*label credits_start

[b]Author's Note[/b]

In the fall of 1994 I enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. High above the ground in Lobby 7, hackers (in this case meaning 'pranksters') had placed styrofoam panels mimicking the stone inscription. Although, where the stone had originally read 'Agriculture and Commerce', as in two of the reasons for the founding of the Institute, now it read 'Entertainment and Hacking'.

I didn't hear about the IFComp until a few years later, but it's an interesting coincidence. (MIT was founded in 1861, as it turns out.)

Paradox Corps maybe doesn't have all the features I wanted to include, but it's playable, and I hope it gives you some amusement or pleasant diversion. If you called it a 'Doctor Who pastiche', you wouldn't necessarily be wrong, but it draws from many other sources as well. Continuum, the tabletop RPG by Chris Adams, Dan Fooden and Barbara Manui, is a strong influence. (I've met Chris Adams and Dan Fooden, though not at the Oklahoma City Zoo in 2012; my girlfriend and I were there, but as far as I know [i]they[/i] weren't.) 'The robot' owes its existence to Robo from Chrono Trigger; the bit where he spends 400 years terraforming the desert [i]still[/i] blows my mind. (Robo's musical theme also bears more than a passing resemblance to a famous tune Frankie would surely be familiar with...) Renne's 'time car' is a nod to Back to the Future. (I'm just sad I couldn't fit a Bill & Ted reference in somewhere.)

Speaking of the mentors, you can think of the Professor as a 'version' of the Doctor, as long as you think of Sylvester McCoy when you do so. Dan was inspired by my father, with some adrenaline added. Renne came out of nowhere and did her own thing, warrior queen that she is (pronounced roughly the same as 'reine').

A great deal of the 'stuff' comes from my life and experiences. I visited Buttermilk Falls in 1993, in upstate New York. My parents had a Chevrolet Celebrity station wagon years ago. I lived in Baker House, the dorm with all its rooms facing the Charles River. Funny how a time travel story gives an excuse to revisit all this stuff!

The future station came from a scene in the first issue of All-Star Superman; the characters walk past a 'Voyager Titan' preparing for a journey through space. The Orbiters, of course, are 'Daleks, but not'. 'Continuity' is the name of an AI from one of William Gibson's novels. Its job was video editing, as I recall, hence its name...But what a great name for an AI, right?

The Ikataks are an extraterrestrial race I made up years ago, who pop up in several of my projects (most of which have never been publically shown). Similarly, Isabelle has shown up in a few places...well, honestly even [i]I[/i] don't know what her deal is.

Thanks to Dan Fabulich for ChoiceScript. (See startup.txt for the license.) And thanks to the IFComp for being the IFComp!

*ending

