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(2 edits)

Played and finished this game on my Amiga 1200. I really enjoyed it to the max, the dark story behind the Queen's Sandals (although similar seen on the movies, ex. The Ninth Gate), was very well executed and kept my interest till acquiring the Sandals and escaped from the library's window.

The descriptions are very good, and the possibility to examine thoroughly the scenery and the background to reveal objects or secret entrances/passages in order to progress further in the story is a big bonus. Therefore, you cannot finish this adventure with only the objects listed in the "You Notice:" section under the description.

Another bonus are the various verbs you have to use in order to complete the game, and not just type USE for every action you want to do, which in my opinion is how text adventures must work. Although I was expecting more verbs, or at least synonyms of the verbs currently in use. There were many times that I was scratching my head which verb to use in order to perform an action, regardless if my thinking was right at the end.

The puzzles were nice, not hard but logical, which is what it matters the most in text adventures. Especially I liked the Fibonacci sequence puzzle (although I was expecting it much harder).

Also, I don't understand why PUT is similar to DROP, which I've seen in quite a few adventures. In my opinion this is wrong or misleading of the verb. For example:

SPOILER ALERT

In the sewers, after you acquire the wooden stick, you have to put some grease on it in order to make a small torch to put away the rats. My first thought was to PUT GREASE ON WOODEN STICK or PUT WOODEN STICK IN GREASE, but nothing worked. All the program wanted is to type GET GREASE!

END SPOILER ALERT

Another point which I found it very confusing, the verbs LOOK and EXAMINE are identical in adventures, but when you try to LOOK an object, you just get the room description! There were some other similar occasions of course, but I think the point was taken.

I found some bugs here and there. One obvious bug is at the first part, when you take the Headed Letter with Stamp from the officer, you cannot examine it nor drop it etc, till you find the blue ink and write the phoney order.

Also, on the third part, in the Nightmare Room, if you try to go WEST, you will face some rats blocking your path. The description says: "You will not set foot in there unless you...", which "unless you" is typed twice.

To sum up, as I said in the beginning, I enjoyed the adventure to the max. I have already started Two Days To The Race as I'm expecting the same enjoyment as the aforementioned adventure.

Already following you Davide, for more similar text adventures in the future, please keep up the good work you do there.

Thank you very much for your review, Samurai!

I'm glad you enjoyed the game, I hope you will appreciate Two Days to the Race as well (you will notice it is a shorter game).

I wrote a page about the background of the game you may appreciate: http://davbucci.chez-alice.fr/index.php?argument=varie/queen/background.inc&lang... You find my email on the website, don't hesitate to send me a message with the final password, I will add you to the hall of fame on my blog.

Concerning the verbs, I was recently myself too thinking that having PUT and DROP as synonyms does not always fit very well to the game. I will take into account that for my future adventures. Concerning EXAMINE and LOOK, I'll think about it.

I apologize for the occasional "hunt the verb" situations. I think you have already played version 1.1 of the game. I improved it thanks to the feedback I got by many players (and the Amiga Future review as well). There is always margin for improvement and it is very useful to have more feedback.

Thank you and I hope you will enjoy Two Days to the Race as well!

D.

Thanks for the link, was an interesting historical link. I've already sent my comprehensive e-mail to you (maybe you should check your spam folder).

I haven't received anything. Sometimes, emails are deleted directly by my provider, especially if they contain attachments, sorry for the inconvenience. Try to write again a short email, I'll send you another address where anti-spam is less aggressive.

I have re-sent it again, if you didn't receive anything, please send me another email address.

Still nothing. Did you remove the AVOIDSPAM part in the message? If yes, replace what follows the "at" with a well known email provider from the big G :-)

Yes of course I did, it's obvious. It's really annoying that your provider rejects emails with attachments (maybe there's an option in the settings?). I sent the message to the company that "respects" your privacy the most then.

I received your email, now!

It seems that the issue mainly comes from attached files. There is no option for this, unfortunately. On the other hand, it's an old email address I mainly use for my website, so it is quite exposed to spam nonetheless.

Thank you again for your review, I will put you on the hall of fame today.

Hi Davide, I have finished TDTTR and I have sent an email a couple of days ago. Did you receive it?

Yes, I did.

I already added you to the hall of fame of TDTTR and thank you for the feedback about the game!

If I can, I'm going to send you an answer (this afternoon or this evening).