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Loyalists Preserve Past Through Text-Only Games
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "'You are at the edge of a clearing with an impressive view of the mountains. A trail splits off toward some standing stones to the southwest, while the main road emerges from the forest to the east and continues westward down the hill, via a series of switchbacks.' So begins 'A New Life' (downloadable from here), part of a group of game hobbyists going back to text-only basics. They try to keep the genre alive by posting their titles online for free and meeting in chat rooms dedicated to the craft, the Wall Street Journal Online reports. 'Console games are demanding,' says Mike Snyder, a 33-year-old computer programmer in Wichita, Kan. 'With text games, you can sit there at the prompt, go make a sandwich, then come back and play more.'"
.. play those games linked, have a look at http://nickm.com/if/faq.html
I prefer SLASH'EM myself, like Nethack but much, much worse.
Ahh... this brings me back to my days in Elanthia as Lord Sharvan Darvenshire, half elven ranger. In 9th grade I must have spent 50% of my time outside of school playing online with my friends. Computer dork, I know... but hey, you're reading /., so you're probably not one to talk! ;-)
The great thing about text MUDs was how easily (and quickly) GMs could add content. There was no 3d modeling, no conceptual drawings, downloadable patches, etc, so a festival or merchant could be whipped up in a matter of hours to days (depending on the extent)
Another nice thing about the "special events"? It was a REAL PERSON you interacted with. The merchant would alter your items, enchant them, etc.
Sharvan has since moved onto World of Warcraft... but I still have a soft spot for GS III (now Gemstone IV), as it introduced me to the world of online gaming. There are a lot of things that were in GS that I wish WoW had as well, but it's an entirely different environment so it's pretty much impossible. Totally different experiences.
I actually attribute my ability to type >120wpm to Gemstone. When you spend so much time in the game, and typing is the only way to interact, you learn to get around the keyboard quite well. Who ever said gaming was pointless?!
And, for the more graphically inclined, check out these:
I have been a MUDer for over nine years now, I have tried MMORPGs like Shadowbane, Ultima, and WoW to name a few, but I always keep coming back to the MUD that I have been with for all this time. There are many reasons, one is the community, on a MUD like the one I play there are only about 40 of us and we know each other well. Another reason is that the MUD that I play at least is about Role Playing, which is not something that can be truely done on a MMORPG. A good balance of PK and RP is what is needed, and MUDs can provide that. Also on a MUD you have to actually use your mind, your imagination. Another great thing I have found after my years of MUDing is an improvement in certain skills, I read faster, type faster, and can make things up on the spot that sound more reasonable. Overall I think that MUDs are great things, but they arn't for everyone but those of you who take to them they are much much better than a graphical game ever could be. By the way, the MUD I play is called Dark Mists http://darkmists.org/ [darkmists.org] and my character is Nij so if any of you want to stop by I'd be happy to show you around.
Utinam me logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant.
In my case, I am part of the spanish interactive fiction community. It's page is:
http://caad.mine.nu/
If you speak spanish, it's an option. I believe that spanish community is the second of the world in number of members and annual production.
Pichuneke
Other than eBay, there is ONE other source of Infocom games... You can buy from here..
http://www.lacegem.com/
One CD with every Infocom game that Activision could legaly put on one disc. Activision lost the rights for games like HHGTG and Shogun. Yes, they are in the UK, and yes, they ship to the USA. I ordered this from them a few years ago. I have no affiliation with the company other than being a satisfied customer.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
As someone who played Zork I/II/III back on his Apple //e - let's not forget the other great text-only games Infocome produced. Deadline was a Clue like game, but my fav was always Hitchhiker's guide. You can play it online now here:
n .shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game_nola
Yes, they do put some basic graphics up, but the whole text game is still there!
fak3r.com
The grue is a sinister, lurking presence in the dark places of the earth. Its favorite diet is adventurers, but its insatiable appetite is tempered by its fear of light. No grue has ever been seen by the light of day, and few have survived its fearsome jaws to tell the tale.
For those who care: http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava. html
And the knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them...
The problem is that natural language comprehension and real-world reasoning are difficult problems to solve in software.
There have been advances in the engines--look at Glulx--but the problem is that there haven't been the kinds of advances in AI needed to really open up the game world.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
wow- and no one got it.
The poster is not asking what a grue is. They are imitating the text parser in the game.
That's ok, Jesus likes me anyway.
There are a few contests out there dedicated to Interactive Fiction, and these contests tend to view it more as a literary form than a style of computer game.
The biggest is of course IF Comp, but there are other smaller ones dedicated to particular themes (like the annual Saugus.net Ghost Story Contest that invite both prose and interactive fiction entries).
Viewing interactive fiction as just a type of computer game is a little like viewing an audio book as just a type of CD. While it's in some sense true, a typical I-F title has just as much in common with a typical computer game as a typical audio book has with a typical pop CD...
This text-based game wasted so much of my time at the SUNY-Buffalo in the late 80's, I cringe to think about it.
Therefore, I would be remiss not to unleash it on the rest of you now once again.
Galactic Trader Online
Galtrader Telnet client
Enjoy...
Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
Check out this collection of java text adventures http://www.materiamagica.com/towne/tavern/index.ph p There's a few different story lines to try out there.
I visited Lacegem, unfortunately they list the Infocom collections as being out of stock. There are resellers on Amazon that list the Infocom titles, however at collector's prices.
http://www.retromud.org/ - regularly 90+ players on at a time, fantaistic guild/class system, active wizzes, very complete, massive worlds (11,000+ rooms I think). I wasted a significant amount of time there in college, it was great.
http://lensmoor.org/ - different flavor, but same characteristics as above. Very active.
checking for libvirus... no
ERROR, libvirus.so not found, terminating
http://ironrealms.com/
Go check them out, you'll be amazed.
(Of course, 90% of everything is crap. Be it RPGs, text adventures, novels, music, blogs, and the like. I'm willing to trade more crap being generated in exchange for more good stuff being generated. The system will find ways of filtering the crap. In the case of IF the IFComp works pretty well. Word of mouth has succesfully lead me to a number of very small, non-local bands. I suspect the homebrew RPG community has working filtering mechanisms.)
I'm less convinced that the IF community has a "retrogaming" focus. Traditional sprite based RPGs have been replaced with shiny 3D RPGs. Everything you can do in a sprite based RPG can be done in a 3D-engine. In the case of IF, there isn't anything that's obviously better. Graphic adventures can't yet capture the flexibility of a text adventure. They'll never capture the particular feeling of the written word any more than movies replaced novels.
(Indeed, so an extent I wonder how many of the RPG Maker fans are really interested in the retrogaming aspect compared to how many use it because it's what they have? Little sprites are easy, big sprites are harder, 3d models and animation are harder yet. As the tools make things easier I'd expect 3D to be the default for future would be game creators, perhaps thanks to Super Ultra RPG Maker 3D.)
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As I said before, the rest of my 30-minute interview wasn't included. It's not so much that what I said was taken out of context, as it is that what *else* I said would have helped it make more sense. I play a lot of console games. I know about pause. Sheesh. But the action is usually pretty fast-paced. That's the difference. Things don't *happen* in Interactive Fiction until to make a move. You don't *have* to pause. You don't *have* to reach a save point. You just get up and walk away. Simple.
I think the people here get a bigger kick out of making asinine comments than in actually discussing the topic. And most of it is just misinformed. MUDs? Browser-based games? This was an article about Interactive Fiction. It wasn't an article about Kansas and Sandwiches. Most people just read the blurb, and replied to get in a quick jab. A shame. The article was about a lot more than that.
:::: Mike Snyder
Either a really bad subset of AIF (Adult Interactive Fiction), or a blatant lie. Most likely, a troll response.
:::: Mike Snyder
If it's Interactive Fiction, they're not going to be nearly as good as those written in Hugo, Tads, or Inform. C# is a general-purpose language. Step one would be to create an IF *engine*, and those that exist now have had *years* to refine and get it right.
I know Hugo. and I somewhat know C#. It's all about going for the right tool for the job. C# ain't it.
:::: Mike Snyder