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	[quote name="Ice Cream Jonsey"]86. Counterfeit Monkey Creator: Emily Short Genre: Text Adventure Year: 2012 Platforms: Inform 7 (<a href="https://www.ifwiki.org/Z-code_interpreters">Interpreters</a> for Inform 7 are available for almost everything. It's not really possible to say it was released on one system like MacOS first.) <a href="https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=aearuuxv83plclpl">Interactive Fiction Database link</a> Available through: <a href="https://github.com/i7/counterfeit-monkey">Github</a> The (initial) premise of the game is that you have a device. You have a plastic device about the size of a laser pointer that can be waved at things and remove a letter. Then the thing becomes its new name. You can set it to things and you get it right away. I am just looking around my room for examples that are not in the game. I see a disk. You could set it to remove the letter d. Your disk becomes isk. That's the unit of currency in Eve Online. Okay, maybe a better idea is changing a drum into rum. That kind of thing. This is the work of an author at the top of her craft. You get a visual, handmade map at all times, you get the ability to use the >GO TO shortcut (which we will see in another text game as well later). Early on, there is a section where you have to unlock a door and go through it, after you do some work to get a code. Games with a <a href="https://www.caltrops.com/pointy.php?action=viewPost&pid=129991">budget much, much larger than Counterfeit Monkey</a> screw up the playability of codes and doors, but I was even momentarily surprised by how easy it was. I got to feel clever for getting the code then used it with so much ">unlock door". DOORS are no longer interesting things for text games to do, this was handled by a professional. It's easy for me to not worry too much that I am too stupid for these things when the game realizes that we're not going to let a locked door stop the player. <img src="https://www.caltrops.com/images/top100/counterfeitMonkey01.jpg"> I like that we get the "cool thing" in the game right at the start (the letter-removing machine). I was wondering how many games so far give you the "cool thing" off the bat. Most do! You have to go get the Master Sword in Zelda, you have to walk forward a bit to get the dagger-throwing power in Devil Daggers. But other than that, you can play Pebble Beach right away in Links, you can throw papers from the start in Paperboy. There are other really cool things in Counterfeit Monkey, but the length is not padded by having you go get the letter-removing device, we start- is this in medias res??? I tried many, many games to make this list; one other similar contender was the graphical text adventure <a href="https://strandgames.com/magnetic-scrolls/theguild">Guild of Thieves</a>. Look, Guild of Thieves is a great game. But playing it again, they didn't implement <i>anything</i> from the start, when you are on the jetty. It is really, really sparse. And it was released in 1987 on 3.5" floppies. They had room. It wasn't them "being lazy," it was a decision. The invitation of the text adventure is that <b>></b> prompt. Teasingly saying "type anything, I can handle it." And of course, you are meant to think that when the game says "I don't see any such thing," you are being given information, it's information that you can ignore it. So I think that what I like best about Counterfeit Monkey is that sense of wonder. I read the text for CM in a way I don't know if I do with other text adventure games because it invites not just the prompt, but the device that can turn anything into something else. I'm looking at the word "ticket" in the screenshot attacked and I am adding letters to the word in order to see if it spells anything, so I might make my ticket. Or maybe we need to go find it?? Let's go on an adventure! [/quote]