Shade -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author(s): Andrew Plotkin Genre: Travel Language: en First Publication Date: 2000 License: Freeware Rating: 4.0 (based on 425 ratings) ABOUT THE STORY "A one-room game set in your apartment." [--blurb from Competition Aught-Zero] EXTERNAL LINKS shade.z5 Requires a Z-Code interpreter[1] Shade-R3.hqx shade.z5 original competition entry Requires a Z-Code interpreter[1] shade-src.tar.Z NightFloyd transcript (2014) ClubFloyd transcript (2014) ClubFloyd transcript (2021) Walkthrough by David Welbourn TVTropes page EDITORIAL REVIEWS Play This Thing! Avert Your Eyes > Shade is one of those classics that get recommended anytime anyone > recommends any IF to newcomers: it's brief, disquieting, ambiguous, > memorable without being especially difficult. It offers an interaction style > too guided and fluid to be called "puzzly", and which probably belongs in > some other category. It threatens one's ideas of the relationship between > the player and the protagonist. It has entered the canon, as far as > interactive fiction has one. Adventure Gamers > It's "a one-room game set in your apartment" that starts off light enough, > and slowly devolves into an absolutely disturbing masterpiece with an ending > that will leave you stunned—and immediately desiring a replay. [...] Suffice > it to say that Plotkin is a master of messing with your head, and this short > work, to me, is his greatest masterpiece in that regard. Gaming Enthusiast > Do you want to play a creepy and ambiguous game that will mess with your > brain? No better choice than Andrew Plotkin’s Shade (2000). International Business Times > The solid, algorithmic world of standard text-based games is turned into > something more wobbly; after enough weirdness it starts to feel like > anything could happen in Shade and that drums up the scare factor. Jay Is Games > What starts off as usual and ordinary soon develops into something quite > different. SPAG > I cannot, without revealing entirely too much about this game, explain to > you just what it was that had me raving about this game for two days > afterwards, including randomly piping up with a particular rant that would, > again, spoil things. Let me just assure you that this is the case: for two > days, I was so haunted by this game that it was constantly in my head, > teasing me... waiting for me in the darkness. In the shadows. > > In the Shade. SynTax > I looked around for a while, became thirsty and managed to sate my thirst, > but was still none the wiser as to what my objective was. >INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction > Quite simply, it blew me away. Not only that, it's one of those games that I > wanted to restart right after I'd finished, just to try different things. > When I did this, even more details came together in my head. Even now, > little pieces are snapping together in my mind, and I'm getting flashes of > realization about the meanings behind the meanings of so many of the game's > elements. Few parts of the IF experience are as startling or as pleasurable. ferkung Shade (2000) by Andrew Plotkin - Full Playthrough > A full playthrough of the surrealistic Shade by Andrew Plotkin. REFERENCES [1]