Interactive Fiction Competition Opens

Sargent1 writes "The 2004 Interactive Fiction Competition has opened for business. The yearly competition, now celebrating its tenth anniversary, is for short pieces of interactive fiction. At this point IF authors can sign up to take part in the competition, and everyone can learn how to judge the games when they are released in October of this year. If you're not sure what interactive fiction is, take a look at Slashdot's recent review of Twisty Little Passages, a book on interactive fiction from Adventure (and earlier antecedents) to present day."

The Farthest I ever go

[nevek]

Ahh I remember those, the only thing that ran on my old 286

Open door
You cant open this door
Close Door
The Door Isint open
Attack Door
Your Hand Hurts
Get Life
You go outside, blinded by the sun, you procede to the comic book store only to be beaten up on the way there, you then return home only to be taunted by CowboyNeal.

Re:The Farthest I ever go

[Johnny Doughnuts]

OPEN DOOR
INVALID COMMAND

OPEN THE DOOR
INVALID COMMAND

OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR
DON'T USE NAUGHTY WORDS

I'd get to the point where I'd throw the damn thing out the window, only to realize a day later I should have typed:

OPEN THE NORTH DOOR

*sigh* Damn Infocom.

Re:The Farthest I ever go

[the MaD HuNGaRIaN]

Heheh...reminds me of some Pirate Treasure Island thingy for my TI-99/4A that came on two, yes, two casette tapes.

It took forever and a day just to load the damn game--and another couple days to stumble upon the proper syntax for getting out of the initial room:

OPEN THE NORTH DOOR.

Then there was LSL, Space Quest, and Police Quest. Those were actually fun. If not equally frustrating. I mean....libbed lubed lubbers? WTF? And that bum and the apples...what was up with that guy?

Re:The Farthest I ever go

[WWWWolf]

Curious. I can't remember any Infocom game that bluntly replied "invalid command" (Most reply like "I don't know the word "foo"). Infocom's competitors did ocassionally write less glorious parsers, however.

Besides, Infocom parser excelled at figuring out the ambiguities. In above case, it'd say something like "Which door do you mean, the north door or the south door?"

And besides, they usually had a little bit more clever replies to frustrated players, like:

>damn
Such language in a high-class establishment like this!

=)

Re:The Farthest I ever go

[Squirrel Killer]

OPEN DOOR
INVALID COMMAND
...
I'd get to the point where I'd throw the damn thing out the window, only to realize a day later I should have typed:

OPEN THE NORTH DOOR

*sigh* Damn Infocom.

I've played enough Infocom games to know that this is bullshit. Maybe you're thinking of some other IF developer, because had you been playing an Infocom-developed game, the exchange would've gone:

>OPEN DOOR

Which door do you want to open, the north door, or the south door?

>NORTH
Opened.

It's good to see

[The_Mystic_For_Real]

that people are still making text based adventure games. They sure do pass the time like nothing else. That and text games can be made by anyone with a little bit of programming knowledge and too much time on their hands, thus creating a great variety of games not seen in other genres.

Re:It's good to see

[Maxim Kovalenko]

I couldn't agree more...and for a blast from the past for all you fans of text based adventure games: There are, of course the old games from Infocom and the http://infocom.elsewhere.org/ gallery which allows you to still play some of the originals online, and look at exhibits featuring the original accessories from nearly all the Infocom lines. Truly a step down memory lane.

I tried to enter

[Anonymous Coward]

But I made the wrong choice at some point and wound up dead.

Try lojban, not English.

[Thinkit4]

Lojban would be ideal for interactive fiction--it's parsable like any computer language. Homonyms are just a silly artifact prevalent in English that obscures the interesting subject of computer linguistics.

Re:Try lojban, not English.

[Jameth]

I bet you don't like PERL either.

Re:Try lojban, not English.

[Snarfangel]

Seeing Lojban mentioned somewhere other than a constructed languages group was kind of surprising. I know it shouldn't be -- Slashdotter's like arguing what features should go into a computer language, while Conlangers like to do the same with human languages, so there probably is a bit of crossover with people who like both.

Still, I'd give you a mod point if I could just for bringing up something I think is interesting. Constructed languages like Lojban would be interesting in computer games -- they could replace "made up" languages of magic, or aliens, or even be turned into logic puzzles. The better ones have an underlying order that can often be sensed, even if the language itself is totally foreign.

I'll go back to A.C. lurking now, I just wanted to make sure others didn't think someone was schizophrenically responding to their own post.

Re:Try lojban, not English.

[Sargent1]

Interestingly enough, there's "nuntalyli'u", a version of Colossal Cave translated to Lojban [lojban.org].

Creative gaming design lost?

[cwm9]

I'd love to see this a Graphical Adventure contest like this one recieve the kind of coverage and participation that the interactive games get.

It's seems so sad to me that modern games seem so devoid of creativity. I pray for the day that the immense processing power of todays gaming machines are applied toward making a truely innovative and creative game, instead of ones that simply remake the same old FPS with better graphics.

Re:Creative gaming design lost?

[iabervon]

There doesn't seem to be any reason you couldn't enter a graphical game (so long as you don't enter a non-interactive one). You'd get fewer judges, probably, than one that was text-based, and there would probably be a bunch of discussion, but that doesn't mean you couldn't enter it. Of course, it would be judged against text, which is a much easier medium to be expressive in.

Re:Creative gaming design lost?

[Tojo-Mojo]

I dunno, half-life certainly seemed very creative, focusing a lot more on adventure than just shooting things, and some other games have picked up on that.

I think the main reason you don't see a graphical competition is because the tools are so much more in-depth. Skill aside, it is somewhat easier to describe a vast scene because you can draw on the player's own knowledge and creativity than to have to painstakingly model every detail of it. Think of like that big tree from Rivne or something- describing would likely be a bit easier than modeling it in 3D.

Not that IF games are very easy to produce; in fact, though it is easy enough to make fun of their short comings, allowing for every possible outcome a person could possibly type in is a difficult task.

Sometimes I think we don't have all the concepts of a 'game' nailed down yet from what they started in the days of text adventure. I really enjoy books, but sometimes there are movies, such as Star Wars, that just wouldn't work like a book. I think that graphical games can show just as much creativity as an IF game, and IF games can suck just as much as the latest FPS.

Why pigeonhole gammers?

[wantedman]

The biggest problem with graphical adventures is that you must represent what your character is playing with graphically. You can't represent something that isn't obvous and the scenes must be uncluttered to keep your adventurer excited.

Let's take an example the standard cliche, taking stuff outta the trash. In IF, you can alude to stuf being in the trash, you can mention the trash can and hope the adventurer looks, you can relate a story about trashcans or you can hint to look directy. With graphical adventures, the trashcan looks like the recyclebin in Windows. Heaped full of papers one minute, take one sheet out and it's empty. It's pretty blunt when you think about it.

IMHO, most of the creativity was used to dress up a rather repeditive game genre.

Re:Why pigeonhole gammers?

[0x0d0a]

It sounds obvious, but

IF:graphical games::book:movie

Each format has strong points of its own.

To say that IF can do everything a graphical game can is wrong; to say that graphical games are unilaterally better than IF is equally wrong.

Re:Creative gaming design lost?

[iantri]

Well, it would be difficult for the other reasons mentioned and this: the thing is graphical adventures require many different types of talent, and generally can not be completed by one person. To put together a graphical adventure, you need a coder, artist, musician.. you get the idea.

Interactive Fiction

[osewa77]

No, it's not such a difficult concept. It's simply a synonym for "Text-based Adventure Game". For those of us who were not yet born when the genre started, it's Quake _without_ the visual feedback, or the sound, or the mission objective. It's the Quake of a time when computers were not powerful enough to play Quake. Now, for some reason, some people are still in love with the old way ... and these are good people .....................

___________
says a young programmer & weblog newbie [afriguru.com] to even younger

Re:Interactive Fiction

[Anonymous Coward]

Right. It's also curious why people read books when we have all these excellent movies.

Re:Interactive Fiction

[phrenq]

Come on, think before you post. That is one of the most ignorant things anyone's ever said about interactive fiction. No, it's not a synonym for "Text-based Adventure Game". No, it's not just Quake without graphics.

Interactive Fiction is a genre that focuses on a story - that includes plot and character development, dialogue, and creativity - and it allows the player to interact with te development of that story. You don't see much (if any) of that in Quake.

Good interactive fiction doesn't need (and doesn't have) graphics for the same reason that pictures don't make a good book any better.

Re:Interactive Fiction

[grumpygrodyguy]

Good interactive fiction doesn't need (and doesn't have) graphics for the same reason that pictures don't make a good book any better.

While I agree with your point I don't understand why this has to be such a black and white issue. It seems as if most of the posters here are of two camps:

1) Don't like graphics because it restricts our imagination.
2) Play games exclusively for cutting edge graphics and effects.

I.e. the movies vs. books camps. But some of my favorite gaming experiences fell somewhere

Neverwinter, and graphics in interactive fiction

[Simon Brooke]

Good interactive fiction doesn't need (and doesn't have) graphics for the same reason that pictures don't make a good book any better.

While I agree that interactive fiction doesn't need graphics, there's plenty of interactive fiction which does have graphics and which, in my opinion, greatly benefits from having graphics.

For example, Neverwinter Nights [bioware.com] and its Aurora toolkit [bioware.com] provide excellent tools for creating interactive fiction with the ability to do all the sorts of things you can do in a text-bas

Re:Neverwinter, and graphics in interactive fictio

[John Miles]

Do you have any links to IF projects created with Aurora? I don't see how you can use that engine to carry on significant text-based interaction with the player. I'd be very interested in being proven wrong.

Re:Neverwinter, and graphics in interactive fictio

[Simon Brooke]

Do you have any links to IF projects created with Aurora? I don't see how you can use that engine to carry on significant text-based interaction with the player. I'd be very interested in being proven wrong.

You're missing the point. All projects created with Aurora are interacive fiction by definition. There's no significant difference between

There is a box here.

> open the box

You don't have a key.

and just clicking on a box in Neverwinter. No, generally, user type-in is not a mode of i

Re:Neverwinter, and graphics in interactive fictio

[John Miles]

You're missing the point. All projects created with Aurora are interacive fiction by definition.

Well, that depends on who's doing the defining, I'd say. But I'm not unsympathetic to your point of view.

There's no significant difference between

There is a box here.
> open the box
You don't have a key.

and just clicking on a box in Neverwinter.

Correct... because neither example represents IF writing of any quality. The important thing isn't how you open the box (clicking on it versus typing 'open t

Re:Neverwinter, and graphics in interactive fictio

[Simon Brooke]

Textual description, unlike textual input, is not something I consider optional in a genuine IF game (despite what I wrote in the Montfort review about how we shouldn't be so quick to leave games like Deus Ex or Half-Life out of the IF canon.) When I walk into the room and see your box for the first time, a true IF engine should do more than just tell me about the presence of the box. It should show me what I've found, in a way that graphics alone can't (easily) accomplish:

On the table rests a small

Re:Neverwinter, and graphics in interactive fictio

[Foopy]

I agree with your claim that NWN's Aurora toolkit is essentially an Interactive Fiction toolkit. In fact, as evidence, I would not point to the Neverwinter Nights campaign or any particular one of its user-made modules (although I haven't played many), but to Planescape: Torment, which was essentially created using a precursor of Aurora, has a similar interface, yet features an extremely sophisticated story with far more raw text than any Infocom game I've ever played (granted, Infocom games were limited b

Re:Interactive Fiction

[thrash242]

That is not correct. Interactive fiction is *not* a synonym for text adventures. Text adventures are a subset of interactive fiction. There are many examples of IF that are not adventures in any sense of the word, nor are they games.

Anyway, yes, there are many people who still like IF, and there's a thriving community based around it. Once cool thing about it is that just about anyone who learns one of the many IF authoring languages can write one. This leads to many interesting works that wouldn't be

Obligatory Homestar Runner reference

[angryflute]

Ye see a FLASK. Obvious exits are NORTH, SOUTH, and DENNIS.

Re:Obligatory Homestar Runner reference

[BlueShad0w]

"Get ye Flask!"

Program in Martian ???

[vinit79]

The website says For this reason, the use of a language designed specifically for IF, such as TADS, Hugo, Inform, or ADRIFT, is recommended. Who in the world uses that ??

The language websites for Hugo, Inform etc explain that they have been designed specifically for text based adventure games.... Talk about specialization !!!!

Any way I have registered and am going to do plain old C ( okay, okay C++)

Re:Program in Martian ???

[Anonymous Coward]

Your game is going to RULE! Systems written with IF in mind, having been worked on for years, will tremble at your amazing parser and world model.

Re:Program in Martian ???

[Mr.Radar]

Any way I have registered and am going to do plain old C ( okay, okay C++)

Get ready for a world of hurt. Writing a parser is a very difficult task. Not to mention creating a world model (i.e. how to define objects/rooms and their interactions with each other). TADS and Inform have already done this for you. All you need to do is supply the world & plot (which you'll also need to add to your C++ based game).

Re:Program in Martian ???

[Perseid]

Yes, but Inform and TADS already have excellent text parsers written for you, making life much simpler once you know the language. So you have to ask yourself which is more convenient - learning a new language to get a free parser or writing the parser yourself in a language you already know.

You also don't have to worry about cross-compatibility with the IF languages. Both of these languages create pseudo-code that runs under a virtual machine. Sort of the way Java works. If you code in C++, even if you write it to be truly portable it will still need to be compiled on each machine people want it run on.

To each his own, but you should at least take a good look at Inform/TAGS/Hugo.

Re:Program in Martian ???

[fritzfingers]

Both of these languages create pseudo-code that runs under a virtual machine. Sort of the way Java works.

True. Infocom's original inform language was one of the first (the first?) to create a machine independent byte-code. Java avant-la-lettre!

Re:Program in Martian ???

[thrash242]

Uhm...correct except for one point: Inform was not created by Infocom. Infocom created the Z-machine standard, which is the virtual machine and its bytecode files which it runs.

Inform was created in 1993, over a decade later (the Z-machine was created in 1979). The link between the two is that Inform compiles into Z-machine files, which are the same format as the ones Infocom used. It's a new(ish) compiler that simply outputs the older Z-machine format.

The actual Inform language is, as far as I know,

Re:Program in Martian ???

[Zurd]

If you already know C, you're MUCH better off just spending a couple of hours picking up the idiosyncracies of Inform. 99% of your work will be wasted if you try to write IF from scratch in C.

Re:Program in Martian ???

[Dmala]

I've been judging the Comp for a few years now, and I have yet to see a scratch-written game that didn't suck. Not to say it couldn't be done, but in the timeframe of the competition, the specialized languages are a huge advantage.

Besides, games written in Inform have (by default, at least) the same look-and-feel as the classic Infocom games. How cool is that?

Re:Program in Martian ???

[Erwos]

I like TADS [tads.org] a lot better than Inform, at least if I'm going to write some IF. I don't particularly love C, which may also be revealing. TADS is relatively easy to program in, has good documentation, and best of all, is still being actively maintained and extended.

The parent was completely right in his sentiment, though, that you're a fool to try to write your own parser if all you want to do is make your own bit of IF. Writing a parser is a decidedly non-trivial exercise. Best to just use one

-Erwos

Re:Program in Martian ???

[thrash242]

Who in the world uses these? You obviously know nothing about IF. 99.95% of IF is written with one of the many IF languages: mainly Inform, TADS, and Adrift. These come with very complex parsers and other features that are commonly used in IF. The more powerful ones (Inform, TADS) are fully functional programming languages, as well.

The other major benefit to using one of these langauges is that they compile to bytecode, and can be used an an insanely varied number of platforms, including Palm devices,

Re:Program in Martian ???

[fritzfingers]

The website says For this reason, the use of a language designed specifically for IF, such as TADS, Hugo, Inform, or ADRIFT, is recommended. Who in the world uses that ??

Well, about every serious interactive fiction author (especially Inform and TADS).

The language websites for Hugo, Inform etc explain that they have been designed specifically for text based adventure games.... Talk about specialization !!!!

What's wrong with specialization? There are so many things that are the same in every int-

Re:Program in Martian ???

[0x0d0a]

The problem is that the existing engines provide a large amount of functionality to users using their language -- choosing to use C/C++ over TADS is kind of like throwing out a large number of useful, mature libraries, as there are fewer C/C++ IF libraries sitting around.

Obligatory Strongbad

[dupper]

YOU ARE THY DUNGEONMAN

Ye find yeself in yon dungeon. Ye see a SCROLL. Behind ye SCROLL is a FLASK. Obvious exits are NORTH, SOUTH and DENNIS.

What wouldst thou deau?

>go dennis

Ye arrive at DENNIS. He wears a sporty frock coat and a long jimberjam. He paces about nervously. Obvious exits are NOT DENNIS.

>talk to dennis

You Engage Dennis in a leisurely discussion. Ye learns that his jimberjam was purchased on sale at a discount market and that he enjoys pacing about nervously. You become bored and begin thinking about parapets.

More here [homestarrunner.com].

jimberjam?

[bsDaemon]

I don't like the cut of your jib, young man!

L.O.R.D

[solid]

I remember my old BBS had a door game I ended up actually paying for.

L.O.R.D: Legend of the Red Dragon

What a game. Kind of like a MUD too.

Those were the days. I wish there were still some BBSes (dialup) alive and thriving... I'd go sign up, maybe even pay for it.

L.O.R.D - You can still play it

[phrenq]

Lots of BBSes still around that you can access via telnet:

http://www.3dham.com/telnet/

Re:L.O.R.D

[WWWWolf]

Not quite LORD, but very close: Legend of the Green Dragon [lotgd.net]. Web browser based version, complete with hideous overblown ANSI colors and keyboard navigation. And it's open source too. =)

pacman?

[jjeffries]

So I see this story has the pacman icon. Pacman, however, is not a good example of interactive fiction.

You are at the center of a maze. To your front and rear are rows of dots that recede into the distance.

> forward

As you move forward, your open mouth causes you to consume a dot.

> forward

Your bulbous body thrusts forward once more, another dot disappearing into your maw.

> back

You turn around. In the distance you can see a ghost, coming right for you!

> down

You can't go in that direction.

> up

You slip into a side passage, continuing to dine on dots. Ahead there is a turn to the right.

> right

You turn, but a ghost is waiting for you right around the corner. There is no time to react, and you run right into it.

You are dead. Your score is 14/1000.

Play again? (y/n)

Re:pacman?

[Ieshan]

At least it's not like final fantasy X, which somehow passes for "interactive fiction":

> [press right button on D-pad]

You have found another cutscene! Feel free to grab another soda and order a pizza or two, because lord knows our animation studio has created 30 minutes more of stunning footage depicting some relatively unimportant and excessively corny love sequence between two minor characters! [music begins to play].

Hrmmm

[Cylix]

I noticed a good concept of choose your own adventure book over at somethingawful.com

Yeah....

http://images.somethingawful.com/inserts/article pi cs/photoshop/04-16-04-media/sparsely.jpg

You can't beat photoshop fridays... not even with a really big stick.

Interactive Fiction rules

[scrod]

Those interested in the contest might want to check out these resources [nwu.edu] for getting started with Inform. And for a short ten-minute adventure, I will engage in some self-publicity and recommend Escape from Station V [nwu.edu].

Re:Interactive Fiction rules

[RyatNrrd]

...and you might like to look at the list of winners from last year [ifcomp.org] and perhaps warm up on some of the better ones [ifarchive.org]. If the last Interactive Fiction game you played was Zork or Advent, you might be pleasantly surprised by how far the genre has come.

For example, most of the higher-ranking games don't let you mess things up (e.g. by "shattering the crystal key" or whatever) and they let you UNDO actions if you find that you don't like how things are going.

Hitchhiker's Guide

[Faust7]

I could never enter that. Everything I tried would wind up being colored by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. That game has so thoroughly embedded itself in the choose-your-own-adventure part of my brain.

With likes like these, who can blame me?

"You wake up. The room is spinning very gently round your head. Or at least it would be if you could see it which you can't."

"A tree outside the window collapses. There is no causal relationship between this event and your picking up the toothbrush."

Re:Hitchhiker's Guide

[Horizon_99]

If you're a fan and haven't played it, or just feel like taking a little trip back:

>Go Underdogs [the-underdogs.org]
[Using your web browser]You see a website offering tons of cool underrated games

>Examine Games [the-underdogs.org]
You see a list of hundreds of IF games"

>Get HHGTG [the-underdogs.org]
You download one of the best IF games ever

>Play game
[using Frotz [csubak.edu]] You play for a while before feeling a presence behind you. The lights go out. You have been eaten by a grue.

IF Pacman

[JoeShmoe950]

It really exists guys. Don't we all just love our text mode pacman! > Up The ghost looms ahead! Download it here: www.freewebs.com/dansworlddomination/PACMAN.EXE

interactive fiction?

[bsDaemon]

Interactive Reality may require a larger investment in order to get a satisfieing level of game play, but the rewards are better, not to mention the graphics are like none other, and the tactile interface is truely ground breaking.
Unfortunatly, i am a broke student and can't afford to play. My stack of quarters will only go so far, so I am stuck in the "pinball" level.

Recent IF games

[Foggy1]

Adam Cadre's stuff [adamcadre.ac] is pretty cool. IF isn't dead, not by a long shot.

Ok

[cubicledrone]

Cue 150 comments of

"yeah but nobody wants to buy a text-based game"

Re:Ok

[Dmala]

"yeah but nobody wants to buy a text-based game"

Which is probably why they're free these days.

Re:Ok

[ThresholdRPG]

> > "yeah but nobody wants to buy a text-based game"
>
> Which is probably why they're free these days.

Wrong.

The commercial text gaming business is BOOMING.

http://www.thresholdrpg.com

http://www.topmudsites.com

http://www.mudconnector.com

Re:Ok

[Jonathan]

Yeah, and nobody wants to buy poems either these days. That's why both poetry and IF are largely done by amateur enthusiasts these days. as Montfort pointed out in _Twisty Little Passages_ But there are exceptions -- 1893 [illuminatedlantern.com] is a commercial text adventure (okay, it does have a few B&W pictures from the fair, but it is more or less a text adventure)

Re:Ok

[cubicledrone]

Yeah, and nobody wants to buy poems either these days.

Yeah, and soon they won't want to buy novels, or short stories, or watch television for more than 10 minutes, or listen to more than one verse of a song, or read, or think.

It's too much trouble. It's too inconvenient. It's not FAST and EASY, like everything on television says it should be.

When the last poet puts down their pen, how long before the entirety of life takes on the dull gray color and stale smell of money? How long before "nobody car

Misunderstanding..

[Decameron81]

Input: look

You find yourself inside a dark room. There is a locked door in front of you. You have a key in your hand.

Input: open door

The door is locked.

Input: use key

What for?

Input: use key with door

You can't use the key with that.

You sit there for half an hour tinking...

Input: look door

The door is plain brown. There is a lock keeping it close.

Input: use key on lock

You get shocked.

You knock the monitor down and start hitting it with the mouse while the neighboors watch you in awe.

Diego

Re:Misunderstanding..

[Anonymous Coward]

The correct answer to this mind-bending puzzle is, "unlock door with key".

Re:Misunderstanding..

[NashCarey]

Can something like www.ruaware.org qualify as interactive fiction? It is very interactive and fiction.

Infocom's greatest ad campaign

[The Gline]

I loved Infocom from the very beginning, not only because they made great interactive fiction / text adventures, but because they had really funny ads.

One of the best was a picture of a brain with the caption: WE STICK OUR GRAPHICS WHERE THE SUN DON'T SHINE.

Re:Infocom's greatest ad campaign

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

Pic [infocom-if.org]

Awesome, time to..

[Fiona Winger]

Time to load up Zangband (www.zangband.org), and describe my short, 15-minute adventure.

Re:For truly interactive fiction...

[CaptainFrito]

just read /. twice a day. "troll" that.

Interactive Fiction...

[Three Headed Man]

...by the esteemed David Wong [pointlesswasteoftime.com]. Warning: some of these stories will be quite possibly the stupidest thing you'll ever read.

Slashdot Editor: The Game

[Nova Express]

You are the editor of a site called SLASHDOT. You see a SUBMISSION. Do you open it? (Y/N)

>Y

You open SUBMISSION. It is an article on FREE SPEECH that bashes the Bush Administration. You possible actions are (P)OST, (R)EJECT, or (T)EST FOR DUP. (P/R/T)

>T

Archives shows that this article is a duplicate of one posted 8 hours ago. POST anyway? (Y/N)

>N

Article posted!

Well, that would explain a lot, wouldn't it?

Scott Adam's Adventure Games

[Puppet Master]

My favorite were the adventure games created by Scott Adams. I played them on my C64.

Adventureland
Pirate's Cove
Mission Impossible
Voodoo Castle
The Count

In Voodoo Castle, there was a cast-iron pot in the game. I typed: smoke pot
and the game replied: That's illegal!

Re:Scott Adam's Adventure Games

[Sylven_1969]

The Scott Adam's games were great! There the IF games that I cut my teeth on. I played them on cartidge and/or cassette on my C-Vic-20. God the games were time consuming and frustrating but still a blast! Stupid time limits on em' always killed me, specially the one where you have to kill Dracula afore the sun rises! *grumbles*

A step back in time

[Sylven_1969]

Wow! It is absolutely wonderful to see that IF still has such a loyal following. I grew up on IF games and still have several IF titles for the PC. I even still have some "choose your own adventure" books on my shelves. Regardless of what they can do with graphics today, nothing compares with what you can do within your own mind. The realism you can get with text based games such as IF and MUDS allows you to truly step into the "role" of your favorite characters and live that alternate l