Winter 2008 Dualstream Day of Zeux Judging Sheets:Terryn

==Terryn's DoZ Scores, X-Mas 2008==
==Topics: Water (General) & Murder Mystery (Specific)==
==Judging Standard: MZX 2.82b (r2) stable (Win 32 platform)==

(Scores attempted to be consistent and relative, but I'm not making any promises.)

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To explain the WACKY scoring changes per game, I've written up a small guide on our
system and placed it right below this line! How convenient!

Games under the GENERAL topic are scored as follows:

Theme - 100/400 (How appropriately it sticks to the above topic. Novel applications of
the theme are especially welcome here; cloying, ham-fisted application of it is not.)
Gameplay - 90/400 (What the game expects the player to do, how novel/fun/considerate it
is for the player, and how little the player futilely struggles with the game.)
Graphics - 70/400 (The difference between eye-gouging and eye-popping.)
Technique - 60/400 (How painless it is for the player to play through the game
(disregarding obvious gameplay decisions such as difficulty), and the technical prowess
shown in the code.)
Story - 50/400 (Whether your grasp of English, your grasp of flow, and your grasp of
creativity align. If this cannot be arranged, partial credit is better than none.)
Sound - 30/400 (With the beeping and the blooping and the chiptunes and the yelling into
the mic and all of that.)

Games under the SPECIFIC topic are scored as follows:

Gameplay - 120/400 (This is the core of the game; it is the interactive part of a game
and hence the most likely thing to make or break a game for a player.)
Graphics - 90/400 (How pleasing the game is to the eye. No accounting for tastes, though
some works seem better to everyone overall than others.)
Technique - 80/400 (The complexity of the code involved, and whether said code actually
works most of the time.)
Story - 50/400 (Whether the words arranged therein form coherent sentences, and even
better, coherent plot threads.)
Sound - 40/400 (The ears' domain; whether sound effects and music are not only good, but
well-suited for the game.)
Theme - 20/400 (Whether you actually paid attention and bothered haphazardly grafting the
right conceptual fragments to your glitzy engine. 5 points average or less and your game
is outright rejected.)

Without further delay, and since no one else will, the scoring for this DoZ's games
begins!

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[36953] "Superb Benthic Zone Adventure" (Captain Failmore, Christian, Nedemai) =WATER=

Theme - 75/100
 -Rote use of the theme. It all takes place underwater and heavily involves water.

Gameplay - 37/90
 -There are three minigames; the bookends are lessons in monotony while the middle one is
 simply irritating. For the first game, you pick up as many chips as you can without
 getting hit by sea junk. It isn't bad, really. Do this for long enough - emphasis on the
 word long - and you go to a maze navigation stage. This area is ugly and messy, and
 you'll probably be glad once you get to the submarine. The final stage involves moving
 the submarine through obstacles until time runs out, and it takes approximately three or
 four times longer to finish than it should.

Graphics - 39/70
 -The entire game is in SMZX; each minigame has its own specific graphical quirk, so I'll
 run through them in order. The first minigame has acceptable graphics in line with games
 on early 80's computers. The second area, though, is an ugly mess. Much of it is
 littered with ugly textures bombarded with haphazardly-placed rock graphics. The last
 area is graphically messy; its component parts look good, but mixed together in the way
 that they are, it looks distracting and unpleasant.

Technique - 26/60
 -The first two games have considerable issues. Junk hits you when you'd expect it to
 fall right beside you, and you can continue playing even if you run out of health. As
 for the second game, you get damaged twice each time you take a hit (and I took a hit
 the instant I arrived, too, despite being nowhere near any urchin), and collision
 detection is loose. The last game works alright - the obstacle course is randomly
 generated, and there are no technical problems getting through it.

Story - 11/50
 -You're an isopod! Now you're a diver collecting an isopod, and you must get back to the
 surface in your submarine, despite being twenty feet below the surface before (guess you
 couldn't find good parking).

Sound - 9/30
 -The music is mostly bleepy-bloopy stuff. It's not much of a pain in the isopod section,
 but the submarine section's music was. Thank god the Wesley Willis song was there at
 the end.

Overall: 197/400
 -geck. Having considerable gameplay is good, as long as the gameplay itself is good as
 well. This isn't.

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[39191] "The Disappointingly Brief Adventures of Aquaria" (Malwyn) =WATER=

Theme - 19/100
 -It's technically here, but only in graphical flourish. This is pretty much an
 abandoned project, so this category is going to suffer even more heavily than the rest.

Gameplay - 16/90
 -You can collect raindrops and jump. The test board shows that even this functionality
 is still iffy.

Graphics - 55/70
 -What's here is pleasing. Good detail is paid to animation, the art is attractive, the
 color palette works well. Unfortunately there's not too much on display here.

Technique - 24/60
 -It's just some basic sprite play and plenty of animation on top of a still-alpha
 jumping engine.

Story - 1/50
 -She has, like, water splashy powers and stuff.

Sound - 3/30
 -A collection noise much like the sounds in EGA games is all that's here.

Overall: 118/400
 -As far as DoZ dumps go, there's been a lot worse. At least something pretty was left
 for us to see.

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[45595] "Murder on the Yellow Express" (Logicow, Madbrain, windbladeicepuppy) =MURDER MYSTERY=

Gameplay - 74/120
 -It's a point and click adventure. Unfortunately, it's incredibly short. However, what's
 there is more than functional. Although I missed a few adventure game conveniences (most
 notably the Sierra-style right-click to get the last inventory item back out), the
 authors were smart enough to let the player continuously follow the cursor instead of
 only obeying per-click.
 -The solutions don't require much thought at all. Items suddenly appear in view, or
 people just give them to you. Dead simple.

Graphics - 82/90
 -They're very nice and detailed. Characters and items are clearly identifiable, and the
 art style is very pleasing and appropriate to the game. The title screen was quite good
 too.
 -Unfortunately, they're sparse. There are a few supplemental pieces, mostly plants and
 booths, but in many places the rooms are big and empty. This is especially true of the
 engineer's cabin and the engine room. Even the "busy" room, the food cabin, has the
 cook's pot of soup on the floor.

Technique - 64/80
 -Pretty decent. SMZX and judicious use of MZMs go with a pixel-perfect engine. It's nice
 to see a different presentation of the same damn thing once in a while.
 -Slight demerit for making my not-budget computer go through delay spikes loading the
 food cabin.

Story - 15/50
 -The opening is a tier under the level of an old Taito arcade game. Just pay attention
 when you read it, it's gob-smacking. Things don't progress far from there. Dialog is
 short, uninteresting, and in short supply, and it barely changes. It's mostly
 error-free, outside of an errant typo or two. I wasn't expecting The Last Express, but
 more than just throwaway dialogue would have helped a lot. At least there's flub
 dialogue per-item.
 -The murderer is revealed in a plot dump? What in the hell was the motive?? rrrrrrrrrr

Sound - 32/40
 -Somewhat above average. Music is mostly forgettable, as well as the (sparse) sound, but
 was pleasing enough. The only thing not pleasing about the music was how one of the
 pieces was a great deal louder than the others.

Theme - 11/20
 -A bit below standard on theme. There was a murder, and there was a mystery. These
 elements only show up in the later part of the game, though, and almost nothing about
 the mystery is explained at all.

Overall: 278/400
 -Again, fine exploitation of the scoresheet. Ka-ching!

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[46132] "Murder at MegaZeux Manor" (MZXGiant, Asgromo, CJA) =MURDER MYSTERY=

Gameplay - 94/120
 -The game is split into four phases. The first, Tecki's phase, is a neoclassical MZX
 shooter section highly reminiscent of Caverns; AussieEvil's phase is triplets of slider
 puzzles; SeventhShade's section is a mostly pointless DRAWING section, and Scott Vyper's
 section is inventory puzzles. The meat of the game is in the first two sections,
 especially the first section, but the last section often lasts a decent amount as well.
 -As for how these parts work, it varies. The Caverns section is nicely balanced out,
 with smart layout, decent gameplay and a boss battle or two. The slider portion is a
 fair challenge, but like always, its difficulty is vastly overstated by pretty much
 everyone. Its puzzles vary nicely in difficulty, and there's even a timing-heavy
 solution thrown in. The drawing section is a nice diversion, as it was probably meant to
 be, and the inventory puzzle section is of fair length and pretty amusing, though the
 last part of it was a big letdown.

Graphics - 68/90
 -Varies. It mostly fits typical modern Zeux standards - smiley graphics, smart choices
 and pleasing to the eye but nothing special - but ultimately ranges from the garish (the
 slider sections) to the very good (CJA's splash screens).

Technique - 46/80
 -Decent technique involved, though the game had some HUGE glitches. It's possible for
 the player to get permanently stuck in the second Caverns level due to a transporter
 mishap, resetting the slider puzzles past the first set simply breaks the game,
 and drawing a cookie ends before the player can even begin. I liked the drawing phase,
 though it in reality requires little actual effort (my picture of a cat was a smiley
 face with the word "NYAA!" under it).

Story - 43/50
 -Can't CJA ever do anything besides cameo-ridden stuff anymore? It works, though. The
 four original DoZ judges are in a mystery solving club and all out of things to solve
 when something falls into their lap. A TWIST ENDING and pretty humorous writing
 (especially regarding Scott Vyper's areas, though his areas by nature have the most
 writing in them) cap it off wonderfully. (Special bonus twist: there is no manor.)

Sound - 34/40
 -Nice chiptunes and remixes of classic songs round out most of the music. The sound is
 standard fare mixed with some wonderfully cheesy voice acting.

Theme - 19/20
 -Wonderful and correct usage of the murder mystery theme.

Overall: 304/400
 -Hot damn, this was a nice and quirky entry. If it weren't for the leaks, it'd be
 super-special.

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[49305] "Xin" (Lancer-X, Wervyn, Quasar) =MURDER MYSTERY=

Gameplay - 80/120
 -The game runs off of a card-based battle system. There are four types of cards -
 potions, swords, shields, and elemental bursts. Each ranges from 1 to 3 in strength, and
 (outside of potions) is tagged with one of the Five Phases, with elements naturally
 being antagonistic towards certain others. One can queue up to five cards, and each time
 a card goes along the queue but is unused that turn, it gains a level in power. In
 theory, it's a nice system. In practice, one can just look at what the opponent holds
 and probably spam the queue with good success (until the HP sink enemies come along).
 Good attempt, though.
 -The "hit-trading" aspect feels pretty cheap. The first time I played, I got killed
 after the opponent with 0 HP got in a fatal blow.
 -Multiple endings help. Being stringed along for several battles in the most
 transparent, time-padding way doesn't. oy vey.

Graphics - 84/90
 -*FLOOR*

Technique - 62/80
 -They played a pretty open hand, considering the title screen (no pun intended, ugh).
 The card battle system is nice, but a major leak springs up where cards are unable to be
 selected and waste space in your hand, leading to a possible winless state.
 -Secondly, I walked off of the bottom of the moneylender's land and got stuck at the top
 of the board. Oops.

Story - 41/50
 -The story involves the player character being framed for a murder at the monastery he
 lives, and setting out to clear his name. Depending on how the player acts at the end of
 the game, a significant amount of the player character's backstory is revealed as well.
 Once it exits the finger-pointing and ping-ponging dialogue the gameplay requires, the
 writing is quite good.

Sound - 28/40
 -Pretty good, on the whole. The BIG BOSS theme was a little too wailing for my tastes,
 and one or two of the sounds have been used in every doujin game known to man already,
 but they work.

Theme - 18/20
 -Everything needed was there, and there's another murder mystery nested in solving the
 murder mystery you're already trying to solve! If doing it once isn't enough, take
 another whack at it!

Overall: 313/400
 -I honestly didn't enjoy this game at all, but they gamed the scoresheet well, it looked
 great, and it will probably win anyway.

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[52608] "Drippy and the Evaporated Sea" (KirbySSB, GohanSSB) =WATER=

Theme - 71/100
 -The theme is adhered to in a consistent and thorough, if generic, fashion. You are a
 water person and Sol, king of the fire creatures, has stolen your land's water. Water
 factors into the gameplay by being ammo.

Gameplay - 58/90
 -The game is standard MZX overhead shooting, but with a few minor adjustments. The drops
 you set out to collect double as ammo (in three-shot increments), and damage dealt to
 both enemies and to yourself is randomized and a percentage. The only healing is
 provided by faucet, which are very rare and in set locations. The game is divided up
 into stages, with a few boss battles and several drops to collect.
 -At first, this game gave me hope. It looked wonderfully classic from the onset, and it
 didn't disappoint at first. Unfortunately, as I progressed through the game, the level
 design actually got worse. It wasn't as bad in the first two levels for the game to
 consist of mostly open fields; I thought that would improve for the later levels.
 Unfortunately, the fields simply got bigger, especially the third level (which didn't
 even have a boss, but compensated by having more enemies than normal).
 -The ammo economy was pretty good, up until the end when the author(s) decided to give
 9999 shots. I guess it was to save frustration, but it just made the final battle far
 too easy.
 -Two endings help the score a bit.

Graphics - 34/70
 -Typical for a game from MZX's classic era. They're not ugly, just really dated. Lots of
 space and smileys abound, but char edits look like what's intended.

Technique - 26/60
 -Unfortunately, the simple run 'n' gun MZX fare has its issues. The Firerollers can roll
 on as a drop, but even worse, the HotHot enemies cannot be killed when they are flush
 against a wall. They'll remain living, and ruin the chance of getting the best ending.
 -Enemies are pretty mindless. Outside of the buggy HotHot, the wall is the worst enemy
 of all of them, as it makes them far easier to kill.

Story - 21/50
 -Sol kidnaps all of the drops, again, because it's in his nature. You must bring them
 back because you're the descendant of the person to do it the last time. Black Versus
 White With No Grey in Sight.

Sound - 26/30
 -Very classic-sounding music selection, consisting of tunes I'm somewhat sure I'd never
 heard before. The music fits well too, a plus. Sound effects were typical but
 appropriate. OH NO
 -There wasn't any sound for getting hurt. OH NO

Overall: 236/400
 -It's nice to see a fully realized DoZ game, even if it wasn't the best of them. Thanks
 for that.

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[53283] "The Curious Case of Ash McArthur" (NiMa) =MURDER MYSTERY=

Gameplay - 38/120
 -There isn't much. You go about, finding clues, until you decide to accuse the murderer.
 Unfortunately, the game is absurdly short and gives just a "No, that is not the rite
 anser try agen or sumbudy els try to anser"-style response if you botch an accusation.
 The game also neglects to tell you how to enter the evidence menu, or that it even
 exists.

Graphics - 34/90
 -Black absolutely everywhere, with only a few wire frame outlines to counter it and one
 or two splashes of color. Not downright ugly, but falls below the level of utilitarian.
 There was a brief cinematic that didn't look too bad, though, and the title screens
 ranged from decent to iffy.

Technique - 26/80
 -Minimal. A basic save/load system and a clues window dependent on what you've found is
 the most of it. Even with this small amount, I found a few errors, like the Accuse
 options permanently breaking, the selection arrow warping outside of the selection box,
 and music not playing after a load (due to mod * and lack of justloaded handling). You
 can also go outside the bounds of the house through the exit; at first, I thought this
 was "UR A GHOST!!!" justification, but you can't pass through walls, so...

Story - 22/50
 -There's some underpinnings to the story, but outside of a pair of information dumps
 sandwiching the game, there isn't much progression. There are maybe fifteen lines of
 dialogue total. The story is about as standard as one can get - an heir gets murdered
 for money.

Sound - 24/40
 -Not too bad, though I've heard one of the mods before.

Theme - 17/20
 -It's an above-average application of the theme. It involves murder and mystery pretty
 well, from the perspective of the murdered.

Overall: 161/400
 -It's a throwaway entry, but it's not unpleasant. This is a classic example of having
 not enough time to carry out something good, but at least making what you have anyway
 stand by itself.

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[66418] "P E E * E" (asiekierka) =WATER=

Theme - 23/100
 -Outside of some very cryptic scraps in the title sequence, and a few throwaway mentions
 (like an underwater apartment label, though it doesn't seem that they're really
 underwater), there's very little real tie to the theme. Water's a MacGuffin here, for
 the most part!

Gameplay - 24/90
 -asie's getting a bit better at realizing what gameplay is. That said, what's here is
 nowhere near real gameplay! There are three minigames: the first is a very lenient game
 where you press the direction it tells you to, the second is a simple math pattern game,
 and the last is an effortless MZX shooting event. As usual with asie, most of this
 entry is focused on viewing wildly differing scenes lasting fewer than fifteen seconds
 each.

Graphics - 36/70
 -Standard to sub-par. No big empty boards, no hideous char edits, few clashing colors,
 just bog standard stuff.

Technique - 20/60
 -Little to speak of, really. The math puzzle is the most complicated thing here and it's
 something that can be done pretty easily.

Story - 12/50
 -The Ring's tape... is a water curse tape... that the BnL agency forces you to watch for
 some reason... and you build a machine to shoot the curse at someone else... and then
 ???????????

Sound - 18/30
 -It existed and wasn't terrible. Most of the music was either curbed from WALL*E or was
 a chiptune, and out of the two sound effects, one fit and one was ridiculously loud.

Overall: 133/400
 -Once asie makes a game outside of the "Spastic Five Minute Cinematic" genre, we'll
 really have cause to celebrate! I feel like it's along the lines of waiting for Godot,
 though. damnit, asie.

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[68488] "Whirlwind" (maxim, ryosuke) =MURDER MYSTERY=

Gameplay - 106/120
 -Frenzied shooting action with varied enemies and firepower, and fairly hard. Pretty
 expected. You can make a beeline for the end of the level and just kill the creatures
 there in many cases, though, so it isn't too nasty. Your level of success can depend on
 the RNG, somewhat - hope you don't get stuck with the <s>dagger</s> shotgun too often.

Graphics - 74/90
 -Boom! skulls and bones and oval explosions! Nice effects on the projectiles, and decent
 animation on enemies when it's remembered, but the backgrounds are big blobs.

Technique - 68/80
 -Again, as is maxim's style, projectiles and large enemies are everywhere in high
 amounts. Considerable points off for the game breaking on me pretty far in (the second
 part of a colorful level, the level after I beat up the boss), and minor damage for the
 restart option leaving graphical junk around. When it works, though, it works.

Story - 20/50
 -It's an arcade-style game, so presentation of the story is going to suffer, but at
 least this game has one. Your father, ruler of a small nation, seceded from the EU but
 was shortly assassinated afterwards. You are the sole witness and head off to kill the
 assassin. Nothing surprising happens.

Sound - 29/40
 -Sounds are pretty well-fitting, and the music is mostly stuff that sounds like it was
 pulled from a early-90s DOS game. Overall, not bad.

Theme - 3/20
 -Dips dangerously into DQ range. Your father was murdered, and you do quite a bit of
 murdering yourself trying to catch the assassin, but there's no mystery at all.

Overall: 300/400
 -maxim shifted styles from early 80s to late 80s, and made an overall better game.
 Whether it will place at all is yet to be seen....

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[73310] "Archer Gregory Is Thirsty" (Kuddy) =WATER=

Theme - 12/100
 -<ZZDevelin> BTW I actually had a good dream once when I was a real demon I loved
 beating the Sh*t out of hitler. One dream I was really thirsty and dehydrating I was
 walking to the kitchen and got stuck in a labyrinth with the minotaur stalking me.

Gameplay - 4/90
 -Machete-swipe your way through enemies warped to your location. Or not, as all you
 really have to do is get from point A to point B.

Graphics - 2/70
 -Kuddy basically BkZXed for the DoZ, so it's about what you can expect from that! one
 point for the title screen and one point for everything else.

Technique - 7/60
 -KABOOM
 -Also, the huge machete.

Story - 6/50
 -fkjgkdgj3ropyhgk I'm just posting the opening from some other game. HERE WE GO~ "Help
 me, Cirby!" "I don't think so, Polar! And soon, all will be grey! MHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"
 "Don't worry, Polar! I'll shave (save) you!" "I hope you will shave me!" Today Cirby had
 planned a picnic with his family and friends But something mysteriously happened... 

Sound - 9/30
 -GWERRHH
 -BOHHHHH
 -FEFFFF
 -*cans music*

Overall: 40/400
 -who won

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[74465] "Ghost Busted" (Revvy, KKairos, WildWeasel) =MURDER MYSTERY=

Gameplay - 71/120
 -You have a time limit to manipulate items in order to extract vindication for your
 murder. In the first scenario, you must tag six items with ectoplasm to ensure that the
 Keystone Kops find the correct evidence; in the second, you must manipulate items in the
 murderer's office until he's ready to confess. It's simple overall, and easy to actually
 do.

Graphics - 64/90
 -Not bad at all. Graphics were pretty decent considering this is a DoZ game. Art was
 predominantly multi-char and inoffensive to the eyes.

Technique - 51/80
 -Decent usage of sprites. I liked the afterimage when you move.

Story - 27/50
 -Bog standard. You're a ghost and you come back to earth in order to get your killer
 arrested. There's not too much explanation why this all happened, though there
 thankfully is some throwaway explanation.

Sound - 30/40
 -Fitting music, although one of the tunes sounded like a remix of Doom music. The sounds
 were dominated by "BARF!" but a few, much lower-key, sounds were present as well.

Theme - 11/20
 -There was a murder, but the mystery element was pretty loose, considering you knew who
 did it pretty much the entire game.

Overall: 254/400
 -This fits the role of a standard DoZ entry to a tee.

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[75245] "Slaughter Down Under" (CommodoreJohn, pyro1588, burstroc) =WATER=

Theme - 55/100
 -The game takes place underwater and involves (offhandedly) a plot to turn water into
 lava. Not much actually happens with the theme, though.

Gameplay - 31/90
 -You go around, swiping randomly spawned creatures with your sword, until you find the
 baubles that let you go to the next location. Two screens and it's all over. The game
 gives you health over time, and is incredibly easy, glitches aside.

Graphics - 35/70
 -Purely average. The title screen is an obvious last-minute piece, though.

Technique - 27/60
 -The game's pretty broken. The sword engine is almost unusable, and the game has a habit
 of spawning things in narrow passages that you can't kill and that won't try to hurt
 you. My very first play of the game was made impossible right at the beginning. It is
 possible to get through the tiny game, in spite of these problems.

Story - 17/50
 -You're a mermaid out to stop an "evil sea organism" from turning your water into lava.
 The story resolves itself pretty quickly, like in most arcade-y titles.

Sound - 19/30
 -Not bad, though burstroc's rockin' music is wildly inappropriate for the game. (If
 you're going to go all \m/ for a game about water, pretty much the only really good
 choice is something like acoustic black metal, and even that's considerably restricted
 to certain moods). The tune that's not his fits well. The sounds are sub-par but
 fitting.

Overall: 184/400
 -Nope, not the Pipe Dream or Fathom clones I was expecting.

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[79853] "Marooned" (GreaseMonkey, paulguy) =WATER=

Theme - 46/100
 -It's a pretty indirect link to the theme, but it's there. You're stranded on an island
 chain, and must escape.

Gameplay - 24/90
 -Each area has a minigame. There are four areas in total. The minigames are either
 insultingly easy (the boat and waterfall ones) or slightly bewildering (the laser,
 especially). The game lasts barely five minutes, and the gameplay of each section is
 dubious at best.

Graphics - 16/70
 -Sparse and ugly as sin (mostly due to using lava as water). Very ZZT-esque but without
 some of the flair some ZZTers-cum-MZXers have shown in MZX art.

Technique - 21/60
 -None to speak of, really. There's a stamina engine and jumper engine, but that's
 pretty much it.

Story - 7/50
 -You're marooned! Get off of the island!

Sound - 7/30
 -OH GOD NOT THESE DAMN CHIPTUNES AGAIN :M Sound wasn't there, but chiptunes asie and Guy
 beat to death when this game was naught but protoplasmic slime are.

Overall: 121/400
 -Pretty much take away a point each section (sans theme/sound) for paulguy's unused
 portion, and we get the score for the game that actually resulted. It's not much, but
 there's always next time.

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[99096] "Deluge" (SmartRutter) =WATER=

Theme - 30/100
 -"..all that _water_ could possibly leave me stranded here..." And with that,
 SmartRutter forced the theme in a way not seen in quite a while! For what little is
 here, the theme's applied in a pretty conventional way.

Gameplay - 21/90
 -There's a pointless jumper engine here. Outside of that, there's a (very) small amount
 of traditional MZX adventure. Not much can be said about it, since the game is the
 shortest of all of the entries, save for Tox's.

Graphics - 26/70
 -They're undetailed, spaces are everywhere, and overall sub-par.

Technique - 17/60
 -The aforementioned jumper is all the technique utilized here. At least that doesn't
 break, and the game doesn't start from the title screen.

Story - 11/50
 -The player wakes up during a storm, tries to leave for some reason, gets washed away,
 goes to Heaven, falls through a cloud and wakes up (realising it was all a dream).
 That's the whole story, summed up in barely less space than the author gave it.

Sound - 11/30
 -There's some thunder sounds and a barely noticeable tune. Unfortunately, that's all.

Overall: 116/400
 -Luckily for you, you won't get last, but it won't be on your own merits.

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[99544] "a Winter '08 DoZ game" (Old-Sckool) =WATER=

Theme - 15/100
 -MZX current!

Gameplay - 19/90
 -Misleading passage! Broken shooting gallery! Final...thing! Broken RPG engine!

Graphics - 4/70
 -Nope, none to speak of. Even the RPG test only had things like "hit" done.

Technique - 8/60
 -The RPG engine was broken, and the actual game is a mess even by 1995 standards.

Story - 2/50
 -The story is that Old-Sckool couldn't finish his DoZ. A throwaway attempt at one is
 done in the beginning, but it amounts to nothing.

Sound - 3/30
 -None.

Overall: 51/400
 -Whoops. Better luck next time. Your output had been consistently solid before now.

-----------------------------------------------

-------Final Rankings-------

#1: Xin (313/400)
#2: Murder at MegaZeux Manor (304/400)
#3: Whirlwind (300/400)
#4: Murder on the Yellow Express (278/400)
#5: Ghost Busted (254/400)
#6: Drippy and the Evaporated Sea (236/400)
#7: Superb Benthic Zone Adventure (197/400)
#8: Slaughter Down Under (184/400)
#9: The Curious Case of Ash McArthur (161/400)
#A: P E E * E (133/400)
#B: Marooned (121/400)
#C: The Disappointingly Brief Adventures of Aquaria (118/400)
#D: Deluge (116/400)
#E: a Winter '08 DoZ Game (51/400)
#F: Archer Gregory Is Thirsty (40/400)

Can we stop with the dramedy now? We've all learned our lessons about choosing judges,
and what Insidious did was worth trying once. Outside of that mess, though, this DoZ was
a bizarre success, considering Insidious had to be poked and prodded and shoved and
bounced to even give it any attention (and this is outside of the whole DMZX's host
banning him situation). Good work, people.

~Terryn