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Classic Adventure Game Creation Book Online

Posted by simoniker on from the creating-colossal-caves dept.

The classic computer site Atariarchives.org has managed to secure permission from the copyright holder to publish the text of Tim Hartnell's 1983-published Creating Adventure Games On Your Computer on their site. The system requirements for the actual programming may be a little harsh for many of you, though - you'll need a computer with Basic and at least 24K of RAM.

13 comments

  1. 24k of ram? by Sevn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wow. If I had a neat little toolkit to make
    adventure games for my nokia, palm, etc. that
    would be pretty neat. Someone with more motivation
    than me could probably set up an interface with
    java, perl, etc. on a website where you could
    fill in the blanks and generate these things in
    the proper file format for small handheld devices.
    I miss some of the classic adventure games.

    --
    For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
    1. Re:24k of ram? by david+duncan+scott · · Score: 1

      Here you go -- Inform supports PalmOS.

      --

      This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander

  2. With those requirements... by Rares+Marian · · Score: 1

    You could emulate a beowulf cluster of those that would eventually become sentient, look at all the Quake clones on the market, realize that you have no life, realize that it is forgotten, and shut itself off in disgust.

    --
    The message on the other side of this sig is false.
  3. THIRD POST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    10 HOME
    20 ? "THIRD POST"
    30 END

    RENUM
    RENUM
    RENUM

    1. Re:THIRD POST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would mod you up if (1) you did something with GR or HGR and (2) I had mod points.

  4. Interactive Fiction Authoring Tools by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    A bit OT, but Roger Firth's Cloak of Darkness contains a comparition of modern interactive fiction development tools.

  5. Damn. by ColaMan · · Score: 2, Funny

    "you'll need a computer with Basic and at least 24K of RAM."
    Ok, Let's see here....

    24K of RAM - Check, I have 256MB... should be enough (for anyone!).
    BASIC, hmmm..... (clicks XP start menu) er, ah crap.

    Come back, Extended Color BASIC, all is forgiven! I miss my old COCO 2 sometimes :-(

    --

    You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
    There is a lot of hype here.
    1. Re:Damn. by david+duncan+scott · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Yeah, that was one of the first things I noticed about Windows, way back when. CP/M shipped with an assembler, but DOS gave you BASIC instead (although they continued to give you the linker), then with Windows they dropped even that. Think maybe they'd prefer you to buy apps instead of throwing them together yourself?

      Anyway, there's always SmallBASIC. You can gosub to line numbers and everything, just like the old days. :)

      --

      This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander

  6. Compatibility by NaDrew · · Score: 1
    Apple II and IIe (and compatibles)
    Atari
    Coleco ADAM
    Commodore 64
    IBM PC (and compatibles)
    Texas Instruments TI 99/4a (with Extended BASIC)
    TRS-80 Models 1, 2, 3, and 100
    TRS-80 Color Computer
    VIC 20
    Hmm, I seem to have at least three of those (C64, IBM PC [8088 4.77MHz!], VIC 20) in my garage. I wonder if it would work on an Osbourne?
    --
    Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE
  7. Another introductory guide by NaveNosnave · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I could have sworn this is a dupe of a story about Tim Hartnell's book, but a cursory search isn't turning up anything. Maybe it was on ArsTechnica...

    Anyway, if someone gets a hankering to write an adventure game in a (somewhat) more contemporary language, there's always Inform, the reverse-engineneered language that compiles down to the same z-code files that Infocom's games came in. The Inform Beginner's Guide, 2nd ed. is a great and free start, and the Inform Designer's Manual will answer any questions that are more advanced.
  8. QBASIC still available? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would love to be able to use QBASIC today (great as a command-line calculator, testing algorithms, etc.) on my WinXP machine. Is this still available anywhere? Doing a search at microsoft.com yields a bunch of tech notes about "Macintosh Quickbasic" problems, but nothing about good ol' QBASIC.EXE (or was it .COM?).

  9. Good times... by Prior+Restraint · · Score: 1

    I remember this book. It was upon reading it that I finally realized that the only thing stopping me from writing professional* quality software was a matter of time and patience (access to a "real" language helps, too). My parents only saw the back of my head for months after that.

    *"Professional" in this case is defined as the various shareware games I managed to acquire, most of which easily impressed the likes of me at the time.