Text Adventuring

[Applegate]

So I wonder if people here have ever played those good old text adventure games? I was browsing through my old files to clean it up, and I just discovered TAS again and the many projects I've got that're left unfinished. It was quite a good part of my youth, haha!

Additionally, I was wondering if, per chance, we could simulate a text adventure on the forums. It could be a fun experience, I think, even though it's not -entirely- Visual Novel related.

Example:

Code: Select all

> "Hey, are you awake?"
> You open your eyes, realising that you must've fallen asleep. You're not quite sure when
  you fell asleep. For that matter, you're not quite sure where you are either.
> You're sure you've never seen the guy staring at you before.
> "So you -are- awake!" he exclaims, frowning at you.
> _

at the > _ prompt, it means the player input is possible, at which point all sorts of silly adventures can ensue as players can have a will entirely counter to the "parser".

Well, y'know. Just saying.

[Taleweaver]

What you're looking for is ADRIFT. Some of the titles made for this platform are truly amazing in terms of parser depth and storytelling, and it sure beats the randomness of doing this on the forums.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

Of course I remember text adventures! My first gaming experience actually, on an old Tandy back before monitors had colors or harddrives existed. Instead I would boot up the OS from the 5.25 inch floppy disk into the RAM and then swap it out for the Zork disk and maneuver my way to the game through DOS command lines. Did I mention I was six?

Young kids today are spoiled, what with mice and graphical interfaces, and games with pictures! Bah, in my day, we used our imaginations and we liked it!

[pondrthis]

To preface: I know you were joking LWR, but I always get riled up at ageism like that, so I'm going to bitch at no one in particular.

I too played games off of floppy floppies and DOS, but I don't think that makes modern kids spoiled... as long as they're learning to use a computer, they're getting something out of it. Who cares if computers are just easier to use these days?

My dad and I could both build an EKG. (I'm under the impression that LWR is a technical expert, but since my audience isn't him in particular, this is the beeping heart monitor that "flatlines" when someone dies.) His would be made of vacuum tubes and mine would be made of OP-AMPs. Both would probably output to an oscilloscope. Is mine inferior to his? No. It just uses more advanced, "shortcut-y" electronics because that's the status quo of current electrical design. Now consider the fact that his most advanced amplifiers interfaced with 1980s lasers. My most advanced amplifiers are used for RF coils in 2010s MRI. I'll give you a hint: the response time and noise constraints in modern MR are significantly more stringent than those for lasers in their first big boom.

Is my time spent skipping over vacuum tubes and going straight to high-performance capacitors, etc really me "being spoiled"? I'm personally glad kids these days can be exposed to something more fun and easy to start with... it will make for a more computer-savvy generation of schoolkids. More computer-savvy schoolkids means we can teach computer classes earlier. And honestly, programming could be a high school degree... cheaper labor = cheaper software = no more of this absurd rivalry between shitty Mac and shitty Windows. Both companies would have to step up their games and drop prices to compete with open source software like Linux.

DISCLAIMER: Computer science is an advanced degree with lots of study about both the inner workings of the machine and algorithmic optimization. Programming in and of itself is what I'm referring to as "high school level".

[Watercolorheart]

Really? I found ADRIFT to be ridiculously limited in flexibility compared to Inform or TADS. I've dabbled enough to seriously consider making Ren'Py bend to my will and create a parser/AVG blend kind of game using a verb/noun icon-based list.

Anyone who has played the more experimental FKiSS based games probably knows what I'm talking about when I say "making a language do what it wasn't designed to do but excellent at achieving anyway."

Basically, I hate giving up Ren'Py's ease of programming, graphic design, animation, sprites, sound effects, text and music just for some "gaming" extras... since it's Python-based, it's like, why not roll it on over? Even Rollback is an amazing feature.

To be honest, I replied to this topic because I thought the OP post would be like this:

"How do I make a text adventure like Trinity or a Mind Forever Voyaging or Galatea or The Space Under the Window or Aisle ONLY by using Ren'Py?" and my reply was going to be "Good question, I'm still working on that but I'm pretty sure it involves NVL mode and lots of imagemaps where the images are actually text."

[Applegate]

"How do I make a text adventure like Trinity or a Mind Forever Voyaging or Galatea or The Space Under the Window or Aisle ONLY by using Ren'Py?" and my reply was going to be "Good question, I'm still working on that but I'm pretty sure it involves NVL mode and lots of imagemaps where the images are actually text."

I've never even read those text-adventures! I'll google them.

What you're looking for is ADRIFT. Some of the titles made for this platform are truly amazing in terms of parser depth and storytelling, and it sure beats the randomness of doing this on the forums.

There's a certain appeal in doing it interactively. Writing can be to bring across a deep and profound meaning, but it also serves excellently as a whimsical means for entertainment. But I understand your point.