Games with multiple nonsimultaneously-controlled player ch..

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in the vein of Lucasarts' Maniac Mansion, Zak McCracken and Day of the
Tentacle, all of which featured shifting "control" over other players
in different locations (geographical and, er, temporal) for
character-cooperative puzzle solution. (I suppose this was even
touched upon by the "Max" icon in Sam & Max and could be considered to
be a necessary part of the away-team gameplay of the 25th Anniversary
and Judgment Rites Star Trek graphical adventure games.)

But this is r.g.i-f and those are all games by fancy studios with big
budgets and, er, primarily visual interfaces. Are there precedents for
the sort of gameplay described (well, alluded to) in the IF/text
adventure world? Would the robots in Suspended count? (How about the
tea-induced protagonist shifts of the HHG game?) I suppose I'm after a
list of games where this is attempted (I have vague recollections of it
being pulled off early in the game by one of Melbourne House's Tolkien
derivatives) but far more fascinating, I suspect, might be rhapsodizing
from the peanut gallery regarding game design and programming tricks to
keep in mind when mounting such an undertaking (for instance: how to
make interesting NPCs out of former PCs when you are no longer
primarily playing them?)

 

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Rowan Lipkovits wrote:
<< all of which featured shifting "control" over other
players for character-cooperative puzzle solution. [...]
I suppose I'm after a list of games where this is attempted >>

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but in
"Luminous Horizon" and "Max Blaster and Doris deLightning,"
you can switch between two player characters.

In "Hitchhiker's Guide," "Demon's Tomb," "Shades of Gray,"
"Zombie," and "Common Ground," you start off playing one
character and, at some point, the games give you another
player character.

There are probably some more games with more than one player
character, but I don't know how you'd find them.

 

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Sandsquish@yahoo.com wrote:
> Rowan Lipkovits wrote:
> << all of which featured shifting "control" over other
> players for character-cooperative puzzle solution. [...]
> I suppose I'm after a list of games where this is attempted >>
>
> I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but in
> "Luminous Horizon" and "Max Blaster and Doris deLightning,"
> you can switch between two player characters.
>
> In "Hitchhiker's Guide," "Demon's Tomb," "Shades of Gray,"
> "Zombie," and "Common Ground," you start off playing one
> character and, at some point, the games give you another
> player character.
>
> There are probably some more games with more than one player
> character, but I don't know how you'd find them.

For openers, there's "Border Zone".

--
John W. Kennedy
"Compact is becoming contract,
Man only earns and pays."
-- Charles Williams. "Bors to Elayne: On the King's Coins"

 

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Probably the classical example of this in IF is Photopia. Others that
might fit the bill are listed at Emily Short's website
(http://emshort.home.mindspring.com/literacy.htm#NPC) or at Baf's guide
(http://tinyurl.com/ah8tx or http://www.wurb.com/if/search and select
multiple PCs as a required option)

Cirk R. Bejnar

 

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Cirk R. Bejnar wrote:
> Probably the classical example of this in IF is Photopia. Others
> that might fit the bill are listed at Emily Short's website
> (http://emshort.home.mindspring.com/literacy.htm#NPC)

It seems like the more relevant URL would be:

http://emshort.home.mindspring.com/literacy.htm#PC


Same page, just scrolled down farther. Although, I'm not sure if
I can remember any games that use multiple PCs in the same
way that Day of the Tentacle does.

It prompts me to think about writing something that does that,
though.

--
J. Robinson Wheeler Games: http://raddial.com/if/
JRW Digial Media Movie: http://thekroneexperiment.com/