Magnetic Scrolls ?

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    • #24705 Reply
      Unknown,Unknown
      Participant

      (Ken and Magnetic Scrolls)

      Hi Ken,
      as you replied to have been a fan of Infocom games too, I was wondering if you appreciated also MS adventures. Personally, I feel they are more discontinuous in quality vs Infocom, but still some of their 7 if I remember well adv., are definitely good. On top, this was probabily the way Infocom should have taken to add graphics to their advs. at a later stage, not disrupting their text only look an feel (plus you could deactivate the pull dowm graphics on MS).
      Do you agree with me ?
      Thank you,
      Giovanni

    • #24706 Reply
      Unknown,Unknown
      Participant

      (re: Ken and Magnetic Scrolls) I’ve never played the Magnetic Scrolls games. Who made them? Are they available for download somewhere?
      -Ken W

    • #24707 Reply
      Unknown,Unknown
      Participant

      (re: re: Ken and Magnetic Scrolls)

      Hi Ken,
      well, I must admit I was a bit surprised, then I thought about it and realized that you are in the States and that Magnetic Scrolls, being British, made more rumor here actually (I’m in Florence, hence Europe).
      They started in the mid 80’s and produced only 7 games, among which (maybe you heard) “the Pawn” and “the Guild of Thieves”, which were text adventures with, not in all rooms, hi-res (for the time) pictures (bitmaps, not line drawing). You were able to deactivate graphics in order to play text only, for the ones who preferred. However, the pictures were nice and added to the atmosphere.

      They had nice packaging, with Infocom like extras (novella, even a cassette tape for “corruption”).

      Best place to look at is:

      http://www.if-legends.org/~msmemorial/memorial.htm 

      You can also download everithing actually, for an interpreter called magnetic (which is good, even if personally I preferred the original program in terms of how the screen and pictures were put together).

      If you look in eBay (al least in Europe) you will still see some of the old boxes selling quite well (rarely though, not as often as Sierra)

      Actually, I remember liking some of their advs. a lot.
      Well, if you will ever try them, let me know if you like them !

      Giovanni

    • #24704 Reply
      Unknown,Unknown
      Participant

      Hi Ken,
      I was curious to know if you did try to see what Magnetic Scrolls was about… following up on my previous topic. Did you go to the site I signalled to you ?
      Is it really true you never heard about it ? Here in Europe it made quite a big noise.
      Thanks,
      Giovanni

    • #24708 Reply
      Unknown,Unknown
      Participant

      (re: Magnetic Scrolls ?) I did go to the site for Magnetic Scrolls, but haven’t yet made an effort to play the games. I really had never heard of them.
      We’re in Mexico now. Our home here is in a town that is a tourist destination, so whenever we come here, we get LOTS of visitors. Roberta’s parents came for a week, then my parents, then some old friends from Sierra, Al Lowe and family just sent their flight schedule to come here, Roberta’s spanish teacher and husband are coming down, etc. When people are here at the house, I get almost no time on my computer. We do love having people here, and are having a great time – so, game play, and getting some work done on the software behind this site, will have to wait until things come down.
      -Ken W
      PS There are times when retirement feels like more work than work ever was.

    • #24709 Reply
      Unknown,Unknown
      Participant

      (re: re: Magnetic Scrolls ?)

      Oops, sorry Ken, didn’t want to intrude in your private live. I was just curious (on top I’m home with flu, so I have more time these days 😉 ). Don’t worry, of course there is no rush. Family goes first (I see your point of the PS though… it’s like what I think sometimes about vacation and Christmas time !!!).
      Really, thanks for being so kind, it looks like this it typical of Sierra (the old, the one) people and fans. A while ago I had some friendly mail exchanges also with Al Lowe, on the end of Sierra after you sold. He has always been very kind too. It takes time to adjust to this for me: usually, the people you consider a sort of “myth” are so far…
      Ciao and enjoy your vacation.
      Giovanni

    • #24710 Reply
      Unknown,Unknown
      Participant

      (re: re: Ken and Magnetic Scrolls)

      Ciao Ken,
      I’m still curious: did you have the chance to have a look at MS ? Do you think Infocom could have gone farther had they followed a similar approach ?
      Ciao,
      Giovanni

    • #24711 Reply
      Unknown,Unknown
      Participant

      (re: Ken and Magnetic Scrolls) Giovanni:

      I still haven’t looked at MS .. it’s on my list of things to do — but, I’ve been hard at work on the next version of this software, and also on getting ready for my three month boat ride (which is coming up quick!) I have no free time …. argh….

      -Ken W

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