The Sweet Old Mr. Plimpton's Last Performance.

Today we are going in a different direction from my previous posts. "Mr. Plimpton's Revenge", "The Sweet Old Etcetera", and "The Last Performance" do not fall into your cookie cutter types of Interactive Fiction.

"Mr. Plimpton's Revenge" is a type of Interactive Fiction that utilizes Google Maps and several websites to show you the path that the author takes on his journey. He uses fifteen different entries each happening in different locations. Many of these locations are in the Pittsburgh area but some are in Harrisburg, New York, and Baltimore. Throughout the entries he posts the websites, phone numbers, pictures, or addresses of the locations that the event occurred.

The story of "Mr. Plimpton's Revenge" begins at the University of Pittsburgh campus travels to many different places. The author starts by acting as a chauffeur for Mr. Plimpton and ends up meeting him in many unlikely places. The author also seems to be a bit of a drug user. Honestly, I would love to hear the story of when they dropped acid in Chinatown and rode to the top of the World Trade Center.

The other two pieces of Interactive Fiction that I looked at were "The Sweet Old Etcetera" and "The Last Performance." In my opinion, both of these pieces should be generalized as art more so than literature or Interactive Fiction. "The Last Performance" had more text but, from my experience, the wording was rather nonsensical and I could not determine any sort of plot. The whole experience was set up like a dance. I also could not determine when this piece ended. It seems to continuously repeat. On the other hand, "The Sweet Old Etcetera" was setup to look like a painting. The further one goes the more beautiful the painting becomes. This one also was hard to follow. See below for a sample of this piece.

Of the three pieces I definitely enjoyed "Mr. Plimpton's Revenge" the most. I still think the others were good; I personally enjoyed the artistic part of them but the literary aspect had me lost.



Sample of "The Sweet Old Etcetera"