About Jess

Some of you out there might wonder what on earth qualifies me to write reviews of IF games and purport to tell other people what's good and what's not.  The true, mystic, and fantastical answer is, nothing.  The real, practical answer is, I have a website and I play IF games.  So there.

Actually, Jenn and I have been playing computer games our entire lives.  I was pretty young in the heyday of the IF game, but I played Zork (briefly) and Bureaucracy (at least to the point where the taxi shows up) and even Leather Goddesses of Phobos (well, I was allowed to look at the 3D comic and the instruction manual, even if I didn't get to play the game *that* much).  But the genre faded (or seemed to) long before I ever got a computer of my own. 

Then one fateful day, it happened.

I was in Dayton with my husband shopping at a used bookstore called Half-Price Books (they're excellent).  In addition to used paperbacks, they have a great selection of hardcover books, music cassettes, CDs, and even some software, usually old stuff at low prices.  Now, Carl and I are both fans of Douglas Adams, and have not only read but listened to the entire Hitchhiker's Trilogy on tape several times.  So, it was only natural that, when I scanned the racks of software and found a CD entitled "Classic Infocom Hits" with some text adventure games on it, and one of them was called "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," well, you better believe I was going to find $2.99 plus tax somewhere and bring that baby home with me.  I had no idea what else was on the CD, I didn't care.

It turned out to have Starcross, Planetfall, A Mind Forever Voyaging, and Suspended.

Since that fateful day, I have spent quite a bit of time reading up on the new incarnation of the IF genre, playing games, reading about games, trying to code my own games, and other common "lurker" activities.  But I have decided that the time to lurk is over.

Instead, the time has come for some participation.  I have snagged my good friend Jenn into the habit as well, and since she is a much better IF player than I am, I figured she'd be perfect for writing the bulk of the reviews.  Er, did I say bulk?  Of course we do an equal share of the work around here.  Right.

Finally, the important thing to remember about my reviews is that while I may enjoy playing IF, I really am not good at it.  The simplest puzzles to other people leave me completely stuck.  I started off with a bad habit of getting as far as I could, getting stuck, turning to the walkthrough (or breaking into the source code when necessary) for help and "walking through" the rest of the game.  Now, I know this is not the best way to seriously appreciate IF games, and I'm working on it.  Suffice it to say, beginners and novices can depend on me for breaking down which games are "doable," which are "hard," and which are "tear-your-hair-out, find-a-walkthrough, then appreciate-from-afar" types.

See the review page, or see our Scoring System.