rec.games.int-fiction FAQ 3/3
Archive-name: games/interactive-fiction/part3
URL: http://www.truespectra.com/~svanegmo/faq/
Maintainer: Stephen van Egmond <svanegmo@truespectra.com>
Version: 1
Now, let's take a look here... Well, you probably deserve another
chance. I can't quite fi-
You go dizzy for a few seconds
then your head clears again.
Beyond Infocom (3.0)
This is part 3 of the Frequently Asked Questions list for the group
rec.games.int-fiction, a Usenet newsgroup for the discussion of
Interactive Fiction games and related topics. To read a specific
question, use your newsreader's search function on the string
"(n)", where n is the question number.
Contents of this file:
3.0 Beyond Infocom
3.1 Infocom wasn't the only adventure game company, you know
3.2 Topologika Software
3.3 Level 9 Adventures
3.4 Games for the ZX Spectrum and emulators
3.5 Who is Scott Adams?
3.6 The ongoing development of interactive fiction works
The current maintainer is Stephen van Egmond. Questions and
information should be mailed to mailto:svanegmo@truespectra.com.
The most recent version is at
http://www.truespectra.com/~svanegmo/faq/
Part 1 covers the elements of rec.games.int-fiction. Part 2 covers
Infocom.
You are in an amphitheater. The sound of the crowd comes from all
around. There is a gladiator here, holding a weapon and advancing
toward you. The gladiator says:
Infocom wasn't the only adventure game company, you know (3.1)
There were (and are) numerous other companies dedicated to the
production of interactive fiction games.
Level 9 and Adventure International, Topologika, and Penguin
software seem to have a noticeable following on
rec.games.int-fiction. If you have a personal favourite, ask about
it, and someone will probably know. Feel free to contribute some
FAQ questions to the maintainer: mailto:svanegmo@truespectra.com
Level 9 was formed by three brothers in 1982. Their first product
was a port of Adventure to the 8-bit computers that dominated the
English market at the time. Until their shutdown in 1991, they
produced over a dozen adventure games for these machines, the 32K
BBC family, and the Sinclair Spectrum 48K.
Level 9 used a high degree of compression: a typical game of 210
locations, 70 objects, and lots of text could fit into 32K. The
adventure engine had 5 major versions:
* Basic Text: black on white with noun/verb parser
* Advanced Text: yellow on black with faster display
* Basic Graphics: simple line drawings for each location, at a cost
to the amount of text in the game
* Advanced Graphics: dramatically improved parser and the usual
amount of text.
* Interactive Characters: grid-like maps, digitized graphics, and
improved parser with interactive, independent characters.
Each game was available in three versions for the Sinclair
Spectrum: 48K all-text, 48K graphics with reduced text, and 128K
graphics with full text, multiple UNDO and save/restore in RAM.
Adventure International is a company founded by Scott Adams, whose
games used a datafile and interpreter system similar to that of
Infocom. There is a freely distributable interpreter, Scottfree, on
ftp.gmd.de. There were interpreters released for a large number of
8-bit machines, like the TRS-80, Apple II, Atari 400/800, and
Commodore's 8-bit lineup.
The adventures were written using a noun/verb parser, but are
considered to have exciting story lines. I still remember playing
the cartridge version of "Impossible Mission" on my friend's
VIC-20.
The gladiator advances menacingly.
>ASK THE GLADIATOR ABOUT TOPOLOGIKA
Topologika Software (3.2)
Perhaps the first adventure game written outside the U.S. was
"Acheton" (c. 1979), by Jon Thackray and David Seal, with
contributions by Jonathan Partington, working in the mathematics
department of Cambridge University, England. "Acheton" is an
enormous cave game, whose name is a confection of "Acheron"
(classical term for Hell) and "Achates" (minor character in
Virgil's "Aeneid"), based around exploration and collecting
treasures.
Thackray and Seal devised one of the earliest adventure-design
systems (which although basically an assembler was influential on
for instance the modern design system "Inform") and it was
publically used on the Cambridge IBM mainframe ("Phoenix") until
the mid-1990s.
Acornsoft, then the software arm of Acorn Computers Ltd., also
based in Cambridge and with strong links to the university,
published a conversion of "Acheton" to the BBC Micro, on two 100K
floppy discs (one containing the game, one containing hints).
"Kingdom of Hamil" and other games followed.
The rights in these games are now held by Topologika Software
(Waterside House, Falmouth Road, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 8BE; email:
sales@topolgka.demon.co.uk), now better known as an educational
software house. Many of the versions they continue to sell are
substantially enhanced from the Acornsoft or mainframe
implementations, and available for a range of platforms: BBC Micro,
Amstrad CPC, PCW, IBM, Nimbus, Atari ST and Acorn RISC OS.
* Acheton (JT, DS) fantasy
* Countdown to Doom (PK) SF
* Return to Doom (PK) SF
* Last Days of Doom (PK) SF
* Hezarin (ST, AS, JT) fantasy
* Avon (JT, JP) Shakespearian satire
* Murdac (JT, JP) fantasy
* Philosopher's Quest (PK) puzzle
* SpySnatcher (JP, JT, PK) espionage satire
JT = Jon Thackray; DS = David Seal; PK = Peter Killworth; JP =
Jonathan Partington; ST = Steve Tinney; AS = Alex Ship
These all sell for 15 pounds sterling regardless of format, plus 1
pound P&P, except that Last Days of Doom/Hezarin and Avon/Murdac
are sold as double-packs at 20 pounds; under RISC OS only, so is
Acheton/Hamil; and, under RISC OS only, Countdown to Doom/Return to
Doom/Phil. Quest as a triple at 30.
The gladiator advances menacingly!
>ASK THE GLADIATOR ABOUT LEVEL 9
Level 9 Adventures (3.3)
Level 9's games were usually released in trilogies, some more
interrelated than others:
The following three were packaged into a Middle Earth Trilogy
(renamed by the lawyers to Colossal Trilogy). Later, a second
Trilogy, this time with graphics, a nicer parser and some text
tweaks, named the Jewels of Darkness appeared.
* Colossal Adventure, similar to Crowther and Woods' Adventure.
* Adventure Quest, defeat the evil lord with the magic foob.
* Dungeon Adventure, loot the dead lord's tower, solving the many
puzzles.
The following three were packaged into the Silicon Dream Trilogy.
* Snowball, save the starship from terrorists.
* Return to Eden, the starship lands and you must find your colony.
* Worm in Paradise, your colony is now politically corrupt and
Orwellian.
Time And Magik is a trilogy of the following three adventures:
* Lords of Time, prance through time to get the artifacts and save
us all.
* Red Moon, Level 9's version of Enchanter.
* The Price of Magik, a gothic horror -- defeat a corrupted
sorcerer; a follow-on to Red Moon.
The following games don't appear in any "trilogy":
* Emerald Isle, graphical game where you're stranded on an island.
* Eric the Viking, a text+graphics adventure like Emerald Isle. It
came out in 1985, years before the Terry Jones film 'Erik the
Viking' starring Tim Robbins.
* The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, a choose-your-own-path adventure.
* Knight Orc, a 16-bit game merging the Silicon Dream Trilogy and
The Jewels of Darkness. This was also available on the Commodore
64 and ZX Spectrum computers, minus graphics, in 3 parts (save
game and load up next part, then load game). *All* Level 9 games,
up to and including Scapeghost, worked on some or most 8-bit
machines.
The concept of the game is that when you wear shades, you are in a
fantasy land. When you remove the shades you are in the real
future. You can also cast spells, a la Enchanter and Price of
Magik, in parts 2 and 3 of Knight Orc.
* Gnome Ranger, help your female gnome Ingrid find her way home.
* Lancelot, a game closely based on the myths presented in "The Once
and Future King".
* Gnome Ranger II: Ingrid's Back, where Ingrid must save the village
hall from being bulldozed.
* Scape Ghost, where a police officer killed while on duty gets
revenge and saves another officer.
* Growing Pains of Adrian Mole:Sequel, same game engine as Secret
Diary of Adrian Mole, with the same surreal graphics and
choose-your-own-path gameplay. These two games were licensed from
the books by Sue Townsend and published by Mosaic Software.
The gladiator advances menacingly!
>SHOW ZX SPECTRUM TO GLADIATOR
"Would you like to get some games for that?"
Games for the ZX Spectrum and emulators (3.4)
There is an ftp archive of many of the games that were released by
Level 9, Adventure Software, Brian Howarth, and some others of
unclear origin. ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/spectrum/
The games are in the format of the ZX Spectrum; you will probably
not find one these days. PC owners can use the ZX emulator at
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/emulators/spectrum/
In general, Paul David Doherty's "Adventure Page" is the best
resource for information (and copies of) the more obscure adventure
games. Refer to
http://www2.rz.hu-berlin.de/inside/angl/people/pdd/advent.html for
more information on Polarware, Magnetic Scrolls, Penguin, Level 9,
Adventure International, and more.
The gladiator's weapon swishes through the air, narrowly missing you!
>ASK THE GLADIATOR ABOUT SCOTT ADAMS
Who is Scott Adams? (3.5)
"Mr. Adams was never in the business of writing the Scott Adams
adventure games."
- The Dilbert FAQ by Dogbert
Adventure International released several lines of games using the
same datafile format and various interpreter revisions.
The Scott Adams Classic Adventure Series:
* Adventure Land: Ordinary treasure hunting.
* Pirate Adventure / Pirate's Cove: Search an island.
* Mission Impossible / Secret Mission / Impossible Mission: Stop the
reactor from going kaboom.
* There was also Voodoo Castle, The Count, Strange Odyssey, Fun
House Mystery, Pyramid of Doom, Ghost Town, Savage Island parts 1
and 2, Golden Voyage, Sorcerer of Claymorgue Castle, and
Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai.
Questprobe Series: The adventures in this series feature characters
from Marvel Comics. The adventures were named The Hulk, Spiderman,
and Fantastic Four. The latter used a different adventure engine to
allow control of two different characters.
There was a separate line of games sold by Adventure International
using a different datafile format: Curse of Crowley Manor, Escape
from Traam, San Francisco 1906, and Saigon: The Final Days.
Other games include Labyrinth of Crete, Return to Pirate's Island,
Stone of Sisyphus, and Morton's fork.
In the UK, there were many companies related to Adventure
International, such as Horrorsoft, Tynesoft, Adventure Soft UK, and
Adventure International UK. More information can be found in
Adventure Game History, by Hans Persson, from whose work all of the
above comes.
Scott Adams is on the Net and passes through rec.*.int-fiction from
time to time. He is reportedly working on a new work of IF (yes,
it's in text) for Windows 95 only.
The gladiator swings his sword, remo-
You go dizzy for a few seconds
then your head clears again.
Darkness
It is pitch dark, and you can't see a thing.
>LIGHT
What do you want to light?
>LANTERN
You switch the brass lantern on.
In Debris Room
You are in a debris room filled with stuff washed in from the surface.
A low wide passage with cobbles becomes plugged with mud and debris
here, but an awkward canyon leads upward and west.
A note on the wall says, "Magic word XYZZY."
A three foot black rod with a rusty star on one end lies nearby.
A cheerful little bird is sitting here singing.
>ASK BIRD ABOUT NEW INTERACTIVE FICTION
The ongoing development of interactive fiction works (3.6)
The interactive fiction genre is by no means dead! There is
ongoing, high-quality development efforts taking place right now.
The majority of the public-domain and shareware efforts are in text
adventures, for a number of reasons: the production costs of text
are extremely low, compared to graphical, raytraced, and/or
animated offerings; the authoring tools for text are fairly
sophisticated, accessible, and next to (or precisely) free; and
they can usually be done in a much shorter time.
Games generally are developed around one of either TADS or Inform
development systems, and lately Hugo has been gaining prominence.
As mentioned in part 2, Inform outputs Z-code which can be played
by a ZIP, many of which have source code. TADS and Inform can be
played on just about the same types of computers and operating
systems, though Inform's games may have a slight edge in that they
can be played on handheld devices like Apple Newtons or Psion
palmtops. Hugo has not been ported as widely but is available for
the major operating systems (Windows, Amiga, DOS, Linux), and
source is available.
Games like Legend, Curses, the Unnkulia Series, Enhanced, Shades of
Grey, Jigsaw, Christminster, and many more are available, whose
quality rivals that of games released in the 'Golden Age' of text
adventures. These can be found under "games" in the if-archive;
some of the busier games directories, in terms of new arrivals, are
* ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/inform
* ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/tads
* ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/hugo
The annual text adventure competition is a reliable source of
interesting and well-crafted games (there's some lemons, too).
These can be found at
* ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/competition95/
* ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/competition96/
* ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/competition97/
* finally, http://www.ifcompetition.org seems to be the current home
for the competition.
Commercial companies continue to produce adventure-type software;
products like Myst, The Seventh Guest, The 11th Hour, and Return To
Zork are the closest conceptually to IF of the past. Many don't
consider these to be real interactive fiction -- or, consider them
inferior IF works -- since the games don't offer the same richness
in details, variety in actions, or challenge in puzzles as is
expected of text IF today. As a point of note (but by no means
policy), Activision's graphical releases in the "Infocom Universe"
like Zork:Nemesis and Planetfall 2:The Search For Floyd are often
discussed on rec.games.int-fiction, and Myst and "other" graphical
IF on the relevant comp.sys.*.games newsgroups.
There is research going on in areas that could move interactive
fiction forward considerably, in terms of dramatic impact and
sophistication. The Oz Project at Carnegie-Mellon University is
researching areas such as computer simulation of character
emotional dynamics, realistic interactions with the "universe" of
the actor, and much more.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/oz/web/oz.html
Further theory can be found in the rec.arts.int-fiction FAQ, at
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/rec.arts.int-fiction/FAQ
Your lantern flickers slightly, brightens, then suddenly goes out!
>WEST
Oh, no! A lurking grue slithered into the room and devoured you!
**** You have died ****
Press any key to continue