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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.'"
I have been eaten by a grue :(
...Rob
The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
You wake up.
> get up
You can't get up, it's dark.
> turn on light
You turn on the lamp.
> get up
You can't get up. You've got a headache from that hangover.
> look in pockets
While you look in pockets, your house is demolished by a bulldozer.
Try Again?[y/n]
#$@@#$! That's the third time in a row! !@#%!#@ text games!
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
...all alike.
QUAKE II
/ 043214&tid=112)
Copyright (c) 1991-2001. All rights reserved.
West of steaming pit of hell
You are standing in an open room west of a steaming pit of hell leading down.
There is a gun here.
>
(recycled: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/12/31
--
RageTech
Does Nethack qualify? Not quite text-only, but it will run on a terminal. IMNSHO, the greatest game of all time...
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
clicky clicky
...Rob
The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
They'll produce wonderful text-based games, and people from the cities of MMORPG and FPS will travel out to them to buy blankets and marvel at their monochrome screens.
You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
The biggest part of these games, and the highest value of attraction:
No games graphics will ever beat text only's games:
WHY - Becuase its not limited by your PC, by its programming, and by Your Graphics Card, only your MIND.
You get a general mental version of the world your in, and you can assume its more detailed then wandering the plains in EQ2, unless your imaginaionally inept.
You have to realize, though, that we only use words like "xyzzy," "zorkmid," and "blorple" on formal occasions.
This tagline is copyrighted material. Please send $10 for an affordable replacement.
.. play those games linked, have a look at http://nickm.com/if/faq.html
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?!
Yes. In fact I've often thought that some Interactive Fiction games should be written specifically to learn a foreign languages from scratch. It's one area where the technology would could still produce commercially viable products. I'd do it myself... if only I could speak a foreign language.
Assume this was version in English for people who want to speak French.
To start with, the game engine could describe things to you in English, but be set in France. Any signs or non-player characters you come across would be French. Where you have to speak to characters you'd have to do it in French, with there being clues around if you don't know what to say. At an advanced stage of the game, the language that the game itself uses for descriptions etc. could switch to French.
As the parent poster says, you would be unable to progress without understanding.
And, for the more graphically inclined, check out these:
That's part of the beauty of Everquest. You don't have to play it at all and it's still just as interesting.
http://publicvoidlife.blogspot.com
Computer is on /.
> Surf to
Page Loads - no recent stories
> Reload 7,512 times
A new story pops up
> Click on the story
Nothing to see here - move along
> Reload 389 times
You see the new story
> Write pithy First Post comment - hit Submit
Comment accepted - 8/8
> Reload page
Your comment is gibberish because you didn't preview it
> Reload page again
Comment moderated to -1 as Troll
> Change race to Elf
Change not accepted - you are now permanently cursed as a Troll.
'With text games, you can sit there at the prompt, go make a sandwich, then come back
Must have been written in Java then.
Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
Please tell me that when you first met a native English-speaker, you did not greet them with 'Hello sailor'...
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
>_
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Was the main exercise that tought me English pretty early.
You must be a lot of fun around the office.
"Hey, which way is it to the bathroom in this building?"
"Get up; go left; y; y; door; light; use stall."
"Uh... thanks."
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
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 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
Text adventures are great. To dismiss them as obsolete because we have graphics now is as foolish as dismissing novels because we have movies. I'm a big fan of graphic adventures (and just about any other type of game), but I still appreciate text adventures. There is a level of interactivity in modern text adventures that graphic games haven't yet achieved. The extremely low development costs mean that lots of interesting and quirky stuff gets made.
The WSJ article oversimplifies a few important things. The IF competition is supposed to be limited to games that take two hours. The idea is to get more people writing games under the idea that a two hour game is much easier to make than a twenty hour game. But people still regularly release longer games. Anchorhead, mentioned above, too me about 30 hours.
It's also not fair to say that "just" 174 people voted. Judging is time consuming; you're expected to play to the conclusion (or for two hours, whichever comes first) at least 5 games. And while there is lots of good stuff, there is a lot of junk. So being a proper judge takes a healthy chunk of time and a willingness to suffer some bad games. It's far easier to just wait until the competition ends, then download the top rated ones. While text adventures are a niche market, I expect we're talking thousands of people who play the competition games. It's just that only a small subset vote.
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Oh man, I have to know how to read to play these games!? That doesn't sound like much fun at all.
"You stand before a mountain."
The mountain you see in your mind's eye will be unique and different from every other mountain experienced by anybody else who reads those words. Where is the limitation there? Compare that to a photograph, or a painting which boxes the person into a narrow, pre-defined experience.
Words are simple tools, yes, but they are designed to spark the deep wells of the imagination.
Only a writer frustrated by the fact that the particular mountain in his head cannot ever be perfectly transcribed to another person would complain. Better to be open to the reality that there are endless perspectives and then use those perspectives to cooperatively cobble together a universe in which to tell one's stories.
"You stand before a mountain."
-FL
Back? Some of us never left.
If this sig is witty, it was probably borrowed from someone else's sig.