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2004 Interactive Fiction Results

Posted by Zonk on from the go-W-young-man dept.

silent_knight writes "Early in October, the 2004 Interactive Fiction competition began. The results are now in! Be sure to check out some of this year's best entries: Luminous Horizon, Blue Chairs, All Things Devours, Magocracy, and Murder at the Aero Club. All entries (and interpreters) can be downloaded together for Windows and the Mac from the download page." As mentioned in the previous story, Linux support for these games is also easily available.

38 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Play In Firefox by sbszine · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's a Firefox extension called Gnusto that lets you play these games from your browser. Have fun : )

    --

    Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling

    1. Re:Play In Firefox by sbszine · · Score: 2, Informative

      playing them from a browser is not a good idea right now unless you've got a local mirror or copied all the files locally or something

      Yes, downloading them and playing from the local copy is the probably the best idea. Or you could kill time by writing your own games (the language is called Inform and is pretty straightforward OO).

      --

      Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling

    2. Re:Play In Firefox by GMFTatsujin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I hate to ask, but is there an emacs z-code interpreter? Has Firefox broken new "it's this kind of application but it also does *that*" ground?

    3. Re:Play In Firefox by Peter+S.+Housel · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, there's Malyon, a z-machine interpreter written in Emacs Lisp.

  2. Link to the original article by the_mighty_$ · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here is the article announcing the beginning of the competition. May be interesting.

    --
    VI VI VI - the editor of the beast!
  3. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  4. Re:Other Infocom Interpreters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Oops.. link should be http://www.cs.csubak.edu/~dgriffi/proj/frotz/ Other Infocom Interpreters

  5. Re:Best interactive fiction? by QuantumG · · Score: 2, Informative

    You know you're right? But if we reserve IF for people who can afford a game development team with artists and designers and all that extra expense we'll find far less gems than if we accept textual games as being valuable also. This applies as much to MUDs as it does to single player IF.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  6. Long live the Z-machine by murderlegendre · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wiled away a lot of hours in my youth playing the classic Infocom games. It really warms my heart to see this format prospering _twenty years_ later. You can get a Z-machine interpreter for just about anything, from Athlon64 to PalmOS.

    I wonder if any of the tradtional 'printed page' literary organizations will ever embrace I.F. as a legitmate form of literature, be it prose, poetry or just 'other'? Perhaps a Pulitzer for 'Best work of Interactive Fiction?

    --
    There's a Starman, waiting in the sky / He'd like to come and meet us, but he hasn't got the time.
    1. Re:Long live the Z-machine by Macrobat · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I wonder if any of the tradtional 'printed page' literary organizations will ever embrace I.F. as a legitmate form of literature, be it prose, poetry or just 'other'? Perhaps a Pulitzer for 'Best work of Interactive Fiction?

      Probably not. The whole point of celebrating an artist is to commend the choices he/she made. The whole point of IF is to give choices to the player. Granted, there's still a lot of decisions when you write a game, but not to the degree that pre-written fiction has

      That's not to say that games don't have their snooty prestige points. Chess is probably the best example of this.

      --
      "Hardly used" will not fetch you a better price for your brain.
    2. Re:Long live the Z-machine by GMFTatsujin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      IANAIFA (blah blah Interactive Fiction Author) but I would contend that IF authors have to make more, not fewer, decisions than a pre-written author would for a work of the same length.

      Pre-written authors need ultimately only follow one timeline where everthing happens in sequence; IF authors have to anticipate the player performing actions at any given time under different situations, and account for that. (Has the player got the dingus to go through the puzzle door? Has he talked to NPC #2 and subsequently learned about the Amazing Event? How is Sparky the Wonder Dog described in the rain versus when he's in his doghouse?) Also, IF that allows for multiple endings (like my current favorite, Slouching Toward Bethlehem) has to be flexable, yet credible under many circumstances, which means even more decisions on the part of the author.

      Not to take cred from one or the other, but in order for the player to make choices, any choices, the IF author has to have anticipated them, made them, and accounted for them.

      Maybe IF authors can be forgiven a little snootiness. It seems like a hell of a lot of work to me, and most players won't explore the game sufficiently to be exposed to all of it. (Yay, easter eggs!) Contrast with a written book, where it's just a matter of turning all the pages.

    3. Re:Long live the Z-machine by murderlegendre · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Probably not. The whole point of celebrating an artist is to commend the choices he/she made. The whole point of IF is to give choices to the player.

      This was a very relevant comment, but it brings up another point.

      There are numerous instances of art, in which the viewer is allowed to take their own path to the presentation. This can be as basic as the angle from which we choose to view a painting or sculpture, or as technical as an installation that contains audio / video / kinetics, and alows one to interact in a way that alters, and personalizes the experience. I don't think that the ability to personalize the experience with Interactive Fiction precludes it from the ranks of art, or literature as art.

      Have you ever read a book, in a not totally end-to-end fashion? Ever skipped ahead to see what might happen, looked in the middle to get a sense of what the work was about, or never read the liner notes and foreword at all? There are even books that allow young readers to chose one of many paths through a given story. There are classes for childern's literature, correct?

      If conventional literature is to be held up as art, then so should be Interactive Fiction.

      --
      There's a Starman, waiting in the sky / He'd like to come and meet us, but he hasn't got the time.
    4. Re:Long live the Z-machine by kundor · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Printed page has already embraced Interactive Fiction. Ever hear of Choose Your Own Adventure books?

  7. Somebody has to.... by D4MO · · Score: 2, Funny

    In Korea, interactive fiction is for old people.

    --

    Rocket science is easy. Neurosurgery, now *that's* difficult.
    1. Re:Somebody has to.... by ryanmfw · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Is this the new "In Soviet Russia..." joke? Come to think of it, I haven't seen many of them lately, unless they involved old Korean people...

      --
      Hurricane Ivan: A 17th century prison collapsed. All of the inmates escaped.
    2. Re:Somebody has to.... by uhlume · · Score: 2, Funny


      "In Soviet Russia, Korean old people are for YOU!"


      God, I feel dirty, now.

      --
      SIERRA TANGO FOXTROT UNIFORM
  8. Great IF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I haven't played this years crop yet, but some of the past winners are amazing.

    A must run: Photopia (Winner 1998) http://adamcadre.ac/photopia.html - not another D&D type adventure, that's for sure

    1. Re:Great IF by Euro · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Oh yes! Photopia! Great stuff. I've never been a great fan of interactive fiction (mainly because Zork and its sequels constantly stumped me when I played them on the venerable C64), but Photopia was truly an experience. I remember getting the chills when I finished it.

      The great thing about Photopia is that for one, its puzzles are always obvious. So much so, that most of the time they don't even classify as traditional IF puzzles. There are some gems, however. Especially the IF mainstay, a maze, is done simply beautifully. Photopia focuses completely on story and that is a Good Thing by all accounts.

      Another great (but very different) piece of IF is Winchester's Nightmare by Nick Montfort. I also enjoyed Narcolepsy (also by Adam Cadre and winner of the 2003 XYZZY award for best writing), although I never finished it.

  9. Half-Life 2 in ASCII! by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
    You are in a little white house near a forest on the outer edge of the Great Underground Empire. There is a computer on the table here.

    > BUY HALF-LIFE 2
    You cannot buy Half-Life 2. You can only rent it.

    > RENT HALF-LIFE 2
    You download a Steam client and supply your FrobozzcoCard number.

    > PLAY HALF-LIFE 2
    You cannot play Half-Life 2 on this computer without signing into your Steam account.

    > LOGIN STEAM
    You punch in your account information, but because you're in a little white house in the middle of nowhere, the computer's modem dials up the nearest internet provider and the game begins to download.

    > WAIT
    Time passes...
    4.9 gigabytes remaining. (5.4k/s)

    > WAIT
    Time passes...
    4.9 gigabytes remaining. (5.4k/s)
    Your blood pressure just went up. (Oh, wait, this only *feels* like you're stuck in "Bureaucracy". Your blood pressure is actually just fine.)

    > WAIT
    Time passes...
    4.9 gigabytes remaining. (5.4k/s)
    Your UPS battery is fading.

    > TURN OFF MONITOR
    You turn off the monitor to conserve power. The only light is the "RD" light on the modem - a solid, but feeble, red. Clever.

    > WAIT
    Time passes...
    You really think you can press "W" more often than I can tell you that Time Passes? I'm the computer here, remember? But have it your way - we'll skip a the next nine days.

    > WAIT
    Time passes...
    It is dark. You are still unlikely to be eaten by a headcrab.
    Grues, however, are another story

    *** You have died ***

    Your score is 0/150 (Victim of improperly-conducted usability study). Would you like to try again?

  10. Celebrate the future, but remember the past by Staplerh · · Score: 2, Informative

    This may seem off-topic, but it is wihin the same genre and while it is great to see new Interactive Fiction (IF), if people are interested there are some of the true classics still out there on the net. While most IF afficianados have certainly played the IF version of 'Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy', if not it is available online at http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava. html . It's not always up, but it is available elsewhere and some links are provided on that webpage.

    This is the game that introduced me to the genre, and I've enjoyed it ever since. Can be extremely frustrating at times, but it is rewarding and thought provoking. Hopefully this new beed has come up with some 'easter eggs' to reward creative typing!

    --
    "There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all."
    - Bob Dylan
    1. Re:Celebrate the future, but remember the past by daniel_mcl · · Score: 2, Informative

      As a a matter of fact, the BBC has commissioned a flash version of that game with graphics for each scene to promote their new HHGTG stuff.

      --
      I used to read Caltizzle. I was a lot cooler than you.
  11. Blue Chairs should have won by skybrian · · Score: 4, Informative

    I played the first two when the winners were announced (because I was too lazy to judge this year).

    Luminous Horizon is a well-polished game, but it's the third part of a superhero series and the story is nothing new. The most interesting part about it is the way it handles switching characters and hints.

    Blue Chairs is far more interesting. It's hard to summarize, but it starts out with a drug trip at a party that turns into a dream sequence. Even if that's not your thing, it allows for some amazing writing. Highly recommended.

    1. Re:Blue Chairs should have won by Sigma+7 · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Luminous Horizon is a well-polished game, but it's the third part of a superhero series and the story is nothing new. The most interesting part about it is the way it handles switching characters and hints.
      Actually, that isn't the problem with Luminous Horizon. The main complaint produced by the people that hated the game was that the game felt much too short and railroaded. In particular, almost all of the puzzles (save one or two) can be auto-solved by talking to the other character.

      The only manipulatable object would be the gizmos - they appear to be intended to solve one of the puzzles, but it turns out that they aren't really needed.

      Blue Chairs is far more interesting. It's hard to summarize, but it starts out with a drug trip at a party that turns into a dream sequence. Even if that's not your thing, it allows for some amazing writing. Highly recommended.
      Blue Chairs did have a somewhat weak beginning, and perhaps was a bit too wierd for some of the judges. The group of people that didn't like the game most likely didn't understand the concept or message behind the game.

      After seeing the comments after the results were announced, I ended up liking the game - however, this was after the 2 hour rating session where I was placing my focus on the puzzle aspects (which were trumped by All That Devours).

      There was one game that was widly considerd to be underrated: "Goose, Egg, Badger", as it's puzzles relating to interesting use of vocabulary (which I and some others didn't notice until judging was finished.) One other underrated game "PTBAD 3" was supposed to be a satire of bad text-adventures, but almost nobody understood that it was a satire - but even an improved rating wouldn't bring it past average.

      (Not sure why the OP suggested "Murder at the Aero Club" and "Magocracy" - those were actually average and there didn't seem to be any visible reason why it should have been higher.)

  12. Game reviews by zbik · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It would be great if anybody who has tried one of these games could post something to give us an idea about it. "Luminous Horizons" is the only one I found with a README; it's a superhero adventure done in comic book style. http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/compe tition2004/glulx/eas3/eas3info.txt My personal favorite from the IF Archive is Christminster, a quirky Pynchon-esque conspiracy puzzle. Reviews for this game (and more) are in Baf's Guide to the IF Archive: http://wurb.com/if/

  13. Re:Leave a Message by lightspawn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If this story gets more than 50 comments, please kill me now.

    Oh yes, the old "something is of no use for me, so it must hold no value to anybody else".

    This is such a horrid mindset, and one so common today, that I could not resist the need to bring you one comment closer to your death.

  14. Dang, I totally spaced the deadline (months ago) by tenzig_112 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Oh, crap.

    Anyway, here's Eric the Power-Mad Dongeon Master,
    a z-code game that follows a night of D&D gone awry.

    There are a few bugs, I guess, but folks say it's fun to play.

  15. histogram of ratings by j1m+5n0w · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I like how they show the results as a histogram of ratings. This makes it easy to distinguish a game that everyone thought was mediocre from one that a lot of people liked, but a lot of others didn't. I wish imdb, iblist, and all the other similar sites would do the same.

    1. Re:histogram of ratings by AceCaseOR · · Score: 2, Informative
      Um... IMDB.com does do this... for example

      But yeah, It'd be nice if iblist did do that.

      --
      Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you in your sleep.
  16. Better than Z-Code by Macrobat · · Score: 2, Informative

    You should check out The end result has got a much more flexible syntax than Z-code interpreters, and writing the code should be pretty familiar to C++ -style coders. You can even use the Pascal-style assignment operator if you like, with a compilation switch. If you like that kind of thing.

    --
    "Hardly used" will not fetch you a better price for your brain.
  17. The Winners are all leaving. by robdeadtech · · Score: 2, Funny

    Too bad almost all the winners have announced their leaving the Cabinet.

    --
    Heil Sig! -Rob
  18. Check the newsgroups for reviews by slvi · · Score: 2, Informative

    rec.games.int-fiction will soon be brimming with reviews for this year's comp games -- and there are quite a few up already. Here's the Google link, check for posts preceded by [IFCOMP] or [COMP04].

    -s

  19. Coming soon - Slashdot Adventure by Magickcat · · Score: 3, Funny
    Slashdot
    You are on the Internet. A web page is full of text before you. It is Slashdot. The page is a putrid green and there are advertisments for Suicide Girls and nerd toys. Exits are Back, forward and home.
    There is a menu here.

    You hear a computer fan in the distance.

    >Go to Journal.
    No, I'm afraid you can't do that now. Perhaps later.

    >Chat up chicks.
    Surely you are joking.

    >Read Slashdot.
    An hour or two passes. You have achieved nothing.

    You hear a computer fan in the distance.

    >Post on Slashdot.
    You manage to post +5 INSIGHTFUL about SCO and how what you'd like to do to Darl McBride. An angry and bored lone gunman moderates you 30% OVERRATED.
    You manage to post +4 INSIGHTFUL.

    You hear a computer fan in the distance.
    You are hungry.

    >Post on Slashdot.
    You manage to post +3 INSIGHTFUL about your ideas about American Foreign Policy. A disguntled group of Neo-Facists, Trolls, and lowbrows have read your post. You manage to post +1 TROLL. Your karma is terrible. You loose all your friends who thought you really were a Bush supporter.

    You hear a computer fan in the distance.
    You are hungry.

    >Get back to unemploymed life
    Please put on your tin hat. Your final karma is BAD. CowboyNeal thinks you suck.
    Goodbye.

    Do you want to (L)Load a Saved game, (R)Restart or (Q)Quit.
    >
    --

    Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses. If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.

    1. Re:Coming soon - Slashdot Adventure by lxs · · Score: 2, Funny

      >read slashdot

      You're trapped in a labyrinth of duplicate stories all alike.
      You hear CmdrTaco chuckling in the distance.

      >read slashdot

      You're trapped in a maze of silly poll options all different.You feel slightly annoyed by the missing options.
      A gaggle of trolls cowers away from your superior karma.

      >whack troll.

      A bright flash of light, a hollow laugh... One more GNAA member banished to -1.

      >smoke crack

      Aaahh. The joys of having mod-points...

  20. Teaching Aid by micah_gideon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Has anyone out there ever tried to use Interactive Fiction to teach English as a foreign language? If so, how did you do it and did it work?

  21. MOD PARENT UP by xgamer04 · · Score: 2, Funny

    "In Soviet Russia, Korean old people are for YOU!"

    Hopefully, the cross-reference will create a memetic explosion that takes out both cliches at the same time.

    Hopefully.

    --
    When you look at the state of the world, how can you not become a radical, liberal anarchist?
    1. Re:MOD PARENT UP by ryanmfw · · Score: 5, Funny

      These things never die man, they just grow old and read email in Korea.

      --
      Hurricane Ivan: A 17th century prison collapsed. All of the inmates escaped.
  22. Re:Inform by Bastian · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's not too hard to learn Inform, at all. The language's manual and tutorial puts most projects' documentation to shame.

    Inform homepage

  23. Great... by flatface · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is just fucking great. 20 minutes after I install a GeForce FX 5950 I'm playing Interactive Fiction. Thanks, Slashdot.