The Mysterious Case of the Acrobat and His Peers

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Mystery
Mystery
Park
Park
The Mysterious Case of the Acrobat and His Peers
Mysterious Case of the Acrobat small cover.jpg
Author(s) Amanda Tien
Publisher(s) n/a
Release date(s) 11-Jan-2009
Authoring system Inform 7
Platform(s) Z-code
Language(s) English
License(s) Freeware
Multimedia
Color effects none
Graphics none
Sound/Music none
Ratings
Cruelty scale Polite

How It Begins

You are an inexperienced police officer, carrying nothing*, sent to this low-class carnival for your first case: to find the acrobat that went missing this morning. Since the circus is packing up and moving out, time is of the essence.

* Your police badge is mentioned, but not implemented.

Notable Features

  • Several NPCs. Conversation is both ask-tell, plus show and give. However, most of the conversation topics are difficult to guess or implemented without useful synonyms, to the point that it appears that conversation isn't handled at all. For example, you can ASK RINGMASTER ABOUT THE ACROBAT but not ASK RINGMASTER ABOUT ACROBAT -- the topic is only understood as "the acrobat" and not "acrobat" or "Li" (the acrobat's name).
  • Rather buggy and untested, although the game is winnable. Some elided puzzle bugs, e.g.: a locked door can be ignored simply by going east. NPCs never object when items are taken or manipulated in their presence, even when they ought to. Most rooms, items, and characters have "painted on" descriptions that do not change as appropriate to changed circumstances. Other bugs include being able to ride a bicycle up a ladder.
  • No score, but there's several "Bonus Endings" that can be earned during the course of play, by solving other problems at the carnival.

Versions

Release 2

  • The Mysterious Case of the Acrobat and His Peers (Amanda Tien; 11-Jan-2009; Z-code).
    • Release 2 / Serial number 090111 / Inform 7 build 5U92 (I6/v6.31 lib 6/12N)
    • IFID: F606CC16-E6C9-4E04-86AC-845ADEECF8C6
      IFID links: IFDB
    • Download Acrobat.zblorb from the IF Archive

Links

General info

Spoilers