Because I promised you some Aber-nostalgia.
Do you remember the RockMonkey Wiki? Many years ago, Ruth bought the domain name rockmonkey.org.uk as a gift for Andy K, who’d been nicknamed “Rock Monkey” for longer than anybody could remember. He decided that what he wanted to host there was a wiki engine, and I helped him get one set up. Soon, every Abnibber and Troma Night veteran was using it, filling the pages with all kinds of junk.
Soon, Jon launched the wiki’s first WikiGame: a maze exploration game using littered with Dungeon Master Java screenshots and monsters aplenty (monsters like Tubgirl and Lesbians and The Splurg). This kicked off a series of other WikiGames, mostly by Jon, Andy R, and myself (although Andy K started about a dozen of them and Ruth got some way through developing her first).
My biggest contribution was probably TromaNightAdventure, a text-based adventure in which the player attempts to explore Aberystwyth to collect (at least) three Troma Night stars, some pizza, some beer, and some films. It was an epic quest, far larger than I’d meant for it to grow, with multiple non-linear ways to win and a scoring system that told you exactly by how much you’d beaten it (some, but few, people managed to score the maximum number of points).
The screenshot above isn’t from the RockMonkey Wiki. It’s from my relaunched version of Troma Night Adventure. That’s right: I’ve dug up the final backup of the RockMonkey Wiki, extracted the relevant content, knocked together a mini version of the wiki engine and the WikiGameToolkit, and re-launched the game. It’s read-only, of course: this isn’t a real wiki; the real wiki is long-gone. But it does have a few extra features than the original, like a pictorial inventory and a nippy Ajax-powered interface. If you’re looking for some nostalgia about the old RockMonkey Wiki or about Troma Nights back in Aberystwyth, here’s your ticket:
- Go play Troma Night Adventure 2.0 (now with features!)
Just had a go myself, and I was impressed at how much I remembered: 177/180 points.
What are the odds of a similar revamp of ‘The Revenge of Zanatoth’?
@Andy: Can be done! The principle is much the same, although Zanatoth, if anything, ought to be easier on account of the fact that it didn’t overly-abuse the WikiGameToolkit features (although it’ll of course be harder for me to bug-test, on account of the fact that I didn’t write it).
I’ll put it on my list and get back to you when I need your help: if you want it to happen, it can!
Damn you!
Just seen this and have to go to work now.
Maybe while the kids are doing a test…..
Just noticed the options in that screengrab. Was it always thus, or is that a sly appearance of my new favourite in joke?
@Ruth: It was always thus – it’s actually a Monkey Island reference. However, I don’t deny that I chose this particular scene for the screenshot, in part, as a result of our most-recent in-joke.