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This game gives me a very familiar RON feeling 
BUG: You can get the blue card multiple times (including points).

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The same goes for cleaning the sand. You then have two helmets...? Besides the one with the sand can be
cleaned multiple times, fish retreived, given to the bum etc

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and

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When the computer shop man comes back with a gun and I walk to the left, I re-appear on the right side in that same screen... ?

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furthermore...

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After listening to the tuned radio I get a message that I need a circuit boar now

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When you die, the screen is in an endless loop.

And I think adding every game that pops up here and there to the DB would be both silly and painful. It works just fine as it is.

I don't see the point. What's silly about administering games? What's so painfull about it? I think that a complete overview of games is an addition to the site. Just a bit more moderation and a bit less freedom to the author that's all. That keeps your database clear, up-to-date and userfriendly. But appearantly I'm alone in this so I'll leave it and keep my own administration.

I believe there is an ongoing effort to locate games with dysfunctional links, and host them on americangirlscouts.org. That might help.

That would be an improvement, and only part of the discussion. The main object here is to create a database with all published games. With monitored links. If the author doesn't want to publish his/her game, state so on the page. If they don't mind, the link should be maintained and monitored. Moving the executable to a separate host for easier and better control would even improve it more. [edit] But when you do that, the author loses control.

Make that 152

That's more than 15%. Quite high I think. And then I even included the demo's and the non-adventure games.

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(edit) speaking of which, perhaps somebody from the rating team can post a list of all games that lack downloads in the forum, then the community can probably locate half of those instantly on their hard drives?

Aren't you then doing exactly what I'm suggesting? Keeping track and control over published games? It's pretty much like moderating your DB.

We're not going to start forcibly adding games that people might not even necessarily want a large group of people to know about.

Maybe adding the options "Make only visible to members" or "Do not publish executable"?

adding a game without the author's knowledge would be a different issue.

I never said that. The author still has influence on it. The author will be send the password to update their page.

My first MAGS game isn't in the database, because I consider it a failed experiment.

You're fully entitled to that, I know. And I respect that. But I'd still like to know about it. I'd like to see how you progressed. And what you think of as 'failed' might not be by me. What people consider Joke games aren't to me and games I find hilarious, are drama to others. It's all a matter of interpretation and perception.

MAGS has its own database which does include all MAGS games to date

MAGS is in that respect the only really complete database because..... you're entered automatically (competing is entering). Why not apply that view onto the whole of AGS and say: publishing is adding to the DB?

Hour and OROW games are in the forum, which technically is also a database.

Speaking of the forum as techinically a database well.... yes but then the whole internet is a database. I don't want to go through all threads to find the game that got lost in publication. I want to find the games that I'm not aware of, not the games I know are there.

RON also has its own database on its forum.

And RON also has it's own DB and yes, these are also administred better but that's because it's part of the game, otherwise you wouldn't be part of the 'story' RON is about. (But when your game gets rejected you get a complete different discussion)

I completely understand what you're all saying and to some extend I agree. There should be freedom for the author. But what I'm having difficulties with is the administration and maintenance. The addition to the DB is based on voluntary grounds, there is minimal moderation and there's little maintenance. There are enties both in MAGS and in the games DB, or in RON and the games DB or there are games that are in neither. A lot of links don't work anymore and like said before, I think it's incomplete.

If things are that voluntary why aren't entries deleted once the links are down for a longer period of time? What will be the use of the page if the link doesn't work (anymore)?

You must all understand that I see a huge difference in administering the publication of a game and the possibility to play/download. Sure, the optimal situation would be both but if the author doesn't want me to play his game that's fine, that's his choice. Then I should have downloaded the game when it was available. But at least I know the existence of the game and I can contact the author about it. See it as publishing books. You might choose not to print any more issues, but you can't say to people: "I want my book back". The bookshop can still tell me that you wrote it once and you're not printing it anymore. Then that's my bad luck. Then I can only ask around or contact the author if he's still got a copy (if I'm that desperate). And if I don't like the entry in the DB, I won't bother. But at least I knew of it's existence.

Wow, congratulations on this massive job. I know what it's like because I'm on my way playing them all as well. But I hunt the broken links and search beyond the DB.

That brings me to the following. Since there will be a panel judging the games and thus the pages are moderated, is it an idea to make the adding games to the database less voluntairily? With that I have the idea that  if a game is not added by the author within a week of completion/announcement, the game will be added by a mod. The password of the page will then be pm'ed to the author so he/she can update it to their liking.

This will result in the advantage that games left in the Completed Games Announcement, HOUR games, The MAGS competition or the OROW competition (or maybe any other in the future) are still added to the DB and thus creating a more complete overview of games. If the author doesn't want to change the entry, fine but it's still documented/registered and won't drown eventually in threads, maybe never to be dug up again.

It's just a thought...

Awesome game this awesome quest. Great style. Could play it for much longer.I like the way the dialogs are build up.
The puzzle is fairly straight forward and easy.

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You might want the player to get the key out of the bird. I was already thinking ahead when the hint came that I had to bring it to the guy.

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Nice relaxed music added. I like the simplicity of the cursors. No guessing what tiny image represents what... just read and use. Good first try! Some notes:

Since this is a very short game the save, load and quit options aren't needed but you might want to add these to some kind of menu.
Having said that, pressing F5 or F7 leaves the text on what to do (ie. "type a name to save as" with F5) very unreadable.
A thing I find strange:

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With using the plank on the bag you say "I might fall into the bushes" and a bucket attched to it is allright?

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It's just a thought...

by the way, you should add your game to the DB so you reach a wider public and.... people can vote!... and since this is a one and a half room game maybe consider entering the MAGS or the OROW contest?

I think you should put it in the DB allright. And don't change anything but keep it for a future project. The game is fine as it is but there were just the things I noticed.

Congratulations with this one.

Nice game. good puzzle building. Like you said, short, but that's ok.
The opening tune is nice but the one during the game gets boring.
The graphics are small. It becomes pixelhunting and that's not necessary because there's a lot of empty space. Try to zoom  in on it and make everything a bit bigger. I always thought these dorm rooms were too small and you never could fit your stuff in but in yours it's a luxury ;-). The graphics as they are now (not the pixels I mean) are alright. The characters are good, furniture is ok, except for the perspective. On some objects they don't match.

Because there aren't many objects I expected them to be interactive. But a lot is not (the mat, the bed, bedside table etc). That makes the puzzles easier.

But overall I had a few minutes of fun. I can see this as a part of a bigger story.

Well done.

Whoooaaaaa.......... that did it! Playing full screen does the trick! That I never came up with that. Thanks (puma)man!

Can you send me your savegame at that point?

Sorry about the previous answer  I thought

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find a key there

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wasn't cryptic. Otherwise I'd have said: find something you can use. But ok. I presume you

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removed the blast walls again and went downstairs there. Take the left hatch and walk until the end. From there you can go through the hole made by the 'dude'. You find Ellie and the captain dead. Use the captain. It's not a pixelhunt, just put the hand icon on his body. That should result in a key.

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... what about pressing a number key(1, 2, 3...), does it work?

Nope, also doesn't work. Side effect is that the pointer disappears so the game is 'pointless' (in both ways).

I have this curious problem with a few older games. The games are usually around the Win95 start age.

I've encountered it so far with Granny Zombiekiller and Ernie's Big Adventure II leaving them unplayable.

The game runs fine until a dialog-option appears. The cursor disappears, though the dialog options stay selectable (read change colour) when moving the 'ghost' pointer over it. You can't select (read press enter) any of the dialogs and you can't play the game anymore since you can't exit the dialog. Only option left is to crash the game.

I've tried the games on several machines with several OS'es varying from genuine W95 to Virtual Machine with emulated W95. All with the same effect. So I start thinking it's the game. Or do I need extra drivers/software to play these? I can't find any info about it in the readme's.

Does anyone have the same experience and/or a solution?

Nostradamus. What's cryptic about

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"Find a key there...." ? Look at the captain. Search  him. He has the key of his footlocker in his pocket. With that you can get the password to unlock the computer. It's in his diary in his footlocker.

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Full enough?

Nostradamus,

Not exactly sure where you are but did you

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see the hole in the wall opposite the engine room when you entered the left hatch? You can find a key there.

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Congratulations on producing the game and on winning the contest.
Nice game. A bit on the short/easy side but hey, I didn't enter at all :-)

I found a bug while playing:

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You can skip the complete teleport sequence by selecting the door to the maintenance room right away

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If interested: a review can be found here, a walkthrough is here.

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In the storage room: outside of hypersleep take elevator down, room on the left. Big grey box in the middle can be opened.

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In the engine room go to the panel with buttons and read the memo with intructions next to it. When you’re half done and fed up with the manual, use the switches on the right. That will kill the power.

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I tottaly give up from making the arcades in my future games. About your idea with selling and buying things on the different planets - It's good, I'm thinking about it. Soon I will post a demo for Cosmos Quest III.

There's nothing wrong with an arcade within an adventure as long as they are optional or skippable. What was done in NES Quest for instance was brilliant. You could play arcade but only if you wanted it too. And everybody loved it.

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To make the bomb you need the powercell, the timer and the explosives. Use them all three on each other and there should be a timebomb. Use that on the blastwall.

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