--- NOTE: This is the OLD Interactive Fiction Archive.                    ---
--- It is no longer being maintained and sometime soon it will disappear. ---
--- Please go to the new archive  http://ifarchive.org                    ---
--- The old README file below is for reference only.                      ---

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This archive is a home for public domain and shareware interactive fiction
(aka IF) games, development tools, game solutions, and programming examples,
and for the Usenet newsgroups rec.arts.int-fiction and rec.games.int-fiction.
We want this site to be a place where all things related to the art (and
science) of interactive fiction can be consolidated.

We have collected as much as time permitted from many places all over the world.
You may help us and the users of this archive by uploading missing items to
directory /incoming/if-archive and sending email to me ([email protected])
explaining what it is, and on what machines it runs. If I can't make heads or
tails of an anonymous upload, I'll probably just delete it, so if it's unclear
what it is please email me about it.

If you prefer to download from a site closer to you: this archive is mirrored

in the USA:         http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/doc/misc/if-archive/
                   http://ftp.nodomainname.net/pub/mirrors/if-archive/
                   ftp://ftp.ifarchive.com/if-archive/
                   http://ifarchive.org/
                   ftp://www.plover.net/if-archive/
                   ftp://ftp.guetech.org/if-archive/
in Finland:         ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/misc/if-archive/
in Australia:       http://www.planetmirror.com/pub/if-archive/
                   ftp://ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/if-archive/
in England:         http://mirror.holmoak.co.uk/if-archive/

Andrew Plotkin's http://ifarchive.org is no standard ftp mirror; it translates
the structure of the archive to HTML pages and displays the text from the Index
files together with the file names.

                                   - - -

Three files in this directory may be of special interest to you:

directory-tree  contains a structured list of all the subdirectories,
ls-lR           contains a list of all the file names and sizes in the archive,
Master-Index    contains all the Index files from all the subdirectories,
               i.e. it contains descriptions of all the files in the archive.

ls-lR and Master-Index are automatically updated every morning (local time),
directory-tree is maintained manually and should always be current.

Other places for new visitors to visit are the file info/playgame.FAQ
- Playing the Interactive Fiction Archive Games, by Stephen Griffiths -
and the directory 'starters', which contains starter kits for new players.

If you want to download a whole directory, type
  get <directory-name>.tgz     or
  get <directory-name>.zip
whichever you prefer. This will tar and compress or zip the specified directory
and its subdirectories and then transmit the result.

If you have problems unpacking a file on your particular machine (e.g. a
zip file on a Macintosh) look in directory download-tools and there in the
subdirectory for your machine type; you may find the necessary tools there.
If you think some important tool is missing, please upload it to the
incoming/if-archive directory mentioned above.

Volker Blasius, 12nov1992                     Email:  [email protected]
               12feb2001

GMD - Forschungszentrum Informationstechnik GmbH
 ( - German National Research Center for Information Technology )
Schloss Birlinghoven
53754 Sankt Augustin
Germany


Co-Moderators:  David M. Baggett              Email:  [email protected]
               (emeritus)

               David Kinder                  Email:  [email protected]