Interactive Fiction Competition 2002 Underway

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Interactive Fiction Competition 2002 Underway

Posted by michael on Tuesday October 1, 2002 @02:40PM from the slide-upper-elevator-card-through-slot dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The games of the 2002 Annual Interactive Fiction Competition are now available from the IF Archive. Visit it or ifcomp.org to download the games."

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Re:still exist? by KelsoLundeen · 2002-10-01 15:14 · Score: 3, Interesting

And if you want to get really geeky, go ahead and pick up a copy of Inform -- an IF authoring system. (IMHO, Inform is the *best* system, but that's open to debate...)
Re:still exist? by Sargent1 · 2002-10-01 15:17 · Score: 2, Interesting

Oh, well, if you're going to mention Inform, I'll have to respond with links to TADS and Hugo.
Re:A Note from the Organizer by Anonymous Coward · 2002-10-01 15:21 · Score: 2, Interesting

Out of utter curiousity, how is the webserver taking it this year? I know that this isn't the first time you've been slashdotted, so what have you changed to make sure you can handle the load.
Different is Good, Less is more! by gurnb · 2002-10-01 15:31 · Score: 3, Interesting

Not all games require the use of a 128Meg NVIDIA card. Something that has been lost in todays wiz-bang game world is game content, and enjoyment.

OOTP4 (Out Of The Park Baseball) is a great example of this. Solid game. Miminal graphics. Rabid fanbase. Solid fun.

Don't fall for all of the eye-candy that is out there!

--
"This must be a Thursday, I never could get the hang of Thursdays."
A few more notes. by seebs · 2002-10-01 16:07 · Score: 4, Interesting

First: see also Usenet's rec.arts.int-fiction.
Second: Note that you can play at least the zcode games on pretty much ANYTHING. Windows. Mac. Palm. You name it... I have a game in the comp, and it has *one* problem on my Handera (PalmOS) PDA. Most of them probably work fine.

--
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
Re:A Note from the Organizer by Sargent1 · 2002-10-01 16:22 · Score: 2, Interesting

The competition web site is on a new server this year, one that is both more stable and has more bandwidth. Beyond that, um, crossed fingers?
IF Archive by Skiboo · 2002-10-02 00:38 · Score: 2, Interesting

The IF-Archive is an excellent source of these games. Their collection is *massive*.

However, if you're into uncommon and under-rated games in general - check out Home of the Underdogs if you haven't already. Not only does it review and describe many excellent games, but it has tons of full downloads of old games too.

One particular IF game that really caught my eye was Ad Verbum. It's premise is mostly to do with words. For example, there's a room who's entire description starts with the letter N. You quickly realise that only words starting with N work in the room (note, the exit to the room is south):

Neat Nursery Nice, nondescript nursery, noticeably neat. Normally, nurslings nestle noisily. Now, none. No needful, naive newborns. Nearby: ... nifty nappy. >take nappy No! No! Negative, novice. Nasty notation. >asdfg No! No! Nefarious nomenclature. Narrate nicely, now. >south No! No! Negative, novice. Nasty notation. >exit No! No! Nefarious nomenclature. Narrate nicely, now. >north Northward? No, necessarily not. Not north. No noticeable notch, no navigable nook.

There's all sorts of other language-based puzzles in the game, and it's an excellent test of your vocabulary. Despite being a little short, i highly recommend it.
(Note, it's not part of this competition).
1. Re:IF Archive by Cosmicbandito · 2002-10-02 06:04 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  If you liked Ad Verbum, you should hunt around for a copy of an old Infocom title:
  "Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of it"
  
  The wordplay puzzles in "Nord and Bert" offer more variety and depth than "Ad Verbum". There are puzzles involving spoonerisms, puns, and every other type of word play. I can't recommend it highly enough.
  
  Also, for scholarly research and lots of great Interactive fiction links, check out Prof. Dennis Jerz's Interactive Fiction pages.
Re:and..? by markm · 2002-10-02 02:03 · Score: 2, Interesting

This is actually the 8th annual competition. The full history of the competition can be found at the competition's website. It includes the names of the winners, plus some of the voting results.
-markm (official Comp02 vote-taker)