Sunday, November 16, 2008

Morgie's Lost Writings

Come on, admit it. You do it too, don't you? I'm convinced that everyone googles themselves at one time or another. I probably do it at least a couple of times a year. I search on Morgana, the handle under which I used to freelance for Computer Games Strategy Plus as well as under which I wrote reviews and walkthrus to upload to the Gamers' Forum on CompuServe. It was also my handle for sysoping in some of the TEG forums on CIS. I also search on Morgie, a short form of that handle someone gave me as a nickname (amusing to have a nickname of a nickname), and of course, I search on my real name in its various permutations.

When I search on Morgana, I'm feeling nostalgic about my hard core gaming days and I can take a bit of a stumble down memory lane as my alter ego lives on in acknowledgements on user created DOOM and Heretic levels here, here, and here, a Gamers' Forum transcript of a conference with Origin around the time Ultima 8: Pagan was about to be released, and the once famous-in-Gamers' Lehua's Myst EndGamers Wall of Honor. Some of my gaming-related writings are still available on the web as well. My walkthru of a 1990s era graphic adventure games, Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within from Sierra is available on a couple of web sites, although this appears to be the non-revised version and the original archive had several illustrations that apparently have not been preserved. My solution to the turtle bones puzzle in The Dig, a graphic adventure from LucasArts, is available too. Until recently I was also able to find my walkthru for The Dig on the web. My hint file for getting past the search light puzzle in Noctropolis from Electronic Arts also survived. I had uploaded these only to the CIS Gamers' Forum and I note that none of the sites to which I've linked here ever asked my permission to put these files up, nor did any of the folks who decided to upload them. I would have appreciated the courtesy of a request for permission which is why I put a copyright notice on the files. But I forgive everyone -- for the simple reason that these are now the only copies I can find of these pieces.

It's surprising to me that these are available after all this time and I was lucky to be able to capture copies. When I think back to all the work I put into these, it's nice to know they had some staying power. I did most of my gaming-related writing in or around 1995, and the games I wrote about are the sort that you have to use a program like DOSBOX to run now. The hint files have likely outlasted the useful life of the games, for the most part.

I'd dutifully copied all of my collected gaming works from computer to computer every time I upgraded for years, but I must have made the determination at some point to let my gaming material go. Maybe when I was making a rather half-hearted attempt to become a writer of literary fiction. Maybe when I was pregnant. I can't now recall, but I regret having lost them.

I know it is a long shot, but if anyone out there from the old CIS days or otherwise still has any of my stuff, please drop a line and let me know as I'd love to get copies. I found a hard copy of my review of Merchant Prince, but I am missing: walkthrus of Ripper (this was a huge document as I recall and was uploaded to CompuServe in two archives, I believe it also had accompanying graphics files) and Johnny Mnemonic, and reviews of Dreamweb, Noctropolis, Sim Health (as I recall this one, I did it in play form with the characters being Hillary and Bill Clinton), Millenium Auction, Bad Mojo and Syndicate. If there were others, I'm now not recalling what they were. But I'd love to be reunited with any or all of them, so if you can help please let me know and I'll be your best friend.

Pinky swear.

**Morgana**

3 comments:

XyzzySqrl said...

Hey. Found this site googling for your walkthroughs. That Gabe Knight 2 one was my absolutely -favorite- piece of game writing for a long time, just being so darn fun to read. Did you ever get any of those other old files back?

xyzzysqrl@gmail.com

**Morgana** said...

Hey, thanks for writing and for the kind words. No, never did get the others back, though I remain hopeful! And sorry it took me so long to write back, I've been on hiatus from the blog, as you can probably tell....

Kevin Clarke said...

Hi from Canada! I doubt that you ever even look at this site any more but on the off chance that you do, I want to thank you for your walkthroughs for GK2 and the dig. It was like playing along with a friend from school that would compare progress in the games at breaktime and give out hints or solutions to frustrating puzzles. I used your GK2 walkthru in 2014 and your Dig one in 2015. These games are still sold through sites like gog.com (goodoldgames.com) so your walkthrus are still being useful. Again I'd like to tell you how much I enjoyed playing alongside your 1995 self.
P.S. The dig walktru can be found at http//www.mogelpower.de/cheats/loesung.php?id=5479
P.P.S. I really liked reading the rest of your blog.