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From: cotee@JSP.UMontreal.CA (Cote Eric)
Subject: Re: good game endings
Message-ID: <D5t1Fx.7vu@cc.umontreal.ca>
Sender: news@cc.umontreal.ca (Administration de Cnews)
Organization: Universite de Montreal
References: <1995Mar7.205531.98461@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu> <baf.794636538@max.tiac.net> <3kjkm1$9rr@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 19:14:18 GMT
Lines: 91

In article <3kjkm1$9rr@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk> mw10004@cus.cam.ac.uk (M. Williams) writes:
>On the general subject of game endings (but not infocom this time), did 
>anyone understand the end of 'The Pawn' (Magnetic Scrolls)? I won't spoil 
>it for anyone, but I'm still not convinced I've finished this game.
>
>Mark

That was a GREAT GAME! It was the first IF I ever completed
on my old C-64.  At the time, the graphics were simply
awesome and the parser seemed to do understand a lot of things.
It was really funny!  This was ten years ago!

In fact, the characters you meet in the game are really
"talkative".  Each character would answer something clever
if you asked them about certain things.  You could ask 
them about :  the wristband, winning the game, life,
death, hell, the weather :-) and also about all the other 
characters. (They all know each other).

The game was superb in the coding of the actions.  For example,
the verbs "look, listen, taste, smell, feel" were implemented
for every object (if I remember correctly). What a surprise I
had when I listened to the wristband (you can hear the radio!).


The problem is that this game spoiled me!  I decided then to try 
some other IF (Infocom & al.), but the coding wasn't as rich:
> TASTE KEY
The key tastes like a key.

Also, the other great thing about the pawn is the vividness of
the death scenes.  They were really imaginative and funny.  
For exemple, there's a ravine not far from where you start.
if you try to jump it, it will take three times before the
"narrator" will let you do it!  (Again, all of this is foggy
in my memory!  Been ten years!)  And the way you die when
you try to kill the other characters is hilarious. 

There's the verb "exits", that lists all of the possible
exits.  Very useful!

And the parser had some wonderful features:

> WHERE IS HELL
Are you talking to yourself again?

> YES
Just checking!


SOME SPOILERS:


I loved visiting hell.  Another fun place was the unfinished cave 
where you find some BASIC code on the wall. 

I was also taken by the horrible red herring of the wheelbarow.
The wheelbarow in the shed doesn't serve any purpose, but
the description of it is so wonderful that any sensible player
will try to get it.  I lost many hours to that puzzle!  In
fact, other Magnetic Scrolls games make reference to that
infamous herring!

The ending was truly remarkable.  The story was something like
this: You wake up in a strange land with a strange wristband.
After lots of running around in places like castles and hell,
finding the answer to life itself, you finally come the last 
room in the game!

Inside, you find the Magnetic Scroll staff in a busy
computer room.  They are all amazed to see that you have 
succeeded.  They finally congratulate you, remove your 
wristband, and put you in "debug" mode.  The prompt changes
from ">" to "]", and you are now free to roam  about the land.
And you now are immortal. You can die safely, without having
to reload. Wonderful way to see all the ways to die.

Since you now have no more wristband, you can go south 
of the frontier of the land.  Beyond it, there is a 
gray colored world with nothing in it except a fountain.

I always wondered what you could do there. Once in the gray
world, there seems to be no way to get out, and nothing 
to do with the fountain.  There must be something, but I
never found it.  Anybody knows what to do?

BTW, it has been ten years, so my comments may 
vary from the actual game!
-- 
Eric Cote               cotee@jsp.umontreal.ca
Montreal                - Sorry, no funny quotes today! 
