It is not the policy or the wish of the Church to interfere with the Governors of the temporal World. But when those charged with the Welfare of God's Citizens use their Positions to endorse the cause of Sin; when the Land itself blackens under the touch of a cruel Master; then are there rectifying Steps which must be taken and edifying Precedents which may be studied. Consider, for instance, the strange Case of the Baron par Tiller...

Degeneracy

by Leonard Richardson
Released 30 March 2001

Current version: 0.51
Download: Z-Code file Inform source code

Spoiler Update 20010623: Read the Postmortem, or see the completed fixed bugs list.

Note: There's been a report of 0.51 causing errors in DOS versions of frotz.
Please let me know if you have a DOS or Windows box and are willing to help debug.

About Degeneracy Degeneracy is a text adventure of the old school, written in the style of the very old school; eighteenth century or thereabouts. There are several main puzzles which tie into the plot, but not all of them can be solved by merely moving objects around the game world. It will take perserverence and skepticism to uncover the mystery at the game's heart. There's also a pig in it, and everyone loves pigs. About the Author A person named Leonard Richardson, whom it is unlikely you have ever met, is the author of this game. He has certain physical properties and mental states. It is rumored that he experiences qualia, though this has yet to be verified. If you like this game, it is iffy whether or not you will like my previous contribution to the IF genre, Guess The Verb! (and vice versa if you like Guess The Verb!). Note that neither Degeneracy nor Guess The Verb! are recommended as first games for people unfamiliar with interactive fiction. Credits I'd like to thank my army of beta testers: Mike Popovic, Cedric Knight, Kevin Maples, Pete Peterson II, Nick Moffitt, Ben Collins-Sussman, and Mike Sussman. They collectively sent me billions of bugs which I dutifully fixed, tried stupid things which were often not so stupid and ought to have actually worked, and tested the game on many more platforms and many more interpreters than I would have had the patience to do. Reporting Bugs If you've found a bug in Degeneracy, let me know about it so I can fix it. My email address is leonardr@segfault.org. Before sending me your bug report, please make sure your version of the game is up to date and check the lists of fixed and open bugs. Do note that the bug lists contain immense spoilers. Feelies Pictures: See! Nick Moffitt blasted by the awesome power of Degeneracy!* *Picture may have been extensively doctored. Spoilers: If you are absolutely sick of Degeneracy and all it stands for, and/or you want all the secrets of the game laid bare to you, simply download and read the source code. This will spoil you far more effectively than any text document I could write explaining the game to you. In fact, you could probably successfully spoil yourself completely just by reading the bug lists. Postmortem: A window on the development of and motivations behind the game.