The Uncomplete, Unoffical list of TADS games.
v3.00
This list of TADS games and sources is unofficial and casual. I
started out of curiousity and will maintain it as time allows. This
list is not an endosement of TADS or the games listed here. TADS is
one of several excellant products. The discussion of which
language/system is best re-occurs periodically and this is NOT IT!
In all cases I have attempted to be accurate and current. If you spot
any inaccracy or descrepancy, please contact me. In particular, I
don't know where to obtain some of these games.
TADS is shareware as are most TADS games. Support shareware by
registering or else it WILL disappear.
Nathan Torkington (
[email protected]) also maintains a list of IF games.
The majority of TADS games are not yet finished, and a good deal of
space is devoted to these in this list. Hopefully, announcing the games
here will encourage authors to release games in a timely fashion and
hopefully only serious efforts will be pre-announced here.
Many TADS authors have email access through Compuserve. Bear in mind
that they must pay actual cash to read and reply to email. Their
addresses are formed as
[email protected] .
Thanks to ...
DB David Baggett (
[email protected])
RLB Russell L. Bryan (
[email protected])
Comments, etc to:
[email protected]
Existing TADS games
Curse of VengeanceA (CoV)
Description/Comments: Fairly typical Dungeons & Dragons meets
Text Adventure. Includes extremely (perhaps too much so)
simple combat system, armor and weapon classes, and a save the
princess plot.
"Unfortunately, the programmer considered combat to be more
important than puzzles, and the general course of a game
involves a lot of slogging through extremely boring
battles."-RLB
Author: Scott C. McNab
Deep Space Drifter (DSD)
Description\Comments: Sequel to Ditch Day Drifter, you crash
land onto a mysterious, recently deserted space station. At
one point you have to fly, very interesting. Was actually written
before DDD, very large game.
Available from mdsos.archive.umich.edu in /msdos/gammes as
'deepspac.zip' or the HE BBS. Source available to registered users.
Authors: Michael J. Roberts and Steve McAdams
Ditch Day Drifter (DDD)
Description\Comments: Bundled (ie, with source) in the TADS
distribution. Break into the senior's dorm room on Ditch Day.
Has a maze.
"[S]et on the Caltech campus; Mike Roberts' answer to Lurking
Horror I guess (which is set on the MIT campus, where the
Infocom folks all hailed from) [except that it's not gothic
horror]."-DB
Author: Michael J. Roberts (
[email protected])
High Tech Drifter (HTD)
Description/Comments: The very first TADS game! Available
with source from the HE BBS. Described as not quite finished.
Author: Jim Cser (no-net-access?)
Lost (Lo)
Description/Comments: While searching for riches in the forest,
you come across a spaceship which takes you to different places
and times. Difficult from what I have heard, whatever that
means. Available from???
"The game is quite large (the code is over 10,000 lines long)
and has the largest vocabulary that the compiler would allow."
-- JH, the author
Author: Jeffrey Hersh (???)
Save Princeton (SP)
Comments/Description: You're a visitor to Princeton's campus.
While you're there, mysterious invaders take over campus, and
you have to oust them. Mac version available from umich. DOS
version due 1 FEB 93.
Neil K. (
[email protected]) says,
Might best be summarized by this line from the game:
"Jacob takes the disk and reads the label. "TADS? This looks
neat. I've always wanted to write my own adventure game." he
says. "I'll make a game with all my friends in it, and clever
puzzles, and oodles of self-reference."
Author: Jacob Solomon Weinstein (
[email protected])
The Great Archeological Race (TGAR)
Description/Commnets: Adventure where you play the curator of a
museum...and it's your job to help increase failing patronage
by finding new artifacts. Your quest leads you deep into the
heart of the South American jungle, where you discover a whole
new world! Shareware ($21.95), from Absolute Zero.
The version currently available at the HE BBS uses TADS v1.2x,
so no undo etc. Also, this game seemed slightly easier than
some (perhaps because of its initial setting is rather more
familiar than castles or space stations). The plot, though, was
rather more developed and explicit than most. Source available to
registered users.
Author: John LaBonney (
[email protected])
Unnkulian Underworld: The Unknown Unventure (UU1)
Description\Comments: The first third-party TADS game to be
generally circulated on Internet. Irreverent parody of
contemporary IF games. Has a medieval flavor. Has a maze.
Available from the HE BBS and most Internet FTP sites.
"Actually [Leary] wrote the first version in Pascal about eight
years ago."-DB
Author: D. A. Leary (
[email protected])
Unnkulian Unventure II: The Secret of Acme (UU2)
Description\Comments: Sequel to sucessful UU1. Seems to have
more contemporary flavor. Is, perhaps, wackier. Available
from the HE BBS and most Internet FTP sites.
"Also has a maze, unfortunately. Seemed like a good idea at
the time. (It wasn't.) [None the less, it's the] greatest
thing since sliced bread!" -DB :-)
Author: David Baggett (
[email protected])
Forthcoming TADS games
Harold Jenkins, 30th Century Archaeologist: The Undergods Trilogy
Description: The beginning of a series with no visible end
concerning the adventures of an archaeologist with the charisma
and style of Indiana Jones and gadgets that would make James
Bond blink. The Undergods Trilogy: Unsavory characters
forcefully hire Harry to recover three jewels from the temples
of three rival cults on three different planets. Part one,
Firegods, is expected to be released in February of 1993.
Seuqels Windgods and Watergods expected September 1993 and
February 1994.
Having seen the background materials to the Firegods game, I
think it will be quite interesting.
Author: Russell L. Bryan <
[email protected]>
Anticipated release: FEB 1993
The Horror of Rylvania
Author: D. A. Leary
Comments: Leary's second TADS game. A hard-edged gothic horror
game that has been uploaded to a few BBS's but never officially
released. This probably won't be an official ADVENTIONS game
but one of these days we'll make an archive of it and upload it
to Internet sites. (It's been on the "to do" list for a long
time.)
Anticipated release: ???
The Legend Lives!
An Unnkulian Universe Unventure
Author: David Baggett <
[email protected]>
Comments: "The beginning of a new series. We learn what life
is like 500 years after UU2. Needless to say, a lot has
changed; unfortunately, the Unnkulians still appear to be
around and causing trouble. You take the role of a graduate
student at Akmi Yooniversity who has made a terrifying
discovery while exploring some old literature about the
Unnkulians. The fate of the galaxy rests in YOUR hands.
(Surprise.)"
"I'm working on this one now, and have been for many months.
The game has several times as much text depth and density as,
for example, UU2; hence it's been taking a *long* time. Also,
this one gets "serious" at points, though it still has plenty
of humor scattered through it."
Anticipated release: early 93.
Unnkulia Zero: The Search for Amanda
Author: D. A. Leary
Comments: Finished and now in beta-test. Quite possibly one of
the biggest text adventures ever written, at least in terms of
amount of text. A truly mammoth game, it forced the switch to
TADS 2.0 because 1.X couldn't handle it under DOS. (Not enough
conventional memory.) In this game we learn about the early
history of the Valley and the Unnkulians. And we get a glimpse
at the future.
Anticipated release: hopefully prior to MAR 93.
Unnkulia 1/2: The Salesman Triumphant
Author: D. A. Leary
Comments: Somewhat smaller than UU1 and UU2. Explores the
trials and tribulations of a down-and-out Acme salesman. Easy,
especially compared to Unnkulia Zero or UU2.
Anticipated release: The schedule on this is the same as for
Unnkulia Zero.
Unnkulian Unventure III: [to be determined]
Author: Chris Nebel <
[email protected]>
Comments: The sequel to UU2, wherein the cliffhanger ending is
resolved. May be the funniest one yet. (Certainly the
wackiest.)
Anticipated release: ???
A note about TADS
The Text Adventure Development System (TADS) is one of many systems
that make it easiler to write text adventures. TADS currently supports
MSDOS, and Macintosh with a Atari ST port reportedly underway. Game
sources and (v2.x) game files are portable.
TADS is shareware as are most TADS games. Support shareware by
registering or else it WILL disappear.
TADS is available via anon-ftp from:
msdos.archive.umich.edu
mac.archive.umich.edu
atari.archive.umich.edu
and from the High Energy.
High Energy Software
--------------------
Distributing: TADS, DSD, DDD, HTD
BBS: US MAIL: EMAIL:
High Energy BBS (HE BBS) PO Box Internet:
[email protected]
speeds up to 14,400 Palto Alto, CA GEnie: M.ROBERTS10
(415)493-2420 (N-8-1) 94303 CIS: 73737,417
Absolute Zero
-------------
Distributing: TGAR
US MAIL: PHONE: EMAIL:
121 Park Avenue (201)993-8146
[email protected]
Convent Stsation, NJ 07961
Adventions
----------
Distributing: The Unkuulian Unadventures (UU1,UU2,etc)
EMAIL:
[email protected]
