ROSEMARY WEST'S HOUSE OF FORTUNES

Rosemary West is one of the most respected and popular experts on computerized fortune telling in the world. Now you can have her expertise at your fingertips with HOUSE OF FORTUNES, a collection of all the most popular fortune-telling techniques. Let Rosemary predict your fortune using Astrology, Numerology, Tarot Cards, the I Ching, or the Crystal Ball.

ASTROLOGY
Are your fortunes reflected by the stars?

NUMEROLOGY
Do your personal numbers hold the key?

TAROT CARDS
What kind of future in in your cards?

I CHING
Seek the wisdom o fhte Chinese ancients?

CRYSTAL BALL
What will be revealed when the clouds part?

• Five different ways to predict your future.
• Vivid, animated SVGA graphics. VGA and EGA versions also included.
• Predict today's fortunes, look into future dates, or go back into the past.
• Simply type in your name and birthdate, then consult the oracle of your choice.
• Save a history of your sessions.
• Automatic reminders for your special dates.
• Digitized speech and soundtrack with SoundBlaster support.
• Easy-to-use mouse or keyboard interface.

~ from the back of the box

Money, fame, fortune, vague platitudes that give the illusion of a higher purpose. They're all here in Rosemary West's House of Fortunes; a collection of psychic reading programmes that will tell you your future. No, this is not that Rose West, notorious British serial killer whose initial arrest took place merely a year before this game's release in 1993. The unfortunate name actually belongs to "the most respected and popular expert on computerized fortune telling in the world" apparently, though I can't find much information online to support that claim.

What I can find is a woman who has seemingly cast her interests in a multitude of different avenues, including publishing books on self-help, linguistics and marriage counselling using the renowned psychiatric teachings of John Gottman. What I'm far more interested in is her brief stint in the world of programming, starting in 1988 with a little joke app named LoveDOS. When you launch this programme, you're met with the familiar screen that greets every DOS user: the capital letter C followed by a colon. The difference here is that whatever you type will be met with a response laced with romantic ecstasy. Even typing "Exit" will not actually exit the game, instead requiring the phrase "I Love You" to bring it all to an end. Who needs the musings of John Gottman when you have this?

The mysterious discipline of I Ching. You can choose to flip your own coin

to reach the outcome, or let the computer randomly choose for you.

Come 1992, while one Rose was just getting found out for some heinous crimes, the law-abiding one became involved in a trivia game called Expert Common Knowledge. There's not much to say here beyond the fact that 10 different subjects offer up a bunch of questions that require you to fully type answers within a given time limit. They are very America-centric so brush up on US history and pay attention to how utterly wrong their spelling is. 

By far, her biggest contribution to gaming history came a year later when she provided the psychic readings (and her name) to Villa Crespo's collection of digital fortune tellers. There are five ways to get a reading; by crystal ball, tarot cards, astrology, numerology and something called I Ching. The crystal ball will decipher shapes reflected within the sphere to provide a reading. I got a "lumbering bear" which was apparently about controlling an anger I don't actually feel. Astrology basically reads your daily star sign while numerology puts meaning to numbers and dates. A little too much meaning if you ask me.

The tarot reading is the most in depth fortune in the package, assigning meaning to each

card at each placement. Regardless, it all tends to be about "security and material success".

The two fortunes that intrigued me most were the tarot cards and I Ching. The former is a rather in-depth program involving all of the 78 cards in the tarot deck complete with an individual meaning for each of their possible placements. That's quite a lot of text of uncover. Unfortunately, the programming isn't quite sophisticated enough to link each of the cards together which results in the kind of vague and universal dialogue Mystic Meg used to spout out in the back of the The Sun. 

I Ching is the one divination tool you probably haven't heard of before. I know I hadn't. This ancient Chinese text is actually the oldest fortune telling method in the package originating around 1000 BC. Through the flipping of a coin, you will uncover a five-line pictogram depicting yin and yang as broken or solid lines respectively. These resulting hexagrams will tell you your fortune.

Other than that lumbering bear, most of my fortune revolved around material wealth, stability and success. My bank balance says otherwise. Personally, I hold no bearing on such practices and view them as little more than theatrics. Entertaining theatrics that have a rich history that sparks the imagination, but theatrics nonetheless. Rosemary West's House of Fortunes packages them into a warmly presented piece of software that kept me curiously returning to it for my daily musings. For a short time at least.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber contains three games - Rosemary West's House of Fortunes, Expert Common Knowledge & LoveDOS - and uses the DOSBox-X build of DOSBox to bring them to modern systems. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 22.9 Mb.  Install Size: 60.3 Mb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

Download

ROSEMARY WEST'S HOUSE OF FORTUNES

LOVEDOS

EXPERT COMMON KNOWLEDGE

Rosemary West's House of Fortunes is © Villa Crespo, Inc
Expert Common Knowledge is © Expert Software, Inc.
LoveDOS is © R.K. West Consulting
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me

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