Janitor
| Janitor | |
|---|---|
| Game | |
| Main links | |
| Published | 2002 |
| Credits | |
| Authors | Peter Seebach and Kevin Lynn |
| Reception | |
| Events | |
| IFDB rating | 4 out of 5 (25 ratings) |
| Gameplay | |
| Interaction style |  Parser |
| Literary genre |  Adventure |
| Locations |  Building  Underground  Virtual reality |
| Language | English |
| Accessibility | Colour: none. Graphics: none. Sound: none. |
| Technical details | |
| Authoring system | Inform 6 |
| Format | Z-code 5 |
| License | Freeware |
| Browse the games database • Edit this page | |
How it begins
It's the end of the game. You won with 100 out of 100 points, earning you the rank of "Qualified Adventurer". The game automatically types "quit" at the prompt... and then the whistle blows, signaling the end of the workday.
You are the new janitor at the Flavorplex Text Adventure Company. It's your first day, well, evening on the job. You're carrying nothing, and stand in the company break room. You see a refrigerator, some posters, and a pin-up calendar here. The access corridors are in the cardinal directions, and the supply closet and receptionist's office are to the northwest and northeast, respectively. No one's told you what you're supposed to do, but as Eva the receptionist tells you, "You look like a smart kid; you'll figure it out."
Notable features
- Homage to the original Adventure (William Crowther and Don Woods; c.1975).
- Reversed scoring. You begin with the top score after all the normal puzzles have been solved, and now you're trying to put things back where they originally came from and reduce your score back down to zero. An earlier game with the same mechanic is Zero Sum Game (Cody Sandifer; 1997; TADS 2).
- Mutable geography. In one sense, the dungeon of the game is just a set of sets and cheap props set up in an office building. However, under certain conditions, the dungeon becomes and acts real, and the connections between the rooms are completely different.
- Many in-jokes.
- Most of the girls in the calendar are all from different text adventures.
- Eva, the receptionist, is based on Eva from Grim Fandango, a graphical adventure.
- The mop has a mimesis disruption field feature.
- Miss December in the calendar is a large ASCII art rendering of a nude woman, Meriday Beth Komor. The artwork is titled "Meriday in the Morning", and © 1992–2002 by Mike Jittlov and Meriday Beth Komor, used by kind permission.
- After completing the normal game (which involves resetting the Flavortext Qualifying Adventure and essentially playing "backwards", you can then continue by playing the adventure forwards.
Versions
Release 1
Date: 2002
- Janitor (Peter Seebach and Kevin Lynn; 2002; Z-code 5).
- Release 1 / Serial number 020927 / Inform v6.21 Library 6/10
- IF Comp 2002: 5th place of 38 entries.
- XYZZY Awards 2002: Finalist for Best Individual PC (the janitor).
- Download janitor.z5 from the IF Archive - The story file.
Links
N.B. Many IF Archive games are temporarily unavailable in the UK.
General info
- Janitor homepage.
- Janitor (archived) - at Baf's Guide.
Reviews
- Janitor - at SPAG, reviewed by David Welbourn.
- Janitor - at IF Ratings.
- Review - by Paul O'Brian.
- Review - by Dan Shiovitz.
Spoilers
- Download hints.html from the IF Archive - Hints by the authors.
- Walkthrough by David Welbourn.
- ClubFloyd transcript.
Date: 2002