MovieChat Forums > Source Code (2011) Discussion > Very Similar Online Text Adventure Game

Very Similar Online Text Adventure Game


I thought there was a thread about this already, but I can no longer find it.

A few years before Source Code came out, a text adventure/logic game was posted online with a surprisingly similar plot. I can no longer find it, and I can't recall the name of it. Does anyone here know the game I mean?

In the game, you wake up in a train station with no memory of who you are or why you're there. After a certain number of moves a terrorist's bomb blows up the train, at which point you wake up again in the station and have to do it all over. Each time you can gain clues or knowledge, and have to slowly piece together a method to stop the terrorist from destroying the train. There may even have been some other similarities, but I can't recall what was in the game and what was later in the movie.

In any event, I want to show it to a friend but can't find it anymore. Does anyone know the game I'm referencing?

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Hi,

it's called "Vicious Circle" written by Simmon Mark Aka "Bloomengine" ,
there are two version of the story, first one is an Interactive fiction published in 2001 ( the movie is 2011 .. hum hum.. )

interactive fiction database page : http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=abbys81jz2sigdeu
you can found it here, you will need an Z-machine interpreter ( to read the file format ).

or play it online with a javascript adaptation of the interpreter (parchment):
http://iplayif.com/?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/cycles.z5.js


the author has lately adapted this interactive fiction as a more accessilbe browser interactive fiction (only using hyperlinks instead of a parser ),

"It's an experiment by the developer and a remake of a previous IF game that he had done, his attempt at having the original 'pared down to its most basic elements and interactions'. So, instead of text prompts and a lexicon of comments, we have instead hyperlinks and the player clicking through them.
It worked out surprisingly well. There's something elegant about Vicious Cycles 2011. You're apparently responsible for ensuring that a bomb does not go off [ in a train ] within that section of the time line, a task easier said than done. Donning the body of a bystander, you go about your work and are sent backwards in time into someone else's mind if you don't succeed."
http://www.indiegames.com/2011/05/browser_game_pick_vicious_cycl.html

the game is playable in browser on the author's website here : http://bloomengine.com/cycles/


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A sequel called "The Binary" has been written for the 2011 ifcomp ( interactive fiction competition ), it's here :

" An entry in this year's Interactive Fiction Competition, The Binary will once again have you traversing the time space continuum to ensure that history remains uninterrupted. Much like the first game, The Binary doesn't go out of its way to expound on the reasons behind this. You have a job to do. That's all you need to know. In fact, it's something that your supervisor will stress upon repeatedly. Do not intefrere. Do not do more than you've been asked to do. Of course, it's up to you as to whether or not you'll listen.
Like the original, The Binary boasts of a tightly-written narrative and an interface that is even more fluid than the original. "
http://indiegames.com/2011/10/browser_game_pick_the_binary_b.html

entry on interactive fiction database page : http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=gasd3wl2sj34hhyn

you can play it here : http://ifarchive.giga.or.at/if-archive/games/competition2011/web/thebinary/
or on the author's website : http://bloomengine.com/binary/





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Thank you!!!

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