A new Magnetic Scrolls interpreter

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Putting this out here so I don't forget - http://www.dettus.net/dMagnetic/

[Jizaboz]

Cool. The clincher for me is if it plays Wonderland correctly. I still vividly remember the day my grandfather bought me the game for a whopping 29.99 from Walmart when it first came out.

[pinback]

Cool. The clincher for me is if it plays Wonderland correctly. I still vividly remember the day my grandfather bought me the game for a whopping 29.99 from Walmart when it first came out.

Would you say that Wonderland is the gold standard for Magnetic Scrolls interpreters?

[Flack]

Just to clarify, this only allows you to play Magnetic Scroll style games, right? Not make them? Because that would be awesome.

[Roody_Yogurt]

For me, the most exciting Magnetic Scrolls news of recent years has been the emergence of Strand Games. They have been making the MS games look snazzy for modern systems, including efforts to rescue original MS code to fix and update the old games (check their blog for some cool stories about how difficult this process was). They sell the games, but the prices are nice and affordable.

It seems they have some development tools in the pipeline; possibly they will release something for making MS-style games one day? Personally, I've long thought that if I won the lottery, I'd fund the creation of a multimedia/window based IF system that could produce both MS and Legend type games.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

For me, the most exciting Magnetic Scrolls news of recent years has been the emergence of Strand Games. They have been making the MS games look snazzy for modern systems, including efforts to rescue original MS code to fix and update the old games (check their blog for some cool stories about how difficult this process was). They sell the games, but the prices are nice and affordable.

It seems they have some development tools in the pipeline; possibly they will release something for making MS-style games one day? Personally, I've long thought that if I won the lottery, I'd fund the creation of a multimedia/window based IF system that could produce both MS and Legend type games.

That is amazing! Did they do mobile versions as well? So, I believe I bought a copy of the mobile version of Guild of Thieves when I was standing next to a windmill in the Netherlands. I think there's a windmill in the game. We were on a tour. And I am very respectful of the people that want to listen to everything being said. But I, AHHH, ducked out. And I had a mobile card with free internet. So I bought it!

I was thinking of doing Guild of Thieves next for Trotting Krips, and that may be how I do it, I guess I'd get Jinxter as well. And yes, they are buck-ass cheep. Thanks, Roody!

[bryanb]

Strand Games is definitely a very cool project. I'll be sending some money their way as well though I'm not sure I'm going to like the updated interface (and I'll probably give the mobile versions a pass as I've never enjoyed playing IF on a smartphone very much). I think I'll be OK with it as long as the clicking is optional like it is in Quest parser games.

Scott Adams is working on a new, possibly voice-based game as well (Adventureland XL). It seems like once IF has gotten its hooks in you you're in it for life. That's why I'm never going to give up hoping for a new Marc Blank text adventure even after TDarcos has outlived him -- you never know what's going to be found on some old hard drive or CD-R.

[Roody_Yogurt]

Magnetic Scrolls games, in general, give me intense mixed feelings. On one hand, the presentation is undeniably cool and a lot of the writing is evocative and memorable. On the other hand, a lot of the games are weirdly buggy (from a company that insisted its parser was "better than Zork") with puzzles on the grindy side and despite all of the moments where the writing shines, in many of the games, it's like they didn't even understand the narrative aspect of IF; most of the games' endings are phenomenally lousy. Still, they're kind of like the Dragon's Lair of IF. Despite all of the flaws, the coolness factor will never let me entirely close the book on them.

As far as Marc Blank goes, I think I enjoyed "Journey" a bit more than most, and since it billed itself as the first of a trilogy, I spent a lot of my youth wondering what those non-existent sequels would have entailed. Now that I've watched the Lord of the Rings movies and recognized various little scenes that "Journey" must have cribbed from those books, those sequels are a little easier to imagine, ha.