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From: [email protected] (David Glasser)
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Subject: [rec.arts.int-fiction] Interactive Fiction Authorship FAQ (3/3)
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       [rec.arts.int-fiction] Interactive Fiction Authorship FAQ (3/3)

  Maintained by David Glasser ([email protected])
  This chunk contains parts 5 and 6 of the raif FAQ.
    _________________________________________________________________

Part 5: Writing IF
    _________________________________________________________________

  This part of the FAQ answers the question "What has been written on
  the subject...".
    _________________________________________________________________

 5.1: ...in general?

  Several papers on IF design and theory are available from the
  IF-Archive [What is the IF-Archive?: 6.1] , in /if-archive/info/ .
  These are mostly available as ASCII files, although some also exist in
  other formats.

  Graham Nelson's ([email protected]) "The Craft of Adventure"
  (available from the IF-Archive) is a treatise on writing interactive
  fiction. This is currently in its 2nd edition and is also available as
  TeX source. HTML versions are available from "The TADS Page" and
  <http://www.gnelson.demon.co.uk/craft/>.

  Gerry Kevin Wilson ([email protected]) has thoughtfully published his
  views on designing and writing interactive fiction in "Whizzard's
  Guide to Text Adventure Authorship" (available from the IF-Archive).
  There are also two supplementary updates to this document.

  Gil Williamson's ([email protected]) book "Computer Adventures, The Secret
  Art" is now available as "literary freeware" (at
  <http://www.cix.co.uk/~gil/data/ca-tsa.htm>). This is primarily a "how
  to..." manual, and although many of the technical details are several
  years out of date, the book contains much of interest to the aspiring
  interactive fiction author.

  The Oz Project, directed by Joseph Bates at the Carnegie-Mellon School
  of Computer Science, is developing technology for high quality
  interactive fiction. Focusing on the simulations behind the interface
  (which they call the deep structure of virtual reality) their goal is
  to provide users with the experience of living in a dramatically
  interesting simulated world populated with simulated people.

  Michael St. Hippolyte's ([email protected]) paper, "A Plot Beyond A
  Line: New Ways to Be Nonlinear"
  <http://www.users.interport.net/~mash/nonlin.html>) looks at the
  problems of linearity in interactive fiction, and suggests some
  possible solutions.

  David A. Graves's ([email protected]) three papers, "Second Generation
  Adventure Games" (which focuses on the physical world model, parsing,
  text generation, and simple agent planning), "Bringing Characters to
  Life" (a summary of the progress in Artificial Personality during the
  70's and 80's), and "Plot Automation" based on his presentation at the
  Computer Game Developer's Conference in 1991. All of his papers are
  available from the IF-Archive.

  Authoring system manuals may be of interest, even if you do not use
  the particular system. Look for these in the IF-Archive, in the
  directory /if-archive/programming/<authoring system name>/manual/,
  where <authoring system name> is, for example, tads. Also, there is
  online documentation available for several authoring systems, as noted
  under "[Online Documentation]" in the authoring system records [What
  authoring systems are available?: 4.4] .

  The TADS Manual contains useful advice on designing an interactive
  fiction game (chapter 6), some of which is TADS-specific, and some
  honest information on the limitations of the text adventure format
  (appendix B).

  The Inform "Designer's Manual" details the step-by-step implementation
  of a small game as a tutorial throughout the manual (this is, of
  course, Inform-specific).

  For further references try Stephen Granade's ([email protected])
  "Interactive Fiction Bibliography" (1997), available from the
  IF-Archive in /if-archive/info/if-bibliography.txt .
    _________________________________________________________________

 5.2: ...of the art of writing NPCs?

  Phil Goetz ([email protected]) has made available two of his
  papers: his overview of computerized interactive fiction (in DVI,
  LaTeX, or HTML) and his notes on using SNePS (Semantic Network
  Processing System, a knowledge representation and reasoning system).
  Both can be found on his web page <http://www.cs.buffalo.edu/~goetz/>.

  Dancer's ([email protected]) paper "'Smart' NPCs in Interactive
  Fiction" <http://www.brisnet.org.au/~dancer/smartnpc.html> gives
  theoretical and practical advice on writing believable NPCs. [This
  link seems to be defunct. dancer.brisnet.org.au seems to exist, but is
  unreachable.]

  (See also: David Graves' "Bringing Character To Life" in [ ...in
  general?: 5.1] .)
    _________________________________________________________________

 5.3: ...of parsing?

  John Holder's "Parser Talk" gives some basics on how a good parser
  should work. You can get it at
  <http://www.frii.com/~jholder/intfiction/parser.html>.

  (See also: David Graves' "Second Generation Adventure Games" in [
  ...in general?: 5.1] .)
    _________________________________________________________________

 5.4: ...of plot/story in interactive fiction?

  Paul Munn's senior project paper "The Application of Directed Acyclic
  Graphs to First Generation Interactive Fiction" (available from the
  IF-Archive) contains ideas on the use of DAGs in interactive fiction
  and a TADS implementation of this, as well as information on the
  evolution of IF, past and future.

  "The Stage as a Character: Automatic Creation of Acts of God for
  Dramatic Effect"
  <http://rhodes.www.media.mit.edu/people/rhodes/Papers/aaai95.html>),
  by Bradley Rhodes ([email protected]) and Pattie Maes
  ([email protected]), considers plot control in a multiple player
  environment.

  (See also: David Graves' "Plot Automation", and Michael St.
  Hippolyte's "A Plot Beyond A Line: New Ways to Be Nonlinear" in [
  ...in general?: 5.1] .)
    _________________________________________________________________

 5.5: ...of the educational value of interactive fiction?

  Brendan Desilets' ([email protected]) series of articles
  on interactive fiction as a teaching aid for middle school pupils is
  available from his Web page, "Teaching With Interactive Fiction: A
  Home Page for Educators and Other Readers." (See [What is available on
  the World Wide Web?: 6.3] .)
    _________________________________________________________________

Part 6: Internet Index
    _________________________________________________________________
    _________________________________________________________________

 6.1: What is the IF-Archive?

  The IF-Archive is the world's largest and most comprehensive
  repository of interactive fiction-related material, including
  authoring systems, tools, utilities, papers, references, reprints of
  magazine articles, and of course games. The URL is

  <ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/>

  Remember this URL well. Every file in the IF-Archive, together with a
  short description, is listed in the (text) file "Master-Index".

  Uploads of new material are encouraged. Please send an e-mail to the
  maintainer of the archive, Volker Blasius ([email protected]),
  with a copy to his assistant David Kinder ([email protected]),
  describing the purpose of your upload and what machines it works on.
  The ftp address for uploads is
  <ftp://ftp.gmd.de/incoming/if-archive/>.

  (Please note the directory. It is *not* /if-archive/incoming/ nor is
  it /incoming/. Files uploaded to the wrong place will probably die in
  obscurity. Well, /if-archive/incoming now works, but it's not the
  canonical name.)

  The IF-Archive (though not the incoming directory) is mirrored at the
  following sites, which may be closer to you and thus faster and easier
  to reach:

  <ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/doc/misc/if-archive/> (also http)
  <ftp://ftp.nodomainname.net/pub/mirrors/if-archive/> (also http; ftp
  may not work from it with web browsers)
  <ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/misc/if-archive/>
  <http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/if-archive/>
  <ftp://ftp.firedrake.org/if-archive/> (also http at www., fsp at fsp.)
  <http://www.ifarchive.org/>

  The last is no standard ftp mirror; it translates the structure of the
  archive to HTML pages and displays the text from the Index files
  together with the file names.

  ftp.gmd.de no longer requires "reverse DNS lookup", as it had for
  years, so everyone should be able to connect to it.

  Many files in the IF-Archive can also be fetched via links on the Web,
  and a complete browsable index can be found on Stephen van Egmond's
  ([email protected]) "Twisty Pages" or at the ifarchive.org web-based
  mirror. (See [What is available on the World Wide Web?: 6.3] .)

  If you cannot find a particular file in the location stated in this
  FAQ or elsewhere, be sure to also look in the incoming directory, as
  well as /if-archive/unprocessed/ , as it may not yet have reached its
  permanent home. This is particularly true for recent additions.

  Volker and David make a monthly post to several newsgroups, including
  rec.arts.int-fiction, detailing all recent additions to the
  IF-Archive. Any files added since the last post are in a file called
  /if-archive/new-since-last-post .
    _________________________________________________________________

 6.2: What is available via FTP?

  Well, as has been mentioned above, the IF-Archive, or one of its
  mirrors, is the place to go if you want to download interactive
  fiction software. Really, if you can't find what you want there, you
  probably won't find it anywhere.

  The occasional file, especially games, may turn up at some of the
  larger platform-specific FTP sites, or on a relevant BBS.
    _________________________________________________________________

 6.3: What is available on the World Wide Web?

  There are in fact a large number of Web pages devoted to, or at least
  relevant to, interactive fiction; too many to all be mentioned here. A
  near-comprehensive list can be obtained by searching a Web search
  engine, such as Yahoo (<http://www.yahoo.com/>), for the string
  "interactive fiction".

  Following is a short list of some of the best general interactive
  fiction Web pages and various authoring system-specific pages. Most of
  the pages mentioned will contain links to other associated pages.
  Pages concerned with playing interactive fiction as opposed to
  authoring, or the history of a particular company (such as Infocom) or
  game (such as "Adventure") have not been included. (This section is
  poorly organized and aging and is in need of a revamp.)
    _________________________________________________________________

  Interactive Fiction
         <http://www.cre.canon.co.uk/~neilb/intfiction/>

  Description
         On this page are links to articles on game design, information
         about several authoring systems, a history of interactive
         fiction, and a taxonomy of plot devices. The page is maintained
         by Neil Bowers ([email protected]).
    _________________________________________________________________

  Interactive Fiction at about.com
         <http://interactfiction.about.com/>

  Interactive Fiction (IF) Authorship
         <http://www.duke.edu/~srg3/IFAuthorship.html>

  Description
         Maintainer Stephen Granade ([email protected]) has gathered
         as many IF links as he could find, sorted them, organized them,
         and annotated each one. This About.com site also includes a
         weekly column and a Q&A section.

         As well as links to various articles on interactive fiction
         design and the TADS and Inform authoring systems, his second
         page has a number of useful TADS modules.
    _________________________________________________________________

  Twisty Pages/Interactive Fiction Criticism and Authorship
         <http://bang.dhs.org/if-index.html>

  Description
         This excellent page, maintained by Stephen van Egmond
         ([email protected]), is an attempt to gather together
         many resources (papers, news articles, reviews, etc.) relevant
         to interactive fiction authorship and criticism in one place.
         There are also fully linked HTML versions of every article in
         the rec.arts.int-fiction archives.

         This page is also notable for the excellent browsable index of
         the IF-Archive which Stephen has created.
    _________________________________________________________________

  John's Interactive Fiction Page
         <http://www.frii.com/~jholder/intfiction/>

  Description
         This site is the home of the Jzip web page, The Encyclopedia
         Frobozzica, a discussion on parsers, and a link to a homemade
         search engine that is loaded with IF links.
    _________________________________________________________________

  Oz Project Home Page
         <http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Groups/oz/>

  Description
         Scott Neal Reilly ([email protected]) maintains this page.
         Details of the Oz Project, including a summary of its aims and
         links to several Oz papers (gzipped postscript) are here.
    _________________________________________________________________

  Teaching with Interactive Fiction
         <http://k12s.phast.umass.edu/~desilets/>

  Description
         This page, maintained by Brendan Desilets
         ([email protected]), has information on using
         interactive fiction in education, primarily for middle-school
         pupils.
    _________________________________________________________________

  AGT Home Page
         <http://www.markwelch.com/agt.htm>

  Description
         This is the official Home Page for the AGT authoring system. It
         is maintained by the co-author of that system, Mark Welch
         ([email protected]).
    _________________________________________________________________

  The Alan Home Pages
         <http://www.pp.softlab.se/thomas.nilsson/alan/>

  Description
         These pages contain an HTML version of the Alan programmer's
         manual, sample code fragments, and links to the Alan
         executables.
    _________________________________________________________________

  The IF Collaborator's List
         <http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Haven/1227/>

  Description
         As is evident, authoring interactive fiction requires a certain
         level of competence in two main disciplines-- namely, computer
         programming and (prose) writing. If you do not feel happy with
         your ability in either one of these areas then the IF
         Collaborator's List, maintained by Nicholas Daley
         ([email protected]) may be of interest. It is a little out of
         date, and some files were destroyed in a cracker's attack.

         The original Collaborator's List has been having technical
         difficulties for some time, so Tom Raymond is running an IF
         Assistance List at
         <http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/7442/if/assistlist.html
         > to fulfill the same purpose.
    _________________________________________________________________

  Hugo - An Interactive Fiction Authoring System
         <http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Academy/5976/hugo.html>

  Description
         This page is maintained by the author of Hugo, Kent Tessman
         ([email protected]). It contains information on the authoring
         system and links to relevant files.
    _________________________________________________________________

  Hugo Homepage
         <http://cub.kcnet.org/~jnichols/hugo/>

  Description
         Maintained by Jerome T. Nichols ([email protected]), this
         page has information and links of interest to the Hugo
         programmer, as well as an on-line manual.
    _________________________________________________________________

  Inform 6: A Compiler For Interactive Fiction
         <http://www.gnelson.demon.co.uk/inform.html>

  Description
         Maintained by the author of Inform, Graham Nelson
         ([email protected]), this page has all the latest
         information on all aspects of Inform, including HTML versions
         of associated manuals and other documentation, such as the
         "Inform Designer's Manual," and the "Z-Machine Standards
         Document." As of April 1999, it is somewhat out of date, not
         completely mentioning the latest versions.
    _________________________________________________________________

  Inform Programming
         <http://www.doggysoft.co.uk/inform/>

  Description
         This page, maintained by Andrew Clover
         ([email protected]), has a history of the Inform library,
         and the usual links to various files. Mike Phillips
         ([email protected]) maintains a US mirror of the page.

         It is horribly out-dated.
    _________________________________________________________________

  Rexx-Adventure
         <http://www.io.com/~desantom/rad.html>

  Description
         This home page, maintained by the system's author, Mike DeSanto
         ([email protected]) has information about Rexx-Adventure and
         links to the downloadable files.
    _________________________________________________________________

  The TADS Page
         <http://www.tela.bc.ca/tela/tads/>

  Description
         This page, maintained by Neil K. Guy ([email protected]), is an
         attempt to create a central starting point for people
         interested in TADS. Of particular note is the HTML version of
         the TADS manual, including the 2.2 updates at
         <http://www.tela.bc.ca/tela/tads-manual/>.

         This site is very good.
    _________________________________________________________________

  The TADS Programming Page
         <http://www.df.lth.se/~mol/progtads.html>

  Description
         This page is maintained by Magnus Olsson ([email protected])
         and has info on and links to TADS stuff.
    _________________________________________________________________

  WorldClass Programming Page
         <http://www.df.lth.se/~mol/progtadsworldclass.html>

  Description
         Maintained by Magnus Olsson ([email protected]) this page
         concerns WorldClass, a complete replacement library for TADS.
         There are links to the WorldClass manual and some modules.
    _________________________________________________________________

  IF Dimension
         <http://www.tip.net.au/~mfleetwo/if.html>

  Description
         Julian Fleetwood's page contains a variety of IF substance.
    _________________________________________________________________

 6.4: Are there any IF-related chat spaces?

  You know, there is! It's called ifMUD. Basically, regulars from the IF
  newsgroups sit around talking about things ranging from IF writing to
  hints on games to general computer stuff to music to monkeys, alpacas,
  and corn. It's fun. A sense of humor is required. You probably
  shouldn't refer to it as a chat space, though.

  You can connect by telnetting to ifmud.port4000.com, port 4000. Since
  May 1999, ifMUD has been located at 216.161.202.25
  (genesis.epicverse.com) and is maintained by Mark Musante. This may or
  may not change, so the port4000 address is the safest.

  Log in as "Guest" with password "guest" and ask a wizard (the list of
  wizards can be seen by typing '@users wizards') for help with getting
  a character. If you are totally lost, type '@holler HELP ME!'.

  More information on ifMUD is in the ifMUD FAQ at
  <http://www.ministryofpeace.com/text/ifMUD/faq.html>.

  The Interactive Fiction Hall of Shame (ifHOS) is a collection of
  photos of raif and ifMUD regulars. It can be found at
  <http://www.davidglasser.net/ifhos/>.

  ifMUD's website is at <http://ifmud.port4000.com:4001/>; it contains
  two web-based clients for ifMUD, though neither of them are as good as
  a decent MUD client. You can also sign up for a character on the
  website, though there is nearly always a wizard on the MUD to create
  one for you.

  While at port4000.com, check out <http://www.port4000.com/> for Sadie
  Hawkins, a band formed of IF people. It is the official band of this
  FAQ, by the way.
    _________________________________________________________________

 6.5: What 'zines exist?

  "XYZZYnews", available in Adobe Acrobat format (.PDF) and plain text,
  appears sporadically and usually contains two or three articles on IF
  design, as well as sneak previews of upcoming games, spoilers/hints
  for specific games, and the occasional game review. Each issue is
  available from the XYZZYnews Home Page: <http://www.xyzzynews.com/>.
  It is edited by Eileen Mullin.

  "SPAG" appears irregularly (approximately bi-monthly). Each issue is
  chock-full of reviews of interactive fictions, both old and new. See
  also the "SPAG mailing list" entry in [Are there any interactive
  fiction-related mailing lists?: 6.6] . SPAG's web page is at
  <http://www.sparkynet.com/spag/>. It is edited by Paul O'Brian.

  A couple of old 'zines can also be found at the IF-Archive, in the
  /if-archive/magazines/ directory.
    _________________________________________________________________

 6.6: Are there any interactive fiction-related mailing lists?

  SPAG mailing list

  This list distributes SPAG magazine. The list is intended only for
  distribution of SPAG and announcements from the editor. Submissions
  should be sent directly to the editor, Paul O'Brian
  ([email protected]). To subscribe send email to
  [email protected] with "subscribe <your email address>" (without
  the quotes) in the *body* of the message.
    _________________________________________________________________

  Z-machine mailing list

  Intended for discussion of the Z-machine, an abstract machine designed
  by Infocom to run their text adventures, topics on this list include
  details of Z-machine operation, its interpreters (ZIP, Frotz, etc.),
  and compilers producing Z-machine code (i.e., Inform).

  To subscribe send email to [email protected] with "subscribe z-machine
  <your email address>" (without the quotes) in the *body* of the
  message.
    _________________________________________________________________

 6.7: Where can I find Infocom games?

  (This question is more appropriate for rec.games.int-fiction, but is
  answered for your information here anyway.)

  Most of the Infocom games ("The Lurking Horror", "Planetfall", etc.)
  are *not* legally available on the Internet. They are still under
  copyright and may be bought in various collections from Activision.
  "Masterpieces of Infocom" contains all the Infocom games except "The
  Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "Shogun". There are other out of
  print collections such as the "Comedy Collection" and the "Sci-Fi
  Collection". Many Infocom games can be found on auction sites such as
  <http://www.ebay.com/>.

  However, the three "Zork" games are available for free download from
  the Activision website at
  <http://www4.activision.com/games/zgi/atrium/gameroom/main2.html>.
  "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is available for free
  Java-based play at
  <http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html> and it is
  simple for one to find the ZCode file on that site.
    _________________________________________________________________

 6.8: What are those interactive fiction newsgroups again?

  There are three newsgroups dedicated to interactive fiction.

  The group to which this document applies, rec.arts.int-fiction, is a
  discussion group for those interested in artistic or technical aspects
  of interactive fiction, primarily the processes of and problems posed
  by methods of design and implementation of interactive fiction,
  including planning, plotting, programming, and writing. For further
  information see part 2 (Introduction to the Newsgroup).

  The second group, rec.games.int-fiction, is primarily for players of
  extant interactive fiction games. Posters ask for help with or
  spoilers for particular games, post reviews, and ask for information
  about games, companies, and people. For further information see the
  rec.games.int-fiction FAQ (occasionally posted to the newsgroup,
  otherwise available from the IF-Archive in the directory
  /if-archive/rec.games.int-fiction/ ).

  The other group, it.comp.giochi.avventure.testuali, is for discussion
  of IF in Italian.

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