhalla-usa.com 4242 and ask for whistler I will take him to our test site and see what he thinks of the chess game. When I am done my game board will have chess checkers and tic tac toe. Of corse it is not any ordinary mud since the original writer of the muds is still working on this one it is the best on the net. Oh I also have a blackjack game I dug up called ultima 21 if you would like a copy of that one to. Well I am glad to see more than just me out there looking for good games please subscribe me to this magazine and if you want to publish a linux section let me know and I will dig up all the linux games I can. Ken + Ken has raised several good points here, and has also provided us with a splendid introduction to muds which can be found later in this issue. In regards to the limitations to what this magazine will cover, there are none. As long as blind people can play it effectively by some means, it's fair game for Audyssey. I'm limited to the use of Dos myself, although with the computer I'm getting soon, I'll be expanding into Windows. With most of my readers having Internet access, I'd say that there's a good chance that many will find articles on games for Linux, Windows, OS2, and other operating systems to be of interest. The only problem is that I can't take the time to learn all these systems and explore all these games. It's up to you, Ken, and others like you with your areas of experience, to inform the larger gaming community about these games and how best to play them. In regards to AGT, I'd certainly be glad to look at more good games in that language. I have a lot of AGT games, but not any more written in the master edition format. I'd certainly like to see what people have managed to do with the power provided by the toolkit. A lot of my readers would also likely be interested. If you can get these games available on the net, or know where they can be found already, please inform me and I'll pass the info along to all of you. Regarding PCS's e-mail address, it is: pvlasak@monmouth.com + From: Jim Kitchen Hi Michael, I just finished reading the latest issue of Audyssey and I think that it is great! Like you I think that it is great that there are games out there that will work with are speech synthesizers. I am trying to do my part by writing and sharing free ware games. I hope that you will take a look at them. I have up-loaded the following files to the Blink Link BBS and I believe that most if not all of them are also at the GBX BBS as well and on the internet they can be found at: ftp.clark.net in the directory /pub/poehlman dosskunk.zip dos text children's dice game plays sounds through PC speaker or sound card has bios writes and built in macro keys for screen readers DOSLIFE.ZIP dos text version of the board game life has bios writes for screen readers DOSMAMI.ZIP dos text version of the game Master Mind with bios writes and built in macro keys for screen readers DOSYAHT.ZIP dos text version of Yahtzee for 2 - 9 players has bios writes and built in macro keys for screen readers SLOT34.ZIP dos text slot machine 3 wheels 3 windows uses joystick or keyboard create your own wheel characters and comments has bios writes and built in macro keys for screen readers DOSBJ.ZIP DOS text black jack game play with one to six decks of cards has bios writes and built in macro keys for screen readers DOSPOKER.ZIP DOS text five card draw poker machine has bios writes and built in macro keys for screen readers DOSCON.ZIP DOS text concentration game for two players has customizable prize list bios writes and built in macro keys for screen readers DOSMULE.ZIP DOS text colourful galactic drug sales game has bios writes and built in macro keys for screen readers DOSBSHP3.ZIP dos text battle ship game has sound blaster sounds and bios writes for screen readers DOSFBALL.ZIP dos text football game pick your team and qb then play an entire season including playoffs and super bowl has bios writes for screen readers DOSREACT.ZIP dos game that tests your reaction time to a changing colour or sound has bios writes and built in macro keys for screen readers GOLF82.ZIP 1982 dos golf game now with sound blaster sounds bios writes and built in macro keys for screen readers Jim + Jim has contributed a lot of games to us, and his efforts are certainly commendable. I have had the pleasure of trying some of his games out, and was very impressed with Yahtzee and Life in particular. I would urge all of you to give Jim's work a look, as there is bound to be something of interest for many of you. Keep up the good work, Jim, and please keep us informed as to what you're working on. + From David Plumlee To: Michael Feir Michael, I want you to know how much I appreciate your magazine. I have down-loaded all three issues so far, and I am thinking about getting some of the games you mention. More importantly, I am trying to get a friend of mine who also has a computer to look into some of the sources you mention instead of wasting his money buying games from the normal corner software store. He has already bought some games that are so visually-intensive (read as "speech-unfriendly") that he can't use them. Worse still, he is running in a strictly DOS-ONLY environment and has an even less understanding of Windows than I do. And, as you might guess, he becomes unhappy when his off-the-shelf game won't give him any meaningful speech. I care not if it "talks" in that you get to hear the quizmaster say, "Here is the question," if the question is then shown ONLY on the screen. I am working on a game that I have been writing to give a visually-impaired player a chance to play a bit of the time-critical style of arcade games. When I am finished with it, I'll send you a copy. I think it may also serve as a "barrier awareness" item in that I have programmed it so that once the instruction screen goes by, there will be no current information presented on-screen. Oh, there would be something on the screen, just as it is in some games that "talk"; only the information there wouldn't be of any help to actually play the game. I plan for the "level of difficulty" to be rather "self-adjusting," depending on the player's performance of "right compared to wrong." I'd like to see a few sighted people playing something that didn't give them a screen, much as it is for us then all these visual-only programs don't give us any meaningful information. I won't have my game finished for the upcoming magazine, but I plan to work on it from time to time. The only programming language I have available--and the only one I know--is BASIC; and I have only interpreted BASIC at that. But if I manage to get plenty of comment lines into the program, it might serve as some help to beginners who like to see "inside" a game program to determine what's going on. + Good for you, David. I'm certainly looking forward to trying it out. Keep us informed of your progress. Time-critical games which are speech-friendly are indeed a most rare commodity, and I've had more than a few inquiries regarding them. I can certainly sympathize with your friend, shying away from Windows. I'm guilty of the same crime myself. My father and I are always looking for suitable cd-rom titles in computer stores, and a lot of caution is required to avoid the disappointing result of obtaining an essentially worthless game. I advise all of you to try and get as much information about a game before you buy it from a computer store. If you have ready access to a sighted friend who likes games, a little less caution is required as most games which aren't video games can be made somewhat accessible via a sighted partner. Before spending small fortunes, look to the Internet and make certain nothing catches your interest there. Remember also that I'm always happy to recommend games which you might wish to acquire. ++ The Latest Finds + New Additions to Jim Kitchen's Games: Just today, Jan 27th, as I was putting the final touches on this issue, the prompt action of J.J. Meddaugh alerted me to the addition of a new Baseball game, as well as an update to the Golf game. You have to use sound to know when to swing the club and bat. Having no time to properly check these games out, I leave that task to you, my readers. Way to go, Jim, and thanks also to J.J. + Fox and Hounds PCS has just released a new game called Fox and Hounds. It is a simulation of a fox hunt over Middlesex Downs. It is one of the first games to make extensive use of their new mapping system. In fact, they made it to teach people about maps. It is incredibly simple to play, but not always so simple to win. Only a few keys are required to play. To add varying difficulty to the hunt, the player can select how much information he/she is given. The game comes with excellent documentation, and also has excellent on-line help for beginners. As with most of PCS's games, multi- media sounds have been added to enhance enjoyment. They can be heard through a sound card or through the pc speaker if you don't have one. The price of this game is thirty dollars US. If you're interested, you can contact PCS at: Personal Computer Systems 551 Compton ave. Perth Amboy N.J. 08861 Phone (908) 826-1917. E-mail pvlasak@monmouth.com + The 1996 IF Competition A lot of the smaller games written over the last year were entries in the 1996 IF competition. for a more detailed account of the winners of the competition, I urge you to look up the tenth issue of Spag, another magazine dedicated to interactive fiction. I expect that Xyzzynews will also cover the competition results in the next issue. I have decided to review the top three entries here. All entries can be found in the competition96 section of the if-archive at the ftp.gmd.de site. Enjoy, folks. + The Meteor, the Stone, and A Long Glass of Sherbet Game written by Graham Nelson this game won first prize in the competition, and most deservedly so in my opinion. this game is a fantasy taking place in the Zork universe. You are a diplomat representing a small but influential city-state on a continent dominated by the powerful Northlands Empire. this empire is on the verge of discovering magic, and that would shift the balance of power too far in its favour. Your mission is to find out about the secret work being done to harness the powers of magic, and destroy the focus of these powers if possible. Although relatively small, this game has been written in a richly detailed and humorous style. A lot of background information has been provided to add depth and atmosphere to the adventure. The documentation is most excellent, and the game also comes with a built-in hint system for those of you who find yourselves in need of them. I have yet to get the best score possible for this game, despite having played it through twice. If you like fantasy, chances are that you'll thoroughly enjoy this game. The file is called sherbet.z5, and you'll need an Inform interpreter to run it. The interpreter called frotz.zip, will do nicely, and it is apparently the easiest one to find. + Tapestry Game written by Dan Ravipinto This experimental game won second prize in the competition. It tries to create a game which is not based on solving puzzles, but on exploring the environment. You play a man who has just been killed in a car accident. The afterlife is a lot different than traditional views would have us believe. You are given a second chance to explore your past and either accept your guilt, try and change things, or simply learn to understand and deal with your mistakes. The issues of fate, commitment, and love are explored in a most intriguing manner. The documentation is quite good, as is the hint system. Unlike a lot of interactive fiction, this game has three separate paths which can be taken, leading to three different endings. I certainly hope that larger experiments are tried with this idea. Tapestry will be found in a file called tapestry.z5 in the competition96 section of the if-archive. Use an Inform interpreter like Frotz.zip in order to play the game. + Delusions Game written by C. E. Forman This game won third prize in the competition, and offers us an interesting look into the issues surrounding virtual reality. You have volunteered to take part in testing out created realities in an effort to rid them of bugs. the first reality you test is a simulation of a lake from the viewpoint of a fish. that reality and a small portion after it being as far as I've managed to get, will have to serve as the basis of this interview. If this portion is reflective of the rest of the game, then futurists and science fiction lovers like myself are in store for some heavy-duty fun. The descriptions are excellent, giving a good sense of what it's like to "be" a fish. The technology, although sophisticated, is described in easy terms. This is the first game I've come across to feature a blind person. It should be noted here that this is not the final release of the game, but one especially made for the competition. The author plans to up-load an official release fairly soon. the file is called delusion.z5, and can be found where the previous two files are located. ++ Telnet gaming: Mud: Do you love adventure games but find them lonely and boring? If the answer is yes there is a place on the Net for you. Multi User Dungeon games or Muds are the next step for all you avid adventure nuts. You might want to cut your teeth on normal zork like games first to get used to your screen review software but when your ready for the challenge Muds are only a telnet away from you. This of corse means you have to be hooked to the Inter net and have the ability to telnet but if you don't already have that capability I highly suggest you get it. Finding a Inter net service provider steps outside the scope of this article but if enough people need help I will be more than happy to explain how to go about getting a connection to the net. For now lets get back to Muds. Muds are servers on the net that you can log on and adventure in hundreds to thousands and even millions of different types of rooms and themes. Most muds on the net keep a medieval theme but if you look hard enough you can find everything from modern warfare to future Muds like Starwars. There is even a Mud under development that is trying to one up Tradewars and is doing a good job. There are many different mud servers but they all have about the same interface. The following is a log of my mud saying "Hi" to Audyssey Magazine: shout Everyone Shout Hi to Audyssey Magazine! You yell 'Everyone Shout Hi to Audyssey Magazine!' Batlin yells 'Hi!' Wynne yells 'Hi!!!!!' Uthar shouts asking 'anyone out there got a dagger sulucci?' Shadddow shouts 'HI' Gallion shouts 'hi Audyssey MAg' Spag yells 'Hi Audyssey Magazine!!!' Fitrus yells 'Kirsebaer!' Dormitus yells 'Hi!' Your blood freezes as you hear someone's death cry. Zahra shouts 'Hiya People at Audyssey Magazine' Your blood freezes as you hear someone's death cry. Well while I was logging that two people died one room over from me that is what that you hear someone's death cry means *snicker*. If your worried muds would be to hard to keep up with or if you have tried muds and found them to have to much going on on the screen then don't give up. When I first started I was annoyed at all the "Spam" on the screen but I soon found ways to get rid of it. For those who are not already familiar with the word spam that is what Mudders and online nerds call a screen that constantly scrolls with tons of stuff to read. The first thing you need to do when you get on a Mud is find out all the commands that are possible. This can usually be done by typing "help commands" or just "commands". You then want to look through that list of commands and find the communication commands on most muds the commands are tell, whisper, say, chat, gossip, and shout. Of corse not all will be present on all muds but if you know they exist it will help. Now for the blind trick of the trade get help on the communication channels and find out how to turn them off this will almost totally get rid of useless spam. After you turn off the communication don't just rush into the game make sure you read through the helps at least on the first mud you try. The most important rule of a mud is do not be afraid to ask for help. That's right instead of just having to read help files all day you can talk to an older player and they might even help you get your first few levels or some cool equipment that will help you live longer. The easiest way to ask for help is to "shout help I am a newbie" or you could ask someone personally by using tell. To tell someone personally just type who which will list who all is on line then tell the person you want to ask for help something like the following tell oldtimer help I am a newbie". Try not to ask for help constantly since you wouldn't want to be tagged as a person that does nothing but try to get help all the time. Well I hope this short paragraph helps you to log on and start checking out Muds but incase your not still sure of your self on Muds let me suggest you come to my Mud. My mud is called Valhalla and I can show you all the ropes of playing on a mud. My suggestion if you have not played a mud before is to log on as a Fighter or Warrior class human with good alignment. They are easiest to learn and to train. After you master a fighter type class then you can think of starting a Mage, Cleric, thief, Paladin, Assassin or even a Sorcerer. Now that your all warmed up and ready to attack the mud world let me give you some addresses The following is a mud list that you can find on the net. Once you have the addresses and a provider it is as simple as typing telnet and the address for example the following would get you to my mud. telnet valhalla-usa.com 4242 Huang's Premier DikuMUD List Last updated: August 5, 1996 Newest online version is at http://www.sure.net/~god/mudlist.htm -------------------------------------------------------------- [*] Adding to the MUD List I am now maintaining an active list of Diku family MUDs. If you know a MUD that is missing from the categories shown below or is listed incorrectly, feel free to add yourself or correct the information by filling the form at http://www.sure.net/~god/mudlist.htm, or by sending an e-mail to god@sure.net, with the following information: 1) the name of your MUD 2) the derivative family that your MUD belongs to 3) the MUD's domain _and_ IP addresses 4) a summary of your MUD's unique features and offerings (will add this info to my mudlist in the future) If I cannot verify your entry, your MUD will not be added to the list. -------------------------------------------------------------- Circle Derivatives MUD Domain Address IP Address Port Age of Insanity newton.whit.org 205.238.84.11 4000 Alvoria conan.ids.net 155.212.1.12 4000 AnotherWorld aw.pp.se 208.129.66.10 4000 Archipelago island.essex.ac.uk 155.245.180.15 24 Cities of Glory bucket.ualr.edu 144.167.10.237 4000 Dominion persephone.cs.umsl.edu 134.124.30.27 8400 Dragons' Land victim.earthlink.net 206.85.99.36 4000 Eclipse of Fate eclipse.argy.com 206.152.2.45 7777 Enertopia pinternet.com 206.126.34.1 4000 Eternal smith.syr.edu 128.230.31.20 4000 LordMUD eagle.dmv.com 206.30.64.2 4000 Moment in Tyme tyme.op.net 206.84.208.11 6969 MultiMUD uhura.biologie.uni-freiburg.de 132.230.36.55 4242 Phoenix MUD mud.token.net 206.115.32.16 4000 Prime EvilMUD dominions.ozramp.net.au 203.17.73.20 4000 Realm of Magic b11.informatik.uni-bremen.de 134.102.201.111 4000 StrangeMUD piglet.cc.utexas.edu 128.83.42.61 9332 Tempus styx.ph.msstate.edu 130.18.152.61 2020 Void rosebud.umiacs.umd.edu 128.8.120.103 4000 Winds of Chaos chaos.nlm.nih.gov 130.14.60.202 4000 -------------------------------------------------------------- Diku Derivatives MUD Domain Address IP Address Port Alter Aeon sl9vg.dorms.usu.edu 129.123.230.80 4000 AnotherMUD mud.compart.fi 193.64.198.202 4000 Apocalypse IV sapphire.geo.wvu.edu 157.182.168.20 4000 Arctic mud.arctic.org 128.32.43.55 2700 AustinMud imv.aau.dk 130.225.2.6 4000 Banished Lands power.uafadm.alaska.edu 137.229.22.121 4000 Black Gamma II imagery.kosone.com 199.246.2.5 4001 Burning Diku burning.stacken.kth.se 130.237.50.103 4000 Dark Castle jitter.rahul.net 192.160.13.8 6666 Dark Chronicles mud.iglou.com 192.107.41.6 4000 Dark Realms ftoomsh.progsoc.uts.edu.au 138.25.6.1 5000 Dark Shadows dsd.tchnet.com 198.109.196.250 6666 Death's Domain cybernet.cse.fau.edu 131.91.80.79 9000 DeathWish MUD dwmud.sj-coop.net 206.25.0.254 4000 Delta DikuMUD protonet.fi 194.100.7.38 4444 DikuMUD altue.usach.cl 158.170.64.27 4040 DikuMUD I gizmo.bchs.uh.edu 129.7.40.44 6969 Dragon MUD conan.ids.net 132.231.10.4 6715 Duris:BloodLust duris.mi.org 199.177.127.66 6666 Dutch Mountains asterix.icce.rug.nl 129.125.14.130 4000 Elite xbyse.nada.kth.se 130.237.222.237 4000 FieryMud fiery.eushc.org 163.246.96.103 4000 Final Level 2.5a killer.pcjournal.com 205.216.203.61 7777 FormosaMUD mud.csie.ncu.edu.tw 140.115.50.84 4000 Gateway to Abaddon user.tradeweb.net 206.228.208.150 2000 GrimneMUD grimne.pvv.unit.no 129.241.210.220 4000 Harz-Site-Diku bingo.in.tu-clausthal.de 139.174.100.14 4000 Hercules MUD sunshine.eushc.org 163.246.96.102 3000 Holomud sprawl.fc.net 198.6.198.6 7777 Imperial II mandrake.cs.hut.fi 130.233.40.66 6969 ImpMUD spodbox.linux.org.uk 193.62.1.250 2150 Kaos MUD flower.aud.temple.edu 155.247.42.7 4000 Medievia medievia.netaxs.com 198.69.186.36 4000 MUME shire.ncsa.uiuc.edu 141.142.103.6 4242 Newark cuy.net 204.141.121.10 6715 OpalMUD opal.cs.virginia.edu 128.143.60.14 4000 Perilous Realms www.com 155.229.1.4 23 PkMUD rupert.mhv.net 199.0.0.13 5000 Renegade Outpost outpost.cnct.com 165.254.118.47 9999 Rocky features.mci.com 166.37.17.23 4000 Shadow of Terror zeus.initco.net 205.162.172.3 4000 Sloth II ai.eecs.ukans.edu 129.237.80.113 6101 Snebo-Land odesha.isca.uiowa.edu 128.255.200.28 2477 Valhalla MUD valhalla-usa.com 205.217.32.194 4242 the Ways ? 198.65.216.254 4000 Wild Side levant.cs.ohiou.edu 132.235.1.100 1234 Worlds of Carnage dionysis.cu-online.com 205.198.248.13 4000 ZeeMUD pcnet3.pcnet.com 204.213.232.7 4000 -------------------------------------------------------------- Envy Derivatives MUD Domain Address IP Address Port Ancient Realms mud.nebula.net 206.106.134.10 4000 Chaos Wastes mud.vistech.net 199.44.69.8 9999 Commonwealth cwealth.traveller.com 198.49.103.129 8500 Jolly Roger xbones.greenwing.com 204.107.81.130 5555 Monster Mud mud.idsweb.com 206.85.136.102 1210 Maelstrom enigma.cybercom.net 205.198.80.66 4000 Our Place [cool] the.express-news.net 204.57.68.3 6543 Outskirts of Insanity the-link.net 206.25.198.1 4050 Shadowlands shadow-lands.com 206.160.192.100 4000 TNT inferno.cs.bris.ac.uk 137.222.102.176 4000 -------------------------------------------------------------- Merc Derivatives MUD Domain Address IP Address Port Ages ccsun44.csie.nctu.edu.tw 140.113.17.168 4444 AnonyMUD [cool] anon.corenet.net 156.46.50.17 7137 Avatar avatar.walrus.com 206.24.16.2 3000 Barren Realms barren.coredcs.com 198.150.193.1 8000 Conch ournet.oursc.k12.ar.us 165.29.134.4 1995 Dark Chambers cal011102.student.utwente.nl 130.89.222.72 4000 DarkSide rsls5.sprachlit.uni-regensburg.de 198.170.59.1 7734 Dragon Swords karma.physics.iastate.edu 129.186.117.106 1234 Eyeball mars.cimtek.com 198.69.137.50 4444 Farside farside.farsidemud.com 156.46.50.17 3000 Haunted Pass lionx1.rdsnet.com 199.234.116.210 6666 Killer Instincts trolls31.ccm.itesm.mx 148.241.155.86 4444 LegendMUD mud.aus.sig.net 199.1.78.16 9999 Legend of Winds ccsun44.csie.nctu.edu.tw 140.113.17.168 4040 Mortal Realms ? 204.162.115.56 4321 Mystic Adventure mud.gel.ulaval.ca 132.203.14.100 4000 Turf teaching6.physics.ox.ac.uk 163.1.245.206 4000 TurfUSA imeid.com 204.27.210.179 4000 -------------------------------------------------------------- Rom Derivatives MUD Domain Address IP Address Port Beyond Reality neworder.cc.uky.edu 128.163.18.198 1234 Carrion Fields maple.can.net 199.246.170.4 9999 Chicken's Den [cool] snack.p.lodz.pl 194.92.218.66 7000 Creeping Death hub.eden.com 199.171.21.21 6969 Dragon's Haven puck.nether.net 198.108.59.10 9000 Electric Dreams dreams.iceworld.org 199.199.16.75 4000 Endless Nameless mserv1.wizvax.net 199.181.141.2 4301 Eternal Twilight dodo.crown.net 204.179.112.1 9000 Eternity's Trials mud.moonlight.net 206.104.224.16 9000 Evil Intentions evil.linex.com 206.54.38.25 9000 Helliconia mother.biolan.uni-koeln.de134.95.209.4 9000 Insane MUD photon.stealth.net 206.26.140.7 4000 Khrooon khrooon.interpow.net 194.179.88.41 4000 Kingdom of Apracia mud.hattiesburg.com 204.238.121.150 4000 Landsend landsend.dfwmm.net 207.16.54.195 4000 Labyrinth amergin.org 205.161.30.222 9000 MadRom hector.turing.toronto.edu 128.100.5.10 1536 Melmoth fascination.com 204.248.99.2 9000 Mirkwood haystack.ncsa.uiuc.edu 141.142.222.42 4000 Moosehead Sled sled.moosehead.com 204.148.144.69 4000 Phidar cdsgw.crystaldata.com 198.49.103.129 9000 Prophecy alastor.pt.lu 194.154.198.2 4000 Puddle-o-MUD amber.greenwing.com 204.107.81.193 9000 Quicksilver res.com 204.244.102.1 9000 Realms of Arcadia arcadia.ior.com 199.79.239.13 4000 Rivers of Mud rom.org 198.68.17.122 9000 Sanctuary gauss.sos.clarkson.edu 128.153.32.9 9000 Shacra Mud cipres.cec.uchile.cl 146.83.5.130 9000 Shattered Kingdoms mud.vividnet.com 206.149.144.4 1996 Times of Chaos toc.pcix.com 204.179.180.200 9000 Web of Destiny rabbit.cudenver.edu 132.194.10.14 9000 ++ Adam, The Immortal Gamer this issue written by Theresa Van Ettinger Adam looks around him, and finds himself in a building with a variety of basic items nearby - some food, a lamp, a matchbox, etc. He recognizes the game in which he is involved. "Oh! Colossal cave! Hah! I know this one!" Taking up the items, Adam runs out of the building, and nearly flies to the streambed. Quickly unlocking the door, he descends to the cave, continuing west along the corridor, grabbing the cage and rod on his way. When he gets to the bird chamber, he is unable to take the bird. "Darn!" he swears, and tries again. He continues to have little success, and only succeeds in scaring the bird in the process. Dropping the rod, he finally succeeds in getting the bird in the cage. He runs on, completing the game as far as the part with the wumpus. As he is leaving the cloak room, with the wumpus right behind him, he is attacked by a dwarf. "Oh man!" he blurts in exasperation. "How could I forget the axe?" He runs on, hoping to escape both the dwarf and the wumpus. Just as he is getting to the west side of the fissure, however, the dwarf throws a lethal knife which strikes Adam down. As the scene fades away, the all-too-familiar disembodied voice questions him. "Adam," the voice booms out from around him. "What have you gained from this experience?" Adam pauses for a moment. "Well," he finally replies, pensively. "I guess I always took the axe for granted. Once I got used to watching for it, I never really THOUGHT about taking the axe. I just did it automatically." The voice replies, "Right, Adam. Now, how do you apply this in the future?" Adam takes a longer pause than before. Just when it seems the voice will repeat the question, Adam responds. "I was overconfident," he says, as if forming a confession. "Because I thought I knew exactly what I was doing, I figured I could just whiz through it. I guess I've got to pay more attention to details, no matter how small, and to understand the whole picture-- to watch out for everything that might come up, whether I'm expecting it or not, so I don't overlook some important factor." The voice answers him in it's steady, resonant tone. "You have spent so much time on these games, Adam," it explains. "That you have neglected to pay attention to your friends, your family, and your own needs. You figured you could go on with your games, and the world would just go on. But it doesn't work that way." Before going back into the void, Adam is given a glimpse of the world as he left it. His father is yelling at his mother across the dining room table. "Rita, I told you those games were going to get the better of him some day." His mother shouts back. "I didn't know it would go this far! I thought he would snap out of it, and everything would be OK!" ... As the shouting fades from his ears, Adam realizes how greatly his actions have affected his family's relationships. He made the connection between his gaming craze and the world around him in real life. ++ The Portrait of a Gamer by Michael Feir and Adam Taylor Some of you have begun to suspect that our comic hero was not an entirely fictitious character. You are, of course, correct. Adam Taylor is a friend I met in high school. He is absolutely the most aggressive gamer I have yet encountered. This aggression has resulted in such memorable lines as Adam's battle cry of: "Kill! Maim! Destroy!" For as long as I've known him, he has always displayed a reckless bravado when dealing with games. His sheer arrogance is made evident by his refusal to read manuals before attempting to play games. He just charges right in, and usually manages to pull off miracles. He has managed to conquer Nethack and learn the wizard's password. While he hasn't won Fallthru, he is confident in his ability to do so, and so am I assuming he can sit down and play a non-graphical game for more than five minutes. Yes! He is sighted! Gore and graphics are his meat and drink. However, he does take some small interest in games a bit more accessible to the likes of us. Without further delay, I now relinquish this keyboard to Adam's ogre-like hands. (Thunder crashes in the distance, and lightning shatters the heavens. A rumbling is heard as a monumental man approaches.) Greetings mortals. I am Adam, the Immortal Gamer. I guess that's a good enough entrance for someone of my greatness. I suppose a touch of modesty would be appropriate here. I come from Israel. My mother was born there too, and my father is from England. So I get drunk and tell jokes. My mother and father's names are Yael and Wallace (not Rita or whatever). I'm not quite sure about my height, I haven't been measured in years, but I know that I'll hit my head on the roof of the bus when I stand, if that's any help. My build is such that I can use it to great advantage when trying to acquire things, usually by force. I'm not really much of a bully, but it's a kick to make people fear you as one. I'm currently attending Sheridan college in Oakville. My grades might not be awe inspiring, but I'm keeping the same average as Mike. Which means either I'm smart or he's stupid. I met Mike back in Meadowjail High School. If I remember correctly, the first time I met him, he was playing Rogue on his Eureka. We put many a lunch period into that game. Mike with his cautious exploration, and me with my strongarm tactics. I believe that is when I began to take interest in text based games. Mike and I are always in competition when playing games. Begin is one of our main battlefields, his pitiful score of about 15, compared to my insane score of 89. I annihilated him in Second Conflict, and humiliated him in World is Mine. Oh, well, I suppose that's enough of me making fun of him. Our little comic was based on me and my constant playing of games, one form or another. We intend to cover all the memorable games, and some of those that are less so. If there is enough interest, we may consider using a game more than once. My character is portrayed as a headstrong brute with no patience for tactics. A fairly accurate representation if I do say so myself. Not that I can't handle tactics - my favourite game is Master of Orion 2 for the PC, and the entire game is tactical - but I prefer the more direct approach. My personal favourite games are Master of Orion 2: Battle at Antares from Microprose. Ogre Battle from Enix for the Super Nintendo, a great tactical war-game with endless replay value. Daggerfall from Bethesda, which I must say has to be the best role- playing game I have ever played. And last but definitely not least, Nethack, which I can proudly say I defeated (and Mike hasn't, hah!). My e-mail address is: blade@ican.net I would appreciate any fan mail you have. And my birthday is on November 17th, just in case you're interested. I could be persuaded to share some of my infinite gaming wisdom with those who take the time to write to me. And any suggestions to the magazine would be accepted. (And if anyone wants any "interesting" information on our glorious editor, they know where to ask) Just to prove to Mike how dangerous it is to relinquish control of his keyboard to a person with my unique mental prowess, I now announce a contest! Long Live the Gamer! I bet that many of those out there who play Nethack, would just love to get their hands on the Wizard's Password. Well, you may just be the lucky adventurer who does. All we ask is that you write an episode of Adam, The Immortal Gamer before the next issue and submit it. They will be judged by the Immortal one himself, and his loyal knight Sir Michael of Meadowvale. The winner will have his/her issue posted in the next edition of Audyssey, along with the long sought after Wizard's Password. The two runners up will receive honourable mention, and their issues will be kept on file for possible future use. For those of you who are clueless to what the Wizard's Password actually does, let me shine my wisdom upon you (to hell with modesty). It is the ultimate cheating tool for Nethack. Wish for anything you desire. Identify any mysterious objects. Teleport to any location you could think of. Summon monsters on which to practice your combat prowess. Force the gods to do your bidding. And more! If you've ever wondered what's so great about cheat codes for sighted people, this will give you a very good idea. Well, that is all the time I have to spare in this plane of existence. Farewell mortals, I will see you again. Until then you may read of my exploits in future episodes of Adam, The Immortal Gamer. (Again there is the clap of thunder as the ground is torn apart by forces beyond imagination. The fires of hell itself pour from the cracks. The Immortal one steps bravely into the inferno, to face the forces of darkness.) ++ The Learning Game by Michael Feir Having played computer games since around age ten, I can certainly testify to how much computer games have taught me. Through playing them, I have learned about such diverse things as temporal paradoxes, what things and places look like, how some animals behave, about historical events and people, and so much more. While classic board games have often been used in classroom settings to teach various concepts, it is still relatively rare for blind children to be exposed to computer games through school, whether they are versions of classic board games or not. Now that more board games are being computerized in an accessible way, thanks to people like Jim Kitchen and PCS, this might finally change. Many board games were designed specifically to teach certain concepts. Chess was designed to teach medieval strategy. Monopoly teaches money management skills and also teaches people about the basics of real estate. The game of life teaches life management in a limited way. In fact, if we examine most games, we can probably find some lesson to be taught in them, or, a lesson which can be taught by them. Personally, I think we learn a lot more from adventure games than from any card or board game I've ever played, but it is an unconventional form of learning. I say this for a number of reasons, which I will outline in the following paragraphs: Perhaps the most pervasive reason why adventure games constitute an unconventional means of learning, as well as the most damning reason as far as the open-mindedness of educators is concerned, is that these games have been almost uniformly labelled as impossibly complicated at best, and downright malevolent at worst. I once met a young student who had shocked his fifth-grade teacher out of her wits with how much he had learned about the trials and hardships faced by pioneers settling North America. Only a day earlier, this same teacher had warned my young friend not to play too many computer games, or she would have a talk with his parents. The guy tried to explain that the games were teaching him a lot of interesting things, but the teacher would have none of that. Like quite a few people back then, she thought that adventure games and role-playing games were Satan's answer to the modern-day tool-kit. She was now faced with a kid who knew all about covered wagons, horses, Indians, bandits, oxen, hunting, and even a little about frontier medicine. Quite accidentally, while attempting to give the best answers he could to the teacher's questions, the kid revealed the material that the teacher was going to spend the next few classes covering. As the class ended, she called the kid back for a little chat. Having my own question for her, I stayed in the room. "Alright, young man," The teacher began, her voice dripping with suspicion, "How did you learn all that? You were only given your text-book today. Your parents aren't historians, are they?" "Well, you see," The kid began, sounding as if he was about to confess to a capital crime, "I, uh, played a computer game called Oregon Trail, and it was all about pioneers." The kid was left waiting for the proverbial axe to fall, and the teacher was left speechless. In the wood-working shop down the hall, someone hammered on a nail three times, the noise sounding like a judge's gavel. That was just too comical a coincidence for me. I cracked up laughing. I don't know whether it was the noise, or simply having her preconceptions turned up-side-down. Whatever the reason was, she started laughing as well. When I speak of adventure games, I use it as a broader term than interactive fiction. Interactive fiction as the words are currently used, refers to games which are in fact enhanced stories. These stories have puzzles built into them, and may also have multiple endings. the plot of these stories must be advanced by solving the puzzles, or making choices. When I use the term "adventure game", I refer to those games, as well as other games like role-playing games and simulations. Oregon trail is not interactive fiction as much as it is a simulation of a journey along the Oregon trail in the days of pioneers. Fallthru is an excellent example of an adventure game which is well-suited to teach a variety of things. It is designed for up to three players, and is also designed to be cooperatively played. Teachers could easily use a game like this to teach mapping skills, risk and/or resource management, the benefits of cooperation, and many more skills. Jigsaw is an excellent piece of interactive fiction which is a fine introduction to twentieth- century history. It was so much more interesting for me to play the section on the Titanic, than it was to read about the ill-fated ship in my rather dry text book. If anyone wants to discuss this issue further, I would be more than happy to participate in such correspondence. Before I close off this article, I will offer some general advise to any teachers, professional or otherwise, who want to try and use computer games as education tools. It is always best to become familiar with games yourself before you use them in a teaching situation. This will save time which might otherwise be wasted in figuring out problems which might arise. In the case of interactive fiction, you will rarely want students to play the full game during class time. If there is a particular point in an interactive fiction piece which you want students to play through, get to it yourself before hand and save your position. Give each student a copy of your saved position, and get them to restore to it. this way, they can start right where you want them to, and with the items you want them to have. Don't try and walk them through every step, however. Let them explore a bit on their own as long as they stay in the general area of the game which is important to what you're teaching. An example of this is the Titanic scene in Jigsaw which I mentioned earlier. Another is the coal mine in Sorcerer, where I learned all about temporal paradoxes. When dealing with simulation games such as Fallthru, or The World Is Mine, be sure to familiarize yourself with how they operate, and all of the commands a player can use. Play the games on your own to get a sense of how they work. Most importantly, try and anticipate possible points of contention or problems which might come up, and figure out how to solve them ahead of time. ++ Game Reviews + PIRATE'S PARADISE (file name is pp.zip) Review by Theresa van Ettinger Documentation/online help: Available at: Compuserve: The Gamers' Forum You are a low-ranking pirate seeking to overthrow and eventually become the Pirate King. You attempt to acquire as much gold as you are able through combat or other means in order to gain better weaponry and/or armor and raise your statistics. The only drawback is the border of the menu, which is composed of O's, but these do not actually interfere with the game itself. It is totally menu-driven, and you can save up to five games. It is mostly won through paying attention to and control of details. It is a good game if you want something which does not contain too many puzzles, as in many text adventures.? + SIX LETTER WORD GAME (File name is 6ltr40.zip) Review by Theresa van Ettinger Documentation/online help: good. Available at: Compuserve: Disabilities Forum, library 5 The Six Letter Word Game is a logic-based game in which the player attempts to guess a word which is chosen by either another person or a computer. To direct the player, the number of correctly-placed letters is given next to each guess in the list.The player begins with a high score and is deducted for each time she/he makes a guess. It is entirely speech-friendly, and also contains a table of all-time high scores, as well as listing the high scores for the day at the end of each round. This is a good game for those who enjoy both logic and language. ++ Chat Channel Starts Trivia Game by J.J. Meddaugh at the Audyssey circulation department The blindtalk chat channel on Internet Relay Chat has been a popular hangout for the past couple of years. Recently, a new feature began on the channel. Every Saturday night at around 9:30 eastern time, geniuses compete against each other in a nonstop game of trivia. Most games consist of questions that the host types on the screen from various categories including, geography, history, literature, and sports. The first person who types in a correct answer gets a point for that question. In addition, one can wager some or all of their points on bonus questions that everyone can answer. THOUGH the person with the highest score doesn't win a prize, they get to brag about their victory for the rest of the week. That is, until the next Saturday rolls around. Internet Relay Chat or IRC allows people to talk to each other by typing messages on the screen. When a person types a message, the other people in the same channel see it right away. In the case of trivia, the question is displayed as soon as it is typed. Directions for joining the game vary depending on your type of Internet connection. If you have a shell account, type irc nickname irc.dal.net Replace nickname with a nickname. Put a dash after your name to be sure that no one else has taken it. Then type /join #blindtalk to join the channel. Windows/PPP users will have to install special software to use IRC. Go to www.mirc.com for info on the most popular program for PC WIndows platforms. It does reportedly work with speech software. Then, join the #blindtalk channel as described above. By the way, I am the host of the game. What a coincidence. If you have any questions, email me at jmeddaug@cris.com. ++ Contacting Me I can be reached in two ways. The easiest is through Compuserve. My e-mail address is as follows: 72712.3103@compuserve.com alternatively, you may correspond with me on 3.5-inch disks, provided you be sure to send them in returnable disk-mailers. I don't have the money to pay for postage. My mailing address is: 5787 Montevideo Road Mississauga, Ontario, Canada Postal code: L5N 2L5 I have recently acquired a copy of UUencode and UUdecode for dos, so you may send files to me via this means.