The 2004 Interactive Fiction Competition
Introduction
------------
What began nine years ago as an effort to encourage the development
of short works of interactive fiction has grown into a competition
involving some forty authors and over two hundred judges. Each
year people from around the world write text adventures that can be
played in two hours or less. In recent years the definition of what
interactive fiction is has changed, as each year more games with
graphics and sound are entered in the competition.
Whether you've never played a text adventure before in your life,
or you've judged in every competition since 1995, we're glad you're
taking part.
Welcome to the 2004 Interactive Fiction Competition.
Playing The Games
-----------------
(Note: for the latest information and possible updates to games,
please visit the competition web site at
http://www.ifcomp.org/)
You may play the competition games in any order you choose.
However, if you don't think you'll have time to play all of the
games before the end of the voting period, you are encouraged to
use Comp04.z5. Comp04 is a front end for the competition which is
designed to look like a text adventure. It has information about
all of the games, and will present them to you in random
order. That way, even if you don't play all of the games you will
have played a random sampling of them. Comp04 can also keep track
of the scores you give each game. You don't have to use Comp04, but
if you decide to give it a try, load it using a Z-machine
interpreter (more on Z-machine interpreters in a moment) and type
ABOUT for more information.
There are two types of competition games: interpreted games and
platform-specific executables.
Interpreted Games
Interpreted games are written using a computer-independent
language, and can thus in general be run under many different
operating systems. To play an interpreted game, you need an
interpreter. There are several types of interpreted games in the
competition.
TADS GAMES. TADS games are found in the tads2 and tads3 folders of
the competition directory. The filenames of TADS games end in .gam
(for TADS 2) or .t3 (for TADS 3), and they are run using a TADS
interpreter. You can find TADS interpreters at
http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXprogrammingXtads2Xexecutables.html
and
http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXprogrammingXtads3Xexecutables.html
There are single interpreters that can run both TADS 2 and TADS 3
games. If one exists for your operating system, use it.
Z-CODE GAMES. The z-code games are in the zcode folder of the
competition directory. The filenames of z-code games end in .z5 or
.z8, and are run using a Z-machine interpreter. Z-machine
interpreters can be found at
http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXinfocomXinterpreters.html
HUGO GAMES. The Hugo games are in the hugo folder of the
competition directory. The filenames of Hugo games end in .hex, and
are run using a Hugo interpreter. Hugo interpreters can be
found at
http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXprogrammingXhugoXexecutables.html
ALAN GAMES. The ALAN games are found in the alan folder of the
competition directory. ALAN games consist of two files, one ending
in .acd, the other in .dat, and are run using an ALAN
interpreter. You can find one at
http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXprogrammingXalanXexecutables.html
ADRIFT GAMES. The ADRIFT games are found in the adrift folder of
the competition directory. ADRIFT games run only on Windows
systems. You can get the ADRIFT Runner at
http://www.adrift.org.uk/
Platform-Specific Games
WINDOWS GAMES. The Windows-specific games are in the windows folder
of the competition directory. They are playable only under Windows
or under an emulator.
Rating The Games
----------------
Rate each game you play by giving it a whole-number score from 1 to
10. Larger numbers are better. Your rating must be based on no more
than two hours of cumulative playing time. If, after playing a game
for two hours, you want to keep playing it, you must give it a
score *and not change that score later if you resume play*.
Comp04 can keep track of your scores for you, which will make
submitting them easier. You must submit them by 11:59 P.M. EST on
November 15th, 2004.
Submitting Your Scores
----------------------
Once you have played and rated as many games as you can before the
November 15th deadline, you need to submit your scores. You do not
have to play all of the games to vote; however, you must play at
least five games. There are three ways to vote. The first is to use
the web-based interface located at
http://ifcomp.org/vote/. The
second is to use Comp04. Comp04 will create a file called
rating.txt with all of your ratings. You can e-mail that file to
the vote-counter, Mark Musante, at
[email protected]. The third is to
put all of your ratings in an e-mail message and send that to
Mark. You may submit different ratings, and only the last one you
send in will be counted.
If you choose to e-mail your votes to Mark and you do not use
Comp04's rating.txt file, use the following format for your
e-mail. In the subject line of your message, put "VOTE". In the
body of the message, put the name of each game you are rating
followed by its rating, with one game name and rating per
line. Send your message as plain ASCII. Do not use HTML or send
your votes as an attached non-ASCII file like a Microsoft Word
document.
Remember, you must vote before 11:59 P.M. EST on November 15th,
2004. Votes submitted after that date will not be counted, so if
you won't have access to the Internet around that time, be sure to
vote early. You can always change your votes at a later date.
