9:05
9:05, by Adam Cadre, is another snack-sized text adventure that is just right for a casual audience. Even if you're new to the genre and are looking for something short and simple as a primer, do give this one a try.
The game is so short, however, that any description of what happens during the game could be considered a spoiler, and so we'll let you find out about it yourself. Instead, here's a short introduction written by the game's author: "You've screwed up on the job before, but never like this. You've overslept in a major way, and you're in for a world of trouble if you don't act fast."
If you need a little help getting started, just keep in mind that you need to examine items to view a description, and take items to add them to your inventory. Check your inventory with the command inventory. You may also use an item, too. You may even find that you need to drop an item to get rid of it. The command parser is generally pretty good about figuring out what you want to do, but try using fewer words to describe what you want if having trouble.
Analysis: Besides being very short, one of the especially notable qualities of this game is that it encourages replay. After you've played through the game at least once, you'll understand what I mean by this. An enjoyable and surprising game and just right for a casual game audience, Play 9:05.
The links above point to JIG's internally developed Flash-based Z-Machine interpreter (thanks asterick!), with the story files hosted here by kind permission of the game's author, Adam Cadre. That means you can now play these games in your browser rather than having to download and run the game in a standalone interpreter.
If you would rather download the game, you may do so at the Adam Cadre's website. If you choose to download the game, you will need an interpreter to read the z-file, just like most IF games: try Gargoyle for Windows, or Zoom or Splatterlight for Macintosh and Unix.
If you like "9:05," take a look at other Interactive Fiction we have reviewed here at JIG.
Isn't that the Dashboard clock in the picture?
It IS the dashboard clock. :o)
It's a screenshot I threw together for the review, since in-game screenshots for these text adventures are especially uninteresting.
So I've heard...
Oh, by the way, first.
Dashboard clock?
Oh well, brilliant game. :-) Definitely worth a replay.
Jay, can you help me? Ok, so i have :
adikorzeniowski - there is a variety of things you can do now. What do you think you should be doing? Go with your gut with this one and see where it leads you. :)
Don't be afraid to experiment.
Okay, so I went through the game once doing what you'd expect.
Did you look under the bed and in the trunk?
Yeah, I did. I got slightly more story but that's it.
very surprising ending.
I loved this game. I really like IF, but most are too long for me. This was perfect. And the surprise ending was really good.
Help I'm new to this genre. Can't figure out how to get dressed, have gotten clean clothing out of dresser
Alex -
Fredzorz:
Other than that, I don't think there are any more endings. I've only come across the 3 mentioned.
That helped, but it still won't recognise my instructions.
This is my first text adventure. Like ever. Pretty fun, except I kept forgetting what direction everything eas in :P
Is the news ending the main ending? I'm in the same boat as frikazoyd.
That was great. I really didn't see it coming.
Oh btw Jay, you may want to change the acadre tag to arcade.
hehe, it's not an 'arcade' game.
acadre = Adam Cadre (the game's author). :)
theres a third ending
oh i loved this one! just the right length to spend a few minutes messing about, and i loved the twist at the end!
thanks for bringing this one to our attention!
great game! i was a little bummed when it wouldn't let me leave the house naked.
did anyone get an ending other than
Did I hit a bug or is this an ending?
Ha ha ha ha ha!
@sigalt:
Haha, I never thought I'd play another text-adventure game after Police Quest (Those were the days...)
slgalt:
For those of you stuck in the bedroom, try your normal morning activities (some of the things can be done at night too).
Also, I think I found a bug; I had done everything correctly, gotten to the living room, and when I typed in "leave front door", it told me a wasn't "in anything at the moment". But when I tried again saying "leave south", it let me. Oddly enough, I checked my inventory before trying again, and it said my clothes were on. Could this be due to the "leave" function being only accessible with cardinal directions, and something wasn't fully programmed in? Adam, you might have a comparison that is either checking for the wrong variable, always turning out true/false, or are completely missing a comparison statement overall.
Neat premise but a little bit limited. I had a few quibbles:
It wouldn't let me enter any text after that. So I assume it's a bug.
Has anyone looked under the bed when you're in the bedroom?
I love the ending. You never expect things like that.
I got the exact same problem as slgalt, the game compleatly stopped responding
[Edit: It would help if we had exact steps to reproduce the problem. -Jay]
Some interesting things...
The ID card and driver's license addresses are different. Perhaps Mr. Hadley moved?
You can take the car (weird), put it in your wallet (ludicrous), and then proceed to drive it (lolwut?).
When I try to take a shower, it won't let me. Why?
EMDF: technically, "leave" is a verb that is used when you are in something. Being "in" something has a special meaning and must be programmed as such in Inform (the language this game is written in). For example, if there is a big box in a room somewhere and you'd climb in it, the "leave" command would get you out of it. The 'correct' way to leave the house is just "south".
It's a bit of an oversight on Adam's part, combined with the technicalities of Inform and background knowledge of interactive fiction that makes games have these little glitches that people new to the genre aren't really used to.
Jay: I'm not sure it was posted here before, but Photopia is another interesting game for new players. Check it out.
Parsh:
Hey guys! i need help! everytime i type save it just says creating save and it doesnt ever save! and theres this thing called new save which i cant click! please help!
Ok, i figured that out, but now i can't take the clean clothes. Every time I say "take clothes" it takes the soiled ones
Fan444 - saving appears to be broken right now. I'll have asterick look into that.
Thankfully, this game is so short that saving isn't really necessary.
joe9415 - The ID card has the office address
Great bit of IF! Agree it could be developed further with more allowed situations though.
I said 'get up' and left the bed first time :)
I love to tell newbies about this game because it's so short. And interesting.
Oh and Jay, re: the picture... It's been awhile since I've brushed up on my copyright laws, but Adam Cadre has "cover pictures" posted to go with all of his games on his website. Could you use those? Granted they're all pretty simple: the one for 9:05 is just a picture of an old-style alarm clock showing 9:05.
when I try to take a shower, I am told that I can't go in the shower with my possessions. How can I tell what my "possessions" are to take them off?
tried again made the bug again
I think the problem is the text I left un spoiler'd
I'm using the "leaflet" interpreter
take keys
answer phone
e
open door
open front door
take car (didn't work)
s
take car
(too much of a mess to leave)
e
take poptart
put poptart in toaster
eat poptart
w
w
open dresser
drop clothes
take clean clothes
wear clothes
(failed)
e
w
s
drop clothes
drop kes
drop keys
drop watch
take shower
take clothes
wear clothes
take keys
take watch
use toilet
n
w (failed)
e
s
take car
drive
drive car
get in car
....
failure to respond
That was a great little game, I wasn't expecting that AT ALL.
It does bug me though with Text-adventure games, that they figure out what you want to "use ID card" on, (etc), yet it makes you say "get out of bed".
Nice work on the Z-Machine! I always like to see people playing text games, and it's great to make it so convenient.
After I'd gotten three different endings, I also managed to get the game to freeze when starting the car engine:
I've also hit the glitch when you get in the car and it stops taking commands.
The entry field in the screen is black, no arrow or flashing cursor. But previous text is still showing on the screen.
I was doing some odd things beforehand, so they might have had something to do with it. I had opened my wallet and put my keys and the car in there. I then took the keys back out, unlocked the car, and got in. That's when the game glitched.
This sort of thing seems to have been my own fault, but hopefully this helps a bit. C:
Does anyone know of a good program that is free to download that is used to create text adventures?
Haha, try putting everything in the wallet. Let me find my credit card...pop-tart, nope...car, nope...a corpse...uh, just bill me.
I'm a longtime player of IF, and it's great to see you reviewing these gems that I played so long ago. 9:05 is one of my personal favorites, because... well, you know why.
Thanks for sharing these with a larger audience! Will you/have you ever reviewed Plotkins' SHADE? I think that's one of the best examples of the genre, because it wouldn't have the same impact as either a book or a point-and-click adventure game...it's perfect in IF though.
but i keep on dieng and stuff and i hate doing the dang shower stuff
Ok, i now know that im hopeless at these game. I
Anyone know how to use the dang ID card? I've tried tons of stuff:(
@Scot:
Inform 7 is free and pretty nifty.
It's an attempt to make IF that is programable using "natural language" and it's a pretty darn good attempt, I'd say. Unlike most programing languages, when I read a block of Inform 7 code, I've got a good idea what is going on.
I keep meaning to spend more time learning it, but I'm easily distracted. One of these days, though, I fully intend to make my own IF game.
http://www.inform-fiction.org/
Ugh. Text adventures. I'm horrible at them. I'm a visual, so about 30 seconds into the game and I'm almost screaming for pictures.
oh, also for anyone who decides to take a look at I7... this page: http://www.inform-fiction.org/I7/Worked%20Examples.html has a bunch off example games and their source code. one by I7's creator, Graham Nelson, and the rest by the excellent Emily Short who has, I believe, both reviewed and been reviewed here.
Why am I only getting text? No one else seems to be having this problem.
For those of you that are stuck, the following commands might help:
- inventory (lists everything you are holding/wearing)
- look (searches room)
- search (searches object)
- get (gets object)
- instead of clothes, try clean/soiled clothes
- put on
Note: "inventory" is good for knowing what you have on, and "drop " should drop it
ok I think I know the problem
DON'T EVER TAKE THE CAR
Hahaha! You can 'take' your car! When I first played, I did this just out of habit of 'take'ing things. So then I was apparently carrying my car, which I then got inside - even though I'm still carrying it - and turned it on. Totally froze up the poor game.
I guess this counts as a fourth ending, perhaps? :D
Lol... one more new ending:
I used "z" to wait for a long time (until 12:45)
at that point you get the message:
"You suddenly drop dead due to internal injuries. Looks like last night was even tougher than you remembered."
pretty funny, but even that ending could have been spruced up a bit more.
Snooze Winter - Interactive Fiction only has text. A few games may have a static picture, such as a map, but the majority are pure text. :)
I got another ending.
I also found a typo...
Ya. I'm pretty sure I said take car too. But I was able to then open and get in and start before the game locked up.
By the way, the game also accepts "get up" to get out of the bed at the beginning. I didn't run into any problems there, because it was the first thing I tried.
slgalt, that's exactly right. I got the message about starting the car engine, and that's the point when the game froze.
Oh, and to get out of bed at the beginning, I just use "stand".
@Parsh, to get clean clothes out of the dresser:
@TaToRSaLaD, to use the ID card:
Hehe, you can take the car? Funny. I like 9:05, it's a good short text adventure. It's a bit buggy trough, i found multiply problems while playing, most from limited text capabilities, with are understandable and usually produce funny results anyway.
A bigger issue was that when i first saw the cubicle, i thought of it as a small thing like a rubic cube, and picked it up. Wasn't until i found a desk inside of it in my inventory that i realized something was wrong :)
Didn't crash the game yet, but saveing doesn't seem to be working either.
I enjoyed the end thoroughly...
YAY! Always delighted to see IF featured on here. Can't wait to play this one.
I've always wanted to like games like this, but find them endlessly frustrating. I'm currently being told I have items in my possession but have no clue what they are or how to drop them.
Okay, I figured it out. The Commenter, you were having the same problem.
Turns out you're wearing a watch that you need to drop.
How the hell was I suppose to know I was wearing a watch?
Danielle - Shade has already been reviewed here. I agree, it's a great one.
I liked this one, although there were some parts that just didn't make sense.
I was about to give up when I tried "get form" on the off chance. Lo and behold, it worked!
Magically appearing items do not make for a good IF.
apparently there's a fourth ending (noted by two others):
also, you can drive other objects. And apparently anything you can take can be put into the wallet, but not used if it's in there. This may be causing some of the problems others had with driving the car
9:05 is good, but Lock and Key is even better (same author). It has a twist beginning rather than a twist ending, and after that it takes the form of a Goldbergian extended puzzle - I can't really say more without spoiling it! Varicella is also very good.
Architechtonic -
I tried walking or running away, but, while it prompts you to give it a compass direction, it tells you there is no way to go in any of the directions you name. I was hoping to find a fifth ending. DARN!
I agree, though, for those of us who don't play these because of the unwritten rules--it would have been nice to know about "inventory." I almost stopped playing when I couldn't get in the damn shower because I had no idea I was wearing a watch and there were no directions on how to figure that out. I had to come back here to the discussion to figure it out. That's not good design.
Thankfully my instinctive "Drop all" seemed to work - although I had to do it more than once.
Interesting ending, but veery limited, and makes you do every menial step (when you ask to take a shower, most would normally automatically drop clothes and such - same with front door) - and very limiting in what you're allowed to do (What if I don't want to wear clothes today?)
try kissing and looking at myself
Chris:
Typing "get up" will get you out of bed.
This game would be much improved by better inference, better plausibility checking, and some help in-game. It seems odd to me that this is written in Inform, as those are all things Inform makes fairly easy.
While it might otherwise make a lovely introduction to IF, as it stands it seems to me to serve only to
1 deliver its little 5-minute story
2 amuse experienced players with its plausibility failures
3 frustrate newer players
and 2 and 3 seem to me to get entirely in the way of 1.
Could be pretty nice with a spot more polish; I'm off to play one of Mr. Cadre's newer works, in hopes of finding fewer quirks.
This game was horrible for me. No need for spoilers here. This was posted earlier:"For those of you stuck in the bedroom, try your normal morning activities (some of the things can be done at night too)."
Brush teeth [That verb is not recognized]
Take shower Use shower get shower get in shower [That object is either not here or not important]
The only thing I was able to do: Answer phone remove clothes - found hint above.
Quit game [That was understood only as far as wanting to quit]
Shutup [That verb is not recognized]
Shut up That is not something you can close.
Quit Are you sure you want to quit?
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
Discovered that you have to put in "directions" - north south east west, you have to not be in bed when you go a direction. do not pick up possessions before --going to bathroom, even if you put them back down, the game still thinks you have them. to much experimental typing. And this is a short game??? Only because I quit.
I can understand the frustration you must have felt while playing this game if you're only familiar with graphical adventures.
Text adventures are old-school, you really have to put yourself in a different frame of mind with them.
Once familiar with that mindset, however, they can be much more rewarding than your average escape-the-room game out there today.
Hello all
Im throwing a little support for the developer
It was my first text adventure, but i found it quite motivating
Most of it is logical, you are not going to take a shower with a wallet, etc! I immediately found the inventory, maybe i was lucky?
And stop complaining that it's too short, i'm sure its not as easy as it seems to write a game like that. and the scenario is short but oh-so clever :)
A pleasant experience, thanks Jay
Camille
PS to the guy who was asking why he was only getting text.. in a text adventure? ;)
funny you can take the cubilc eand drop it anywhere, say in the house, and it stays there. You sen it in the description of the room, can enter it.. lol
Useless verbs :
think
jump
lock
kill
kill myself
kiss
eat (except pop-tart)
drink
sleep
Text games are like Dungeons and Dragons, or radio plays: it helps if you imagine the scene as if there were graphics, which involves reading carefully and thinking about the information revealed to you.
They tend to be more rewarding in the ways that pencil-and-paper RPGs are over console and computer ones: One, you get rewarded or treated for doing little silly things you wouldn't do normally; and Two, you never have to complain about bad graphics and how ugly or improbable the rooms look.
I just wanted to say that I really liked this game but I did have the exact same problem I've seen others having where the game froze on me after the car started. The text bar disappears and the only thing you can do is start all over. I don't know if it matters or if it affected anything but I typed 'take car' just out of curiousity and it let me, then I typed 'get in car' and it told me I unlocked the door, got in and started the car and that's when it froze. xD
I was hoping there'd be a grue, or at least a lantern!
Anyway...
Shortcuts for the new:
i is for inventory
x is for examine
l is for look
n, s, e, w for compass directions (in some games u or d...)
verbose = will give you full descriptions of each room without looking.
wait = works when driving and makes time pass
stand = will get you outta bed.
That was my first text-adventure game, and it was a refreshing change of pace from the old point-and-click routine.
To whoever asked if anyone looked under the bed -
Can someone PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make a FULL walkthrough? I want to like this game, but the commands are impossible to figure out.
Oh, erk...
it's a pretty interesting game...although it lacks any real gameplay. really good twist at the end especially if you didn't think to look under your bed or in the trunk or put two and two together when it said there was no t.v.
I feel smart now, because I
I'm old enough to remember getting excited over text adventures as high-tech alternatives to Choose-your-own-adventures. After spending many years playing RTS, RPG's, FPS's, I'm excited to replay Zork with my girlfriend. Text adventures offer a distinctive mood, tone, intimacy.
Well, the twist is fantastic, and the game is nice for a bite-sized diversion, but it is quite unpolished.
Architectonic/Jay -
(1) you can't sit in/on/at the desk, only the cubicle
(2) you can look at the desk if you're not sitting down, but there's no mention of the items on top of it
(3) you can take the form, pen, note without sitting down, hence without being able to see them.
So, I also had the experience of having items appear out of thin air. My searching around gave me the impression that the desk was bare.
On a side note, it's amusing that trying to take the desk returns, "That's not portable", but I can take the cubicle with desk attached (and put it in my wallet, etc.)
Walkthrough:
1. Get on the news and get arrested
2. Die in a car crash
3. Leave Las Mesas
And for fun, when you're in the bedroom, you can:
x guy
>take car
Taken
>sit in car
You unlock the car door, climb inside, and start the engine.
Game freezes.
So everyone, there's a lesson to be learned here: Do not carry your car and and get in at the same time. Not that that's even possible. Or, do not ever try to get into something you're carrying. Then again, never try to carry your car in the first place.
What a plot twist! I wish there were more commands - like, "Slide form under door", or, "Knock on door," or, "Call police". That would have been great... Oooh, or "Burn house", or "eat corpse" or "Walk to work"... Oh, or "Dress corpse", "bar door"... "Take house..." Put *metal object* in toaster...
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