Archived News - 2006

18 December 2006

Malinche Means Business

First -- You Can Bank On Us.

Official as of today, Bank of America has extended to Malinche a credit facility Malinche may draw upon whenever senior management deems necessary.

"The biggest bank in the United States cast a vote of confidence in Malinche, the world's only publisher of interactive fiction." said Malinche's Chairman & CEO Howard A. Sherman. "This emerging relationship is certain to be mutually beneficial as Malinche forges ahead with delivering some of the finest interactive fiction books in the world just as Bank of America runs one of the finest bank institutions in the world. Clearly, Bank of America sees the synergies between our two companies." the world's last Implementor added.

"While we plan to fund our ongoing expansion with cash, access to this credit line gives us the flexibility we need to make any move we want whenever we want to." Sherman concluded.

Second -- We Grow On You.

Admiral Sherman Calls For Reinforcements as Growth Explodes

Please extend a warm welcome to Megan Sullivan, Colette Lupo and Jessica Matyi who will be joining the Malinche team effective December 19th, 2006.

"The way Malinche handles telephone inquiries from present and future customers always bothered me." Sherman stated in a reflective tone."I've been grappling with the problem of how to handle Malinche's phone systems for months.  I salute our Director of Sales, Jimmy Polanco, for lending some serious input that led to this shift in strategy.  I must also salute Malinche's chief engineer Michael Ferrador for his valuable input in assessing the merits of the new systems.  That just left the question of WHO would answer the phones.  Shit, I've grabbed the phone a couple of dozen times myself in just the past month!" the Implementor added testily.

"We're rolling out new technology and new people to deliver the best customer service in the adventure game business!" Sherman proclaimed.

"After extensive executive review, I've concluded that  Colette, Megan and Jessica will collectively make a valuable contribution to the customer experience Malinche delivers." Mister Sherman added. "Right on the heels of the sweeping upgrades we've made to our technologies is the more important upgrade in human potential Malinche employs. Offshore outsourcing, which is sadly so popular these days, was never on the table.  All of these girls are American girls working for Malinche, an American company.  They are worth every penny we pay.  And more." Sherman added. "Malinche will never seek talent overseas if such talent is available here in America or within the borders of our closest neighbors in Canada and the United Kingdom" Grandmaster Sherman proclaimed.

Jessica, Colette and Megan passed every test Howard threw at them.  Even the spiked egg nog test.  Grandmaster Sherman's secret recipe for spiked egg nog has been known to send professional football players staggering for the exit. The girls soldiered on bravely earning their battlefield commissions.

Malinche's Interactive fiction fans will be at least as impressed as Howard was.

1 December 2006

Addendum to Project Blackbird

It seems that the folks over at Battlestar Galactica love history at least as much as our resident Implementor.  Howard got that nagging feeling he usually gets when he feels something is incomplete. This motivated him to do some additional research on the history of the Blackbird.

It turns out that the original Blackbird was, in fact, a high speed and high altitude plane ordered by the United States Air Force in the 1960s at the height of the cold war.   The planes are jet black, can fly as high as 85,000 feet and can achieve speeds in excess of Mach 3.2.

While no Blackbirds are in the air today, they remain the most capable aircraft in the world.

What's the connection? Malinche's Project Blackbird is flying high on progress, going faster than any other project in the company's history and will yield impressive results that will only be seen after the mission passed.

Bloody uncanny, don't you think?

17 November 2006

Project Blackbird

Let's just come out and say it: No new Pentari text adventure games this Christmas.

Why? We can't exactly say.  All we can say right now is that Howard has been recruited to head up a very special research project for one of the big three television networks. Since our cherished Implementor is a very serious Battlestar Galactica fan (old series and new series) he decided to dub this venture "Project Blackbird". When we make the full announcement that name will make a whole lot of sense to you.  We promise. Even if you never saw a single episode of Battlestar Galactica in your whole life. (But if you haven't you really should.  That show is OFF THE HOOK!)

Project Blackbird may well dwarf The Matawan Project in scope.  It's that important.

Project Blackbird  involves a new TV show premiering in January and a series of text adventure games that will accompany the show.  Each week as an episode airs, a corresponding Malinche mini text adventure game mirroring the show will be available for download. Cool idea, right?

The entire Malinche team has been putting in seven day work weeks and Howard has written an all new text adventure game prototype as a "proof of concept" for this new TV show. Sorry for the delay on Christmas guys but, if this project is successful, interactive fiction and text adventure games will be back in the spotlight in a way not seen since the Infocom days. Hoorah!

The holiday shopping season is still coming and even though Pentari: Second Dawn and Pentari: The Apprentice won't be on sale, we're still getting ready.  Doubtless, all present and future fans of Malinche interactive fiction will be delighted with these achievements...

• After purchasing any of our titles, you will now be greeted with a much friendlier and much more helpful download screen.  A lot of you have given us feedback that has helped us greatly improve the digital delivery of our text adventure games. Your shopping experience with Malinche is now greatly enhanced. Thank you for your patience and your excellent feedback.

• An updated version of Greystone, our interactive crime fiction title, was released last week.  Several small bugs and a few oversights have been corrected.  This new updated version has already been sent to all of our registered customers.

• The First Mile has also been updated with just two bug corrections (although one of them is a doozy!).  This updated version will be released this weekend.

• The installers for the Windows version of all of our iPod games have been overhauled.  Now it's even easier and faster than ever and fully compatible with iTunes 7. New installers are online now.

• The Apple Macintosh iPod game installers are almost done.  Finally, installing our iPod games are on your Mac will be as easy as installing them with a PC. We expect to have them online early next week.

• All Malinche games are being repackaged with snazzy desktop icons, new installer technology and updated with the latest versions of all of our titles. This is a natural complement to the enhanced digital delivery experience.

• Our blind customers will be delighted to learn that we are also packaging new interactive fiction installers tailor-made just for them.  Malinche games are now truly accessible games thanks to our  development of customized installers for our blind customers.  We are making a special accessible edition of all of our titles for Windows customers prepackaged with Frotz TTS.  No more extra downloads and no longer will our blind customers have to fiddle with extra installations and custom settings. Blind text adventure game players who own Macs are not missing out on anything; all Macs can read text as a native feature of the operating system so there's no need to customize our Mac installers. Go Steve! Go Woz!

• As a salute to the very origins of interactive fiction, we are now hosting a faithful re-creation of the Original Adventure game as well as a faithful translation of Scott Adam's first text adventure game - Adventureland.  Both of these titles are giants in the world of interactive fiction and are considered largely responsible for the birth of text adventure games each in their own way. You can enjoy them right now at our Online Game Launch Center over at http://www.malinche.net/demos/ While you're there you can enjoy some Malinche interactive fiction too.

While Howard will be writing Interactive Fiction straight through the holidays from Thanksgiving right on through to New Year's, the Malinche team itself will be slowing down a bit. But just a bit.

21 October 2006

Goodbye CPI?

Except for our iPod games, all of our titles have increased in price by $5.00 as of today. Digital delivery interactive fiction titles are now $24.95 and folio editions are now $34.95 plus shipping. Pricing on our iPod games might be next in line for an increase.

Why?

Because after more then three years in business Howard, his accountants and his director of sales have all concluded that, all things considered, we have been giving away our text adventure games at the old prices. 

Relative to other computer games and hardback fiction books on the market today, Malinche interactive fiction titles were a steal at $19.95-$29.95.

With the new price points our text adventure games are now considered to be merely "way less money than the alternatives out there" instead of being "a jaw-dropping bargain".

All kidding aside, our interactive fiction titles are still a seriously good deal if you stop and thing about it...

6 October 2006

Interactive Fiction or Fiction Books?

Thanks to our new affiliation with Amazon.Com you can have it all -- right here on the Malinche website.

Now available through our online store is your gateway to tens of thousands of titles in classic and modern literature, every genre of fiction and even cookbooks, travel guides and every other kind of book you can think of.

Whenever you're hankering for something new to read -- anything at all -- you need only surf to our website and pick up your next book.

26 September 2006

Batten Down the Hatches!

With Apple's own entry into the iPod Games market earlier this month, interest and demand for iPod games altogether has exploded like never before. A torrential storm of new interest in iPod games had threatened to crash our servers!

Admiral Sherman has ordered additional resources to reinforce Malinche's web servers to keep them humming as we serve iPod games and related information to a flood of new consumers interested in our titles.

Sales this year seem to be at a neck-and-neck tie between our iPod games and our interactive fiction titles.

What is certain thus far is that year-to-date sales in 2006 have shattered all previous records.

Thank you everybody!

1 September 2006

A Triumphant Return

Malinche's Interactive Fiction Affiliate Program is back on the air.  After a hiatus of several months the program is back and better than ever.

Now we offer a straight 10% commission on every sale made starting from day 1, real-time reporting and monthly pay outs.

Sign up for the Malinche affiliate program over here.

Jimmy Polanco, Malinche's director of sales, will be supervising the program  If you have any questions about the program just send him an email.

8 August 2006

On the Air... in Delaware

A feature shining the spotlight on Implementor Howard Sherman's interactive fiction titles slipped past us on July 11th. We finally caught this nifty piece which you can read here.

July 20, 2006

Malinche is in the Top Ten

According to statistics released by Nielsen Bookscan, the foremost authority on fiction and non fiction book sales across all mediums, three of Malinche's four interactive fiction titles outperformed 90% of all books published in 2005 in terms of sales figures.

"This is a tremendous achievement." Howard Sherman, Malinche CEO and resident interactive fiction writer stated. "Malinche was barely on anyone's radar screen in 2004 and  just one year later three of our four interactive fiction titles rocketed up the ladder outselling over 1,000,000 titles that were published last year." The interactive fiction Implementor paused for a moment before adding "We're well on course to beating last year's sales figures handily."

Which of our four fiction titles didn't break out of the pack?  "Endgame." Sherman stated. "It's a very misunderstood title which is really a shame because I think it's one of the best techno thrillers to hit the scene in years."

July 11, 2006

A Report from the Fiction Lab at Malinche

One of our internal servers, Pegasus, has been participating in the Windows Vista beta test program for just about a month.  All Malinche titles have been played on Pegasus running Windows Frotz and DOS Frotz under the new Windows Vista for hours on end with no crashes or side effects. Imagine getting a paycheck for playing interactive fiction titles.  What a dream job, eh?

The redoubtable Mr. Michael Ferrador, Malinche's chief engineer, is very near to completing the Apple OS X version of our iPod game installer.  Stay tuned for more!

June 20, 2006

A Walk in the Park

David Willis of the Asbury Park Press has written a top-shelf article featured  on the front page of today's edition that documents Malinche's rise from a wisp of a dream in 1997 to a profitable company in 2005.

You can read the excellent article here.

June 14, 2006

All Alone

Director of Sales James Polanco has discovered that Malinche's only competitor in the iPod Games market, XO Play, has seemingly disappeared.  Their website offering iPod games (at higher prices than Malinche's titles, we might add) had been malfunctioning.  Now it's completely different and there is no trace of iPod games to be found on their website.

Now we're not only the world's only publisher of professional interactive fiction, we are also the world's only publisher of professional iPod games.

We don't mind one bit.

June 5, 2006

Full Speed Ahead

No more cryptic directions or multiple steps of technical wizardry. As promised, the Windows version of our iPod games installer is ready.  It's already being distributed to all new customers who purchase any of our iPod games.  We'll be broadcasting the new installers to all registered customers as soon as the Mac version is ready.... in just a few days.  Why the delay? Howard doesn't want to bomb people with too much email.

For those who don't wish to wait just email support@malinche.net and request your copy now.  You'll be astonished to see your iPod games install in 30-40 seconds with just four or five mouse clicks.

Grandmaster Sherman is Back in the Saddle and Rides Again!

Now firmly ensconced in the role of dad to his two month old daughter Milana, Howard has adapted to this massive change in his life and he's getting his groove back and writing every day.  Today he warmed up with The Apprentice and was spotted giggling as he walked down a corridor...

May 22, 2006

Exit...Stage Left.

Howard appears in an interesting article entitled "When Grups Attack" in the May17th edition of Exit Magazine.  Pick up your copy today.

Can't find a copy at your local newsstand? The entire article is here.

In other news....  Happy Birthday Sir Arthur Conan Doyle! Born this day in 1859.

April 19, 2006

This Just In...

Ms. Linda Kastiel Kozlowski has penned a superb piece on video game ratings and she showed exquisitely good judgment in consulting our own resident Implementor Howard Sherman for valuable information.

Look for Howard's appearance in the April/May edition of Village Family Magazine on newsstands now.

April 5, 2006

Dirty Little Secrets

We have to come clean.  There's just no keeping these secrets any more.

Howard is seriously late on Pentari: Second Dawn and Pentari: The Apprentice.

How late? The spring release date for both titles is scratched.  Summer is now more likely.

But why? Technical difficulties? Writer's block? Too much partying in Vegas?

No, no and kinda -- in that order.

There are two (three?) very important reasons why.  Much of what has transpired has been kept under wraps....until now. Howard's creativity still rules the roost at Malinche and he has concocted a devious means to convey Malinche's latest developments in keeping with the spirit of the season.

What season? Easter, of course! Christians and non-Christians alike are all invited to participate in Malinche's first ever Easter Egg Hunt! This Easter Egg Hunt is totally non-denominational and everyone who participates will have fun and get some cool free stuff in the process.

Now and in the days ahead, incredible eggs of information will be scattered all over this website which perfectly explains why our two latest titles will be late and how cool that really is.  (Yes, we said that being late on releasing titles is cool and we mean it.)

Are you up to challenge? Start your Easter Egg hunt now and you can win some seriously good cash and prizes.

From now through Easter we will be scattering updates across substantially all areas of the Malinche website....starting today.

Those who are fortunate enough to crack the code will walk away with neat prizes and giveaways.

What kind of giveaways? We can't say.  That would ruin the surprise.  But we'll tell you this much -- much more than free Malinche games are involved.

Check back daily and scour this website for any new eggs that appear.  One egg has been added tonight already....

March 8, 2006

Too Quiet for Too Long

(This update was made by Grandmaster Sherman personally)

It's Been A While.  Many Things Have Happened and There is Much to Say.

Please join me in a moment of silence for my cat Stanley who passed on the afternoon of February 25th, 2006.  Stanley was a cat like no other. I know everyone says that about their pet and everyone sincerely means it.  I am no exception and I hold to the belief that Stanley was a champion among cats the world over. (Fellow cat lovers please do not argue the point with me -- you already understand where I'm coming from....)

He's been my constant companion since the day I adopted him back in December 1999.  Actually, he adopted me.  I was living in my ultra-cool "Austin Powers"  bachelor pad at the time when Stanley decided to pop into my apartment as I returned from the unceremonious duty of throwing out the trash. He hasn't left the comforts of neither my hearth and home nor my side until he passed away to the other side just a couple of weeks ago.

Stanley is already immortal for it was he who makes a guest appearance in Greystone playing the role of Richard's favorite pet. ("ASK RICHARD ABOUT PET", "ASK RICHARD ABOUT STANLEY" etc. etc.)

I wrote Stanley in to the story after I discovered he was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2004 and given six months to live. He decided to beat all conventional medical records and lived two years longer than all experts expected him to.  He lived by his own rules and merely tolerated my parental-like supervision as he did his own thing for the most part. Fortunately, he ignored practically everything the doctors had to say as well.  And it's a good thing he did.

Here's a picture of Stanley standing by our front door waiting either for an arriving guest or the chance to leap outside for a brief excursion  through the neighborhood....

<sigh> On to other, brighter news...

Three Years Later...Malinche Enters the Third Age

Almost three years ago to the day, In March of 2003,  Pentari: First Light was born.  The launch of Release 1 of PFL was like fathering my first child;  I was very excited but had almost no idea what I was doing. The packing was very amateurish (but I thought it was pretty damned good at the time.), it had more bugs than I would have liked (well, that's still true of all the Release 1 titles I launch....) and I had no idea what to expect as 2003 progressed. This website looked practically amateurish and, looking back, I sometimes wonder how we made it this far considering Malinche's VERY humble origins.

Greystone came to be as a seed of an idea later in 2003 and I leaped on the project without fully knowing what to expect, which consumers to target and how to package the game.  I always loved mysteries.  And murder mysteries particularly intrigued me.  And the idea of staging a fictional murder mystery investigation at Greystone just sent me over the edge. My inspiration supplied all the answers and Greystone launched towards the end of the year. The packaging evolved.  So did the quality control.  The website changed dramatically as I became much more aware of how the Internet really works from a marketing standpoint.  (I've known all about the inner workings of the Internet at a technical level since the early 1990s...) MMmm.  Is that smell of coffee that greets my nostrils?  I woke up.  I smelled the coffee.  I shifted the company.

Endgame came in 2004 as an immense labor of love borne of my fascination with thrillers of all kinds -- especially techno thrillers.  That same year I went on a whirlwind nationwide tour.  I met a lot of fans of both Infocom games and general fiction.  My awareness grew as it does for all who travel far and meet many different people.... Endgame introduced Malinche's new standard in packaging -- the solid plastic DVD case.  As did  the advent of new, super-friendly installer programs that made running my titles super-simple for everyone.   2004 was also my first brush with the "antique media" of the conventional book market. It was an interesting reunion as if two distant tribes of the same species met for the first time in centuries -- so much in common and yet so much alien.  It went well.  Peaceful co-existence was the path both sides mutually agreed upon.  James Polanco, my director of sales, is quite an ambassador.  God bless him. 

The second age started in 2005 as The First Mile progressed along with new ideas.  May God also bless Michael Ferrador for having the technical talent to carry out my executive orders and deliver finished products in response to my vision statements. (See? We can do "big company" when we really want to....)

In 2005 we released three of my four games on the iPod.  We hired a publicist.  The media attention exploded. And so did sales.  I appeared in newspapers and magazines, on TV and on radio. Hardcore, old-timer fans were astonished.  Newcomers were beguiled.  We had a record year for sales DWARFING what we did in every previous year.  Combined.

We learned a lot. Starship Malinche has traveled a lot of miles and discovered hundreds of useful and thousands of useless facts.  

At this point let me say I can understand how Thomas Edison felt when he discovered the light bulb.  "Eureka!" he probably said.  "I have it all figured out! Now I shall light up the world!"

Ditto.

 Me and the Malinche crew figured it out.  We know what works.  We know what doesn't work.  And now USS Malinche is moving forward.  At full speed.  With all weapons locked on all targets of opportunity.

The folks in corporate America would call such an event a "reorganization". We don't.  No one is being laid off.  And everyone is happy as we create and deliver with renewed focus on our audience.

I hereby proclaim the second age of Malinche ended as of February 28th, 2006.

Upon a week of reflection, I formally confer upon myself the role of herald and deliver unto thee proclamation that the third age of Malinche is now at hand.

Impressive strides have been made these past three years.  Astonishing things lie ahead between now and 2007.

January 14, 2006

The First Mile Makes the Grade... Again!
 

Ricardo Pautassi gives The First Mile a solid passing grade and had many good things to say about our horror fiction title.

Here are some excerpts:

"...the overall quality of the characters is good, in the sense that they have their own agenda, can follow orders, show an acceptable knowledge of their environment..."

"All in all, in-game descriptions are pretty interesting."

"The amount of detail presented to the player in TFM is bigger and the prose more vivid."

"When entering a room you will be offered a very rich description, running about three to five lines."

"Another good point of TFM is that has many optional puzzles, including a maze and the possibility to make your own “contribution” to the killing spree. Some of these additional quests are pretty good, requiring NPC’s cooperation and exploration. There are also many ways to kill the foes and most of them will require repeated attacks. Sure, you can die in many ways, drowned, eaten by beasts, under the influence of spells, poisoned, etc. So, save early, safe often, as it is said. Nonetheless, these death situations appear in dangerous moments and are organically inserted in the pace of the game."

"To sum it up, TFM offers a great deal in terms of gameplay quantity."

January 12, 2006

"All Engines -- Full Stop."

Thanks to Apple's record-breaking sales of iPods over the recent holiday season (almost 15 million!), a torrential flood of interest in our games has slammed our offices with an incredible workload that everyone is struggling to cope with.

As we strive to accommodate the public, "Admiral" Howard A. Sherman has ordered a complete stop to all of Malinche's online advertising campaigns to allow Malinche staff to "catch up" with the amazing explosion of interest in all of our exciting titles.

December 20, 2005

Another Trio... it's Crazy!

Roughly one year ago Grandmaster Howard Sherman undertook the unprecedented task of creating three different works of Interactive Fiction at the same time.  Such a Herculean task had never been tried before.  But he did it and succeeded creating Azteca, The First Mile and a private project for Kraft Foods, all of which received superb reviews and incredibly good feedback.

He was content for a while. But now he's at it again.

Just tonight, the world's only active Implementor has announced yet another trio of projects now under way,

In addition to Pentari: Second Dawn, Howard has confirmed he has begun work on Pentari: The Apprentice, yet another full-length interactive fiction adventure. The two games will parallel each other in the timeline of the Pentari universe as he also tackles a project for a multinational advertising agency in New York City.

If successful, Howard will take his place at the top of the honored roles of Implementers for he will have written more game code than any other Implementer...ever.

He's already earned his title as Grandmaster and Implementor so what is he trying to prove?

We implore everyone to send Howard fruit baskets and emails encouraging him to slow down. The pace he has set for himself borders on the absurd and we are deeply concerned for his long-term well being.  He is the last active Implementor on earth as all the others have long since retired.  We need him and cannot afford to lose him to a round of burnout.

No book author that we know of has ever written two books at the same time let alone three. And Interactive Fiction, by its very nature, is more difficult to write than any book. How can he seriously hope to accomplish all these tasks?

How can Howard possibly think he can write TWO full-length interactive fiction titles on top of his third project for the ad agency all at once?  Heck, Azteca was a mini game! It was easier!

Let the record show that Howard laughed as this website update was written, dismissing the concerns we all raised.  Does he know something we don't?

There's even more stunning news coming but we'll hold off until well after 2006 has started.

Malinche Customers already know what's coming and have been invited to an exclusive preview.

Archived News can be found here.