"You're traveling to another dimension,
a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind.
A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries
are that of imagination."
-- Rod Sterling
A Beginner's Guide to Interactive Fiction
I-F Archive Edition
by Joe W Aultman
Welcome to interactive fiction, a medium dedicated to the power of words
and of the imagination. It's a different kind of game. You won't find
pretty images, music, or shoot-'em-up action, but you will find games
that challenge and entertain, frustrate and delight.
I discovered interactive fiction by exploring some free game disks that
came with the Commodore 64 my mother gave me in 1983. I was enthralled,
and I've spent the years since then introducing people to it when I can.
Whether you're new to the genre or played around with it years ago, this
document is for you. It's designed to serve as an instruction guide for
almost all the I-F you're likely to come across. We'll cover a brief
history, common commands, and playing tips.
You are invited into the world-wide fan club. Hope you'll feel at home.
It's a friendly place. Don't mind the low-tech computers sitting around.
We use all kinds.
Part One -- Introduction
Interactive fiction was invented in the mid-1970's, at a time when the
graphics and sound capabilities of computers were obviously poor. Game
authors learned to use words alone to evoke images of fantastic places
and magical events. Few games were produced, but they were new and fun
and exciting. They could only run on mainframe and mini-computers,
however, so they weren't incredibly wide-spread. Still, this early
development left the genre well posed to move into the home as soon as
the computers were there.
The early to mid-1980's were a heyday for I-F. New games were written
for personal computers, where they began to flourish. At first, they
were a little small and constrained, but as the computers got more
powerful, there was room for them to breathe. Authors could stretch
their wings and experiment. For many years, all kinds of companies wrote
commercial I-F, and made money. The real winners, however, were the
fans, who enjoyed such classic works as Planetfall, Trinity, and the
Zork series.
But it didn't last. By the end of the eighties, sound and graphics cards
were getting common. Games began to focus on treading the frontiers of
those technologies. Companies found it hard to make pure I-F profitable,
so they quit. Fans were left out in the cold. Some hacked together
proprietary programs or wrote games using sub-par authoring systems, but
little of real quality was produced. It was a dark age, but the programs
were getting better.
A few intrepid individuals kept the dream of new and sophisticated I-F
alive by improving the authoring systems and inventing new ones. Slowly,
it became possible for a clever and persistent individual to produce a
game of quality equal to the best games of the eighties. And they did. A
renaissance of I-F dawned, with fans becoming creators, and the
creations winning over new fans.
I-F still works today because good prose is timeless. Video games come
and go as technology changes, but the best pictures are still in the
mind.
Part II -- The I-F Environment and Creating Commands
The I-F environment is most often all text. That pretty much explains
why people call the games "text adventures." The basic idea of the user
interface is command and response. The program gives you a command
prompt, then you type in some command and press Enter/Return. The
computer chews on your input for a bit, then tells you the results and
gives you a new prompt.
The most important question now is: "What do I type?"
BASIC COMMANDS
Most of the commands you use will be simple and direct. Typing OPEN THE
DESK causes your character to (you guessed it) open the desk. Type GET
THE PENCIL, and you will pick it up. The process is simple. When faced
with the command prompt, just think "I want to..." or "What happens if
I..." and let your mind work from there.
When it's appropriate, modern games also have the power to handle much
more complex commands like WRITE "GREEN" ON THE BLUE PIECE OF PAPER WITH
THE RED PENCIL. It's not very common, mind you, because most actions are
simply not that complex, but it's good to know the games can handle a
command like that when they need to.
Here is an incomplete list of commands that have been used in games over
the years. Don't be shaken by the size of the list; you won't have to
actually use very many of these in any one game. I only show it to you
here to give you an idea of the possibilities.
Obviously, I can't go into detail about all these verbs, but let's look
at some of the most important ones, which you _will_ need for virtually
every game.
EXAMINE (sometimes abbreviated X and/or EXA) gives you a closer look at
things. It's used hundreds of times in the course of a typical game.
LOOK (abbreviated L) by itself gives you a detailed description of your
location. I always type L just to be doing something while I'm thinking
of what to do next.
* This is one of the most versatile commands. You can LOOK AT THE
CHEST, LOOK ON THE CHEST, LOOK IN THE CHEST, LOOK UNDER THE CHEST,
LOOK BEHIND THE CHEST, and even (if the chest is transparent) LOOK
THROUGH THE CHEST. All of these could give different, unique
responses.
* If you find an information source like an encyclopedia, you can
often LOOK UP different subjects in it.
* LOOK AT is an exact synonym for EXAMINE, but SEARCH can be a very
different animal, indeed. SEARCHing is more thorough, and it can
turn up things that don't otherwise appear.
GO is a very important command, even if you may never actually type it.
Even though GO NORTH, for example, is a command you need to move around,
you can abbreviate it to NORTH or even just N.
* The typical directions that can be abbreviated like this are:
UP (U), DOWN (D), IN, OUT, NORTH (N), NORTHEAST (NE), EAST (E),
SOUTHEAST (SE), SOUTH (S), SOUTHWEST (SW), WEST (W), and NORTHWEST
(NW).
* In some games with boats and the like, there are also FORE (F), AFT
(A), PORT (P), and STARBOARD (SB).
GET, TAKE, and PICK UP are synonyms. You'll find many objects you can
pick up and carry around with you. If you can't pick something up, the
game will give you a reason, which you may be able to rectify.
DROP and PUT are how you put objects down. DROP is quick and easy, but
it just puts the objects on the ground. PUT can be more specific,
though, allowing you to PUT THE BOOK ON THE TABLE, for instance.
WAIT (sometimes Z) tells the computer you want to do nothing for a turn.
In almost all games, no game time actually passes while the computer is
waiting for your input. Use WAIT to force time to pass.
* Some games pass 3 or 5 turns when you type WAIT.
* Some games that keep track of time let you, for example, WAIT UNTIL
3:00. But don't worry that something big will happen while you
stand around twiddling your thumbs and looking at your watch.
Whenever something interesting happens, the game will at least give
you the option to stop waiting.
In the early days, these were just about all the commands you needed to
win a game. They are still used for the vast majority of turns, but
modern games require different things. Look to the big list for ideas of
what may be possible, but always be ready to try new things.
CONJUNCTIONS & PRONOUNS
You can make your commands more compact and efficient with ALL, AND,
BUT, IT, and THEN. Note that a comma is the same as AND, and a period is
the same as THEN.
>GET FIREHOSE AND WRENCH
>ATTACH FIREHOSE TO HYDRANT THEN TURN HYDRANT ON WITH WRENCH
>SPRAY ALL WINDOWS
>DROP ALL BUT HELMET, FISH FOOD
>GET LADDER. LEAN IT ON THE WALL. CLIMB IT
>ENTER WINDOW
>OPEN FISH FOOD
>FEED IT TO THE FISH
* As you may have noticed in the sequence, the word THE is optional.
* Some verbs usually won't participate with ALL or with an AND list.
GIVE ALL TO MERCHANT might make it too easy to figure out what the
merchant wants, and it wouldn't be very satisfying to find out that
way.
* Most games are pretty good at figuring out what you mean when you
use IT, but the amount of success varies from game to game. It
depends on how hard to author worked at it.
* Some games use the word THEM, too. If, for example, you just picked
up a long list of items, you could PUT THEM IN THE SAFE.
* If something important happens while the game is running a sequence
of commands you strung together with THEN, the sequence will stop
so you can change your plan if you want to.
COMMUNICATING WITH NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS
Most modern games feature at least one NPC, be they the sidekick or the
villain, a magic mirror or the ship's computer. There are several ways
provided for you to interact with them.
To tell an NPC what to do, use this syntax:
>SUPERMAN, LEAP TALL BUILDING
>DOG, ROLL OVER AND PLAY DEAD
When you want to exchange information you can use (in order from most
common to least):
>SHOW BOOK TO LIBRARIAN
>ASK USHER ABOUT TARN
>ORACLE, TELL ME ABOUT THE GIANT PURPLE SNORKLEWACKER
>TELL BEOWULF ABOUT GRENDEL'S MOTHER
>ANSWER FOUR or ANSWER "FOUR"
>SAY "HELLO"
>HELLO SAILOR
>I AM REVEREND JONES
Some games are set up to answer questions themselves, for general
information. Just type things like:
>WHAT IS MJOLNIR
>WHERE IS FOOVIA
>WHO IS BLACK GERTRUDE
WHEN THE GAME COMPLAINS
If you type something that baffles the game entirely, it will respond
with one of many error messages. The messages are designed to give you
some idea about what the game didn't understand. Try to rephrase your
command with different word order, synonyms, or alternative verbs.
* If your command fails after rephrasing, keep thinking. I once got
stuck at a huge vault door, thinking I was doing the combination
wrong, because the door wouldn't open when I PUSHed and PULLed on
it. I'm embarrassed to admit it took me a long time to try OPEN.
* If you've tried everything you can think of, and none of them work,
it may just not be possible. No author can anticipate everything.
When you type something the game can almost figure out, it will ask you
a question to clarify what you meant. You can retype the command
correctly, if you want, or just answer the question.
>UNLOCK DOOR WITH KEY
Which key do you want to unlock the door with, the brass key or the
copper key?
>BRASS
Unlocked.
* This is what folks in the biz call "disambiguation."
PART 3 -- Sample Transcript
Let's look at a transcript to see this stuff in action. Your French
poodle, Fifi, has been acting strangely lately. Besides talking and
planning a revolution, she's sent you to fetch her a croissant. You're
afraid failure could be perilous.
Pastry Shop
This little shop is fairly typical. The smell of doughnuts and
eclairs wafts all about you. A neon sign reading "HOT" hangs behind
the counter. The sign is on. There are no empty seats in the house.
The exit is south.
There is a teenager in a silly uniform taking orders from behind the
counter.
>TEENAGER, GIVE ME A CROISSANT
The teenager snorts frustratedly. "What's going on with the rush on
croissants?" Pointing, he indicates a woman at one of the tables.
"She just bought the last three. It'll be a while before we have
more."
Hmph. He obviously doesn't know how Fifi can get!
>LOOK AT WOMAN
She's sitting alone at a table near the door, engrossed in a
newspaper. Beside her is a plate of croissants.
The woman reaches absently for a croissant and takes a bite.
>GET CROISSANT
You sneak over to the woman's table and swipe a croissant off of her
plate. She is too busy reading the stock reports to notice.
>S
It's so rainy and slushy out there, it would ruin your croissant.
Fifi wouldn't like that.
>PUT CROISSANT IN POCKET
There's too much fluff and dirt in there. It would ruin the
croissant. That wouldn't go over well with Fifi.
>X COUNTER
The counter runs the length of the shop, with stools running all
along the near side. There are people sitting on each one. On top of
the counter are a cash register, and dispensers for napkins and
straws.
The woman reaches absently for a croissant and pauses, feeling
around.
>GET NAPKIN
Taken.
>PUT NAPKIN ON CROISSANT
You put the napkin on top of the croissant, but it doesn't look like
enough protection for this precious gift. Just to prove you right,
the napkin falls off.
The woman puts her newspaper down and eyes her plate suspiciously.
>WRAP NAPKIN AROUND CROISSANT
You wrap the croissant up in a nice little package.
>PUT PACKAGE IN POCKET
Done.
The woman seems to reach a conclusion and looks around the shop
excitedly. She sees you watching and twists her mouth at you
uncertainly. Finally, she pulls her plate directly in front of her
and returns to her newspaper.
>S
The bell on the door jangles as you leave the shop. The pastry smell
in your nostrils is replaced by several less pleasant scents.
[Your score has gone up by 5 points.]
Main Street
You are standing on the north sidewalk of Main Street, which
stretches endlessly east and west. To the north is a small shop. The
sign reads TASTEE PASTRIES. Cars are jammed bumper to bumper in the
street and people are jammed shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalk.
Rain dribbles down on everything.
There is a taxi here, parked at the taxi stand.
>OPEN TAXI DOOR. GET IN TAXI
Opened.
You climb into the back seat. It smells like wet dog in here.
>DRIVER, TAKE ME TO FOURTH AND ELM
"Woof," says the driver, flicking a switch that locks the doors. The
cab lurches into traffic and bounces off a Mercedes.
Part Four -- Managing Your Gaming Session
These commands help you keep track of what is going on, control the
gaming session, and customize some points of the presentation. Many of
them do not take up any game time, since you don't actually do anything.
AGAIN (sometimes G) is used to repeat the previous command without
having to type it again.
BRIEF tells the game that you want to receive a detailed description of
locations only the first time you visit them. When you return to
somewhere you've been before, you'll just see the name of the location,
plus perhaps a list of some objects in the room. See SUPERBRIEF and
VERBOSE.
* Don't forget that you can sometimes interact with objects that are
only mentioned in the detailed description. You can still get that
by typing LOOK.
* Most games start off in BRIEF mode.
DATE, in some games that keep track of a calendar, tells you what day it
is within the game.
DIAGNOSE is used in some games. It tells you something about your
general health, if you're tired, thirsty, hungry, etc.
EXITS, in some games, will give you a list of the directions you can go
from where you are.
FULLSCORE (FULL), in some games, gives you your score plus a breakdown
of all the things you did that earned you points. See SCORE.
INDENT, in some games, toggles paragraph indentation. When on, each new
paragraph will be indented.
INVENTORY (sometimes I, sometimes INV) gives you a list of what you are
carrying around with you. This is my command of choice when I need to
waste a turn.
LOAD is an old form of the RESTORE command.
NORMAL is sometimes a synonym for BRIEF.
NOTIFY is a command used to tell the game whether you want it to inform
you when your score changes. I've heard rumors that there are people who
don't want to know, or at least don't want to be told flat out. See
SCORE.
* The default setting (with notable exceptions) is usually to keep
you updated.
* NOTIFY is a toggling command, used to turn notification both on and
off.
OBJECTS, in some games, lists the objects you've had and where you left
them.
OOPS (sometimes O), in some games, helps you correct a spelling mistake.
>LIGHT LANTENR WITH TINDERBOX
I don't know the word "lantenr."
>OOPS LANTERN
You strike sparks from the tinderbox onto the lantern's mantle,
which begins to glow warmly.
PLACES, in some games, lists the locations you have visited.
PRONOUNS, in some games, will tell you what words the program will think
of if you use the words IT, HIM, or HER.
QUIT (Q) stops the game and ends the program. Don't forget to SAVE if
you want to return to this point later.
RESTART resets everything, and starts the game over from the beginning.
RESTORE is the command you use to resume a game from a file that was
created by the SAVE command. Type RESTORE, then when prompted give the
name of the file you created with SAVE. You will find yourself right
back where you were when you used the SAVE command. If restore doesn't
work, try LOAD. See SAVE.
SAVE is an essential feature of I-F games. It puts all the information
about the current state of the game into a file that you can recall at a
later time. Just type SAVE and the game will ask you the name of the
file you want to save to. Once you give the name, your I-F session will
continue right where you were. See RESTORE.
* There's more about using SAVE in the strategy section of this
document.
SCORE reports the score you have achieved so far. Normally when you do
something that advances your position in the game, you get points, and
some games dock you points when you do something that hurts your
position. The SCORE command traditionally tells you your score and ranks
you in some hierarchy of titles based on that score. See NOTIFY.
* The way points are given and/or taken away can vary -- a lot. It
depends on how easy or hard the author wanted the game to be.
* Some games don't keep score at all, and some use less quantitative
methods of scoring, so expect to see some variation.
* It is often possible to "win" a game without getting all the
points. One I-F tradition is to make it really hard to earn one
"last lousy point."
* It is also possible in some games to get all the points, and still
not be able to "win" or even finish the game.
SCRIPT lets you send game output to the printer. See UNSCRIPT.
* Some programs let you send output to a file instead. You'll have to
experiment to see what features any given program has.
SHORT is sometimes a synonym for SUPERBRIEF.
SPACE, in some games, toggles paragraph spacing. When on, a blank line
will appear between paragraphs of text.
SUPERBRIEF tells the game you only want the room name when you enter a
room, even if you have never been there before. In superbrief mode, the
objects in the room are not even listed. LOOK still functions normally.
I'm not sure if I have ever used this mode for any appreciable length of
time. See BRIEF and VERBOSE.
TERSE is sometimes a synonym for BRIEF.
TIME, in some games that keep track of a clock, tells you what time it
is within the game.
UNDO sets the game back to the state it was in before the previous
command, as if it never happened.
* Not all games use UNDO, and some disable it in places, so make sure
you've saved your game recently if you want to try something crazy.
* UNDO is limited to backing up one turn in some games. Others let
you back up many times in a row.
UNSCRIPT turns off printer or file output. See SCRIPT.
VERBOSE tells the game to give you the long description of a room every
time you enter it. It is like typing LOOK whenever you enter the room. I
have always used this mode nearly exclusively, even on the old C-64,
where it was a measurable performance drain. See BRIEF and SUPERBRIEF.
Part V -- Basic Strategy
It's easy to play a game, but sometimes it's hard to win. "Winning" is
generally defined as reaching the most positive ending, but there are
other ways to look at it. I've compiled a list of general hints and tips
to make your journey a little easier. There's nothing here you wouldn't
pick up yourself with experience, but some of it may help in your early
campaigns.
First and foremost, TAKE YOUR TIME and PAY ATTENTION. Things can change
in a room while you are gone, and you might miss it if you don't read
the description again. If you are hurrying through an area you already
know well, something can still happen, and you could miss it. It's
better to quit and come back later if you are getting impatient or bored
than to let your concentration lapse and miss an important game event.
You'll enjoy the game more.
* This is an easier piece of advice to give than to follow. That's
why I was a better gamer in my C-64 days than I am now. I had NO
CHOICE but to take my time, and that made it easier to pay
attention, too.
It's a good idea to pause at the beginning of a gaming session, take a
deep breath, and really get relaxed and open to the story. Remember that
(in a good game) the author has put in a great amount of work to develop
the story and the setting. Notice the little things -- a turn of phrase,
an interesting room description -- which enhance the experience.
Take notes whenever something happens that might prove significant
later. Especially pay attention to things you will probably only read
once.
If you can arrange it, play with others. You'll find that even one other
person can help considerably by bringing other experiences and
perceptions to the game. With someone else along, you'll get stuck less,
and you can brainstorm when it does happen.
When you get good and stuck (and you will) turn the game off and go
away. Let your unconscious mind work on it for a while. I completed 90%
of a game in 1986 and put it away. When I fired it up again on Christmas
break in 1988, I solved the puzzle I was stuck on and finished the game
in less than ten minutes.
If it crosses your mind to try something, try it. At the worst the game
won't know what you're talking about or something bad will happen and
you'll have to restore. At the best you'll get a humorous response or
maybe even a hint about what you really should do -- or it might
actually work!
Watch for themes. Many games are written with repeating concepts which
can shed light on what you are expected to do. If you find a red crystal
shard, watch for a blue one, or a green one. They will probably all work
similarly or together.
Make a habit of asking yourself why things work or don't work, what's
going on, what relationships exist between events and objects, etc.
Fiddle with everything. There is a good chance (though it's not
guaranteed) that you can look at an object more closely or interact with
it if it is mentioned in the room description. It is vital that you
experiment with all the things you come across, since you can never know
what is important.
Remember to LOOK AT all of the objects you find. If you come across a
shovel, don't just assume it's a shovel, pick it up, and move on. If you
look closer, you might find something important, like an inscription
indicating that it's magic.
Keep a list of all the objects in the game, and another list of the
puzzles you haven't figured out yet. Study your lists and see if you can
match up objects to puzzles. In most games, almost every object is used
somewhere.
You will probably not be able to carry around every portable object in
the game at the same time, so it's important to use good inventory
management techniques.
* Find a safe, centrally located area to act as an inventory
repository. Leave objects here when you are not using them. If a
game has lots of objects, you might want to designate more than one
room for different types of objects -- treasures, unused objects,
used objects, unimportant seeming objects, etc.
* Use GET and DROP to determine which objects are heavy and which are
light. Don't carry heavy objects around unnecessarily.
* Use bags, buckets, pockets, and other containers to hold objects.
This can help you carry more items around with you than you could
without the container. You might be able to gain even more room by
nesting full containers inside other containers.
Mapping can be an important part of playing a game. Personally, I almost
never map (somehow I remember how everything connects), but I still
think it's a good thing. I have a friend who carefully maps every
location. Not only does it help him play, but when he finishes the game,
he's always got these really neat and enviable maps and notes catalogued
in a stenographer's pad. It makes we WISH I mapped, too.
* Start in the middle of the page and work your way out.
* Don't try to make your first draft perfect. Make a rough draft map
first (in pencil), then when you've corrected mistakes and have an
idea how to center it, make a better copy on the other side or a
clean sheet.
* Label your map with room names and include the interesting features
and objects found in each room. Use lines to show connecting
passages.
* Don't forget to clearly label where you go up and down.
* It might come in handy to start a new map when you enter a new
level or general area.
* If you feel like being a conservationist and/or making an up-front
investment, you can use little pieces of scrap paper, string, and
thumbtacks on a cork board. Dry erase boards or chalk boards can be
useful, too. I can't in good conscience even mention sticky notes.
It's not too hard to do things that will keep you from winning the game
later. Some games make it pretty clear when this happens, and some won't
do a thing to clue you in. You may find out that you need to restore to
a much earlier save and do something differently.
* Save often and keep your old save files.
* Avoid doing the iffy things for as long as possible, then save
before you do any of them. Repeat as often as needed. This will
help keep you from having to repeat steps unnecessarily should you
need to restore.
* Keep track of the things you have done prior to each saved game.
This will eliminate guesswork and keep you from forgetting to do
something after you restore. I use save file names like 01begin and
02house to note what I've done and in what order.
* Minimize your moves. When you're planning to save, first restart or
restore and do all the new things in the smallest number of moves
you can, then save. Most games give you all the time in the world,
but some don't, so you'll want to conserve as many moves as you
can.
Part 6 -- Conclusion
Thus concludes our introduction to interactive fiction. There's so much
more I'd like to tell you, but, honestly, I wouldn't know where to stop,
and I'd get beyond the scope of a beginner's guide very quickly. Besides,
I need to leave some things for you to discover yourself, don't I?
If you find that you enjoy I-F, let me suggest two things:
* Pick up the old works. Fortunately, many classics have been
re-released several times, so they aren't too hard to find.
* If you find yourself with access to the Internet, tune in to the
newsgroup rec.games.int-fiction for a while. It's the best place to
start learning what's out there.
You've heard a hundred times that every journey begins with a single
step. Now I'm going to let you in on a secret. That first step is...
