Messages

The owner of the site is a 23 years-old kid from the Czech Republic, not any sinister "they".Ã,  That doesn't make his actions any better, but it allows for an alternative to a Denial of Service: breaking his legs.Ã,  He's been known for years to load his download tool with a trojan that hijacks the computer's HOSTS file to redirect the computer to his advertising servers.Ã,  According to some, the tool also infects the computer with pop-up ads.

Many thanks!  My computer doesn't support any of the recent versions of Flash, so I'll have to wait a few more months to enjoy your page in full

To play, please download from the download section at http://www.solidland.nl and doubleclick the file to start the installation process.

Could you, please, post a link to the download section?  The main page is giving me a "get flash" error.  Thanks.

I'll wait till the end of this year before I buy it.  That's when I plan to replace my Win98 machine with the top of the line WinXP computer, just in time before getting stuck with Vista.

Spoiler

Don't remember the exact sequence of things, but this is what you still can do:

1. Talk to the locomotive in your house

2. Use the poster on the waterfall

3. Go to the water tap, look at it, exit the screen, return and interract with the cat

I'm not sure what exactly trips talking to the neighbor, but one you should be able to talk to him afterwards.

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Don't worry, Mordalles; I had the same problem.  I just figured the baby angel kept the cup and returned it to me when I sent him off

That's the Web host's responsibility; not the domain name registrar's; look for the number of subdomains the host you can sign up with offers.

As far as cheap Web hosts go, I found I'd rather pay extra than deal with the frustration of poor service.  I'm paying $15 for what's now considered to be a very poor package - 50MB web space; 5GB monthly transfer, Telnet-only admin interface, no subdomains - but I've been getting an uptime guarantee, e-mail support within 60 minutes and full stability for the past six years.

I remember back in the good old days, when I returned from a particularly cold and windy November hike, I took a hot shower, got myself some hot chocolate and pound cake, cat down in my La-Z-Boy chair and turned on PBS to watch Bob Ross.  Those were the innocent days of my youth, before I knew better*.



* By "better" I mean that instead of hot chocolate I should've had some Bailey's.

Nice game; I really liked the backgrounds.Ã,  Found a tiny bug, though:

Spoiler

When trying to look at the workoholic father after talking to him, the game crashes.

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Congrats to finishing the game.Ã,  Unfortunately, I found a small bug:

Spoiler

When the inventory screen is open and the cat tries to wiggle its tail, the game freezes up.

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Off-topic I guess, but... you're not allowed to take photos of bridges? Certain bridges? I can't off-hand think of anything we're not allowed to take photos of in Australia, besides little children at the beach and women in dressing rooms.

It's part of the post-9/11 provisions (even though not directly part of the Patriot Act).  When 9/11 happened, I used to live just across fron New York City, in New Jersey.  Soon afterwards it became illegal to take photographs of critical infrastructure, such as bridges and tunnels into the city.  And having done much more nature photography then than I do now, I also had to stop taking pictures of water reservoirs I came across on my hikes.

So much for the official laws.  Photography in general is a very gray area, though.  For example, after I moved to Atlanta the cops have given me hard time whenever I took pictures of buildings, or even simple July 4th fireworks.  It's sad how little they know about how much is allowed in regards to photography.

Other countries generally consider it (1) a commercial organisation, or (2) a dangerous sect. Indeed it is forbidden in some countries.

The same can be said about Christianity and some countries.

Anyway, asking scientologists questions may not yield any results.Ã,  As far as I know, they are bound by secrecy, and so they wouldn't be able to reveal anything.Ã,  Methinks that Tom Cruise went too far in regards of secrecy when he revealed scientology's attitude towards psychologists and mental disorders.

In fact, I've got a small story to share about my conflict with scientology.Ã,  In my free time I'm working on a project: a photography book that documents all churches in Atlanta.Ã,  I simply take their pictures, and hope that soon I have photographed all of them to assemble them in a book.Ã,  When I took pictures of the scientology temple I was confronted by one of their employees who demanded me to delete the pictures I've taken (didn't realize I was shooting on film).Ã,  When I told him that I was standing on a public sidewalk, and that by law I was allowed to take pictures of anything visible from public property (didn't mention federal law exceptions, such as bridges, power plants and critical infrastructure) he freaked out and started threatening me, claiming that the design of the building was copyrighted (can be, but any permanent fixture visible from public property becomes public domain for photographers and painters), and that if I ever developed and published the pictures they'd go after me.Ã,  This is how far their secrecy thing goes.Ã,  Strangely enough, the much more secretive sect, the free masons, never had problems with me taking pictures of their temples.

what do you mean by overscripted ? :o

Spoiler

Just the fact that nearly each step unlocked another piece of action, and I had to try on all the actions that didn't work previously.Ã,  For example, using the knife on my character worked only after trying to insert the dirty disk into the robot.Ã,  I tried to use the knife on me before that, and when I needed to clean the disk I never thought of using it again, until I ran out of all other options.

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The readme shortcut points the the HTML readme file inside the hidden folder "readme".

Actually, it points to "D:\peder\spill prosjekt\The Fallen Angel\readme\readme.html"

Nice game, albeit a little overscripted for my sensitive stomach

I suggest reading the readme for information about the ingame controls.

I'd like to point out that the shortcut to the readme file points to the wrong location, though.Ã,  And sorry; don't know how to make it point to the correct file, as everybody will unzip your game elsewhere.

Just finished the game; I really enjoyed it.Ã,  Liked the soundtrack and clean graphics as well.Ã,  Your riddles prompted me to look more into them, and I found that you split the first ridle into three.Ã,  Any particular reason for that?

[Bernie:]

Bernie: Dividing reviews between Quick Glances and Reviews makes a lot of sense.  I did something like that with the June-December column, even though the reason there was that with over 100 games I didn't want to make the column unnecessarily long (keeping it under 10,000 words).  However, I do try to complete each game I'm playing.  Last month there were three that I didn't finish: 1213 ep. 3, The Family Treasure and Santa's Sidekick.  With each game, I mentioned why I didn't finish them.  Because of this, putting unfinished games into a separate category would be deceiving to the reader.

LimpingFish: Buloght actually PMd me twice; I just didn't reply to him, because I did so in the thread.  Don't blame him for dragging it on; the problem lies with me.  As far as the language of the reviews go, in my February column I'm calling one of the games "despicable" and "stomach-turning".  Don't know whether I'll keep it in the final version, but I would consider those words much harsher than "unplayable".

AGA: In my previous life I worked as an investment analyst, and I learned never to say or write anything without a qualifier, so that I can't get sued for libelous or untrue information.  In addition, I asked Buloght to comment on my article and correct what I said wrong; he's still free to do so.

Trumgottist: Don't worry; you'll get trashed for that Tetris puzzle

[modgeulator:]

modgeulator: You are right that sometimes I came across as harsh.Ã,  I've been trying to limit this by always editing my columns.Ã,  The way it works for me is to write a column, print it out, let it sit for a day or two, editi it by hand, rewrite it, print it out again, and so on, until I'm happy with it.Ã,  With the June to Dec. column each printout was 27 pages long (double-spaced), and it took me nearly two weeks to edit it to a form I liked.Ã,  You should see my first version of the column; it would make even Mother Theresa want to kill me.

I know that's no excuse for being harsh even in my final version, but my thinking is this: I love playing adventure games, and I love independent adventures.Ã,  However, if I praised things I personally didn't like or if I said something like "It's okay; next time you'll get better", I doubt I'd see progress in future games.Ã,  In addition, the column is aimed primarily at the general gaming population, and I would like to direct their attention to the best games in the niche, in order to increase its credibility.Ã,  I will try to sound less harsh, but I will still strive to highlight the better games at the expense of the worse ones.

Mordalles: You have the full right to criticize my columns, and I appreciate it.Ã,  Let me just say that I may be a little of an anomaly in here: I'm already turning gray, and my thinking may be a little different from others'.Ã,  Consider me as the lowest common denominator among older gamers, who tries to describe the games to my peer group, and you'll see how consistent I am

Afflict: I appreciate the suggestion to have other writers help me.Ã,  However, in real life I'm currently managing a startup of six people, which is currently seeing anywhere between 10 and 20 venture capitalists each month, and the last thing I can do right now is to coordinate with somebody in another project.Ã,  That said, though, if anyone wants to write about independent adventuring, I'd be very happy to host them in this blog.Ã,  I hope to make the monthly columns to be only a small part of the texts there.

Helm: As for the OROW issue: There are OROW games that stand on their own, such as Anna, Into the Light and Sheet: The Art of Art.Ã,  I also praised the vast majority of the other OROW games.Ã,  However, that's beside the point.Ã,  As I said previously, I expect people outside this community to read the columns and download games based on my recommendations.Ã,  These people don't care about whether the game was part of an OROW competition or not; they want to see a solid title they can have fun with.Ã,  I personally admire people who are able to come up with a story, illustrate it and script it within a week, but I believe that mentioning that a game was created in only a week would be a turn-off for people who don't know anything about the creative process that's needed to accomplish such a task.Ã,  They'd see a rushed title, which they should avoid.

buloght: So in that case, the game simply suffers from awkward interface.Ã,  It was giving me conflicting feedback: The rudder was completed, but I needed to complete the rudder in order to continue.Ã,  And as I said in my description of the game, "I attribute this to an awkward interface, and possibly some pixel hunting."Ã,  In my original writeup, I considered the game to have "convoluted puzzles that defy logic", but later I toned it down, and instead of design I blamed only implementation.Ã,  And you may be assured that this won't hurt your future games too much: the majority of people who'd read my column (people outside the AGS community who already are in the loop) will be interested in games on their own merits, not because of who designed them.

[SSH:]

SSH: You are right, I may have become a little harsher in rating games. Ã, Over the past few months I've been under a lot of stress, and I guess I let my mind wander while playing, instead of immersing myself in the game.

Helm: Are you serious? Ã, I thought the file was real...

Vince: Thanks for the heads-up. Ã, I guess I was so excited to see something by Duzz that I didn't look at the date.

As far as META goes, I may give it another try. Ã, Something tells me that if I'm patient enough and click through a nearly endless loop of text, just like I did with No! I am Spartacus!, I'll somehow get to the end.

buloght: I really value and admire your commitment to your game, but I cannot change what I wrote. Ã, This is an issue with consistency: I always write what I feel about a game, not what others think. Ã, I gave you the most benefit of the doubt I could by mentioning that other players thought your game was very good, but since I personally was unable to find a way to move forward, I could not write anything else.

However, you are free to post a comment to my column, where you tell your side of the story. Ã, In fact, I would really encourage you to do so, and as long as you keep to the issue at hand (merits of the game vs. merits of my description), you, as the author of the game, would be credible enough to convince the readers not to trust my description of the game.

Let me also tell you where I got stuck. Ã, This is not the Hints and Tips forum, so I don't expect you to help me, but this may be useful for you if you want to comment on my column. Ã, I've completed the rudder and fixed the telescope. Ã, I was then told to look at the map and move there. Ã, The only item that worked was the showel, but no matter where I clicked I got a "You must first complete the rudder" message or somesuch. Ã, I was then told to click on a very specific (but unspecified) point on the map. Ã, After I gave up, I concluded that there was one of the following three problems: Either the specific place was too small (pixel hunting), or the game used an unusual interface (hence my "awkward interface" comment), or the game was giving me the wrong feedback, another interface problem. Still, I don't feel that I've written anything untrue in my column.

MrColossal: Thanks for the link; I found v. 1; I'll redownload the game.

[Pablo:]

Pablo: Thanks for the heads-up; the link is updated.

buloght: If you release a game, you are opening yourself to reviews; both good and bad.  If I write a review, I open myself for criticism, both good and bad.  So why not call it even now?  Also, the "purple link" will remain purple as long as your browser remembers that you visited the page it points to.  It doesn't matter whether you clicked on that link from my column or not; it's a browser feature.

Mordalles: Sorry if I didn't fully get your humor, but I wouldn't be surprised that the second Mordy, being as expansive as it is, gets additional reviews on other sites, which may have more fun-friendly reviewers   As far as D. Duck goes, I tried once to do such graphics as well, and failed miserably.  Doing "normal", computer-generated graphics and animations was much easier for me.

MrColossal: I'm very sorry for leaving out your game!  It's not the first time that I overlooked a game, and I tend to include such titles in my later columns, as soon as I'm told about them.

Nope; I already had the lens.