Planet Interactive Fiction 2012-02-07T03:00:40Z Venus Christopher Armstrong radix@twistedmatrix.com http://wordeology.com/planet-if/atom.xml http://if.seattle.wa.us/?p=384 Seattle IF: The “Rewrite The Parser in Inform 7″ Project Nears Completion
Back in September I (Ron Newcomb) began a project to rewrite the venerable parser of the Inform text adventure authoring tool in the latest version of Inform, the English-like Inform 7. The latest, seventh revision is now available for download. … Continue reading →

Back in September I (Ron Newcomb) began a project to rewrite the venerable parser of the Inform text adventure authoring tool in the latest version of Inform, the English-like Inform 7. The latest, seventh revision is now available for download. All functions have been translated, and in a few weeks, the project will be released as an official extension.

Questions, comments, etc. should go into the original forum thread.

2012-02-06T01:00:42Z Ron Newcomb http://if.seattle.wa.us Seattle Interactive Fiction Group Seattle Interactive Fiction 2012-02-06T01:00:42Z http://nickm.com/post/?p=2212 Post Position: A New Paper on the Dreamcast I’m very pleased to see the article Mia Consalvo and I wrote published in Loading…, the journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA). There’s an intriguing lineup of articles in Loading… Vol 6, No 9; ours is: Montfort, Nick and Mia Consalvo. “The Dreamcast, Console of the Avant-Garde.” Loading… 6: 9, 2012. http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/view/104/116 We [...]

I’m very pleased to see the article Mia Consalvo and I wrote published in Loading…, the journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA). There’s an intriguing lineup of articles in Loading… Vol 6, No 9; ours is:

Montfort, Nick and Mia Consalvo. “The Dreamcast, Console of the Avant-Garde.” Loading… 6: 9, 2012. http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/view/104/116

We look at the connections between the Dreamcast platform, five games in particular (Jet Grind Radio, Space Channel 5, Rez, Seaman, and SGGG) and avant-garde movements and work in art, literature, and other areas in the 20th century. By seriously considering and applying the idea of the avant-garde and looking into these fives games closely (in terms of gameplay, in interpretive ways, and with regard to players’ online discourses about them), we show some ways in which videogames, within gaming, have done the work of the historical avant-garde; the business situations and factors in platform technology that relate to this innovation; and what opportunities for radical exploration in console gaming remain.

 2012-02-05T15:21:26Z 2012-02-05T15:21:26Z Nick Montfort http://nickm.com http://nickm.com/post/feed/atom/ Nick Montfort Post Position 2012-02-05T15:21:26Z http://www.theswanstation.com/wordpress/?p=206 IF Only: Interactive Fiction and Digital game-based learning So, I’ve discussed what IF is and suggested how to choose a game for use with students. I think it’s a good idea now to look at why we should be using IF for learning in the first place, which will be done over 3 posts: This first part will focus on the inherent educational qualities of IF as a [...]

So, I’ve discussed what IF is and suggested how to choose a game for use with students. I think it’s a good idea now to look at why we should be using IF for learning in the first place, which will be done over 3 posts:

  • This first part will focus on the inherent educational qualities of IF as a video game, and these will be mapped to the ‘learning techniques found in video games’ posited by Marc Prensky (2001).
  • The second part will present the educational qualities of IF mapped to the literacy-based ‘learning principles of good video games’ argued by linguist James Gee (2003).
  • The final part, following the premise of this blog, will focus on the language learning affordances of IF as a story/game.

 

 

“Let my playing be my learning, and my learning be my playing” – Johan Huizinga (1971)
 

Because IF is a form of video game, it can be used for digital game-based learning. DGBL is the field of study that looks at how video games, either specifically designed for learning – called “serious games”, or  regular games, not specifically developed for educational use – called “commercial off-the shelf” games (COTS), can be applied to teaching and learning scenarios.

Video games are  inherently educational because they have the following characteristics:

 

  • they allow you take control of characters and see the world through their eyes and from different perspectives;
  • they present problems which need to be solved through critical or lateral thinking;
  • feedback is given immediately – you are encouraged to make mistakes and learn from them;
  • the simulated environment is safe  – players are encouraged to take risks and evaluate their actions;
  • they give practice in thinking about and doing more than one thing at a time – multi-tasking;
  • they present a conflict which must be overcome -  this creates excitement and provides unexpected and stressful situations which must be resolved, paralleling real life;
  • they provide an environment for social and collaborative learning.

Video games can also allow for the transfer of factual knowledge to learners, without them even knowing – a concept known as “stealth learning”, which occurs when “learners are not overly aware of the fact that they are learning, how much they are learning, or how difficult it is”, Gee (2007:124).

We’ve all either been in the situation or noticed another person playing a video game for hours on end, without even realising it. The expression “time flies when you’re having fun” could not be more in tune with the engagement offered by video games. This distortion of time is one of the results of being in the state of deep concentration known as “flow” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991), which occurs when one’s attention is completely focused and there is total engagement in achieving their goals. The Flow experience is commonly attained when playing video games (and during other pleasurable activities such as sports) and is one of the reasons why DGBL is such a worthwhile endeavour. If we can teach through games, learning may become a more pleasurable & more engaging experience – with more fruitful outcomes.

 

Where’s the fun?

 

Of course, we shouldn’t forget the reason why we people play games at all – because they are fun. Or should we? Arriving at a clear definition of “game” is universally considered to be a difficult task, given the multiple definitions found in dictionaries and the way “play” and “game” are used in the English language and in diverse fields of study. Huizinga, in his seminal work ‘Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture ‘(1971:28) provides us with a definition of “game” that is interchangeable with the meaning of “play”:

A voluntary activity or occupation executed within certain fixed limits of time and place, according to rules freely accepted but absolutely binding, having its aim in itself and accompanied by a feeling of tension, joy, and the consciousness that it is “different” from “ordinary life”.

Salen & Zimmerman in ‘Rules of Play’ (2003:81), have gone further and constructed a definition of game with a more comprehensive scope, basing it on the linguistic use of the words “game” and”play”, while taking into account their meanings in French and German. Furthermore, it is an amalgamation of eight definitions from various fields of study including two from video game design experts, Greg Costikyan (1994) and Chris Crawford (2003):

“A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.”

More recently, DGBL researcher Nicola Whitton (2010:23)  has proposed a more open definition of game, which includes the following 10 characteristics: Competition, Challenge, Exploration, Fantasy, Goals, Interaction, Outcomes, People, Rules & Safety.

Alternate-reality game designer Jane McGonigal (2011) has gone back to the basics and produced a more simplified definition made up of 4 points: Goal, Rules, Feedback System & Voluntary Participation.

If you’re still with me, you might have noticed that the one element that is missing in every definition of game is what for many may seem to be the most obvious: fun.

Crawford (2003:34), illustrates the relationship between game, play and fun:

  • “Game” is the formal activity that you perform.
  • “Play” is the actual behaviour that you engage in.
  • “Fun” is the experience or emotion that you derive from that behaviour.

This relationship leads to a simple conclusion: games and play must lead to fun. If a game isn’t fun, it’s a bad game. It sounds perfectly logical, and it is flatly wrong.

He then goes on to note that:

the problem with this reasoning lies in the fact that the words “game”, “play,” and “fun” are in flux. They have historically been associated with the behaviour of children, yet in the last century, with the creation of significant amounts of leisure time, adults have taken up play as well. This new, adult kind of play is still play by any definition, but the word “fun” doesn’t quite fit the adult’s experience…”

It can be said then, that in addition to this constant lexical metamorphosis and being a concept historically linked to children and their games, fun is not a required component of a game, as many games are not “fun” per se (think of chess or any sport you hate), nor can “fun” be designed into the game, as what is “fun” for one person might not be “fun” for another. Michael & Chen (2005:20), put this into perspective: “it is not an ingredient or something you put in. Fun is a result.”

 

The 13 Learning Techniques of video games

 

The person who started the DGBL ball rolling (coining the name in the process) was Marc Prensky, with his book ‘Digital Game-Based learning” in 2001. While making a huge impact by raising awareness and interest in using video games for learning in educational circles, Prensky has come under fire for not being very ‘academic’ in his writing (to the point of it not being considered real ‘research’ by some academics) and for instigating the ‘digital native’ vs ‘digital immigrant’ debate  – which has been debunked (see Bennet et al, 2008; Selwyn, 2009). Despite this, his was the first major work on the educational properties of video games and his list of 13 ‘learning techniques’ are a good starting point to see how video games – and in this case, IF, are inherently educational. I have been thinking about how IF fits into the more general theories of DGBL for some time and so at last, in the following table, I present Prensky’s learning techniques (by title and a brief description – using his words) and commented if and how they are represented in IF.

 

Prensky’s 13 learning techniques used in digital games (2001:157-163):

Technique Description Present in IF?
1. Practice and feedback The game tells you things – provides drilling practice YES
In IF, input needs to be understood by the parser – typing and spelling need to be accurate – finding synonyms for commands and rephrasing  is mandatory. Feedback is constantly given – replies of ‘ I don t know how to do that’ are given if the player has not succeeded in their command or a new passage of text when successful.
2. Learning by doing Active participation by the learner YES
IF is based on the constructivist theory of learning, where knowledge of the world is built by direct interaction with it through exploration, discovery and problem-solving. Interacting with the game-word requires imagining actions and the specific micro-action they involve and thinking about the language necessary to command the protagonist to perform them.
3. Learning from mistakes Motivation stems from failing and trying again YES
Feedback reflects the player’s success at navigating and interacting with the story/world. Successful navigation of the story results in more narrative being produced. Replies pertaining to non-comprehension of commands and the text created upon failed attempts at solving puzzles, overcoming obstacles and even abrupt endings or death, serve to motivate the player to try alternative words and strategies.
4. Goal-orintated learning Learning to do something vs learning about something YES
Every work of IF has a goal – depending on the perspective of the player: either to reach the end of the story; or producing as much of the narrative as possible. Being a form of digital literature, fact-orientated learning is also implemented as literature encompasses factual and cultural notions in addition to language (vocabulary and grammatical structures) and literary concepts (point of view, etc) however, these are all by-product of the engagement with the game.
5. Discovery learning and guided discovery You learn something better if you find it out for yourself, rather than have it told to you YES
This is certainly implemented in IF as problem-solving (one of the defining characteristics of IF). Guided (or structured discovery) is also implemented as the logical puzzles act as ‘narrative curtains’, which act as a pause mechanism for the player to re-access the state of the narrative and the protagonist’s place within it. While finding the solution to a puzzle may be difficult, obstacles are usually made clear in the narrative and there are clues that guide the player to their solution. Modern hint systems also exist to guide the player when stuck.
6. Task-based learning Skip generalized explanations and go straight into interaction with problems YES
In most cases, IF is made up of a series of logical puzzles – tasks, which need to be completed and which usually get more difficult as the narrative progresses (and the player’s familiarity with the game world and its conventions increases). Additionally, like TBL in TESOL, the player is introduced to these tasks during gameplay in context and they are not pre-practised or decontextualised.
7. Question-led learning Thinking about information available in order to anser questions, rather than just being told YES
Although directly associated with quiz and trivia type games, many IF games implement Non-Player Charcters, who ask questions and many puzzles revolve around giving information based on general knowledge or specific knowledge gained through exploration of the game world. The genre of IF itself, has been compared to the construct of the classic ‘riddle’ (Montfort, 2003) – thus allowing its inclusion in this point.
8. Situated learning Learning is set in an environment that is similar to or identical to where it will be applied in the future YES
IF, characterised as being a simulated world with its own particular rules, naturally lends itself to situated learning. Actions taken in the simulated world must abide by its rules and the player must put themselves in the place of the protagonist and try to understand the world from their perspective. This is especially relevant to the language that is used, which must be understood and manipulated by the player in order to progress in the game. Obviously, games taking place in a ‘real-world’ setting will allow for more situated learning to be later implemented in real-life than a game involving fantasy elements, however even these require thinking about how an action may be completed following the rules and respecting the environment and language used.
9. Role-playing  Role-playing YES
IF inherently involves taking on the role of another person and seeing the world their eyes and acting upon it through this perspective.
10. Coaching Support systems and ‘practice missions’ YES
Although not implemented in every IF game, coaching is often done through the implementation of non-player characters, which in addition to often being part of a puzzle which needs to be solved, they can also be conversed with, resulting in the player learning more about the game world, solutions to problems and a clearer sense of the goal and what needs to be done to attain it (eg. Lost Pig). Modern hint systems (ex. Lost Pig, Bronze) can also take on this role of ‘coach’ giving out only that information which is needed to solve a problem at hand in order advance the narrative.
11. Constructivist learning A person learns best when he or she actively “constructs” ideas and  relationships in their own minds based on experiments that they do, rather than being told. YES
IF actively encourages the construction of ideas an the linking of information discovered upon exploration. According to Kozdras and Haunstetter ( 2006), the underlying theory of IF is constructivism – IF places the learner into a situation, in which she will actively make meaningful choices and receive meaningful feedback in the way of plot movement.
12. Accelerated learning (multisense learning) Learning involving multi-sensory experiences NO
Prensky is describing something akin to the TESOL method of TPR, which obviously does not apply to IF (and any other video game not involving movement – DDR, Wii, PS Move, Kinect).
13. Selecting from Learning Objects Pieces of a program are built as stand-alone units with input and output hooks to link them together the particular task at hand NO
Perhaps implemented in IF game authoring using Inform 7 libraries, which extends the capabilities of the default Inform 7 library. Exists in other genres of games that allow for modding and building (eg. Little Big planet, Minecraft).
14 Intelligent tutoring An intelligent tutor looks at a learner’s responses and tries to decide why he or she made the error and give specific feedback NO
Many modern games are progressively trying to implement in-game responses which try to offer suggestions on possible commands or tips. Still not widely implemented in IF, current research in using IF for language learning is looking into using adaptive feedback based on the player’s level of linguistic mastery (Cornillie et al, 2010).

Summary:

All of Prensky’s learning techniques, except for Coaching, Accelerated Learning (TPR), Selecting from Learning Objects and Intelligent tutoring can be found in ANY IF work.

Coaching and Intelligent Tutoring can be found in some IF works (with advanced help systems such as Lost Pig and Bronze or games with tutorials such as The Dreamhold).

Selecting from Learning Objects is more related to the design of games, and not actual game-play, but may be implemented when authoring IF with Inform 7 libraries.

Accelerated Learning, as it is based on the principles of Total Physical Response, can naturally only be found in video games that implement control mechanisms such as those found on the Wii, Move or Kinnect. This is obviously not compatible with the notion of a text-based virtual world, although if one considers state-of-the-art adventure games such as Heavy Rain, which can use movement controls, to be extensions of IF, then it may yet be considered.

 

10 out of 13 for ALL IF games is not bad – and shows that IF implements these ‘learning techniques’ and can therefore be considered as an educational tool.

Next up: We go a bit deeper and look at Gee’s 36  learning principles and 13 revised principles.

 

 

 

 2012-02-04T19:00:41Z Joe Pereira http://www.theswanstation.com/wordpress Interactive Fiction and teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL/TESOL) IF only 2012-02-06T01:00:37Z http://www.kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress/?p=4823 Kristian Still's Blog: Immersion IF – Stage 2 Last night I spent an hour or so discussing stage two of Perins School’s very exciting IF immersive learning project. With the key skills of creativity, logic and literacy highlighted, students were separated into small groups ensuring that each group had students with these skills. The students then played, mapped (drew the floorplan) and reviewed [...]

Last night I spent an hour or so discussing stage two of Perins School’s very exciting IF immersive learning project. With the key skills of creativity, logic and literacy highlighted, students were separated into small groups ensuring that each group had students with these skills. The students then played, mapped (drew the floorplan) and reviewed ‘Play ‘Things that go Bump in the Night‘ with one laptop per group (of course they can play on their phones – #TTGBITN is free on iOS and Android). The aim of this structure was to encourage discussion and collaboration, with further opportunities via the ‘course’ online forum, overseen by the teacher, managing, supporting, prompting and guiding their progress. IMHO reading and experiencing game play is hugely important for appreciating game structures and IF interactions and a great introduction to the genera. I will have to ask Gideon Williams how this first stage went.

I have Previously written about teaching IF and the temptation to dive in, only to find out you are in at the deep end and out of your depth. With more experience and lengthy conversation with other educators and Alex Warren, a would still recommend a ‘playing’ introduction, including mapping a game. However, from here I would do things a little differently, a little more visually.

Stage 2 – Introducing Game Design for IF

Delivery Model x2
Step 1 Play IF
Step 2 Plan and draft (visual) game floor plan (keep naming conventions simple)
Step 3 Write a very basic game script outline including verbs, rooms, objects, basic interactions and puzzles (again keep naming conventions simple)
Step 4 Construct the game floor plan in Quest – providing a scaffold upon which you can write the room and object descriptions
Step 5 Learn to tell their story and also consider how the player ‘may’ interact with   their game
Step 6 Code the game interactions and puzzles. There are plenty of mini lessons here, basically teaching as much or as little of Quest as is required to fulfil the plan
Step 7 Share and peer review and debug games

 

Delivery Model x3
Step 1 Play IF – Map, review and   discuss
Step 2 Decide upon a theme, location and lead character / hero and villain*
Step 3 Draw out either a 1 room game or a 3-4 room game
Step 4 Design how the rooms are   connected and interconnected
Step 5 Design the room puzzles, challenges, obstatcles and barriers
Step 6 Map where these operate and connect in the game
Step 7 Flowchart the pathway through the game
Step 8 Write room outlines and outline game narrative
Step 9 Introduce basic logic used to code the game interactions and puzzles
Step 10 Build the game and develop the puzzles, maintain the continuity

A random generator* – use a randomiser accelerates the decision making process however it does restrict creativity and depersonalises the game. However when working in smalls groups, will you be able to please everyone? Have you got the time to let your student agree upon a creative project?

In reflection, I would spend more time modelling and mapping the game. This can then be followed by designing the puzzles and thinking through the logic, followed by a ‘draft’ of the narrative and then its time to build and write the game.

Tom Cole (@thesynapseuk)- Part-time science teacher, part-time video games design student.

Here is my interpreatation of Tom’s top tips for teachers desiging an IF game, rather than students but it still has some very good advice.

Decide on the scope of your game. If you make it too big then you’ll never finish it and that would really be a shame. If you make it too small then you may not get much of a chance to build up atmosphere/narrative etc. I decided that mine was going to be 4 rooms. The 5th room only got introduced as a way to deal with the dog blocking the entrance to room 2.

This is especially important if you’re still making your first few IF games. When you encounter problems implementing and polishing your game, if it’s that big then few people will have the motivation to finish! No matter how easy/difficult they think it will be to actually make, it will always be at least twice as hard as they thought it would be!

Keep your aspirations manageable. Flexibility is a key component to an effective IF plan.

Decide on your theme/purpose before you draft out anything. I decided I wanted a small game that needed science knowledge to solve it. But notice that I have never at any point said that it’s a ‘science game’. I’ve presented it as an ‘escape from the room’ kind of game. This is something else to keep in mind. Try to present it JUST as a game, and then the puzzles in it require certain types of knowledge to solve, which don’t need to be made explicit. To help strike a balance here I included various ‘hint envelopes’ around the game which have a science word on them (like, ‘pop test’, ‘metal and acid’, ‘desalination’, ‘exothermic’ etc.). These pointed towards needing science knowledge, but didn’t make it a ‘science game’. I think as soon as you make it /present it as an ‘educational game’ many people switch off. I’d like it to be a game that they enjoyed as a game first, and then learned something from as well, rather than the other way round (interestingly, Jo Twist has just mentioned this in her interview on Gamesindustry.biz).

An interest aspect of IF for students could be to develop an edu-game as described but its not essential.

If you’re doing character work, then you want to draw up a profile before you start. Even with details that don’t make it into the game. This will help that character appear more real – you’ll be more able to think about what they’d do/say from their point of view. My game doesn’t really have any substantial characters in so it wasn’t important, but it may be for the kind of games you’re looking to make.

One way to develop the game authencity is to develop the character or define ‘the player.’

That sheet on the second slide of the Prezi was the only thing I used to design this game! Before that I jotted down a few ideas for possible puzzles that I could use in the game. There is a puzzle that I dropped that involved picking up weights and placing them along one side of a ruler on a pivot so that it balanced (this is using the law of moments and turning force to solve it). This would have taken way too long to implement! I was never going to finish. As it is I’ve got more tightening up and polishing to do than I thought I would need.

Visual design seems a simple but effective design process.

This comes to another point – be prepared to allow your game design to change. As you implement it you come up against things which don’t make work, or things which don’t make sense when you actually put it in the game, or things that will just be too damn hard to do or will take too long (like the e.g. above). That doesn’t mean cop out on everything that’s difficult! But it’s worth baring in mind that a game design should NEVER be set in stone.

Flexibility rides again.

It may help them to write a walkthrough (think of it as a flowchart through the game) after they’ve drafted out their plan. This means they’re less likely to miss out anything when building the game. Later on of course they can put this in the game itself, but it will help to do it before building anything so they don’t waste time doing something they’d have to change at a later date.

It will help if they draw out their rooms (like I did) in the actual places where they will be. As if they’re drawing a map of somewhere. This will be important when they’re placing exits and writing descriptions of what’s in the rooms. I’d strongly suggest a graphical approach with written notes, rather then just a list of text which may make some visualisation tasks difficult.

So, there you have it. Think it, map it, design the puzzles, build it, write it and be prepared to change the plan. 

Twitterati

Are making a shout on Twitter to any game designers we now have some leads…

@ @ great book and along with The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell, THE game design core reading :-)
4 Feb ’12 6:49 pm via Twitter for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite
@BAGamesDesign
BA Games Design

and

@ Several recommendations for this one: http://t.co/udkOal5G
4 Feb ’12 6:38 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@campbellhowes
KirstenCampbellHowes

 

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2012-02-04T15:00:38Z Kristian Still http://www.kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress Challenge and Inspire Kristian Still's Blog » IF 2012-02-07T00:00:49Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322604.post-5891909591780228394 Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online: Eamon Trivia 01: The Curse of Talon


Progress is going well on Eamon Deluxe 5.0 and I'm close to sending a Beta 3 copy to my testers and hopefully a public release in the near future. Until then I need a few fun distractions to take away from the tediousness that comes with parts of the revision process.

When converting Classic Eamon adventures to Eamon Deluxe, I get to see into every nook and cranny of that adventure and often find things the average player would be likely to miss or never even see at all. This can be due to a number of reasons, including obscure special events, erroneous code or the author's personal Easter eggs to name a few.

Although I haven't kept a list of what I have found over the years (and I wish I had), I usually left notes about anything interesting I found in that particular adventure's hint files. I thought it would be fun to make semi-regular blog entries to share some of these amusing oddities and include some screen shots as well. I'll list the Official Eamon Guild number and the Eamon Deluxe number, followed by the adventure name. So, here we go...


Today's trivia: EAG#SD156/EDX#09-3

THE CURSE OF TALON by Sam Ruby.

There is an unused room in The Curse of Talon called The Butt. I have no idea why it was there and will probably never know but I find it pretty amusing nonetheless. I converted that adventure several years ago and had forgotten about the Butt Room until recently when I was reorganizing The Sam Ruby Adventures for the Eamon Deluxe 5.0 revision. Apparently I found it amusing back when I converted it too because I expanded on it, placing "monsters" from the database that were no longer needed in the Butt Room and leaving an Easter egg that could be used to access it.

To enter the Butt Room in the Apple II version, use Control-C to break the program and enter the command shown in the screen shot. To leave the Butt, use the same method, but change "R2=51" to "R2=R3".

In the Eamon Deluxe version, simply cast your POWER spell to be teleported into the Butt. [snicker] Going in any direction will take you back to the room you came from. (Note: GIVE 5000 to a neutral monster in Eamon Deluxe to turn them into a friend.)


2012-02-03T17:54:00Z 2012-02-03T17:54:00Z http://eamon-guild.blogspot.com/2012/02/eamon-trivia-01-feb-2012-curse-of-talon.html Frank - Eamon Deluxe noreply@blogger.com http://www.blogger.com/profile/05016434140873556147 tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322604 Matthew noreply@blogger.com http://www.blogger.com/profile/16477311598407527292 The Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online website is designed to be a comprehensive information source and archive for Eamon adventures. This blog consists of both news about Eamon and my random thoughts about Eamon and the Eamon website. Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online 2012-02-04T03:06:21Z http://twitter.com/brasslantern/statuses/165438858568269824 Brass Lantern: brasslantern: The old Sierra adventures (Space/King's/Police Quest) are 50% off at @GOGcom this weekend! http://t.co/jNV71abE brasslantern: The old Sierra adventures (Space/King's/Police Quest) are 50% off at @GOGcom this weekend! http://t.co/jNV71abE 2012-02-03T15:00:25Z http://twitter.com/brasslantern Brass Lantern Twitter updates from brasslantern / brasslantern. Twitter / brasslantern 2012-02-04T03:00:25Z http://www.kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress/?p=4812 Kristian Still's Blog: Favoured Tweets @gideonwilliams: A good day today with year 7s enjoying interactive fiction TTGBITN and jamie’s letter from school. http://twitter.com/gideonwilliams/status/164806729329160192 Sent with IFTTT

@gideonwilliams:

A good day today with year 7s enjoying interactive fiction TTGBITN and jamie’s letter from school.

http://twitter.com/gideonwilliams/status/164806729329160192

Sent with IFTTT

2012-02-03T09:00:34Z Kristian Still http://www.kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress Challenge and Inspire Kristian Still's Blog » IF 2012-02-07T00:00:49Z http://www.kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress/?p=4790 Kristian Still's Blog: Key Stage 3 Science with Quest Tom Cole presented his four room Key Stage 3 Science game for Quest. I can not wait to play it, but I know Tom is very keen to add a little polish to the game before it is release. I the meantime, I know we/I can learn from his approach to IF design. Beware of the [...]

Tom Cole presented his four room Key Stage 3 Science game for Quest. I can not wait to play it, but I know Tom is very keen to add a little polish to the game before it is release. I the meantime, I know we/I can learn from his approach to IF design. Beware of the ferocious guard dog and talking hamster….. Like Tom, I mapped Lil Red out before construction on the Quest file began.

So here is Tom’s Prezi, a very useful resource for other educators thinking about introducing IF.

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2012-02-03T09:00:34Z Kristian Still http://www.kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress Challenge and Inspire Kristian Still's Blog » IF 2012-02-07T00:00:49Z http://emshort.wordpress.com/?p=4596 Emily Short: Heroine’s Journey and Delicious Emily, Portal 2
One definition of a “heroine’s journey” came up here some months ago; I recently wrote more about it for Gamasutra.
 2012-02-03T07:00:13Z Emily Short http://emshort.wordpress.com http://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.png Essays and reviews on narrative in games and new media Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling 2012-02-07T03:00:11Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5111411094922577514.post-9091995853228276303 >TILT AT WINDMILLS: Blue Lacuna Fan Art


A while ago I received a beautiful piece of art illustrating a moment from Blue Lacuna. I was excited not just because it's a beautiful image, but because it was the work of Evan Dahm, one of my favorite webcomic artists. I had previously read Evan's beautiful Rice Boy, a heartbreaking, mythic fable set in a fantastical world. (Anyone who enjoyed Blue Lacuna would certainly like Rice Boy, too.)

I think what pleases me most about the image is its remarkable attention to the particulars of the story. Beyond just the topography of the island, tiny details are just right-- like the outfit the central character is wearing, or the tunnel mouth by the roots of the windsigh tree. You can click on the image for a larger version.

So thanks, Evan, for the gift; and if you haven't read Rice Boy (or Evan's current episodic webcomic, Vattu) it's well worth checking out.
 2012-02-02T17:39:00Z 2012-02-02T17:39:00Z Aaron A. Reed noreply@blogger.com http://www.blogger.com/profile/08274464090619923076 tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5111411094922577514 Aaron A. Reed noreply@blogger.com http://www.blogger.com/profile/08274464090619923076 Thoughts about interactive fiction and news about the interactive work of Aaron A. Reed. >TILT AT WINDMILLS 2012-02-02T19:54:18Z tag:solutionarchive.com,2010:219 Classic Adventure Solution Archive: CASA Update - 13 new game entries, 22 new solutions, 1 new map

We've added a bunch of Sinclair QL titles, and the rest (?) of the parser-based Sierra games as well. As my esteemed co-editor Alastair pointed out a short while ago [actually it was Mr Creosote, on the forum, who first pointed this out - Alastair], the early Sierra titles used a normal text input interface, and though I used to vehemently deny that they belonged here, I'll have to eat my words again.
But the problem is an interesting one - what games qualify to be included here? There are an awful lot of borderline titles, with various degrees of joystick control, graphics interface, multiple choice selection and what have you. The verdict isn't in yet :)

Contributors: Gunness, rwap, Juan, Ambat Sasi Nair, IstenNyila, iamaran, gamingafter40, Alastair, terri, Alex

 2012-02-02T14:39:09Z 2012-02-02T14:39:09Z Gunness http://solutionarchive.com/profile/id%2C2/ tag:solutionarchive.com,2010:0 The Classic Adventure Solution Archive :: CASA :: 2012-02-02T23:28:07Z http://twitter.com/brasslantern/statuses/165040569729560577 Brass Lantern: brasslantern: RT @WadjetEyeGames: Hey, did I mention that we have a new game up for pre-order? You totally should click this link: http://t.co/DjOqBP4Z brasslantern: RT @WadjetEyeGames: Hey, did I mention that we have a new game up for pre-order? You totally should click this link: http://t.co/DjOqBP4Z 2012-02-02T12:00:22Z http://twitter.com/brasslantern Brass Lantern Twitter updates from brasslantern / brasslantern. Twitter / brasslantern 2012-02-04T03:00:25Z http://nickm.com/post/?p=2207 Post Position: Cut-up Codework Meow Mix “A 1700 line text generated using a string of unix commands to process a short text file describing an encounter with a cat.” This is all thanks to James W. Morris. He is the author and artist – not the cat.

“A 1700 line text generated using a string of unix commands to process a short text file describing an encounter with a cat.”

This is all thanks to James W. Morris. He is the author and artist – not the cat.

 2012-02-02T02:37:57Z 2012-02-02T02:37:57Z Nick Montfort http://nickm.com http://nickm.com/post/feed/atom/ Nick Montfort Post Position 2012-02-05T15:21:26Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-4735136131224073335 Lab of Jizaboz: What Color is the Moon?
Making a new sci-fi game on the moon was something at first I thought would be fairly simple. I would only need a few rooms to simulate landing on the moon and walking into a base there. I would only need one or two NPCs. Of course, I was wrong. Timing and inventory issues are still a time-sucking hurdle to get over for my second IF. Trying to make the game very detailed, yet not annoying while reflecting those details is also a new practice for me.

As long as I can remember, the moon and outer space in general has always fascinated me. Growing up, I was intrigued by books on space and had the experience of going to Space Camp in Alabama when I was 11. At that point I started asking questions and wondering about things that I couldn't understand then. Some persist to this day, and it's always a relief to resolve them in my mind. However, I still have a question that persists as I write this game:

What color is lunar soil?

This isn't a question you can merely type into Google and get a definitive answer. In the 1960s before the manned Apollo missions, there were encyclopedias saying that the moon's soil was high in silica and other materials which would give it a slight orange appearance. Apollo camera footage makes it appear grey. I've seen many, many NASA slides of lunar rocks and soil. Usually the soil is consistently grey, yet I've seen different colors in some rock samples. I've posted a couple to show the general contrast.

Apollo 14 rock

Also, how would the light photon physics of sunlight affect the appearance of the soil? I'm thinking that if the soil itself has a lot of reflective materials in it that it would sort of glow slightly like snow at night during a full moon. Even if it were grey this could happen, much like concrete dust.

Apollo 17 rock

With the stars issue, I'm fairly certain that the light of the sun would drown out visuals of any other stars, though Earth and Venus should be visible. What really bothers me is the color, even though it will only be visible to the players in their heads after reading my description.

Hopefully I can decide on all of this soon. The story and puzzles of the game are completely planned. At least those are already laid out and for certain.
 2012-02-02T00:30:00Z 2012-02-02T00:30:00Z Jizaboz noreply@blogger.com tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572 Jizaboz noreply@blogger.com Lab of Jizaboz 2012-02-03T17:42:08Z http://www.adrift.co/cgi/adrift.cgi%3Fpage%3Dreviews%26advid%3D787%23R403 ADRIFT Adventure Reviews: Review of Back To Life... Unfortunately [version 4] by Campbell

Brilliant story, but needs some final polish

This is a great game. The story is original, the writing very humorous, and it is very enjoyable to play.

As I got further into the game I got completely stuck in a couple of places with Guess the Verb problems. In fact I had typed the correct phrase at one point but was rewarded with the default "try something else" response because I wasn't holding a particular object. Had a restriction failure message been added I would have known straight away and been able to continue.

There are a couple of other little niggles and I think if an update was made to fix these then I would class this as one of the best games for ADRIFT. In its present state I can only award it 4/5.

Rated 4/5

 2012-02-01T23:25:36Z http://www.adrift.co/adventures ADRIFT Adventure Reviews Reviews for all adventures submitted to the ADRIFT website. ADRIFT Adventure Reviews 2012-02-01T23:25:36Z http://www.filfre.net/?p=373 The Digital Antiquarian: Robot War, Anyone? So, I’ve been getting some positive rumbles in support of a Robot War tournament. Let me therefore offer a proposal as to how it might work. The tournament will progress through a series of single-elimination rounds, with each match being a one-on-one contest, opponents randomly determined. Should there be an odd number of robots in [...]

So, I’ve been getting some positive rumbles in support of a Robot War tournament. Let me therefore offer a proposal as to how it might work.

The tournament will progress through a series of single-elimination rounds, with each match being a one-on-one contest, opponents randomly determined. Should there be an odd number of robots in a round, the one left unchosen will get a bye into the next round. That might seem quite a nice bit of luck, but it’s mixed blessing in that the creator of that robot will not get an opportunity to see it in action prior to making adjustments for the next round (see the next paragraph).

I’ll run each match just one time, record it, and post it to the blog as a movie. Each round will be separated by a week or so, during which each contestant whose robot remains alive in the tournament can tinker or even, if he likes, entirely rewrite his robot. In this he can be guided not only by his own robot’s performance in the previous round, but also by that of his next opponent’s; I’ll announce matchups for the next round immediately after the previous is complete. (Of course, said opponent may also be changing her robot as well, making this very much a cat-and-mouse — or, if you like, bait-and-switch — game.)

You can modify or steal code from any of the five sample robots that come with the game, but I’ll have to take you on your word of honor that you won’t use or even examine the code to any of the robots published in places like Computer Gaming World back in the day, or available online somewhere. You are welcome to submit a robot you created by yourself at some earlier date. Although, again, I can’t really stop you, teams will not be allowed, as having two or more minds working on a problem gives an unfair advantage. One man one robot is the rule.

And that’s about it really. We continue like this until we determine a champion. I’m trying like mad to think of something to offer as a prize to the winner. I have this book coming out that I wrote about the Amiga, but I’m afraid that offering that to a bunch of Apple II fans might be like setting up a hot-dog stand outside a vegetarians convention. If you don’t want that and you do have a Kindle Keyboard or Touch, there is this game I wrote…

The final decision on whether to do this hinges on whether enough people want to participate to make it worthwhile; there’s nothing more depressing than winning a “contest” with two or three participants (not to mention hosting one). I figure we need at least ten to have a contest that feels like a proper tournament. If you’re willing to commit to participate, please leave a comment here or, if you’re not a fan of comments, send me an email. If you’re interested but not happy with the rules I’ve just outlined, let me know that as well. If we can come to a consensus, we can always adjust.

I know that some of you who read this blog are involved with the Apple II community and/or other groups that might be interested in this kind of thing. If you know anyone whom you think might want to participate, please direct them this way. Likewise, if you have blogs, Twitter feeds, podcasts, etc., frequented by the right kind of folks, a quick plug would be hugely appreciated.

And if you’re not an Apple II old-timer and want to know if this is for you…

You don’t need any Apple II-specific knowledge at all, only the willingness to install an emulator and boot it from the Robot War disk image. (Solid emulators are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and probably other platforms as well.) On the other hand, this is a programming game, so you will need to learn a simple programming language to participate. On the other other hand, it’s a very, very simple language. Probably the most awkward part of the whole process will be typing and editing your source with Robot War‘s built-in editor that replaces mice and menus with control-key combinations. If you live in the Unix/Linux world and/or are comfortable with terminal-based text editors like VM, it won’t be a big stretch; otherwise it might give you 20 minutes frustration before it starts to click.

So, let me know if you’re in, and tell you’re friends, and we’ll see if we’ve got the numbers to make it happen.


Comments
 2012-02-01T16:00:44Z Jimmy Maher http://www.filfre.net Ruminations on the state of some arts by Jimmy Maher The Digital Antiquarian » Interactive Fiction 2012-02-06T14:00:31Z tag:gameshelf.jmac.org,2012://1.552 The Gameshelf: IF: Mammals needed

No long article from me this week; am setting up with a new client to earn money to buy more time to think about games for your pleasure, dear reader. But here a couple of small items nonetheless:

Anna Anthropy’s book Rise of the Videogame Zinesters is coming out this spring, and she asked a bunch of folks to record very short videos for her to stitch together into a book-tour promotion. This was my contribution:

This is the essay I refer to in the video. It really is one of my favorite written works of game-design takeapart.

There are still a few unclaimed songs in Kevin’s Apollo 18 IF Tribute Album project. It’s particularly needful of a short work of interactive fiction that would complement the song “Mammal”, but there are a bunch of one-move “Fingertips” games that need to be written as well.

The first-draft deadline remains set at February 12. Those who find themselves suddenly inspired to create a They Might Be Giants fan-game at tremendous velocity should feel free to claim a remaining slot and follow the instructions on the original post.

 2012-02-01T15:51:43Z 2012-02-01T15:51:43Z Jason McIntosh tag:gameshelf.jmac.org,2012:/melody//feed/if Search Results for if 2012-02-07T02:57:53Z http://www.filfre.net/?p=368 The Digital Antiquarian: Robot War If you want to understand how different the computer world of 1981 was from that of today, a good place to look is the reception of Silas Warner’s programming game, Robot War. It received big, splashy feature articles in Softalk, the early flagship of the Apple II community, as well as the premiere issue of [...]

If you want to understand how different the computer world of 1981 was from that of today, a good place to look is the reception of Silas Warner’s programming game, Robot War. It received big, splashy feature articles in Softalk, the early flagship of the Apple II community, as well as the premiere issue of Computer Gaming World, one of the first two computer magazines unabashedly dedicated just to games. (Softline, a spinoff of Softalk, edged it out by just a hair for the prize of first.) In the only metric that ultimately matters to a publisher, it even bounced on and off of Softalk‘s monthly lists of the top 30 Apple II software bestsellers for a year or so. All this for a “game” that involved a text editor, a compiler, and a debugger — a game that sounds suspiciously like work to modern ears. But in 1981 the computer world was still a comparatively tiny one, and virtually everyone involved knew at least a little bit of programming as a prerequisite to getting anything at all done; most home computers booted directly into BASIC, after all. More abstractly, even the hardcore gamers (not that that term had yet been invented) were as fascinated with the technology used to facilitate their obsession as they were with games as entities unto themselves. In this milieu, a programming game didn’t sound like quite such an oxymoron.

Robot War was by far the most ambitious game Silas had yet created for Muse, a dramatic departure from simple BASIC excursions like Escape! Not coincidentally, it was also the first he created after finally agreeing to come to Muse Software full time in 1980. He did already have a leg up on it to start, for Robot War on the Apple II is basically the same game as the version he had programmed for the PLATO system a few years before. It does, however, offer some enhancements, most notably the ability for up to five robots to battle one another at one time in a huge free for all; the original had offered only one-on-one matches.

While they didn’t approach software development as systematically as did Infocom, Muse had developed some unusually sophisticated tools by this stage to make assembly-language coding a less arduous task. At a time when other shops seemed to accept perpetual reinventing of wheels as a way of life, Muse had also gotten quite good at reusing its code wherever possible. Large chunks of Robot War, for instance, are lifted straight out of Super-Text, the company’s word processor. One edits one’s source code in a streamlined version of Super-Text itself. Employing one of the strangest criteria for recommending a game ever, Softalk noted that playing Robot War makes “learning the real Super-Text a snap.”

The other way that Super-Text helped beget Robot War is more surprising, and gives me the opportunity to make one of little lessons in technology — specifically, computer display technology.

The screen on which you’re reading this is almost certainly a bitmapped display. This means that it is seen by the computer as just a grid of colored pixels. The text you’re reading is mapped onto that grid in software, “drawn” there like an unusually intricate picture. This is a cool thing for many reasons. For one, it allows you to customize things like the size, shape, and style of the default font to suit your own preferences. For another, it allows writers like me to play with different typefaces to get our message across. It’s a particularly nice thing for word processing, where a document on the screen can be rendered as a mirror image of what will appear when you click “Print.” (We call this what-you-see-is-what-you-get, or WYSIWYG). It’s also got some disadvantages, however: rendering all of that text letter by letter and pixel by pixel consumes a lot of processing power, and storing that huge grid of pixels consumes a lot of memory. The screen on which I’m writing this is 1920 X 1200 pixels. At the 4 bytes per pixel needed to display all the colors a modern computer offers — another, separate issue — that amounts to about 9 MB. That number is fairly negligible on a machine with 4 GB of memory like this one, but on one with just 48 K like the Apple II, even accounting for the need to store vastly fewer colors and a vastly lower resolution, it can be a problem. So, the standard, default display mode of the Apple II is a textual screen, stored not as a grid of individual pixels but as a set of cells, into each of which a single letter or a graphical glyph — essentially a “letter” showing a little glyph which can be combined with others to draw frames, diagrams, or simple pictures — can be inserted. Rendering these characters to the screen is then handled in the display hardware rather than involving any software at all. This approach has plenty of disadvantages: one is limited to a single font; said font must be mono- rather than variable-spaced; changing the font’s size or style are right out; etc. On the plus side, it’s fast and it doesn’t use too much memory. In fact, the Apple II was unique among the trinity of 1977 in offering a bitmapped graphics mode at all; the TRS-80 and PET offered only character-oriented displays. The Apple II’s Hi-Res mode is much of the reason it stood out so amongst its peers as the Cadillac of early microcomputers.

One would naturally expect a word processor — about the most text-oriented application imaginable — to work in the Apple II’s text mode. As Ed Zaron of Muse was developing Super-Text, however, he had to confront a problem familiar to makers and users of much early Apple II application software. The Apple II’s text mode could display just 40 big, blocky characters per line. Amongst other reasons, this design decision had been made because the machine’s standard video feed was just an everyday, fairly low-quality analog television signal. Trying to display more, smaller characters, especially on the television many users chose in lieu of a proper monitor, would just result in a bleeding, unreadable mess. The problem for word processing and other business applications was that a standard typewritten page has 80 characters to a line. Thus, and even though the word processor was not going to be anything close to WYSIWYG under any circumstances given the other limitations of the Apple II’s display, it was even harder than it might otherwise be for the user to visualize what a document would look like in hard copy while it was on the screen, what with each hardcopy line spread over two onscreen. Zaron therefore considered whether he might be able to use Hi-Res mode to display 80 characters of text, at least for those whose displays were good enough to make it readable.

The problem with that idea, however, was that the Apple II has no built-in ability to render text to the Hi-Res screen. One can paint individual pixels, even draw lines and simple shapes, but there is no facility to tell the machine to, say, draw the letter “A” at position 100 X 100. Zaron therefore spent considerable time developing a Hi-Res character generation of his own — a program that could essentially render little pictures representing each glyph to the screen on command, just as your display works today. Zaron and Muse ultimately decided the idea just wasn’t viable for Super-Text. Even with a good monitor it was just too ugly to work with for long periods of time given the color idiosyncrasies of Hi-Res mode, and it was unacceptably slow to work with for entering and editing text. Besides, by that time something called the Sup’R'Terminal was available from a company called M&R Enterprises. This was a card which plugged into one of the Apple II’s internal slots (bless Woz’s foresight!) and solved the problem by adding an entirely new, alternate display system that could render 80 columns of text quickly and cleanly. It also solved another problem for word processors in being able to render lower-case as well as upper-case text (the original Super-Text had had to distinguish upper case from lower case by highlighting the former in reverse video). Soon enough an array of similar products would be available, eventually including some from Apple itself. So, Zaron’s character generator went on the shelf…

…to be picked up by Silas Warner and incorporated into Robot War. While plenty of games made use of the Apple II’s split-screen mode which allowed a few lines of conventional text to appear at the bottom of a Hi-Res display, the screenshot above is one of the few examples in early Apple II software of text being incorporated directly into a Hi-Res display, thanks to Zaron’s aborted Super-Text character generator. Sometimes software development works in crazy ways.

Even if you aren’t a programmer, the idea of Robot War — of programming your own custom robot, then sending him off to do battle with others while you watch — is just, well, neat. That neatness is a big reason that I can’t resist taking some time to talk about it here, where we’re usually all about the ludic narrative. Of course, given the technological constraints Silas was working with there are inevitable limits to the concept. You don’t get to design your robot in the physical sense; each is identical in size, in the damage it can absorb, in acceleration and braking, and in having a single rotable radar dish it can use to “see” and a single rotatable gun it can use to shoot. The programming language you work with is extremely primitive even by the standard of BASIC, with just a bare few commands. Actual operation of the robot is accomplished by reading from and writing to a handful of registers. That can seem an odd way to program today — it took me a while to wrap my mind around it again after spending recent months up to my eyebrows in Java — but in 1981, when much microcomputer programming involved PEEKind and POKEing memory locations and hardware registers directly, it probably felt more immediately familiar.

Here’s a quick example, one of the five simple robots that come with the game.

;SAMPLE ROBOT 'RANDOM'

] 250 TO RANDOM ;INITIALIZE RANDOM -- 250
MAXIMUM
]
]START
] DAMAGE TO D ;SAVE CURRENT DAMAGE
]
]SCAN
] IF DAMAGE # D GOTO MOVE ;TEST -- MOVE IF HURT
] AIM+17 TO AIM ;CHANGE AIM IF OK
]
]SPOT
] AIM TO RADAR ;LINE RADAR WITH LAUNCHER
] IF RADAR>0 GOTO SCAN ;CONTINUE SCAN IF NO ROBOT
] 0-RADAR TO SHOT ;CONVERT RADAR READING TO
]DISTANCE AND FIRE
] GOTO SPOT ;CHECK IF ROBOT STILL THERE
]
]MOVE
] RANDOM TO H
] RANDOM TO V ;PICK RANDOM PLACE TO GO
]
]MOVEX
] H-X*100 TO SPEEDX ;TRAVEL TO NEW X POSITION
] IF H-X>10 GOTO MOVEX ;TEST X POSITION
] IF H-X<-10 GOTO MOVEX ;TEST X POSITION
] 0 TO SPEEDX ;STOP HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT
]
]MOVEY
] V-Y*100 TO SPEEDY ;TRAVEL TO NEW Y POSITION
] IF V-Y>10 GOTO MOVEY ;TEST Y POSITION
] IF V-Y<-10 GOTO MOVEY ;TEST Y POSITION
] 0 TO SPEEDY ;STOP VERTICAL MOVEMENT
] GOTO START ;START SCANNING AGAIN
]

Let's just step through this quickly. We begin by plugging 250 into the RANDOM register, which tells the robot we will expect any random numbers we request to be in the range of 0 to 249. We store the value currently in the DAMAGE register (the amount of damage the robot has received) into a variable, D, for safekeeping. Immediately after we test the DAMAGE register against the value we just stored; if the former is now less than the latter, we know we are taking fire. Let's assume for the moment this is not the case. We therefore add 17 to the AIM register, which has the effect of rotating our gun 17 degrees around a 360-degree axis. We send a pulse out from our radar dish in the same direction that the gun is now facing. If the radar spots another robot, it will place a number representing the negation of its distance from us into the RADAR register; otherwise it places a 0 or a positive number there. (Yes, this seems needlessly unintuitive; Silas presumably had a good technical reason for doing it this way.) If we do find a robot, we fire the gun by placing the absolute value of the number stored in RADAR into the SHOOT register. This fires a shell set to explode that distance away. We continue to shoot as long as the robot remains there. When it is there no longer, we go back to scanning the battlefield for targets.

Should we start taking fire, we need to move away. In accordance with our name, we decide this by storing random numbers from 0 to 249 -- the battlefield is grid of 256 X 256 -- into two variables representing our desired new horizontal and vertical positions, H and V. What follows gets a little bit more tricky. The SPEEDX and SPEEDY registers represent horizontal and vertical movement respectively, with negative numbers representing movement to the left or upward and positive numbers to the right or downward. For an added wrinkle, we can only accelerate or decelerate 40 units per second, regardless of what we place in these registers. So, we're figuring out the relative distance and direction of our goal to our current position, which we find by reading registers X and Y, then moving that way by manipulating SPEEDX and SPEEDY. Because this is not a terribly sophisticated robot, we move into position on each axis individually rather than trying to move on a diagonal. Once we have reached our (approximate) goal, we settle down to scan and shoot once more.

So, what you're really doing here is writing an AI routine of the sort that someone making a game from scratch might program. If nothing else, that makes it a great training tool for a prospective game programmer. Although one can have some fun playing against the robots that come with it, Robot War is really meant to be a multiplayer game, where one places one's creations up against those of others. It begs for some sort of tournament, and in fact that's exactly what happened; Computer Gaming World was so enamored with Robot War that they sponsored a couple in partnership with Muse. For each, several Apple IIs spent several weeks in the basement of Muse's office/store crunching through battles to determine an eventual champion. I was intrigued enough by the idea to consider proposing a tournament here with you my gentle readers, but upon spending some time with the actual software I tend to think it's just too crusty and awkward to modern sensibilities to garner enough interest. If you think I'm wrong, though, tell me about it in comments or email; if there's real interest I'm happy to reconsider. Regardless, here's the Apple II disk image and the manual for you to have a look at.

In common with another Silas Warner game of 1981, Robot War had a cultural impact far beyond what its sales figures might suggest. It was common enough even in 1981 for computer programs to model the real world, in the form of flight simulators, war games, etc. The subject matter of Robot War, however, went in the opposite direction when something called the "Critter Crunch" took place in Denver in 1987. Today real-world robot combat leagues are kind of a big deal, with their matches often televised and given exposure that any number of human sports would kill to have. I can't say all of this wouldn't have started without Silas Warner's game, but it's perhaps more than just coincidence that two of the first sustained robot-combat leagues were called Robot Wars, as were a couple of the robot-combat television series (one of which, ironically, turned back into a videogame series). Even more definitive is the influence Robot Wars exerted on the programming games that followed it. The most obvious direct homage is Robot Battle, but there's plenty of the Robot War DNA in more mainstream efforts like MindRover, not to mention plenty of free hacker-oriented programming games which may or may not involve actual robots. And to think that Robot War was just Silas Warner's second most influential game of a prodigious 1981...

We'll get to that other game, which actually bears more directly on this blog's usual obsessions, soon. First, though, I want to grab one of these other balls I've got in the air and check in with one of our old friends.


Comments
 2012-01-30T18:01:37Z Jimmy Maher http://www.filfre.net Ruminations on the state of some arts by Jimmy Maher The Digital Antiquarian » Interactive Fiction 2012-02-06T14:00:31Z http://onewetsneaker.wordpress.com/?p=1972 One Wet Sneaker: Bullshit Review of _Find the Dog_
Sorry for the bullshit of this bullshit review -- a real review would be too difficult to write. This is a fine game -- parser works, pictures work -- text does its job -- the main problem being you can't download it. Which is fine if you have a decent internet connection, but my tubes are slow. The premise is vaguely amusing. You play a 50 year old neighborhood woman who makes a bundle ($150 a week) to dog-sit a woman's dog at her apartment. The interaction with the 50 year old neighborhood bachelors at McDonalds in the morning is frighteningly on. I suspect the author lurked and took notes, or perhaps is a 50 year old woman himself. The complication hits immediately: The dog dies. This is almost immediate, but after you've played a few rounds and imagine this is shaping up to be some kind of Dog Sim, complete with minigames like Clean Up After Rover (did you bring a plastic bag?) It's been established that this dog is your bread and butter -- "Are you SERIOUS? $150 a week to WALK A DOG?" the bachelors exclaim -- and you basically have no other income except for a woefully inadequate social security check that on inspection causes your player character to mentally review your older friends who have sold off their belongings, or taken in strange boarders, or so forth, to eek by on theirs. Therefore, when the dog dies -- or more accurately, is discovered dead in the apartment -- the correct response is adequately indicated by context, but by no means obvious. You must [spoiler]
 2012-01-30T01:00:50Z Conrad Cook http://onewetsneaker.wordpress.com http://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.png which looks at how to do things with narrative OneWetSneaker » interactive fiction 2012-02-04T02:00:53Z http://nickm.com/post/?p=2201 Post Position: Just When I Was Worried that I’m Not Blogging Enough Dear Mr. Montfort, I do not want to cause offense, merely offer a suggestion: would you consider removing the parts of your blog that clearly do not deal with interactive fiction from “Planet IF” (http://www.planet-if.com)? While I am not saying that your posts are not intersting or that the term “interactive fiction” should only apply [...]

Dear Mr. Montfort,

I do not want to cause offense, merely offer a suggestion: would you consider removing the parts of your blog that clearly do not deal with interactive fiction from “Planet IF” (http://www.planet-if.com)?

While I am not saying that your posts are not intersting or that the term “interactive fiction” should only apply to text adventure games in the narrow sense (and while I appreciate the articles on Game Design and other forms of interactive fiction that appear on Planet IF), the sheer volume of your blog posts, along with “Grand Text Auto”, sometimes tends to drown out anything else.

…

 2012-01-28T03:30:35Z 2012-01-28T03:30:35Z Nick Montfort http://nickm.com http://nickm.com/post/feed/atom/ Nick Montfort Post Position 2012-02-05T15:21:26Z http://if.seattle.wa.us/?p=378 Seattle IF: January Meeting Our next meeting is planned for Sunday, January 29th @ 3:30, at the UW Health Sciences Building, I Wing Rotunda (directions). We may discuss The House of Fear.

Our next meeting is planned for Sunday, January 29th @ 3:30, at the UW Health Sciences Building, I Wing Rotunda (directions). We may discuss The House of Fear.

 2012-01-28T00:00:33Z eddi http://if.seattle.wa.us Seattle Interactive Fiction Group Seattle Interactive Fiction 2012-02-06T01:00:42Z http://www.filfre.net/?p=364 The Digital Antiquarian: The King of Shreds and Patches, Kindle Touch Version — and Some Answers I’m excited to announce that The King of Shreds and Patches is now available for purchase at Amazon in a version for the Kindle Touch as well as the Kindle Keyboard. Adapting the app to work on the small screen with the onscreen keyboard was a challenge, but we’ve arrived at last at something that [...]

I’m excited to announce that The King of Shreds and Patches is now available for purchase at Amazon in a version for the Kindle Touch as well as the Kindle Keyboard. Adapting the app to work on the small screen with the onscreen keyboard was a challenge, but we’ve arrived at last at something that both I and Amazon agree works really smoothly. If you have a Touch, I hope you’ll consider giving it a try. As always, your reviews and feedback are hugely appreciated — as are tweets, blog entries, etc., to help get the word out.

An Android version is also in the works. As shown by the picture, the game does run and is playable on the Kindle Fire and other Android tablets and phones. However, I still have quite a bit of work ahead of me to make it into a polished, bulletproof app. I hate to give myself deadlines, but with a bit of luck it may be available in the Amazon app store as well as the Barnes and Noble Nook store and of course the general Android store within a few months. Maybe.

I still get lots of questions about my future plans — which do actually involve more than releasing the same game on platform after platform. This seems as good a time and place as any to give some public answers. In fact, said answers are probably long overdue. So, if you’ll forgive my having a conversation with a straw man, let me first give some answers to some common queries.

How well is King doing on the Kindle?

Thanks largely to you guys who tweeted and blogged and got the word out, we had a pretty strong launch. Since then sales have inevitably tapered off, but the game still sells a little bit pretty much every day, and brings in a little extra money each month. All in all, I judge it a modest success. Hopefully as it appears on new platforms and as other games appear to join it (see below), we can really start to build something.

I understand that you have created an engine that can run Glulx games on the Kindle. When will you release that engine and (preferably) source to the public?

Not any time soon, I’m afraid. First of all, it wouldn’t do most of you all that much good. The only way to use this engine is by registering with Amazon as an official Kindle app developer, something that is not automatic, that takes some time even if you are eventually approved, and that as I understand it now involves a registration fee (I registered very early as a “beta” developer, at which time the fee was being waived). You will then be allowed to register a limited number of Kindles as development devices, which will be capable of running code signed by you only. In other words, there is no way for you to take my code and simply copy it onto a Kindle and run it. The Kindle app universe is, for better or for worse, very much a walled garden.

Secondly, I’ve spent a lot of time and labor developing these engines, and to justify that I really need to see something come back. If anyone wants to jump into what I’m going to optimistically label an emerging market, you’re welcome to do so. I just can’t justify handing you all my hard work. I’ve given and continue to give a lot to interactive fiction and its community; I hope I’ve earned the right to get a little bit back here. Please understand that this does not mean I want to horde the Kindle market for myself and my one game. See below for my grand vision of the future, which I like to think could benefit everyone who cares about IF.

When will you release a (commercial or free) standalone interpreter for IF on the Kindle?

Again, this isn’t going to happen. While it’s true that I do have a working Kindle Glulx interpreter, that wasn’t really the hard part of this project; the Glulx VM is pretty simple really, and by now I’ve worked with it enough that creating one for Java was pretty quick and straightforward. The challenge has been adapting IF to the very different interface paradigm of an e-reader. That requires considerable modifications to the story file, to add new GLK function calls that do things like define page and chapter breaks, to support a radically different approach to saving and undoing, and to tweak performance in places where Inform 7 is still inefficient. Creating the overall look and feel of The King of Shreds and Patches on the Kindle, which I’m gratified to say just about everyone has praised, required much, much more than just dropping a story file into an interpreter.

The next problem is that any theoretical interpreter would need to be approved by Amazon. They curate the Kindle app store very closely, looking not just for outright malware or broken programs but also deciding individually for each app whether it’s a good “fit” for the Kindle. They aren’t interested in an app that lets you run other games — that’s getting quite far afield from the Kindle philosophy of being an easy-to-use, simple device for everyday people, in addition to scaring the hell out of their legal department. (We all may know that story files cannot break out of their interpreters to do harm to the machines on which they run, but they don’t.)

To be frank, I’m not that interested in the idea either. One problem contemporary IF has is the old wheat-from-the-chaff dilemma. I would like to make the Kindle a place where only really first-class stories appear, stories that are polished and professional and worth spending a little bit of money on. Anyway, those who are technical enough to want a generic Kindle IF interpreter are probably also technical enough to jailbreak their Kindles and install one for themselves. If you want something that looks more polished than that… well, there’s really no way to give you that and also give it to you as a standalone interpreter.

What about the new base Kindle model?

All indications are that this thing is selling like crazy, but there’s just no way to make a parser-driven game tolerable on it. The only way to enter text is by laboriously selecting each letter from a menu using the five-way controller. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to play that way for hundreds or thousands of turns.

What about Europe?

I feel your pain, Mr. European Straw Man. I really do — especially because all the queries I’ve gotten must add up to quite a few sales I’m not making. Unfortunately, it’s entirely up to Amazon when and if they open up their non-U.S. Kindle stores to apps. Once the Android version is out, Europeans and others will at least be able to purchase the game in that version.

Will you release versions for the iOS devices?

The thing is, I’m just not an Apple guy. I don’t own the Macintosh system one needs to develop for those devices, nor do I own the devices themselves, nor am I excited about having to learn a new programming language and start over from scratch to develop for them. I’ve developed a good relationship with Amazon, and — even as I recognize what a huge market the Apple devices are — will be looking to build on the Kindle and Android platforms only for the foreseeable future. If someone experienced with iOS development were to express interest in developing a version of my engine for those devices, I’d certainly be ready to listen. Left to my own devices (pun intended), however, I don’t foresee taking on yet more huge programming challenges and big additional hardware expenses.

So, having told you what I’m not going to do, let me tell you a little bit of what my plans are in the short, medium, and long term.

In the short term, my immediate goal is obviously to get the Android version of The King of Shreds and Patches finished and into (at a minimum) Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the Google Android store.

In the medium term, I want to publish other games from other authors on these platforms using these engines. I spent much of the latter part of last year developing extensions and tools to make that as painless as possible. It’s not quite a matter of “drop this extension into your Inform 7 source and you’re done,” and it never will be, but I’ve gone a long way toward building a very systemitized approach. Once I have solid engines on all three platforms (already have two out of three, of course), I’ll begin reaching out to some other authors whose games I think can work on these platforms and with these audiences. It’s not inconceivable that, authors willing, we could release half a dozen more games before the end of the year. (He says, knowing he’s likely to regret it round about December 31, 2012.)

Here’s a very optimistic vision of what could happen. The great IF community and the competitions could continue to run as they always have, with the additional incentive that those who author really great, really polished games will have the opportunity to get them published on the Kindle and Android devices. This would win them a whole lot more exposure, and would of course also give them the opportunity to earn some money back. I’m not sure anyone will be able to quit her day job, but you might just earn enough to take the spouse / significant other / family on a nice little vacation to pay them back for putting up with all those long evenings you spent alone in front of the computer rather than with them. Maybe such an incentive could lead to more games and better games, things the community could dearly use. In this vision the current IF community loses nothing. The hardcore will still have games to play, for free if they like, and all of the support and technical know-how will be as freely shared as ever. It’s just that now the community serves as a feeder system for a (hopefully) bigger market of more casual players who are just interested in playing a fun/interesting game/story now and then rather than discussing craft, beta testing (willingly or unwillingly), or trying to get through 40 or more games in six weeks for this competition thing — much less actually trying to write games themselves. Authors would retain the rights to their games on other platforms, meaning that if someone else wanted to publish them on (for instance) those Apple platforms I’m neglecting, they could feel free.

If you are interested in writing a game that can work in these markets, I’ll give you some guidelines. All of my tools are currently oriented toward Inform 7, so it’s definitely best to work in that language rather than Inform 6. (And TADS, much as I hate to say it about a very worthy system, is currently a complete nonstarter.) You also should plan to target Glulx rather than the Z-Machine. Your options for multimedia are, shall we say, very limited. You can display an occasional picture in-line with the text; in fact, that’s desirable. Not too many, though, because pictures add to the download size, using bandwidth Amazon will make us pay for out of the sales proceeds. Sound is a nonstarter for now, as are additional windows or really anything beyond the very traditional status line / text window approach that’s been with us since Zork. The screens we’re working with are just too small to get fancy here.

As far as design goes, puzzles are acceptable and, indeed, desirable, but they need to be fair puzzles. You will also need a hint system, preferably something context-sensitive like that in King. You can include a map with the app, but don’t use that as a license to create an overly convoluted geography. The game obviously needs to be very polished and well-written, and it needs to foreground a strong, interesting story with some forward drive. Genre works are great and in fact preferred, but nothing too geek-centric or esoteric. This is also probably not the market for formal experimentation or for getting too “literary,” at least right now. If interactive fiction can start to build an identity on these devices, this may change, but for right now the reality is that we’re competing against the likes of Final Fantasy gamebook adaptations. Hopefully we can do a bit better than them in the writing sweepstakes, but still, I’m looking more for solid genre novels than deep works of unfathomable beauty — Stephen King and Robert Heinlein rather than James Joyce and Umberto Eco.

In the long term, I think that the new generation of touchscreen devices offer some really interesting opportunities to get away from the parser at last without having to settle for Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-style menus. I even think that (again, in the long term) this is the real path forward for IF. I’m excited by all of the experiments that have been taking place lately with alternative interface paradigms, and have some ideas of my own brewing. I’d love to bring some of these ideas together and build or help to build a next-generation IF system designed with touchscreens in mind (but still very usable with conventional GUIs). But that is of course another big, daunting technical challenge.

And, truly looking through the fat end of the telescope, I want to write another game, hopefully using that next-generation interface. Doing that, however, is kind of dependent on everything above happening first. Too bad, because I’m itching to start…


Comments
 2012-01-27T19:00:33Z Jimmy Maher http://www.filfre.net Ruminations on the state of some arts by Jimmy Maher The Digital Antiquarian » Interactive Fiction 2012-02-06T14:00:31Z http://www.kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress/?p=4786 Kristian Still's Blog: Three Men and a Big IF Another opportunity to discuss Interactive Fiction with teachers, educators and education types was grasped with both hands, as I meet up again with iO’s Andy Goff. Together with Alex Warren and Tom Cole (@ehesynapseuk), we gave a three part introduction to Interaction Fiction. Headlining with ‘What is IF? Why educators should take note?‘ I covered [...]

Another opportunity to discuss Interactive Fiction with teachers, educators and education types was grasped with both hands, as I meet up again with iO’s Andy Goff. Together with Alex Warren and Tom Cole (@ehesynapseuk), we gave a three part introduction to Interaction Fiction.

Headlining with ‘What is IF? Why educators should take note?‘ I covered the big picture. Tom Cole demoed his fantastic IF for Science game through an incredibly simple Prezi. Tom neatly, and visually, exampled how game design knowledge could be applied to a four room IF game, where the player could only ‘win’ if they applied their KS3 Science knowledge. Complete with guard dog and talking hamster it presented a strong case both Science and creative writing. Alex wrapped it up with an actual Quest demo, then the current web, iOS and Android opportunities before finishing up with a glimpse of what the future of Quest might look it. Feedback was very promising with interest from Honda, the BBC World Learning Service, Edexcel (Quest for assessment) and a handful of interested teachers. All in all a very positive event for IF.

(taken by iO)

I am hoping to introduce IF to the teachers of Wolverhampton, so if you are interested and are in the area, let me know.

The rest of my time was spent looking at the exhibits, dropping into sessions, and the afternoon’s Keynotes. A worthwhile day for sure. This morning, my students will be shoeless in English. We will see how that goes.

For the record, Tom is a teacher and MA Games Design student.

qr code
2012-01-27T09:00:23Z Kristian Still http://www.kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress Challenge and Inspire Kristian Still's Blog » IF 2012-02-07T00:00:49Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322604.post-7892394940269333630 Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online: Eamon Deluxe 5.0 Beta sent out to playtesters!

I have just finished sending out the Windows installer to those who volunteered to play test Eamon Deluxe 5.0. If you were on my list, please check your email for a message from Eamon Deluxe that has the installer attached. If you were on my list and did not get a copy by now, please email me and I will send another. I currently have 20 play testers and have room for 10 more, if anyone is interested in trying out the last 10 Beta copies, send an email to eamondeluxe ( at ) gmail.com


2012-01-27T08:25:00Z 2012-01-27T08:25:00Z http://eamon-guild.blogspot.com/2012/01/eamon-deluxe-50-beta-sent-out-to.html Frank - Eamon Deluxe noreply@blogger.com http://www.blogger.com/profile/05016434140873556147 tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322604 Matthew noreply@blogger.com http://www.blogger.com/profile/16477311598407527292 The Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online website is designed to be a comprehensive information source and archive for Eamon adventures. This blog consists of both news about Eamon and my random thoughts about Eamon and the Eamon website. Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online 2012-02-04T03:06:21Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322604.post-3167546532383889823 Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online: Eamon Deluxe Beta 98% Ready to Go (and Other Info)
Eamon Deluxe 5.0 Beta status:

For those who are waiting to play test the beta version of Eamon Deluxe 5.0, it is roughly 98% ready to send out. I'm only about a month late for when I wanted it to be ready which isn't bad in the programming world and [fingers crossed] hoping to maybe even send it out tonight, so be sure to check your inboxes. Thanks again to the play testers, and yes, I still have openings if anybody else is interested. Just email me with your preferred OS info.
-Frank

Classic Eamon -> Eamon Deluxe converted adventures chart:

The most frequent questions I have been asked over the years all tend to involve "missing" adventures. Well, I actually got around to counting the number of Eamon adventures that have been converted to EDX for the first time ever and compiled a little chart (which I hope makes sense) and even I was impressed with the sheer volume. I think in a few more years ALL Classic Eamon adventures will have been converted. Note that I haven't really gotten the hang of text formatting on this blog right yet so the text wraps around in unwanted places which I am choosing to ignore. :-)

Eamon Deluxe Adventure Conversion Chart
Update: 25 JAN 2012

Adventure type codes:
EAG = Eamon Guild Numbered Official Eamons (Apple II only)
C&P = CLONES/PORTS/MISC (Unnumbered, Softdisk, Swordthrust, PC, Atari, etc.)
EDX = Eamon Deluxe Original Adventures

Format for conversion list:
Eamon Deluxe Adventure #/Total number of adventures in set
/(Conversion Notes (+)=converted, (-)=awaiting conversion), tech notes)

01: 06/00/01 = 07 (+06 EAG, +01 EDX)
02: 09/07/00 = 16 (+09 EAG, -07 C&P:SwordThrust)
03: 05/00/00 = 05 (+05 EAG with 50% New EDX-original Material Integrated)
04: 20/00/00 = 20 (+20 EAG technically the last 2 were EDX Originals First)
05: 05/01/00 = 06 (+02 EAG, -03 EAG, -01 C&P:Unnumbered)
06: 04/00/00 = 04 (+00 EAG, -04 EAG missing)
07: 03/01/00 = 04 (+03 EAG, +01 C&P:Softdisk)
08: 09/00/00 = 09 (+09 EAG)
09: 15/03/00 = 18 (+05 EAG, -10 EAG, +03 C&P:SoftDisk)
10: 07/00/00 = 07 (+07 EAG)
11: 19/00/00 = 19 (+19 EAG)
12: 15/00/00 = 15 (+02 EAG, -13 EAG)
13: 21/00/00 = 21 (+21 EAG)
14: 21/00/00 = 21 (+21 EAG)
15: 20/00/00 = 20 (+04 EAG, -16 EAG)
16: 20/00/00 = 20 (+00 EAG, -20 EAG missing)
17: 20/00/00 = 20 (+00 EAG, -20 EAG missing)
18: 14/00/00 = 14 (+10 EAG, -04 EAG missing)
19: 21/00/00 = 21 (+21 EAG)
20: 00/00/01 = 01 (+01 EDX)
21: 00/00/01 = 01 (+01 EDX)
22: 00/00/01 = 01 (+01 EDX)
23: 00/04/00 = 04 (+01 C&P, -03 C&P:Atari & unnumbered)

Total: 254/15/04 = 274
Converted: 164/05/04 = 173
-----------------------------
Conversions left: 090/10/00 = 101

(Conversions currently in progress: 05/01/00 = 06, leaving only 95 left to convert)

So there you go. 173 fully converted/EDX original, 6 in progress and 95 left to go.




Eamon Deluxe Updated Adventure List:

This is my most recent list which shows the current Eamon Deluxe Library (including "missing" chapters in their proper placement):

;(Lists updated: 25 JAN 2012)

LIST 1: EAMON DELUXE ADVENTURE LIST

Adventure # Eamon Deluxe Classic Adventure Conversion Sets
-------------------------------------------------------------
00 Eamon Deluxe 5.0 System Environment
01 Beginner's Adventures
02 The Donald Brown Adventures
03 The Jim Jacobson Adventures Deluxe
04 The John Nelson Adventures
05 The Tom Zuchowski Adventures
06 The Pat Hurst Adventures
07 The Frank Kunze Adventures
08 The Nathan Segerlind Adventures
09 The Sam Ruby Adventures
10 The Roger Pender Adventures
11 The Robert Parker Adventures
12 Best of the Classic Adventures
13 Classic Eamon Adventures, Vol. 1
14 Classic Eamon Adventures, Vol. 2
15 Classic Eamon Adventures, Vol. 3
16 Classic Eamon Adventures, Vol. 4
17 Classic Eamon Adventures, Vol. 5
18 Classic Eamon Adventures, Vol. 6
19 Worst of the Classic Adventures

Adventure # Eamon Deluxe Original Adventures
-------------------------------------------------------------
20 Journey across the Muerte Sea
21 Realm of Fantasy
22 A Runcible Cargo
23 The Lost Treasures of Eamon





 2012-01-26T21:40:00Z 2012-01-26T21:40:00Z http://eamon-guild.blogspot.com/2012/01/eamon-deluxe-beta-98-ready-to-go-and.html Frank - Eamon Deluxe noreply@blogger.com http://www.blogger.com/profile/05016434140873556147 tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322604 Matthew noreply@blogger.com http://www.blogger.com/profile/16477311598407527292 The Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online website is designed to be a comprehensive information source and archive for Eamon adventures. This blog consists of both news about Eamon and my random thoughts about Eamon and the Eamon website. Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online 2012-02-04T03:06:21Z http://twitter.com/brasslantern/statuses/162602138629963776 Brass Lantern: brasslantern: RT @zarfeblong: Yes, today's *Meanwhile* sale is an unsubtle marketing promotion! So retweet that like a South American Terror Bird, and ... brasslantern: RT @zarfeblong: Yes, today's *Meanwhile* sale is an unsubtle marketing promotion! So retweet that like a South American Terror Bird, and ... 2012-01-26T19:00:45Z http://twitter.com/brasslantern Brass Lantern Twitter updates from brasslantern / brasslantern. Twitter / brasslantern 2012-02-04T03:00:25Z http://nickm.com/post/?p=2104 Post Position: Big Questions Radical Books of 2011, 10/10 Big Questions, Anders Nilsen, Drawn & Quarterly, 9781770460478 Anders Nilsen has done exquisite sequential art, a.k.a. comix. I’m particularly fond of the trembling outlines and barely-representational figures in The End. The trade book of Big Questions is more conventional in style, but it binds 658 pages and 15 volumes of [...]

Radical Books of 2011, 10/10

Big Questions, Anders Nilsen, Drawn & Quarterly, 9781770460478

Anders Nilsen has done exquisite sequential art, a.k.a. comix. I’m particularly fond of the trembling outlines and barely-representational figures in The End. The trade book of Big Questions is more conventional in style, but it binds 658 pages and 15 volumes of Nilsen’s work together in an extended, amazing story. In it, birds speak, but aren’t very smart. They devise their own ideas about a piece of unexploded ordnance, for instance, imagining it as an egg. An elderly woman dies in a plane crash; the idiot man-boy she has been caring for survives, as does the pilot. He also doesn’t seem too smart. The drawing style, which passes for simple at times but is nicely composed and filled with rich details, keys into the story, an animal tale that passes beyond childish simplicity. There are none of the mainstream superheros and no hint of the indie comics memoir in these ten years of work by a master of this art. Comic readers should love it; radical readers who wish to try out comics should try it.

 2012-01-26T18:00:13Z 2012-01-26T18:00:13Z Nick Montfort http://nickm.com http://nickm.com/post/feed/atom/ Nick Montfort Post Position 2012-02-05T15:21:26Z http://glimmr.wordpress.com/?p=525 Glimmr: A Colder Light: New hyperlink IF from Jon Ingold
Jon Ingold of inkle has released a new game, called A Colder Light, that I recommend highly as a short, satisfying quest with a fun central mechanic. A Colder Light is also a descendant of the hyperlink-only web interface that was elaborated in prototypes here, here, and here. I beta-tested the game and I think [...]

Jon Ingold of inkle has released a new game, called A Colder Light, that I recommend highly as a short, satisfying quest with a fun central mechanic.

A Colder Light is also a descendant of the hyperlink-only web interface that was elaborated in prototypes here, here, and here. I beta-tested the game and I think that, in addition to being a good game, it provides a nice sense of how a parser-based game with a hyperlink UI can differ from a CYOA-style game with a hyperlink UI.

A Colder Light


 2012-01-26T16:00:37Z Erik Temple http://glimmr.wordpress.com http://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.png Advanced graphics for Inform 7 Glimmr 2012-02-07T03:00:18Z http://threeedgedsword.wordpress.com/?p=404 Three Edged Sword: New game: A Colder Light
The last light has gone. The stars are coming out in the black sea above. Many are hidden by ice-fingered winds. My father is still not returned and the fire is almost gone. But this is how life is: always … Continue reading →

A Colder Light

The last light has gone. The stars are coming out in the black sea above. Many are hidden by ice-fingered winds. My father is still not returned and the fire is almost gone.

But this is how life is: always an edge. A thin sheet on a diving-deep pool.

I hope he will return soon. I cannot summon him.

A Colder Light is now available to play online.

A Colder Light is my first released game since 2009′s Make It Good and The Shadow in the Cathedral. This one is considerably shorter and easier than both of those. It’s also my first text adventure to use no keyboard input. It’s a short tale of magic, courage, animism and ice.

No save is implemented, although the game is short enough that you shouldn’t need it.

The game doesn’t work nicely on phones, but should play okay and runs dog-slow on an iPad.

Comments in the comments, and bugs to the address in the help text, if you please!


 2012-01-26T12:00:49Z joningold http://threeedgedsword.wordpress.com http://0.gravatar.com/blavatar/89dc1a93c1d1114602e28c9fc9cc39e3?s=96&d=http%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.png Fiction, interactive fiction and narrative Fiction is a Three-Edged Sword 2012-02-07T03:00:29Z http://www.filfre.net/?p=363 The Digital Antiquarian: Silas Warner and Muse Software Silas Warner was born in Chicago on August 18, 1949, the first and only child of Forrest and Ann Warner. Their family situation was fraught, with Ann and Silas allegedly suffering physically and mentally at the hands of Forrest. Although they couldn’t prove it, it’s a measure of how bad the situation was that both [...]

Silas Warner was born in Chicago on August 18, 1949, the first and only child of Forrest and Ann Warner. Their family situation was fraught, with Ann and Silas allegedly suffering physically and mentally at the hands of Forrest. Although they couldn’t prove it, it’s a measure of how bad the situation was that both believed that Forrest attempted to kill them by tampering with the brakes on Ann’s car when Silas was 5. Shortly after, they fled Chicago to return to Ann’s home town of Bloomington, Indiana. With the support of her family, Ann earned a degree in education from Indiana University and began teaching. Silas never had any personal contact with his father for the rest of his life.

Ann never remarried, but rather built her emotional world around Silas. She could happily talk for hours about her son, whom she devoutly believed was “special,” destined for great things. As evidence, she claimed that he had already begun reading at the age of two. Later she would brag about his alleged perfect score on his SAT test, or his scholarship offers. She encouraged him to immerse himself in books and intellectual pursuits even as he physically grew up to be a veritable giant, almost seven feet in height and well over 300 pounds in weight. The portrait that emerges on a site offering reminiscences is of an intellectually prodigious and essentially good-hearted but — to put it mildly — socially challenged person. He often struck others as just a little bit sad. A cousin writes about playing on visits with the elaborate train set he’d constructed, but also says that “it was really hard to talk to him. He didn’t seem to know how to carry on a conversation or even really how to ‘play.’ I have to say I just felt sorry for him.” His mother didn’t help the situation by actively discouraging him from having much contact with even his cousins, whom she judged “not up to his caliber of intelligence.” With his social ineptitude, his weight, and the clothes that Ann made for him because she couldn’t purchase any big enough, Silas had a predictably rough time of it in high school. Even a flirtation with football only left him with an injury that would bother him for the rest of his life. On the other hand, his size was intimidating, and he could display a vicious temper when sufficiently roused; he knocked at least one bully unconscious.

Silas entered Indiana University’s physics program in 1966. (It’s a funny thing that so many hackers — Will Crowther and Ken Williams also among them — first entered university as physics majors in the days when computer-science programs and computer access in general weren’t so common. It must have something to do with being attracted to complex systems.) At university Silas continued his eccentric ways. A fellow student speaks of him “walking campus in his long black trench coat reading advanced chemistry and physics textbooks only inches from his face.” More surprisingly, he became “a reporter for the campus radio station, toting his portable reel-to-reel tape recorder gathering stories.”

He also discovered computers at Indiana University. In fact, he found a job working with them before he even graduated, dividing his senior year between his studies and a contract programming job developing accident-analysis software in COBOL for an IBM mainframe. After finishing his degree in 1970, he stayed at the university as an “undergraduate assistant,” an interface of sorts between the student body and the arcane world of the university’s computer systems. That put him in an idyllic position when PLATO came to Indiana University.

I’ve had occasion to mention the PLATO system before on this blog when I described the earliest computerized adaptations of Dungeons and Dragons that were hosted there. I’ve also mentioned Control Data Corporation, who built the mainframe and custom graphical terminals that ran PLATO in addition to giving a young Ken Williams his entree into the computer industry. What I haven’t done, however, is describe the link between the two.

CDC’s co-founder and CEO through its rise, glory years, and eventual downfall in the 1980s at the hands of the new microcomputers was a man named Bill Norris, who refused to accept the currently fashionable business dogma that a corporation’s only duty to society was to maximize profits and shareholder value. An odd combination of shrewd businessman and dreamy idealist, he attempted to use CDC as a force for social good by opening factories in economically depressed areas and funding experimental wind farms amongst a multitude of other projects. Even the Control Data Institute that gave Ken Williams his start was something of a do-gooder project of Norris’s, founded to give bright kids without university credentials a chance to build a career in the computer industry as well as to provide a pool of inexpensive workers for CDC. At a time when even most of his fellow computer-industry executives saw the machines primarily as tools of business, he believed that they could also be a source of social good. He therefore signed CDC on to be the technological and industrial partner of the PLATO system in 1963, just three years after Donald Blitzer had produced the first proofs of concept at the University of Illinois. With steady funding from the National Science Foundation, PLATO grew rapidly from there, with much of its development taking play at a new independent entity, the Computer-Based Education Research Laboratory (CERL), which stood halfway between the business pole of the program (CDC) and the academic pole (the University of Illinois). It would be silly to claim that CDC had no legitimate business interest in PLATO; CERL and PLATO delivered a steady stream of innovative new technologies and ideas to the company. Still, the relationship also reflected Norris’s unique approach to business with a social conscience.

As I wrote in that earlier post, PLATO really came of age with the PLATO IV iteration in 1972, which brought graphical display terminals out of Illinois for the first time to hundreds of institutions spread around the country and, eventually, the world. One of the first of those institutions was the University of Indiana, where Silas helped to set up the first terminals. Soon he was not just administering the system but contributing major pieces of courseware and other software. For instance, he authored “HELP,” a standard tutorial and introduction to the system for new users, and a “massive lesson menu system named IUDEMO.”

PLATO programs — optimistically called “lessons” — were programmed in a language called TUTOR that was accessible to every user. This relatively easy-to-use language enabled much of the creativity of the PLATO community. It allowed educators and students with no knowledge of the vagaries of bits and bytes to design serviceable programs while also being powerful enough to create some surprisingly elaborate games, from dungeon crawls to flight simulators, board-game adaptations to shoot-em-ups. Many if not most of these games were multiplayer; you simply navigated to a “big board” of eager players, found a partner (or two, or more; some could support more than 50 simultaneous players, amounting to virtual worlds in their own right as well as games), and dived in. In addition to his more legitimate activities, Silas became deeply involved with this generally tolerated-if-not-encouraged side of PLATO. He helped John Daleske get started developing Empire, an early — possibly the first — multiplayer action game. Later, he developed his own variant of Empire, which he called Conquest. Another project was possibly the world’s first multiplayer flight simulator, called Air Race. On the theory that guns make everything more fun, Brand Fortner built from Air Race the multiplayer air-combat simulation Air Fight, which became one of PLATO’s biggest hits as well as one of its administrators’ biggest scourges; 50 or 60 active Air Fight players could bring PLATO’s million-dollar CDC mainframe to its knees.

CERL and CDC sometimes hired particularly promising PLATO programmers to work for them. That’s how Silas came to leave Indiana University at last in 1976, moving to Baltimore to work for Commercial Credit, a consumer lending company that was, oddly enough, wholly owned by CDC. Silas came in to develop various in-house training programs on PLATO, such as “Sales-Call Simulator,” an “educational adventure.” While he was about it, he also created his first hit game, Robot War. Each player would program the AI routines for her own robot, using a language Silas devised for the purpose that was essentially a subset of the TUTOR language that virtually every serious PLATO user already had at least some familiarity with. Then the robots would go at it, while the players watched and hoped. Robot War was the first of its kind, the first of a whole genre of programming games that remain a beloved if obscure preoccupation of some hackers to this day. (I’ll have much more to say about Robot War soon).

Silas became particular friends with two other Commercial Credit employees: Ed Zaron, a programmer in the credit scoring department; and Jim Black, an accountent in the billing department. Zaron describes his introduction to the always eccentric Silas:

Silas is one of a kind. I’ll never forget first meeting him. Silas is a big guy, maybe 6’8″ and say 320lbs. Here’s the picture, he was walking down mainstreet in downtown Baltimore wearing a huge, sagging sports coat. He had a car battery (yes, car battery!) in one pocket, a CB radio in the other pocket and a whip antenna stuck down the back of his jacket. He was occasionally talking on the CB as he held two magazines open in one hand. One of Silas’s favorite things was to read two mags simultaneously, kinda one inside the other, flipping back and forth.

This was just about the time that the microcomputer trinity of 1977 arrived. Silas, Zaron, and Black all became very early Apple II adopters; Silas, for instance, ended up with serial number 234. Like Scott Adams and others with the programming skills to make the machines do something at least ostensibly fun or useful, the three decided to form a company — Muse Software. Their first products were, like most early Apple II software, programmed in BASIC.

Muse debuted with two games. There was Zaron’s Tank Wars, a multiplayer arcade-style game similar to the Atari 2600′s original Combat. And there was a maze game by Silas, which presented its world to the player via a first-person, three-dimensional rendering, possibly the first such ever crafted for a microcomputer. The concept was, however, old hat on PLATO, where similar so-called “maze runners” were a popular genre. Indeed, Muse’s PLATO experiences would proof to be a fecund source of inspiration, as they continued to adapt ideas born of that system’s flourishing games community for the little micros. Within a few months Silas had expanded his maze game to create Escape!, the game which inspired Richard Garriott to make 3D dungeons a part of Akalabeth and, by extension, the Ultimas. Escape! killed productivity inside Apple itself, as described by David Gordon, the man responsible for introducing it there:

On one of my first trips to Apple Computer in 1978 I took with me a simple maze game called Escape by a fledgling company called Muse. Apple had 50 or 60 employees at the time and I created a work loss of approximately 60 man weeks because everyone at Apple was playing that game instead of working. They were charting out the mazes and trying to solve the puzzle.

Muse’s simple programs, which they pumped out at a prodigious rate and packaged themselves using art provided by Black’s girlfriend, proved to be surprisingly popular. Weary of spending their evenings copying cassettes and their weekends touring the East Coast trade-show circuit, Zaron and Black soon quit their jobs at Commercial Credit to make a real, entrepreneurial go of it, although a more cautious Silas stayed on there until 1980. With public-relations skills like this, maybe it was for the best that Silas didn’t have so much time for the shows:

I remember in the early days of MUSE, I attended a “Computer Show” in Philadelphia with my dad and Silas. He had just written that Voice/Music program for the Apple II, which attracted a pretty big crowd. The big thing then was selling and trading programs recorded on cassette tapes. Hilarious! Anyway, it was great to see Silas pitching the programs and working with people. You really got to see what they were made of when he would stop talking, reach into his nose and pull out a gigantic booger, and then wipe it on the underside of the nearest table or chair, and continue with the demonstration. He was really great.

Muse’s early catalogs contained a shambolic line of programs typical of other early software houses like Adventure International and On-Line Systems. In addition to the games, there were drawing programs, programming utilities, educational drills, text editors. By 1980, however, disks and the spacious 48 K of memory that came in the Apple II Plus were becoming the accepted standard, and customers were beginning to expect more of their software. Muse created a development system of its own that allowed them to write fast assembly language programs while still having access to some of the conveniences and structure of higher level languages. With Silas on board full time at last, they also moved from their first office, a cramped space above a gun store, to lease a two-story building for themselves in downtown Baltimore. The top floor housed the business and software development arms, which now consisted of half a dozen employees, while the lower floor became the “Muse Computer Center,” a retail computer store selling Muse’s products as well as those of others. One non-obvious advantage of operating a store was that it allowed Muse to order products at dealer prices, making it easy to keep up with the competition’s latest in the fast-moving game of oneupsmanship that the Apple II software market was becoming.

In that spirit: Muse’s two major products of 1980 both advanced the state of the art. Zaron’s Super-Text was the most powerful and usable of the early Apple II word processors. And Silas’s The Voice let the user, incredibly, record her own voice and play it back, after a fashion, on the Apple II’s primitive sound hardware. This was absolutely unprecedented stuff. Both programs would play a big role in Silas’s two landmark games of the following year, about which more in my next post.


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 2012-01-25T18:00:47Z Jimmy Maher http://www.filfre.net Ruminations on the state of some arts by Jimmy Maher The Digital Antiquarian » Interactive Fiction 2012-02-06T14:00:31Z