The Mysterious Case of the Acrobat and His Peers

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The Mysterious Case of the Acrobat and His Peers
Game
Main linksPlay onlineDownload
Published11 January 2009
Credits
AuthorAmanda Tien
Reception
IFDB rating1 out of 5 (1 rating)
Gameplay
Interaction style
Parser
Parser
Literary genre
Mystery
Mystery
Location
Park
Park
LanguageEnglish
Cruelty scalePolite
AccessibilityColour: none. Graphics: none. Sound: none.
Technical details
Authoring systemInform 7
FormatZ-code
LicenseFreeware
IFIDF606CC16-E6C9-4E04-86AC-845ADEECF8C6
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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

Date: 11 January 2009

  • 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

N.B. Many IF Archive games are temporarily unavailable in the UK.

General info

Spoilers

Note: To refer to this game from another page, you can type {{game citation|The Mysterious Case of the Acrobat and His Peers}}. This will display as The Mysterious Case of the Acrobat and His Peers (Amanda Tien; 2009; Inform 7; Z-code).

Date: 11 January 2009

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