Ray Dunakin and the World Builder experience

World Builder was a Macintosh game design suite that was quite popular in the early 90’s. Though the engine is now discontinued, it gave birth to a series of excellent shareware adventure games. Ray Dunakin is the designer responsible for three first-person adventure games using the World Builder engine: A Mess O’ Trouble, Another Fine Mess, and Twisted!. Unlike Cliff Johnson and his metapuzzle adventures, Dunakin’s games are more reminiscent of first-person adventures we’ve seen for the PC. But with such incredibly crazy worlds, a distinctive artistic style, and oodles of inventory management, Ray Dunakin’s shareware masterpieces separate themselves from the pack. They are still beloved by much of the Macintosh gaming community today.

Twisted! in particular stands out as a highlight of the three games. While A Mess O’ Trouble and Another Fine Mess are strictly black-on-white endeavors, Twisted! was re-released in full-screen color in 1999 as Twisted! Deluxe. The narrative is both entertaining and hilarious: you are a tornado chaser transported into the land of Ooz during a particularly nasty experiment. The world parodies that of The Wizard of Oz with a twist: the game was released during the 1996 United States presidential election. Jabs at Bill Clinton, Colin Powell, and George Bush Sr. are included to great effect. Though the political satire somewhat dates the game, Twisted! remains astoundingly fresh. The clean hand-drawn visuals look similar to those of such PC titles as Dare to Dream, though Dunakin’s artistic merit and frenetic worlds set his games apart..

From A Mess O’ Trouble to Twisted!, Ray Dunakin almost single-handedly popularized the World Builder development suite with his successful trio of first-person adventures over the course of the 90’s. If you enjoy unique worlds and don’t mind emphatic satire, these titles are worth any gamer’s salt.

Dunakin’s games are freely available at his website.

Andrew Plotkin’s System’s Twilight

Every great puzzle in a game has an even greater mastermind behind it, and System’s Twilight is no exception. Its designer, Andrew Plotkin is a worshipped figure in the Interactive Fiction (IF) community, with impressive works as Spider and Web and Shade. Lesser-known (unfortunately) was Plotkin's 1995 venture into adventure games, an endearing puzzle-adventure called System’s Twilight.

System’s Twilight is a standalone Macintosh adventure that unites the computer metapuzzles of Cliff Johnson fame with an entertaining nonlinear storyline. Chock-full of unique puzzles, the game follows the story of a neophyte piece of data in an abstract computer world where programs are characters to be conversed with. While System’s Twilight is hereditary of Cliff Johnson’s metapuzzle adventures, it brings to the table some much-needed nonlinearity as well as a stronger narrative.



The graphics in System’s Twilight are simple bits of 2D shapes and polygons, but the puzzles and gameplay more than make up for the lack of visuals. The game synthesizes abstract puzzle-solving into an adventure game to great effect, and none of the puzzles ever feel hackneyed or forced. Plotkin notes on his website that “as far as I know, all twelve kinds of puzzles are original.” Finishing System’s Twilight is a rewarding experience in terms of both adventuring and puzzle-solving. Chances are, you haven’t played anything like it before.

For those who find the metapuzzles of Johnson too difficult or the zany worlds of Ray Dunakin too overwhelming, Twilight is a great game that combines both extremes. Plus, System’s Twilight is no longer shareware and is free for all to download at Plotkin’s website.

An Apple a day…

If you have been acclimatized to PC adventures for far too long, think about venturing outside of the box into the world of Macintosh shareware. These games by Cliff Johnson, Ray Dunakin, and Andrew Plotkin are all hidden gems. While easy to overlook because of their original platform, these games are all well-thought, cohesive adventures, filled with a vast array of original puzzles and worlds to explore. I heartily recommend them to any adventure gamer regardless of his or her favorite operating system.