Modern IF Author, General Roustabout, Author of Fallacy of Dawn, Chicks Dig Jerks January 27, 2007
  Robb Sherwin
Interviewed in: Thornton, CO
Robb Sherwin goes by a number of names and aliases, both in his capacity as IF author and as website curator. He has a deep interest in Interactive Fiction, and has created a collection of modern IF from 1999 onward, moving between Inform and HUGO languages, as well as simulating the Magnetic Scrolls style of half-graphic half-text IF. He has also given a presentation on IF with Paul O'Brian and is a talented writer in general.

Sherwin's self-written biography, from a 2006 presentation he gave in Boulder about Interactive fiction:

"Robb Sherwin was born in Rochester, NY and moved to Colorado in 1998. He has written seven pieces of Interactive Fiction in that time, focusing on merging graphics and music with the tradition of the text parser. He was presented with awards for his work on 'Fallacy of Dawn' (a cyberpunk-inspired homage to old video games), as well as his 2004 release, 'Necrotic Drift' (a Dungeons and Dragons-inspired romantic comedy)."

Robb has shown great interest in the GET LAMP project and has been in strong communication about it since finding out about it in October of 2005. Robb Sherwin and I crossed paths a number of years before the interview, during the sale of the newly-finished BBS Documentary. His BBS, Jolt Country, was filling one of the sub-boards with criticism of the very idea of the price for the 3-DVD set, with lots of speculation regarding the gall and hubris I had demanding such a number. Robb's writing style is particularly funny and intense, which made it even more entertaining. My response was to order a copy of his text adventure game, Necrotic Drift, and then use the return address to write his review on the back of a copy of the BBS Documentary and mail it to him. He was immediately entertained and wrote one of the funniest (and positive) reviews of the work, as well as becoming a pitbull on his own BBS about how good it was. I'd resolved to interview him about his IF work when I had the chance.

That chance came in January of 2007 as part of a Colorado (really Denver and surrounding areas) trip that I made, where I interviewed him and Paul O'Brian, as well as stopping off to check out a place called the Lyons Pinball Arcade. As expected on my part, Robb was warm, funny, friendly, cool, and helpful. His interview was the same.

1998 Saied.
1999 Chicks Dig Jerks.
2000 Revenger.
2000 A Crimson Spring.
2001 Fallacy of Dawn.
2001 No Time to Squeal (with Mike Sousa).
2004 Necrotic Drift.
2006 Pantomime.
Footage Screenshots
Files and Collections
chix.z5 (202K) "Chicks Dig Jerks" by Robb Sherwin (Revised Version, z5) (1999)
ntts.zip (354K) No Time to Squeal, game by Robb Sherwin (Story File)
necrotic.jpg (53K) Cover image of Necrotic Drift by Robb Sherwin (Sherwin is not on the Cover)
ndrift.zip (37M) Necrotic Drift, by Robb Sherwin
nd01-big.jpg (258K) Screenshot from Necrotic Drift, by Robb Sherwin, showing interface and writing style (2004)
mary.z5 (86K) Revenger, game by Robb Sherwin (z5 interpreter file)
fod_trailer02.avi (21M) Fallacy of Dawn Trailer (DiVX AVI File, 20 Megabytes)
dawn.zip (5.7M) Fallacy of Dawn, by Robb Sherwin
Production Photos