Photos of Robert DiChiara's "A Sucker in Spades"
The photos of Robert DiChiara's A Sucker in Spades and Hard Boiled found in this chapter are copies Dene Grigar owns and holds in her library in the Electronic Literature Lab. This work is the second one published by Eastgate Systems, Inc. and, so, before the company had developed the convention of distributing works in a bookish folio introduced with Michael Joyce's afternoon, a story. Grigar purchased the book from which the work was adapted from Amazon.
A Sucker in Spades Floppy, Front
A Sucker in Spades is held on a navy blue floppy disk with a white label on the upper half of the floppy, the upper third of which is maroon in color. Printed in the maroon space is "CIVILIZED SOFTWARE from Eastgate Systems, Inc." "A Sucker in Spades Robert DiChiara" is printed on the right-hand side of the label, center-aligned. A drawing of an arch stands beside this label. The bottom-left corner reads "Eastgate Systems, Inc. PO Box 1307, Cambridge MA 02238."A Sucker in Spades Floppy, Back
The back of the floppy disk is navy blue like the front, with no text on it.
Hard Boiled Book, Front
The cover of Hard Boiled, the paperback print adventure game book from which A Sucker in Spades is adapted, features a man in contemporary garb looking into three mirrors and seeing three Humphrey Bogart-esque figures staring back at him, one of which is accompanied by a woman, another by a bottle, and a third by a smoking gun. The cover illustration seems to promise the reader/player (represented by the man in contemporary garb) a chance to become the private eye character, as does the tagline: the stories are not stories, but rather "Three Tough Cases for the Private Eye with Smarts."Hard Boiled Book, Back
The back cover of Hard Boiled describes how to play through the book with "just your smarts and a pair of dice (trenchcoat and fedora optional)." Illustrations of a smoking gun and a pair of dice spice up the look of the back cover, and below them is written an ISBN number and the address of the publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher. 306 Dartmouth Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02116. At the top right corner is the retail price of the book -- $7.95.