An Ollie Forever Voyaging

[dotinthesky]

Joybooth
Originally uploaded by nequest

A few days ago, goldmund wrote that she'd downloaded DOSBox and was now playing classic sci-fi Dos games on her computer. One in particular which she mentioned, A Mind Forever Voyaging, caught my attention because I'd never heard of it before, and because she highly praised it as a game more interested in exploration as well as carrying some political themes resonant with today. I got all nostalgic for the games I used to play as a kid - from text-based adventures like Oregon Trail to the graphic-based ones from Sierra and LucasArt - so I decided to download a few of them.

A Mind Forever Voyaging is indeed a great game - in fact, it's more of a science fiction novel disguised as a game, your role being the adventurer that needs to unravel its story. When you download it, you get a PDF document of an 80s magazine that came with the game, with articles set in the future (Princess Diana is in her 70s and is the Queen of Britain, for example). Very reminiscent of Watchmen, actually, and that eerie feeling of the future seen through a parallel universe mirror.

Apart from the fun of playing again a game that relies on my own imagination, I'm really enjoying the sci-fi elements that have come true - the main one being the world being interconnected through an online system!

I've created a folder in my iTunes with ambient music given to me by desayuno_ingles (Loscil, Tim Hecker, Vidna Obmana) as well as albums from a Finnish friend currently staying with us (Grizzly Bear, Clark, Here We Go Magic) and it's become my soundtrack as I explore this world superimposed over my desktop image of planet Earth.

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

I love those old school "text adventures". I never played AMFV (though I have a copy in a collected set of adventures by that company). There are so many really amazing text games out there and some dedicated people still make them.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Once I'm finished this game, I'm going to come to you for some recommendations! Who are the people still making them?

[steer.livejournal.com]

Many many people still write them as a hobby (I never finished mine) -- nowadays they prefer "interactive fiction" to "text adventure" so if you google that you'll find lots of info. I have many favourites. They're actually surprisingly fun to play with a friend because they can "unstick" you if you can't work out what to do (though these days it's easy to find "walkthroughs").

There's an archive with reviews here:

http://www.wurb.com/if/

There's also an annual competition:

http://www.ifcomp.org/

It used to be that most of the writers hung out on a news group rec.arts.int-fiction.

But yes, drop me a line and I can recommend...

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

That's great. Thank you.

[amberholic.livejournal.com]

I was really into Sierra and Lucasarts games back when I was a kid. Loved all the King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest and Quest for Glory games as well as Day of the Tentacle and all of those.

There's a few websites you can download a lot of these games from for free, legally as they are now classified as "abandonware". One of them is http://www.agamesroom.com/

Have fun!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Cheers! I already have that site book marked, as well as these ones (in case you are interested):

http://www.classicdosgames.com/genre/rpg.html
http://www.abandonia.com/en/game/Adventure
http://hotud.org/home

[amberholic.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I've downloaded lots of them now that I can use DOSBox or ScummVM to run these games on my Mac. This is so awesome! I can even run old cd-rom games I'd kept for sentimental value like Phantasmagoria and Gabriel Knight.

You've re-awakened the child in me.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Hehe! I'm glad. :-)

[sublimevisions.livejournal.com]

shit... i owe you something.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

You do?! I can't remember what so consider yourself off the hook. ;-)