West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded
front door. There is a small mailbox here.
>OPEN MAILBOX. READ LEAFLET
Opening the small mailbox reveals a leaflet.
(Taken)
"Welcome to rec.games.int-fiction!
This is part 1 of the Frequently Asked Questions list for the group
rec.games.int-fiction, a Usenet newsgroup for the discussion of
Interactive Fiction games and related topics. To read a specific
question, use your newsreader's search function on the string "(n)",
where n is the question number.
This file is in 3 parts. It is posted periodically to the following
newsgroups:
rec.games.int-fiction
rec.arts.int-fiction
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure
comp.sys.mac.games.adventure
comp.sys.amiga.games
comp.sys.acorn.games
comp.os.os2.games
rec.answers
comp.answers
news.answers
The most recent version can be obtained at
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/rec.games.int-fiction/FAQ>
Throughout this file, there will be URL references to relevant files
if they are available on the ftp.gmd.de site. See section 1.5 for
more information.
Contents of this file, part 1:
1.0 rec.games.int-fiction
1.1 The purpose of this group and some history of IF
1.2 Other USENET newsgroups discussing interactive fiction
1.3 Netiquette rules; asking for and posting hints; "bug reports"
1.4 Are there any 'zines related to Interactive Fiction?
1.5 The ftp.gmd.de IF archive and other Net resources
1.6 Games, walkthroughs, hints and source available for FTP
1.7 Disclaimer and trademark/copyright notice
1.8 XYZZY?
Part 2 covers Infocom.
Part 3 covers other adventure or IF-producing companies.
The current maintainer is Stephen van Egmond. Questions and
information should be mailed to
[email protected].
Special thanks to Paul Smith, Magnus Olsson, Jacob Butcher, Paul
David Doherty, Volker Blasius, Keith Lim, Luis Torres, Jacob
Weinstein, Mark Howell, Adrian Booth, Eric Shepherd, Sascha Wildner,
Jim Butterfield, Mark Stacey, Stu Galley, Dorinda Hartmann, Tomas
Schafer, Hans Persson, Gareth Rees, Robert Pelak, Juergen Christoffel,
James Montanus, Russell Bryan, Werner Punz, David Kinder, and Matt
Ackeret for ideas, suggestions and contributions. Scott Forbes
created and maintained the original FAQ.
No newsgroup should be without one!"
>PRAY
Altar
This is the south end of a large temple. In front of you is what appears
to be an altar. In one corner is a small hole in the floor which leads
into darkness. You probably could not get back up it. On the two ends of
the altar are burning candles. On the altar is a large black book, open to
page 570.
>READ BOOK
Commandment #12593
"The purpose of this group and some history of IF" (1.1)
Here in the newsgroup rec.games.int-fiction we discuss games of the
interactive fiction genre, ranging from classic games by companies
such as Infocom and Scott Adams to 'modern' and non-text IF games.
Simply put, the IF genre includes any game that tells a story as part
of the game, usually with the player as the protagonist. The actions
of the player affect the progress of the story, which often centers
around solving puzzles or finding treasure, and leads to an endgame in
which the player 'wins' and completes the adventure.
One of the earliest games that could at least be termed interactive is
Hunt The Wumpus, from the early 1970s. In this game, you have three
arrows, and are trapped in a maze that is a dodecahedron, with the nodes
being rooms and the edges being the room connections. In any room, you
are given hints as to phenomena that are going on in adjacent rooms (you
can't tell from which one though) - breezes from bottomless pits, grunts
from the (very hungry) wumpus, and so on. The wumpus can move, and
the bottomless pits are frequently rearranged by earthquakes. Your
goal is to hit the wumpus with one of your arrows by firing it down a
passageway into an adjacent room.
Interactive *fiction* traces its electronic roots to a 1977 program
named ADVENT, better known as the Colossal Cave Adventure. It was
this program, written by Willie Crowther and Don Woods, that
established many of the features now common to the genre, including
noun/verb parsing (e.g. "TAKE BOOK"), mazes ("You are in a maze of
twisty little passages, all alike") and the basis of most later IF in
fantasy/adventure settings. Soon after this the game Dungeon, or
Zork, was written by MIT grad students; these students were the
nucleus of a 1980 startup company called Infocom, which produced a
version of Zork for the TRS-80 Model I and other machines. This led to
widespread popularity of interactive fiction games, and was later
referred to as the Golden Age of the genre; for several years,
Infocom's products were the top-selling games on the market.
Later events, however, led to the decline of the IF genre. As the
educational level of the average computer user decreased and the
features and capabilities of the average computer increased, the trend
in computer games went to 'arcade' games instead of text.
By 1989 Infocom had been absorbed by another company and destroyed,
leaving a legacy of high-quality, well-written interactive fiction and
a large audience with few sources for good new material. This
newsgroup discusses 'classic' interactive fiction games, new games
keeping the genre alive, and non-text (even non-computer) IF.
Many of Infocom's implementors have moved on to other exploits.
Steve Meretzky works for Legend Entertainment, which produces
commercial IF.
>N
Temple
This is the north end of a large temple. On the east wall is an ancient
inscription, probably a prayer in a long-forgotten language. Below the
prayer is a staircase leading down. The west wall is solid granite. The
exit to the north end of the room is through huge marble pillars. There is
a brass bell here.
>READ INSCRIPTION
"Other USENET newsgroups discussing interactive fiction" (1.2)
Many people make the mistake of assuming that rec.arts.int-fiction
and rec.games.int-fiction are the same group. Nobody in rgif can answer
programming questions, and few people in raif want to see hint requests.
Be very careful when crossposting to both newsgroups: do both audiences
care? Even if you do crosspost, direct followups to the appropriate
forum with a Followup-To: header line.
_rec.arts.int-fiction_ is a newsgroup for *authors* of interactive
fiction, and discusses adventure development systems such as Inform
and TADS, features of a 'good' IF game and how to implement them,
techniques, hazards, tradeoffs, etc. If you're thinking about writing
a game (as opposed to playing one), rec.arts.int-fiction is your
group. <
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/rec.arts.int-fiction/FAQ> is the
FAQ.
_comp.sys.amiga.games_ discusses all types of computer games for the
Commodore Amiga computer, including IF games for that machine.
_comp.sys.mac.games_ has a similar charter, discussing games for the
Apple Macintosh line of computers.
_comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure_ discusses a subset of the topics
covered in rec.games.int-ficton: Those interactive fiction games
available for the IBM PC. If you're looking for IBM-specific info
about a game, or for info about a game available only on IBM PCs, you
may find help in c.s.i.p.g.adventure.
The _rec.games.mud_ hierarchy discusses MUD (multi-user dungeon) games.
The _rec.games.frp_ groups discuss fantasy role-playing games (not
necessarily computer-based) such as Dungeons & Dragons.
_rec.games.roguelike.misc_ is for general discussion of games in the
"Rogue" family (games that display an ASCII representation of a
dungeon and its contents).
_rec.games.roguelike.announce_ is a moderated newsgroup for announcements
about Rogue-like games. The other groups in the roguelike hierarchy each
discuss a specific game in the "Rogue" genre.
>BLORPLE WEST WALL
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.
Nondescript Room
This is a drab, nondescript room. The only exit leads south.
>S
Enchanters' Retreat
Belboz is meditating here.
>BELBOZ, HELLO
"Hello." Belboz doesn't seem pleased to see you.
>ASK BELBOZ FOR A HINT
Belboz looks at you suspiciously. "Only the rawest apprentice would ask
for a hint (or post one) without observing proper netiquette."
"Netiquette, hints, and bug reports" (1.3)
Before asking for a hint, consider that many people before you have
asked for hints. At ftp.gmd.de there are numerous hint files and
walkthroughs available. See question 1.6 for more information.
1. Above all else, don't spoil the puzzle or game for other people who
are reading the newsgroup but didn't ask for a hint. One common way of
doing this, if you're asking for a hint, is to put the number of points
you have earned so far, or the area of the game you're dealing with,
in the subject line, so that people who are not yet that far into the
game can skip your post.
When asking for or giving hints, try to put spoiler warnings in the
subject line and text, and if possible, a form feed character in the main
text before the spoiling content.
Good example:
>Subject: Re: ZORK I at 10 points (SPOILERS)
>
>J. Random writes:
>>How do I get into the white house?
>
>SPOILERS
>Have you tried running for President?
*** A special note on the "form feed" character: The ASCII
character 12, if inserted as the _first_character_of_a_line_ in the
text of an article, causes most newsreaders to pause and require
the user to hit a key before continuing. This feature is useful
when protecting part of a message from people who don't want to see
it, as it gives them the option of hitting "n" instead and skipping
the SPOILER section.
Some newsreaders display this character as a caret followed by the
letter L, thus: ^L . This is *not* the same as typing the two
characters ^ and L. Also, it is very important that the "form
feed" character be kept as the first character on the line. If you
reply to a message and put a ">" in front of the form feed, it
won't work, the message will be spoiled and scores of angry netters
will tear you limb from limb (okay, maybe not that drastic, but
it's bad manners).
Most machines can generate a form feed character if you type a
CTRL-L or (in "vi") CTRL-V CTRL-L. If you can't generate a form
feed character, either use 24 blank lines or save this message and
delete everything but the form feed below.
The last character on this line is an ASCII form feed:
2. If you're asking for a hint, please try to ask in a way that
doesn't spoil the puzzle, or spoil other puzzles in the game.
Describe whatever details are relevant, but don't post the answer to
every other puzzle you've solved up to this point.
Good example:
>I've figured out what the gold machine is for, but I keep
>getting killed whenever I try to use it.
Bad example:
>I used the gold machine to send a message to Orkan, but the
>Warlock noticed my presence and turned me into bat guano.
If you can't ask the question without revealing part of the
puzzle, protect the question with spoiler warnings as above.
3. When giving a hint, please try to give just enough info to send
the adventurer on her way. Please don't post the exact sequence
of moves required to win the game from this point, or solve the next
two puzzles in order to get the ball rolling.
Good example:
>Have you explored the area outside the house?
Bad example:
>There's a window on the east side of the house that you can
>squeeze through in order to get in. Don't bother with the
>front door; there's no way to open it. Don't eat the food,
>either: You'll need it later to feed the microscopic dog.
Other common messages seen on rec.games.int-fiction involve bugs that
the poster has found (or thinks they have found) in a particular game.
A bug is broadly defined as behaviour that was not intended by the
author. The most common error is one where characters or objects
behave in strange ways; less common is the existence of ways of getting
around a puzzle that the author did not intend. Lists of known errors
in Infocom games are published in some editions of XYZZYnews and on
the Infocom home page. See below for the locations of these resources.
If you know that you've found a bug or contradiction in a game,
please refrain from posting about it to the entire newsgroup. There is
no point in embarrassing the author. Almost every author provides an
electronic-mail address, which you should use to inform her about the
bugs. Many authors don't see everything on rgif, or don't read it at
all.
On the other hand, if you're not sure whether what you've encountered
is a bug or not, it makes sense to post about it; don't forget to
put spoiler warnings in where appropriate.
Belboz looks at you expectantly.
>ASK BELBOZ ABOUT THE DUSTY SCROLL
Belboz looks at you suspiciously. "Curious little enchanter, aren't you?"
"Magazines about interactive fiction" (1.4)
There are two magazines archived at ftp.gmd.de which are still
producing new issues. They are:
SPAG ("Society for the Preservation of Interactive Fiction") and
XYZZYnews (Xyzzy is a magic word from Adventure)
They are both excellent. Issues are made available in either PDF
(requiring an Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format reader) or in
plain text. The magazines are free. XYZZYnews encourages subscription
by giving giving subscribers the latest issue before everyone else.
SPAG focuses almost entirely on game reviews.
Someone went through the first 33 issues of a PC-only magazine
called SynTax and made the IF-relevant files and articles
available in a file at ftp.gmd.de. It's a promotion for the
subscription-only magazine.
Everything is available at <
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/magazines>
Belboz looks at you expectantly.
>FROTZ BELBOZ
Belboz stops you with a word of power.
"Ah! Now I have you, charlatan! Fool me twice? Never!" He rises to his
feet, makes a threatening gesture, and you find yourself transported
to....
Maze
This is part of a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
>PLUGH
A hollow voice says:
"The ftp.gmd.de IF archive and other Net resources" (1.5)
The interactive fiction archive site at ftp.gmd.de is by
far the largest collection of interactive fiction games, development
systems, "walkthrough" solution files and related IF materials
available. It is generously maintained by Volker Blasius. Uploads of
new material are encouraged; please send e-mail to
[email protected] when
uploading. It is at <
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive>.
Other mirror sites:
in the USA: <
ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/doc/misc/if-archive>
<
ftp://ftp.achilles.net/wuarchive/doc/misc/if-archive>
in Canada: <
ftp://ftp.io.org/pub/mirrors/if-archive>
in Finland: <
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/misc/if-archive>
Through the Web, offering links to ftp.gmd.de:
<
http://www.undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca/~svanegmo/if-index.html>
A browsable hypertext index of the ftp.gmd.de archive. You can look
through the file listings, click on a file name to download it, and
view game reviews (contributions of reviews encouraged). Some
information for Inform developers is also available.
Other Web sites of general interest:
+ <
http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pete/Infocom>
The unofficial "Infocom" home page, compiling a lot of widely
distributed Infocom-specific information into a very usable form.
There's articles on Infocom published in the computer industry and
in Infocom's own newsletter, as well as invisiclues, maps and known bugs
on every Infocom text adventure.
+ <
http://speedracer.nmsu.edu/~jholder/intfiction.html>
John's Interactive Fiction home page offers a hypertext version
of the Encyclopedia Frobozzica, the rec.arts.int-fiction FAQ,
and some commentary on parsers.
+ <
http://yallara.cs.rmit.edu.au/~s9406702/if/index.html>
Maintained by Paul Gilbert, this provides a convenient, annotated
"reference" to net-accessible IF materials.
+ <
http://www.tiac.net/users/baf/if-guide.html>
A huge pile of game-reviews written by Carl Muckenhoupt with links
to the files they're talking about, specific to ftp.gmd.de, and
primarily the games/pc directory.
>S.W.SW.W.W.
Flathead Ocean
Passing alongside the shore now is an old boat, reminiscent of an ancient
Viking ship. Standing on the prow of the ship is an old and crusty sailor,
peering out over the misty ocean.
>HELLO SAILOR
The seaman looks up and maneuvers the boat toward shore. He cries out:
"Games, walkthroughs, hints, source and other FAQs" (1.6)
Thanks to Magnus Olsson for much of the info in this section.
Games and source:
=================
+
http://www-und.ida.liu.se/~d91frera
Contains numerous "starter kits" to get newcomers playing interactive
fiction. These contain all you need to start playing: interpreters,
game files, instructions, FAQs, and some even have full installers.
Versions are available for the most common operating systems, including
the Amiga.
+ ftp.gmd.de in games/, programming/, infocom/compilers/inform/,
and their subdirectories. Read part 3 of this FAQ for more information
on continuing game development.
+ Source code for some text adventures (including various versions of
Colossal Cave/ADVENT, Dungeon/Zork and World) have been posted to
comp.sources.games and comp.sources.misc. They're available from FTP
sites archiving these groups, such as ftp.uu.net.
+ Some Macintosh IF games are available from sumex-aim.stanford.edu,
including Colossal Cave and Dungeon. [Unnkulian may be there too.]
+ Amiga IF games are available from any Aminet mirror site, such as
ftp.wustl.edu or ftp.netnet.net, in the pub/aminet/games/role directory.
Walkthroughs and hints:
=======================
A walkthrough is a start-to-finish "most direct route" way to
finish the game, which guarantees that you will miss out on
lots of the pleasant details that make IF worthwhile. Hint files are
usually in the question-and-answer form. Infocom's variation on this was
the Invisiclue booklet: answers were printed in invisible ink and you used
a special marker to make them visible when you needed a hint. The
electronic version of this (receiving progressively more hints on the
screen) is implemented in many games. Type HINT or HELP to see if they're
available. There is also a shareware-ish program called UHS ("Universal
Hint System") which has many hint files compiled for it; beware of the
author's registration scheme and the lack of attention given to porting
the UHS reader to non-PC platforms.
+ ftp.gmd.de in the solutions/ and infocom/hints/ directories.
+ Walkthroughs for many popular IF games are available from ftp.uu.net,
in the directory /pub/games/solutions/.
+ The Invisiclues for all v3 to v5 Infocom games are available through
the Infocom home page at
http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pete/Infocom; these
are derived from the Invisiclues stored at
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/hints/invisiclues
Relevant mini-FAQs and information compilations:
================================================
+ <
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/info/playgame.FAQ>
FAQ by
[email protected] (Stephen Griffiths) oriented
towards owners of MS-DOS machines who wish to play any of the games
at ftp.gmd.de. Covers all different games systems there are. Very
helpful if you're stuck.
+ <
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/info/adventure-game-history>
A history of the interactive fiction genre. (Hans Persson)
+ <
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/info/tolkien-games.list>
A list of computer games related to J.R.R.Tolkien's works.
(Fredrik Ekman)
+ <
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/info/fact-sheet.txt>
Games, authors, history, statistics, interpreters, and tools for
Infocom games. (Paul David Doherty)
+ <
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/info/gameinfo.txt>
Infocom game information table. (Paul D. Smith)
+ <
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/infocom/how-to-play-these-games>
FAQ by Gareth Rees on what to do if you have an Infocom-format
game file (.z3, .z5, .z7, .z8 or .dat) but don't know how to "make it
go". See also section 2.8 of this FAQ.
Please accept this gift. You may find it useful!" He throws something
which falls near you in the sand, then sails off toward the west, singing a
lively, but somewhat uncouth, sailor song. The boat sails silently through
the mist and out of sight.
A seedy-looking individual with a large bag just wandered through the room.
On the way through, he quietly abstracted some valuables from your
possession, mumbling something about:
"Disclaimer and copyright/trademark notice" (1.7)
This FAQ Copyright 1997 by Stephen Van Egmond. Reproduction of this
document and printing it for personal use is OK. Putting it into an
off-Net compilation without permission is not OK. Ask first.
All trademarks remain the property of their respective companies.
>XYZZY (1.8)
Nothing happens. In the distance you hear a voice:
People frequently ask about the origins of XYZZY. From the Jargon file
3.2.0:
:xyzzy: /X-Y-Z-Z-Y/, /X-Y-ziz'ee/, /ziz'ee/, or /ik-ziz'ee/
adj. [from the ADVENT game] The canonical `magic
word'. This comes from ADVENT, in which the idea is to
explore an underground cave with many rooms and to collect the
treasures you find there. If you type `xyzzy' at the appropriate
time, you can move instantly between two otherwise distant points.
If, therefore, you encounter some bit of magic, you might
remark on this quite succinctly by saying simply "Xyzzy!"
"Ordinarily you can't look at someone else's screen if he has
protected it, but if you type quadruple-bucky-clear the system will
let you do it anyway." "Xyzzy!"
Xyzzy has actually been implemented as an undocumented no-op
command on several OSes; in Data General's AOS/VS, for example, it
would typically respond "Nothing happens", just as ADVENT
did if the magic was invoked at the wrong spot or before a player
had performed the action that enabled the word. In more recent
32-bit versions, by the way, AOS/VS responds "Twice as much
happens".
The popular `minesweeper' game under Microsoft Windows has a
cheat mode triggered by the command `xyzzy<enter><right-shift>'
that turns the top-left pixel of the screen different colors
depending on whether or not the cursor is over a bomb.
>SE
Maze
This is part of a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Someone carrying a large bag is casually leaning against one of the walls
here. He does not speak, but it is clear from his aspect that the bag will
be taken only over his dead body.
>KILL THIEF WITH SWORD
A good slash, but it misses the thief by a mile. The thief comes in from
the side, feints, and inserts the blade into your ribs.
It appears that that last blow was too much for you.
I'm afraid you are dead.
**** You have died ****
Press any key to continue
A strange little man in a long cloak appears suddenly in the room. He is
wearing a high pointed hat embroidered with astrological signs. He has a
long, stringy, and unkempt beard.
The Wizard draws forth his wand and waves it in your direction. It begins
to glow with a faint blue glow. The Wizard, in a deep and resonant voice,
speaks the word "FAQ!" He cackles gleefully.
This is part 2 of the Frequently Asked Questions list for the group
rec.games.int-fiction, a Usenet newsgroup for the discussion of
Interactive Fiction games and related topics. To read a specific
question, use your newsreader's search function on the string "(n)",
where n is the question number.
Contents of this file:
2.0 Infocom
2.1 Whatever happened to Infocom, anyway?
2.2 Can I reach any of the original Infocommies?
2.3 Classic Infocom titles available now
2.4 Classic Infocom releases you might find used somewhere
2.5 Modern (i.e. Activision) releases
2.6 Infocom products not (yet) re-released
2.7 Missing or hard-to-find information in LToI packaging
2.8 Z-machine interpreters, vocabulary listers, utilities,
and Specification numbers.
2.9 Infocom copyrights and playing on other platforms
2.10 Creating your own (Infocom) adventure games
Part 1 covers the elements of rec.games.int-fiction.
Part 3 covers non-Infocom game producers.
The current maintainer is Stephen Van Egmond. Questions and
information should be mailed to
[email protected].
The dream dissolves around you as his last words echo through the void....
>AIMFIZ FORD PREFECT
As you cast the spell, the moldy scroll vanishes!
After a momentary dizziness, you realize that your location has changed,
although Ford Prefect is not in sight...
Dark
You can make out a shadow moving in the dark.
>LOOK AT SHADOW
The shadow is vaguely Ford Prefect-shaped.
Vogon Hold
This is a squalid room filled with grubby mattresses, unwashed cups, and
unidentifiable bits of smelly alien underwear. A door lies to port, and an
airlock lies to starboard.
Ford removes the bottle of Santraginean Mineral Water which he's been
waving under your nose. He tells you that you are aboard a Vogon
spaceship, and gives you some peanuts.
>ASK FORD ABOUT INFOCOM
A long silence tells you that Ford Prefect isn't interested in talking
about Infocom.
Ford yawns. "Matter transference always tires me out. I'm going to take a
nap." He places something on top of his satchel. "If you have any
questions, here's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (Footnote 14).
Ford lowers his voice to a whisper. "I'm not supposed to tell you this,
but you'll never be able to finish the game without consulting the Guide
about lots of stuff." As he curls up in a corner and begins snoring, you
pick up the Guide.
>CONSULT GUIDE ABOUT INFOCOM
The Guide checks through its Sub-Etha-Net database and eventually comes up
with the following entry:
"Whatever happened to Infocom, anyway?" (2.1)
This info is taken from [what was once] the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
FAQ, with thanks to Infocom's Stu Galley for passing it along:
[Thanks to Dave Lebling (Infocom co-founder) for the definitive info
on this]
Infocom never went out of business. It went deeply into debt to
develop a database product (named Cornerstone) that was a commercial
flop. It went shopping for a merger and found Activision, which later
changed its name to Mediagenic. What did happen is that in May of
1989 Mediagenic closed down the "real" Infocom in Cambridge, MA, and
laid (almost) everyone off. All the releases up through Zork Zero,
Shogun, Journey, and Arthur were developed in Cambridge.
Mediagenic licensed the UK rights to the games to Virgin Mastertronic
about two years ago.
Mediagenic went nearly bankrupt, was taken over by outside investors,
and taken through a so-called "pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy" in
January, 1992. As part of that process, they changed their name back
to Activision, moved from Silicon Valley down to LA, and recently
merged with a company owned by the investors (called The Disc
Company).
(End of Lebling information; begin editorial.)
Activision continues to release new products under the Infocom label,
all of which so far have been CD-ROM graphical adventures which have
been met with dour grunts of disapproval from rec.*.int-fiction denizens.
The original text adventures can still be purchased (see below).
You begin to feel distinctly groggy.
> LOOK UNDER MATTRESS FOR IMPLEMENTOR
"Hey, anybody know how I can reach Steve Meretzky?" (2.2)
The original Infocom crew has moved on to other positions. Any kind of
"where are they now" would probably be wrong, out of date, and almost
certainly unwelcome. David Lebling has recently surfaced on
rec.*.int-fiction to comment from time to time, and so haz Liz Cyr
Jones. Other implementors may be lurking; nobody knows.
You see nothing else interesting.
> CONSULT GUIDE ABOUT CLASSIC INFOCOM PRODUCTS (2.3)
The Guide checks through its Sub-Etha-Net database and eventually comes up
with the following entry:
Classic Infocom is generally defined to be anything before Return to
Zork. Activision owns the rights to all the Infocom games and
trademarks, and occasionally releases them in some repackaged form or
another.
Activision is currently [footnote 42] selling a compilation of classic
Infocom called "Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces". This CD (which
works on PC or Mac) meets practically every wish of the
rec.games.int-fiction readership, except for wide availablility.
There is little Activision can do to force stores to carry their
product.
The CD includes the following games:
A Mind Forever Voyaging; Arthur: The Quest For Excalibur; Ballyhoo;
Border Zone; Bureaucracy; Cutthroat; Deadline; Enchanter;
Hollywood Hijinx; Infidel; Journey; Leather Goddesses Of Phobos;
Lurking Horror; Moonmist; Nord And Bert Couldn't Make Head Or Tail Of
It; Planetfall; Plundered Hearts; Seastalker; Sherlock; Sorcerer;
Spellbreaker; Starcross; Stationfall; Suspect; Suspended;
Trinity; Wishbringer; Witness; Zork Zero; Zork I; Zork II;
Zork III; Beyond Zork.
Notable by their absence are Hitch Hikers' and Shogun, which are
not included since the rights to distribute those games have reverted
back to the original authors.
Also included is the top 6 winning entries from the 1995 Interactive
Fiction authorship competition, a "Very Lost Treasures of Infocom"
section containing old game ideas, statements of principle, and
e-mail archives from Infocom's heyday. All maps and documentation are
provided in Adobe Acrobat format which can be printed out.
The packaging bears little resemblance to the originals; notably absent
are the plastic or metal trinkets that were included in packages (for
example, The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy included peril-sensitive
sunglasses, a "Don't Panic" button, a zip-lock baggie containing a
microscopic space fleet, and printed orders for the destruction of your
home and planet). Infocom's original packaging is legendary in the
software industry.
Cost: about $20 US, it has been seen in reasonable quantity at Best
Buy stores and should be at Babbages', Sofware Plus and others. It can
also be ordered direct from Activision (visit www.activision.com; they
will "shortly" be having online ordering but you can get their 1-800
number there).
If you are looking for pirated copies of classic products, don't bother
asking on this newsgroup. In fact, don't bother at all. Many of the
games rely on materials in the game package for copy protection, either
in the form of knowledge you would have by reading it, or data that you
need to look up. Most people will hate you if you ask.
Ford is curled up on the bed, snoring loudly.
> FOOTNOTE 42
"Previous Infocom compilations you still might find" (2.4)
Infocom, in its pre-Activision days released trilogies (The Zork
Trilogy, for example, or the Enchanter trilogy containing Enchanter,
Sorcerer and Wishbringer) containing a subset of the trinkets found in
the original packages. Like almost all other original Infocom packages,
these are now collectors' items.
Activision has released its own series of compilations:
"The Lost Treasures of Infocom I" is a collection of 20 Infocom games.
You may be able to obtain it through mail-order outlets or used from
someone who doesn't want it anymore. The package was available for the
IBM PC, the Apple Macintosh and the Commodore Amiga. The CD and
floppy editions were identical.
The games in LToI I were:
Zork I Enchanter Deadline Starcross
Zork II Sorcerer Witness Suspended
Zork III Spellbreaker Suspect Planetfall
Zork Zero Ballyhoo Infidel Stationfall
Beyond Zork Moonmist Lurking Horror Hitchhiker's Guide
The LToI 1 package was available for the Apple IIgs through the Big
Red Computer Club, which sought and received permission from
Activision to produce a IIgs version which used a hacked-up version
of the InfoTaskForce (ITF) interpreter and did not include Zork
Zero. Matt Ackeret's IIgs port of Zip is far better:
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/interpreters/zip/>
The package includes a manual which contains photocopies of all the
original manuals and game pieces (such as the trading cards from
"Spellbreaker", which are needed to solve a puzzle in the game), but
some information is missing -- see section 2.7 below.
The package also contains a hint book, which looks like somebody took
all the Invisiclues booklets and typed them into a text file. The
hint book is riddled with spelling mistakes, formatting errors and
other problems, but in most cases the mistakes are not serious enough
to keep you from using it.
"Lost Treasures of Infocom II" contained most (but not all) of the
remaining Infocom text adventure games, and retailed for $29.95 through
retail and mail order outlets.
The games in the 3.5 disk version were:
Seastalker Wishbringer A Mind Forever Voyaging
Trinity Cutthroats Hollywood Hijinx
Bureaucracy Border Zone Plundered Hearts
Sherlock Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It
The CD-ROM version contained Shogun, Arthur and Journey in addition.
LToI2 was produced for the Macintosh and PC only. Users of other
platforms can play the non-graphical games by transferring the files
to their machine and playing them with a ZIP. (See question 2.9.)
This package contains photocopies of the original packaging, but does
NOT contain a hint book: Instead it contains a 1-900 number which you
can call to receive hints which is probably dead by now. Some
information is missing for Bueaucracy. See question 2.7.
After Lost Treasures, Infocom released its topical Collections. These
are considered inferior to just about every other collection:
Mystery Collection: Ballyhoo, Deadline, Witness, Moonmist, Sherlock
Adventure Collection: Border Zone, Plundered Hearts, Cutthroats,
Trinity, Infidel
Comedy Collection: Bureaucracy, Hollywood Hijinx, Nord & Bert
Fantasy Collection: Enchanter, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker, Seastalker,
Wishbringer
Science Fiction Collection: Hitchhiker's, Suspended, AMFV, Starcross,
Stationfall
There is also the Zork Anthology, published by Activision in 1994 as a CD
companion to the pseudo-Infocom title "Return to Zork". It contains
Zork I, Zork II, Zork III, Beyond Zork, Zork Zero, and oddly,
Planetfall.
You begin to feel indistinctly groggy.
>EAT PEANUTS
You feel stronger as the peanuts replace some of the protein you lost in
the matter transference beam.
An announcement is coming over the ship's intercom. "Ed tgrykonx jcavfluu
nx jchotha otoyefti ltruvupirbi swrotrueft ochoollzitchogrya rd tfudeftd t
ow ctrufudx jp wkonvuphuvd te h oulpkonz zollcava ri li lo ti l oe hfudx
jirbtrugrys gvupp work oo sthaquio ta btoyr gkonr ga r or gz zr gi skwazitz
zkwaa rerl ow cfluirbwroorktoyfimthad tulp oe he hfluo simbchogryr gu ni
s."
>CONSULT GUIDE ABOUT RECENT INFOCOM PRODUCTS (2.5)
The Guide checks through its Sub-Etha-Net database and eventually comes up
with the following entry:
Activision is working to build a following for Infocom's universes
based on the modern trend to humongous games sprawling across hundreds
of megabytes. Their offerings to date:
_Return to Zork_
A mid-1993 entry for the IBM PC, set far in the "future" of the Zork
series. Difficult, hunt-the-pixels, graphical interface. A
Macintosh version was released in mid-1994. PC Demo is available.
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/demos/zorkdemo.zip>
_Zork: Nemesis_
A graphical CD-ROM adventure released in 1995. The interface has
improved somewhat; the game includes amusing references to the Zork
universe, but the plot is said to be irregular and the puzzles
somewhat inconsistent. Said to be a huge improvement over RTZ.
_Planetfall: The Search for Floyd_
Due out in 1995, a graphical adventure written by Steve Meretzky,
Richard Manning and Hans Beimler. Infocom has reportedly learned
their lesson with Return to Zork's interface and will be improving
it considerably for their 1995 games.
There is also another Zork adventure coming perhaps early next year.
>CONSULT GUIDE ABOUT OTHER INFOCOM PRODUCTS (2.6)
The Guide checks through its Sub-Etha-Net database and eventually comes up
with the following entry:
There are a handful of games and other Infocom products that are not
included in any of the compilations. These products range from
hard-to-find early Infocom products to non-IF games made by other
companies and marketed under the Infocom brand name.
For more information about Infocom products, version numbers and
Infocom products that were never released, see Paul David's Doherty's
"Infocom Fact Sheet", which is periodically posted on
rec.games.int-fiction and is also avaialable at
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/info/fact-sheet.txt>.
Hard-to-find and early products:
_The Infocom Sampler_ (pre-1984?)
This was the first of three demo products written by Infocom,
containing (we think) excerpts from Zork I. The existence of this
sampler is deduced mainly because a later version of the Sampler has
serial number "ID2", suggesting an earlier "ID1".
_The Infocom Sampler_ (1984, 1985)
This was the second of three samplers, containing excerpts from Zork
I, Planetfall, Infidel and The Witness, and also containing a unique
two-room puzzle that involved catching a butterfly. Available for
virtually every computer on the market in 1985 (including the Osborne,
Kaypro II, TRS-80 Color Computer, etc.) Superseded in 1987 by the
third and final Infocom Sampler.
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/demos/sampler1_R55.z3>
_The Infocom Sampler_ (Fall 1987)
Third and final sampler containing puzzles from Zork I, Trinity,
Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Wishbringer. IBM PC, Apple II and
Commodore 64. <
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/demos/sampler2.z3>
_Fooblitzky_ (Summer 1985)
A graphical game involving deductive logic, by Marc Blank, Michael
Berlyn, Brian Cody, Poh C. Lim and Paula Maxwell. IBM PC, Apple II,
Atari XL/XE series.
_Shogun_
_Journey_
_Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur_
Versions for the Apple IIe and Amiga were produced, but are now rare.
IBM and Mac versions are on LToI 2 CD-ROMs as well as Masterpieces.
Shogun has been seen running on an Apple IIgs; it used IIe graphics
rather than the IIgs' super-hires mode.
_Leather Goddesses of Phobos_ (Summer 1986)
Activision chose not to include the original LGoP in either of the
Lost Treasures packages, possibly to prevent confusion with the
inferior sequel (see below) that was published at about the same time.
A coupon in the LToI II package offered the IBM PC version of this
game for an additional $10; versions for other machines, including the
Apple II, Macintosh, Atari and Amiga, can only be obtained used, and you
will probably have to look for awhile. Try the *.forsale or
*.marketplace newsgroups, or www.dejanews.com
_Leather Goddesses of Phobos II: Gas Pump Girls Meet the
Pulsating Inconvenience from Planet X_
This 1992 offering from "Infocom" had more in common with Leisure
Suit Larry than with the original Leather Goddesses. Available for the
IBM PC.
_The New Zork Times_ / _The Status Line_ (1983? - 1988)
The legendary Infocom newsletter. The name was changed in mid-1986
due to threatened legal action by a lesser-known newspaper serving a
smaller area (Infocom promptly began using old newspapers for packing
material when shipping games to their customers; by coincidence the NYT
was the paper of choice for this purpose). Thirteen issues were
published under the name 'NZT'; one issue (Spring 1986) was titled
'****' and the remaining ten were published as 'TSL'. The newsletters
are now collector's items, and a complete set is rare. Some articles
are archived at
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/info> and at
<
http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pete/Infocom>
There is an effort underway on rec.games.int-fiction to create
complete electronic editions of these newsletters. Watch this space
for more information.
_Cornerstone_ (Fall 1984)
Infocom's one and only attempt at a commercial business product (see
section 2.1, above); probably of interest only to purists. IBM PC
version only; description in Winter 1985 NZT.
Non-Infocom "Infocom" offerings:
_Infocomics_ (1988)
Many believe that this is the point where Infocom-as-a-publisher ended
and Infocom-as-a-brand-name-for-lesser-products began. IBM PC, Apple
II, Commodore 64/128. At least four of these $12 'comic books' were
published:
Lane Mastodon vs. The Blubbermen
Gamma Force in Pit of a Thousand Screams
ZorkQuest I: Assault on Egreth Castle
ZorkQuest II: The Crystal of Doom
_Quarterstaff: The Tomb of Setmoth_ (Fall 1988)
Activision purchased the rights to this Macintosh game from Simulated
Environment Systems in late 1988, and reworked the text and user
interface. The game is a graphical RPG similar to a number of D&D-type
games on the market. Infocom planned to release this game for the
Apple IIgs and IBM, but only the Macintosh version was ever
published.
_BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception_ (Fall 1988)
Activision now sells this game and its sequel (_BattleTech: The
Crescent Hawk's Revenge_) as part of a three-game package of
BattleTech-related games. Developed by Westwood Associates.
"Available in November [1988] for the IBM, in February [1989] for the
Commodore 64/128, and in [Spring 1989] for the Apple II series and the
Amiga." The IBM, Amiga and Commodore 64 versions have been sighted;
the status of the Apple II version is unknown.
_Simon The Sorcerer_
Infocom was used as the label for IBM and Mac distribution for this
Sierra-style graphical adventure. Amiga distribution was by Adventure
Soft.
_Circuit's Edge_
IBM, Amiga, and "other 8-bit platforms". A science-fiction RPG based
on Effinger's world in the story "When Gravity Fails".
_Mines of Titan_
IBM, Amiga, Apple IIe and "other 8-bit platforms". A science-fiction
RPG set on the moon Titan. Originally released as _The Mars Saga_ on
the 64. Written by Westwood Associates.
Guards burst in and grab you and Ford, who comes slowly awake. They drag
you down the corridor to a large cabin, where they strap you into large,
menacing chairs...
Captain's Quarters, in the poetry appreciation chair
This is the cabin of the Vogon Captain. You and Ford are strapped into
poetry appreciation chairs. The Captain is indescribably hideous,
indescribably blubbery, and indescribably mid-to-dark green. He is holding
samples of his favourite poetry.
>ASK THE CAPTAIN ABOUT MISSING GAME PIECES (2.7)
One of the guards lightly bashes your skull with the butt of his weapon
and says (Ford translates for you):
Here is a list of missing or hard-to-find info in the Lost Treasures
game packages. All have been typed in and are available at the ftp site
in the directory infocom/shipped-documentation.
_Ballyhoo_
The original packaging included an advertisement for a radio station,
WPDL AM at 1170 KHz. You will need to tune the radio to this
frequency (or TUNE RADIO TO WPDL) to get a vital clue.
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/shipped-documentation/ballyhoo.lost.stuff>
_Lurking Horror_
Your Login ID, an important part of one of the early puzzles, is
*not* missing from the LToI manual. It's just hard to find. (Hint:
It's written somewhere on your Student ID Card.)
_Bureaucracy_
Some important information from the Popular Paranoia advertisement is
missing, as well as the Beezer card application in triplicate is
absent from the LToI 2 package.
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/shipped-documentation/bureaucracy.lost.stuff>
_Moonmist_
Your friend Tamara will make frequent references to the letters she
wrote asking for your help; unfortunately, these letters are not
included in the LToI package. The full text of these two letters is
available from the ftp.gmd.de archive, with many thanks to Mark Howell
for typing in these letters from the original package.
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/shipped-documentation/moonmist.letters>
_Zork Zero_
The original documentation for Zork Zero contained information about
the game's on-screen mapping, which may be activated by typing in the
command "MAP" at any time during the game. No mention is made of this
in LToI 1.
Also, some versions of the LToI package may be missing a (vital) map
of the "Rockville Estates" section of the game. The map is a
blueprint of a construction site ("Frobozz Magic Construction
Company") showing an 8 x 8 grid of octagonal rooms connected by lines
representing passages. You cannot win the game without the
information on this map.
Some copies of the LToI manual include this map on a page that is
apparently numbered "40b" (the preceding page is "40a", and the next
page is 41 -- the page with the map is not numbered), suggesting that
the map was inserted after the first printing. Early IBM versions of
the LToI manual include the map on page 2 of the Zork I instructions.
If your copy of the manual is missing page 40b, and you cannot find
the map anywhere else in the game package, call Activision technical
support at 310-207-4500 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm PST) and explain the
situation to them. They should provide you with a replacement map.
If all else fails, the ASCII drawing on the next page is a rough but
accurate rendering of the "Rockville Estates" blueprint for Infocom's
Zork Zero. This map is provided for use by legitimate owners of the
Lost Treasures of Infocom package only.
0 1 2 3 4 5.... 6.... 7 Goobar -
.' .' .' I left my hardhat
8 9 10 11 12....13 14 15 out in lot 0.
: .' .' Please pick it up
16 17 18 19 20 21 22....23 Thanks,
`. .' .' .' Quizbo
24 25 26....27 28 29 30....31
: .' .' :
32 33 34....35 36 37 38....39
: .' .' : .' To
40 41 42....43 44....45 46 47....GUH-95
: `. .' : .' `. .' .'
48 49 50 51....52 53 54 55
`. : `. : `.
56....57....58 59 60 61....62....63
._____________________________
Work still to be performed in Phase Two: |Frobozz Magic Construction Co
* Removal of temporary passages | ROCKVILLE ESTATES
* Installation of emergency exits | Phase Two, showing all work
* Installation of sprinkler system | completed through 29-Mum-880
* Construction of Concierge apartment | 1:440 | drawn by S. Fzortbar
The Vogon Captain says, "Ofudgrythafudo tw cchoe ho tz z ocavtrup wwroz zl
mfluz ztruqui." A guard grabs you and Ford, and drags you toward the hold.
Ford whispers, "Don't worry, I'll think of something!"
Vogon Hold
In the corner is a glass case with a switch and a keyboard.
It looks like the glass case contains:
an atomic vector plotter
Ford begins trying to talk the guard into a sudden career change.
>TYPE "HELLO"
The hold of the Vogon ship is virtually undamaged by the explosion of the
glass case. You, however, are blasted into tiny bits and smeared all over
the room. Several cleaning robots fly in and wipe you neatly off the
walls.
**** You have died ****
Your guardian angel, draped in white, appears floating in the nothingness
before you. "Gotten in a bit of a scrape, eh?" he asks, writing
frantically in a notebook. "I'd love to chat, but we're so busy this
month." The angel twitches his nose, and the nothingness is replaced by...
Darkness
It is pitch black. You could be eaten by a zmachine.
>WHAT IS A ZMACHINE? (2.8)
A zmachine or ZIP (Z-machine Interpreter Program) is a program that
interprets and runs Infocom game data files. Infocom used a
way-ahead-of-their-time implementation scheme that allowed them to
develop one game that would run on any of 26 different computers,
using a ZIP program specific to that computer and a data file common
to all machines.
The Z-machine specification underwent several extensions at Infocom.
The first two versions are obscure and you aren't very likely to
encounter them. Version 3 ("Standard") is the format for the majority
of the files in the Lost Treasures of Infocom series. Version 4
("Plus") was a brief experiment that quickly lead to version 5
("Advanced"), a size suitable for creating fairly large adventures of
the magnitude of Curses or Trinity (about 256K). Version 6
("Graphical") has recently been deciphered and can handle story files
about twice as large as version 5.
Until version 6 arrived, all the Z-machines were text-only. Version
6 added some graphics primitives and is the format used in Arthur,
Journey, Shogun, and Zork Zero.
With the release of Inform 5.5, the public-domain compiler for
Infocom format files (see below), Graham Nelson has proposed two new
versions (7 and 8), the first non-Infocom "extensions" to the
standard. Version 8 is identical to version 5 but with twice the
storage (512K). Version 7 has not yet been used in any released game.
Mark Howell wrote "ztools" -- a collection of C source files for
dumping vocabulary, version, font, graphic and other information from
Infocom games, for converting IBM bootable disks into story files, and
for disassembly of story files to Z-code assembly language. Ztools is
maintained by Stefan Jokish. There are also numerous other "tool"
programs for Infocom files available by other authors for other
platforms.
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/tools>
As a point of history, Infocom generated their Z-code files by
compiling the Zork Implementation Language (ZIL) with a compiler named
ZILCH. ZIL is a dialect of a Lisp-like language called MDL. MDL is
ancient history, and ZIL seems to have disappeared entirely, though some
code fragments can be found in back issues of the New Zork Times.
The ftp site has a considerable collection of Z-machine interpreters.
Frotz is the most accurate implementation, but other interpreters may
have more bells and whistles for your particular platform.
They are at <
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/interpreters>.
Gareth Rees maintains a mini-FAQ with information on which
interpreters are recommended for which platforms, and what to do if
you can't find an interpreter for your computer.
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/infocom/how-to-play-these-games>
There are some other ZIP programs at GMD that are not listed in
Gareth's mini-FAQ. They range in quality, but some are fairly
portable and have interesting source code. The best all-around is Frotz.
_Frotz_ by Stefan Jokisch <
[email protected]>
Current version: 2.01
Plays all games (even v6 ones),
Conforms to Z-Machine Standard 0.2.
Runs on DOS, Amiga and Unix systems.
Supports timed input (Border Zone), graphic font (Beyond Zork
and Journey), mouse and function keys, command line editing and
history, small save files, sound effects (Lurking Horror and
Sherlock), cheat functions, multiple UNDO, input line recording
and playback, and European characters (Zork I German).
_zmachine_ by Matthias Pfaller <
[email protected]>
Current version: 2.24
Plays most Z-Code v3 games (except games with sound).
Supports UNIX termcap, MS-DOS, Amiga and Atari ST systems.
Supports sound on the Amiga only.
_pinfocom_ by Paul D. Smith <
[email protected]>
Current version: 3.0
Plays all Z-Code versions to v3. Includes features to print
vocabulary lists, object trees, and header info for all Z-Code
versions. Supports UNIX termcap and terminfo, MS-DOS, and Amiga
systems. Basically does everything ITF 4.01 does and more
(command-line restore, enhanced command-line editing commands,
stellar Amiga interface, etc.).
_zterp_ by Charles Hannum
Current version: 0.3 alpha
A bare-bones v3-v5 interpreter with source.
You may notice increasing discussion about a particular interpreter
being Specification <n> compliant, where <n> is some number like 1.0.
The "specification" is a document by Graham Nelson, based on earlier
work by the InfoTaskForce, which describes rigorously how a Z-Machine
is supposed to behave. An interpreter is said to be Specification-
compliant when it conforms to this document. Frotz is the only
interpreter compliant with the specification available for all platforms.
Zip 2000 on the Acorn complies with the specification as well.
Some games may eventually require your interpreter adhere to a particular
Speficiation version, especially as the Specfication is extended over
time.
As a point of note, there is some debate over whether Z in "Z-Machine"
should be pronounced as "zed" or "zee". Nobody seems willing to agree
on which sounds better. [Though I can't imagine why anybody wouldn't
prefer "zed". -Ed]
>NE
Oh, no! A lurking Z-machine slithered into the room and devoured you!
**** You have died ****
Now, let's take a look here... Well, you probably deserve another chance.
I can't quite fix you up completely, but you can't have everything.
Potting Room
This light room is full of pot plants, flowers, seeds, ornamental trowels
and other miscellaneous garden implements.
A pair of yellow rubber gloves hangs from a hook on one wall.
Aunt Jemima, who has for years collected varieties of daisy, is engaged in
her regular annual pastime of deciding which species make the best chains.
>ASK JEMIMA ABOUT COPYRIGHTS
Jemima screeches with irritation.
"Copyrights on Infocom products / using other platforms" (2.9)
Since Activision bought Infocom, Activision now owns the copyrights
and trademarks on Infocom's products.
This means it's illegal to have a copy of any Infocom product you
didn't pay for. This may make owners of non-PC, non-Mac computers
despair since the only products shipping are for those two platforms,
but there are options available. You can purchase one of the
anthologies listed above, transfer the data files to your computer
somehow, and use one of the available interpreters to run it. This is
the inherent beauty of Infocom's Z-machine idea. See question 2.8 for
information on interpreters.
If you want to know how to transfer files from computer type A
to computer type B, the answer depends highly on the hardware,
software, and cabling you have. It's best to ask your nearest type
A or B guru.
Your interpreter should support at least v3 files. Some of the
larger games (Trinity) are version 4 or 5. Zork Zero, Arthur, Journey
and Shogun are v6 games, for which the only currently-available
interpreters are Frotz (for Mac, Amiga, and Unix) and Zip 2000 for
the Acorn. There may be more. Check the index files under
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/interpreters/>
There probably isn't a legal problem with doing this. Of course, if you
sell your package, you should destroy the copies you've made.
Copyright issues with respect to samplers, invisiclues, New Zork
Times issues, and other things which Activision, in practice, will
never want to redistribute, have not been resolved.
Activision can be reached at:
Activision/Infocom
P.O. Box 67001
Los Angeles, CA, USA 90067
Order line: 800-477-3650 (US) [anybody have one for Europe?]
Tech support: 310-207-4500 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm PST)
People have had mixed and inconsistent results with Activision.
>E.E.S.E.LIE DOWN.SLEEP.
You sleep unexpectedly deeply, but just as you think you are starting to
wake up, you experience a sudden...
Premonition
It is a frosty, clear night, but there is a scent of camp-fires burning in
the distance. You are passing through the landscape as if a ghost, and
all seems faintly unreal. To the east is one side of an animal-hide tent,
but there is no way in from here. To southwest, some soldiers sit around
the embers of a fire. There is a terrible sense of something about to
happen.
>SW
Camp Fire
A motley platoon of soldiers are sitting about the embers of a fire.
>LISTEN
"Creating your own adventure games" (2.10)
Since this part of the FAQ is Infocom-oriented I will tell you that
there is a freely distributable compiler available called Inform which
allows you to generate Infocom-format story files that can be played
with any Z-machine interpreter.
The Inform language and libraries are excellent. They were modelled
based on the requirements for a Zork I-style game and provide the means
to modify the parser, manage timers and daemons, change personalities
and much more. It has C-ish syntax. This system does require a
certain degree of programming knowledge. The documentation (in
3 parts) is pretty good; the 220-page Designers' Manual should be read
even if you don't want to use Inform in favour of a different system,
as it provides an interesting insight into what goes into developing
a game.
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/compilers/inform6>
There are many other IF development systems available, and some
background and information on them will appear in the next section.
For the best information on the subject, visit rec.arts.int-fiction
and read its FAQ.
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/rec.arts.int-fiction/FAQ>
>NE. E. N. TAKE IRON MASCOT
The Druid catches sight of your ghostly hand taking the mascot, and
immediately begins her occultations, cursing you and your ill-gotten
gains. But she is unable to make contact with you, and turns furiously to
the tapestry, hissing "lagach" to the Bear. At once a sudden swirl of wind
seems to pull her into the rough cloth, dissolving her to nothing.
You wake up, shivering with dread.
>WAIT
Something feels very wrong indeed. Your hand begins to burn.
In an astonishing freak accident, a meteorite hurtles through the Earth's
atmosphere and then straight through your head. Anyone would think you
had a curse on you (anyone, that is, still able to think).
*** You have died ***
Press any key to continue.
Now, let's take a look here... Well, you probably deserve another chance.
I can't quite fi-
You go dizzy for a few seconds
then your head clears again.
This is part 3 of the Frequently Asked Questions list for the group
rec.games.int-fiction, a Usenet newsgroup for the discussion of
Interactive Fiction games and related topics. To read a specific
question, use your newsreader's search function on the string "(n)",
where n is the question number.
Contents of this file:
3.0 Companies and systems that aren't Infocom
3.1 About other companies
3.2 Level 9 and its games
3.3 The Level 9 FTP site
3.4 Adventure Software Inc. and its games
3.5 The ongoing development of Interactive Fiction
Part 1 covers the elements of rec.games.int-fiction.
Part 2 covers Infocom.
The current maintainer is Stephen van Egmond. Questions and
information should be mailed to
[email protected].
You are in an amphitheater. The sound of the crowd comes from all
around. There is a gladiator here, holding a weapon and advancing
toward you. The gladiator says:
"Infocom wasn't the only adventure game company, you know" (3.1)
There were 2 other companies dedicated to the production of interactive
fiction games: Level 9 and Adventure International ("Scott Adams
adventures"). In reality, there were much more than two, but these two
seem to have a noticeable following on rec.games.int-fiction. If you
have a personal favourite, ask about it, and someone will probably know.
Level 9 was formed by three brothers in 1982. Their first product was
a port of Adventure to the 8-bit computers that dominated the English
market at the time. Until their shutdown in 1991, they produced over a
dozen adventure games for these machines, the 32K BBC family, and the
Sinclair Spectrum 48K.
Level 9 used a high degree of compression: a typical game of 210
locations, 70 objects, and lots of text could fit into 32K. The
adventure engine had 5 major versions:
. Basic Text: black on white with noun/verb parser
. Advanced Text: yellow on black with faster display
. Basic Graphics: simple line drawings for each location, at a cost
to the amount of text in the game
. Advanced Graphics: dramatically improved parser and the usual
amount of text.
. Interactive Characters: grid-like maps, digitized graphics, and
improved parser with interactive,
independent characters.
Each game was available in three versions for the Sinclair Spectrum:
48K all-text, 48K graphics with reduced text, and 128K graphics with
full text, multiple UNDO and save/restore in RAM.
Adventure International is a company founded by Scott Adams, whose games
used a datafile and interpreter system similar to that of Infocom.
There is a freely distributable interpreter, Scottfree, on ftp.gmd.de.
There were interpreters released for a large number of 8-bit machines,
like the TRS-80, Apple II, Atari 400/800, and Commodore's 8-bit lineup.
The adventures were written using a noun/verb parser, but are considered
to have exciting story lines. I still remember playing the cartridge
version of "Impossible Mission" on my friend's VIC-20.
The gladiator advances menacingly.
>ASK THE GLADIATOR ABOUT LEVEL 9 (3.2)
Level 9's games were usually released in triolgies, some more
interrelated than others:
Colossal Adventure, similar to Crowther and Woods'
Adventure Quest, defeat the evil lord with the magic foob
Dungeon Adventure, loot the dead lord's tower, solving the many puzzles
The above three were packaged into a Middle Earth Trilogy (renamed by
the lawyers to Colossal Trilogy). Later, a second Trilogy, this time
with graphics, a nicer parser and some text tweaks, named the Jewels of
Darkness appeared.
Snowball, save the starship from terrorists
Return to Eden, the starship lands and you must find your colony
Worm in Paradise, your colony is now politically corrupt and Orwellian
The above three were packaged into the Silicon Dream Trilogy.
Lords of Time, prance through time to get the artifacts and save us all
Red Moon, Level 9's version of Enchanter
The Price of Magic, a gothic horror -- defeat a corrupted sorcerer;
a follow-on to Red Moon
Time Into Magic is a trilogy of Lords of Time, Red Moon, and The Price
of Magic.
The following games don't appear in any "trilogy":
Emerald Isle, graphical game where you're stranded on an island
Eric the Viking, a which-way type of adventure
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, another choose-your-own-path adventure
Knight Orc, a 16-bit game merging the Silicon Dream Trilogy and The
Jewels of Darkness.
Gnome Ranger, help your female gnome Ingrid find her way home.
Lancelot, a game closely based on the myths presented in "The Once and
Future King".
Gnome Ranger II: Ingrid's Back, where Ingrid must save the village
hall from being bulldozed.
Scape Ghost, where a police officer killed while on duty gets revenge
and saves another officer.
The gladiator advances menacingly!
>SHOW ZX SPECTRUM TO GLADIATOR
"Would you like to get some games for that?" (3.3)
There is an ftp archive of many of the games that were released by
Level 9, Adventure Software, Brian Howarth, and some others of
unclear origin.
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/spectrum/>
The games are in the format of the ZX Spectrum; you will probably not
find one these days. PC owners can use the ZX emulator at
<
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/emulators/spectrum/>
The gladiator's weapon swishes through the air, narrowly missing you!
>ASK THE GLADIATOR ABOUT SCOTT ADAMS (3.4)
"Mr. Adams was never in the business of writing the Scott Adams adventure
games."
- _The Dilbert FAQ_ by Dogbert
Adventure International released several lines of games using the same
datafile format and various interpreter revisions.
The Scott Adams Classic Adventure Series:
Adventure Land: Ordinary treasure hunting.
Pirate Adventure / Pirate's Cove: Search an island.
Mission Impossible / Secret Mission / Impossible Mission: Stop the
reactor from going kaboom.
There was also Vodoo Castle, The Count, Strange Odyssey, Fun House
Mystery, Pyramid of Doom, Ghost Town, Savage Island parts 1 and 2,
Golden Voyage, Sorcerer of Claymorgue Castle, and Adventures of
Buckaroo Bonzai.
Questprobe Series: The adventures in this series feature characters
from Marvel Comics.
The Hulk, Spiderman, and Fantastic Four. The latter used a different
adventure engine to allow control of two different characters.
There was a separate line of games sold by Adventure International using
a different datafile format: Curse of Crowley Manor, Escape from Traam,
San Francisco 1906, and Saigon: The Final Days.
Other games include Labyrinth of Crete, Return to Pirate's Island, Stone
of Sisyphus, and Morton's fork.
In the UK, there were many companies related to Adventure International,
such as Horrorsoft, Tynesoft, Adventure Soft UK, and Adventure
International UK. More information can be found in Adventure Game
History, by Hans Persson, from whose work all of the above comes.
Scott Adams is on the Net and passes through rec.*.int-fiction from time
to time. He is reportedly working on a new work of IF (yes, it's in text)
for Windows 95 only.
The gladiator swings his sword, remo-
You go dizzy for a few seconds
then your head clears again.
Darkness
It is pitch dark, and you can't see a thing.
>LIGHT
What do you want to light?
>LANTERN
You switch the brass lantern on.
In Debris Room
You are in a debris room filled with stuff washed in from the surface. A
low wide passage with cobbles becomes plugged with mud and debris here, but
an awkward canyon leads upward and west.
A note on the wall says, "Magic word XYZZY."
A three foot black rod with a rusty star on one end lies nearby.
A cheerful little bird is sitting here singing.
>ASK BIRD ABOUT NEW INTERACTIVE FICTION
"The ongoing development of interactive fiction works" (3.5)
The interactive fiction genre is by no means dead! There is ongoing,
high-quality development efforts taking place right now.
The majority of the public-domain and shareware efforts are in text
adventures, for a number of reasons: the production costs of text are
extremely low, compared to graphical, raytraced, and/or animated
offerings; the authoring tools for text are fairly sophisticated,
accessible, and next to (or precisely) free; and they can usually be
done in a much shorter time.
Games generally are developed around one of either TADS or Inform
development systems, a decision occasionally the subject of discussion
on rec.arts.int-fiction. As mentioned in part 2, Inform outputs
Z-code which can be played by a ZIP, many of which have source code;
TADS code is proprietary. The salient point of this to
rec.games.int-fiction readers is that TADS games have a possible
playing audience that is a subset of that possible with an Inform
game: modern TADS interpreters aren't available for the Amiga and
Acorn Archimedes, among others. For a genre supported by enthusiasts,
who are likely to own enthusiast-type computers like the Amiga and the
Acorn, this is significant.
Mike Roberts (TADS' developer) has stopped further development of
TADS and released his source code. Further development of the base system
hasn't been officially taken on by anyone yet. Inform continues to be
developed by Graham Nelson. A newer system called Hugo is available
and continues to be developed by its author, Kent Tessman. More
information on development systems can be found in the
rec.arts.int-fiction FAQ.
Games like Legend, Curses, the Unnkulia Series, Enhanced, Shades of
Grey, Jigsaw, Christminster, and many more are available, whose
quality rivals that of games released in the 'Golden Age' of text
adventures. These can be found under "games" in the if-archive; some
of the busier games directories, in terms of new arrivals, are
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/inform
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/tads
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/hugo
The annual text adventure competition is a reliable source of interesting
and well-crafted games (there's some lemons, too). These can be found
at
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/competition95/
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/competition96/
A list of people interested in collaborating on a project is available.
These people are skilled in either programming or writing, and want
to work with someone who can complement their skill.
http://homeges.ihug.co.nz/~daleys/ifcollab.html
Commercial companies continue to produce adventure-type software;
products like Myst, The Seventh Guest, The 11th Hour, and Return To
Zork are the closest conceptually to IF of the past. Many don't
consider these to be real interactive fiction -- or, consider them
inferior IF works -- since the games don't offer the same richness in
details, variety in actions, or challenge in puzzles as is expected of
text IF today. As a point of note (but by no means policy),
Activision's graphical releases in the "Infocom Universe" like
Zork:Nemesis and Planetfall 2:The Search For Floyd are often discussed
on rec.games.int-fiction, and Myst and "other" graphical IF on the
relevant comp.sys.*.games newsgroups.
There is researching also being done in areas that could move
interactive fiction forward into several exciting new areas. The Oz
Project are Carnegie-Mellon University is researching areas such as
computer simulation of character emotional dynamics, realistic
interactions with the "universe" of the actor, and much more.
Pointers to the Oz project's home page are available as links
from almost any of the interactive fiction Web pages mentioned in
part 1 of this FAQ, or through any of the usual WWW search engines.
It's somewhere on
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/. The webmaster there seems
fond of moving documents around, so a permanent URL would be useless.
Your lantern flickers slightly, brightens, then suddenly goes out!
>WEST
Oh, no! A lurking grue slithered into the room and devoured you!
**** You have died ****
Press any key to continue
