Z-Machine and Descendants
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Alan Adventure System V3.0
The ALAN Adventure Language Reference Manual Version 3.0beta2 Alan Adventure System - Reference Manual This version of the manual was printed on September 26, 2011 - ii - Alan Adventure System - Reference Manual Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION.........................................................................11 1.1 Programmer’s Pitch........................................................................................................12 1.2 To the Reader.................................................................................................................12 2 CONCEPTS......................................................................................13 2.1 What Is An Adventure?................................................................................................13 2.2 Elements Of Adventures.................................................................................................15 2.3 Alan Fundamentals.......................................................................................................16 What Is A Language?....................................................................................................................................16 The Alan Idea..................................................................................................................................................18 What’s Happening?........................................................................................................................................18 The Map..........................................................................................................................................................19 -
DESIGN-DRIVEN APPROACHES TOWARD MORE EXPRESSIVE STORYGAMES a Dissertation Submitted in Partial Satisfaction of the Requirements for the Degree Of
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ CHANGEFUL TALES: DESIGN-DRIVEN APPROACHES TOWARD MORE EXPRESSIVE STORYGAMES A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in COMPUTER SCIENCE by Aaron A. Reed June 2017 The Dissertation of Aaron A. Reed is approved: Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Chair Michael Mateas Michael Chemers Dean Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright c by Aaron A. Reed 2017 Table of Contents List of Figures viii List of Tables xii Abstract xiii Acknowledgments xv Introduction 1 1 Framework 15 1.1 Vocabulary . 15 1.1.1 Foundational terms . 15 1.1.2 Storygames . 18 1.1.2.1 Adventure as prototypical storygame . 19 1.1.2.2 What Isn't a Storygame? . 21 1.1.3 Expressive Input . 24 1.1.4 Why Fiction? . 27 1.2 A Framework for Storygame Discussion . 30 1.2.1 The Slipperiness of Genre . 30 1.2.2 Inputs, Events, and Actions . 31 1.2.3 Mechanics and Dynamics . 32 1.2.4 Operational Logics . 33 1.2.5 Narrative Mechanics . 34 1.2.6 Narrative Logics . 36 1.2.7 The Choice Graph: A Standard Narrative Logic . 38 2 The Adventure Game: An Existing Storygame Mode 44 2.1 Definition . 46 2.2 Eureka Stories . 56 2.3 The Adventure Triangle and its Flaws . 60 2.3.1 Instability . 65 iii 2.4 Blue Lacuna ................................. 66 2.5 Three Design Solutions . 69 2.5.1 The Witness ............................. 70 2.5.2 Firewatch ............................... 78 2.5.3 Her Story ............................... 86 2.6 A Technological Fix? . -
The New Zork Times Dark – Carry a Lamp VOL
“All the Grues New Zork Area Weather: That Fit, We Print” The New Zork Times Dark – carry a lamp VOL. 3. .No. 1 WINTER 1984 INTERNATIONAL EDITION SORCERER HAS THE MAGIC TOUCH InfoNews Roundup New Game! Hint Booklets Sorcerer, the second in the In December, Infocom's long- Enchanter series of adventures in the awaited direct mail operation got mystic arts, is now available. The underway. Many of the functions game was written by Steve formerly provided by the Zork Users Meretzky, whose hilarious science Group were taken over by Infocom. fiction game, Planetfall, was named Maps and InvisiClues hint booklets by InfoWorld as the Best Adventure were produced for all 10 of Game of 1983. In Sorcerer, you are a Infocom's products. The games member of the prestigious Circle of themselves were also made available Enchanters, a position that you primarily as a service to those of you achieved in recognition of your in remote geographical areas and to success in defeating the Warlock those who own the less common Krill in Enchanter. computer systems. When the game starts, you realize Orders are processed by the that Belboz, the Eldest of the Circle, Creative Fulfillment division of the and the most powerful Enchanter in DM Group, one of the most the land, has disappeared. Perhaps he respected firms in direct mail. Their has just taken a vacation, but it facilities are in the New York metro- wouldn't be like him to leave without politan area, which explains the letting you know. You remember strange addresses and phone num- that he has been experimenting with bers you'll see on the order forms. -
List of Different Digital Practices 3
Categories of Digital Poetics Practices (from the Electronic Literature Collection) http://collection.eliterature.org/1/ (Electronic Literature Collection, Vol 1) http://collection.eliterature.org/2/ (Electronic Literature Collection, Vol 2) Ambient: Work that plays by itself, meant to evoke or engage intermittent attention, as a painting or scrolling feed would; in John Cayley’s words, “a dynamic linguistic wall- hanging.” Such work does not require or particularly invite a focused reading session. Kinetic (Animated): Kinetic work is composed with moving images and/or text but is rarely an actual animated cartoon. Transclusion, Mash-Up, or Appropriation: When the supply text for a piece is not composed by the authors, but rather collected or mined from online or print sources, it is appropriated. The result of appropriation may be a “mashup,” a website or other piece of digital media that uses content from more than one source in a new configuration. Audio: Any work with an audio component, including speech, music, or sound effects. CAVE: An immersive, shared virtual reality environment created using goggles and several pairs of projectors, each pair pointing to the wall of a small room. Chatterbot/Conversational Character: A chatterbot is a computer program designed to simulate a conversation with one or more human users, usually in text. Chatterbots sometimes seem to offer intelligent responses by matching keywords in input, using statistical methods, or building models of conversation topic and emotional state. Early systems such as Eliza and Parry demonstrated that simple programs could be effective in many ways. Chatterbots may also be referred to as talk bots, chat bots, simply “bots,” or chatterboxes. -
14. Riddle Machines: the History and Nature of Interactive Fiction
Nick Montfort Riddle Machines: The History and Nature of Interactive Fiction 14. Riddle Machines: The History and Nature of Interactive Fiction Nick Montfort Introduction The genre that has also been labeled "text adventure" and "text game" is stereotypically thought to offer dungeons, dragons, and the ability for readers to choose their own adventure. While there may be dragons here, interactive fiction (abbreviated "IF") also offers utopias, revenge plays, horrors, parables, intrigues, and codework, and pieces in this form resound with and rework Gilgamesh, Shakespeare, and Eliot as well as Tolkien. The reader types in phrases to participate in a dialogue with the system, commanding a character with writing. Beneath this surface conversation, and determining what the computer narrates, there is the machinery of a simulated world, capable of drawing the reader into imagining new perspectives and understanding strange systems. Interactive fiction works can be challenging for literary readers, even those interested in other sorts of electronic literature, because of the text-based interface and because of the way in which these works require detailed exploration, mapping, and solution. Works in this form are often less visually rewarding, and the rewards they do offer are only attained with time and effort. But text-based interactive fiction has provided some of the most the intricate and compelling literary simulations yet developed. Understanding how interactive fiction works, and how it has developed over the past three decades, is an essential part of the puzzle of literary computing. Characteristics of interactive fiction Formally, a work of interactive fiction (often called a "game," even if it does not exhibit the typical qualities of a game) is an interactive computer program. -
The Post Infocom Text Adventure Collection
The Post Infocom Text Adventure Collection Many of us played and loved the text adventures produced by Infocom in the 1980’s. They were rich in story and puzzles, and contained some excellent writing. In the years since Infocom’s demise in 1989, there have been a lot of good games produced using the Z-Machine - the game format that Infocom was using. This gives us a chance to make these modern-day games run on the computers of the 80’s, like the Commodore 64. I decided to create a collection of Z-machine games for the C64, and this is it. All in all, it’s 31 games, released in 1993-2015. Each game has been put into its own directory, in which is also an empty disk for game saves and a file called AUTOSWAP.LST to make life easier for people using the SD2IEC diskdrive substitute. If you haven’t played text adventures before, or feel that you never got the hang of it, you should read the chapter How to play a text adventure. If you want more of a background on Infocom and the game format they used, you should read the chapter about The Zork Machine at the end of this document. There is also a chapter about the process of porting Z-machine games to the C64 and, finally, a chapter about writing your own games. I created this documentation as a PDF, so that you could easily print it out and keep it nearby if you’re enjoying the collection on a real C64. -
Shaping Stories and Building Worlds on Interactive Fiction Platforms
Shaping Stories and Building Worlds on Interactive Fiction Platforms The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Citation Mitchell, Alex, and Nick Monfort. "Shaping Stories and Building Worlds on Interactive Fiction Platforms." 2009 Digital Arts and Culture Conference (December 2009). As Published http://simonpenny.net/dac/day2.html Publisher Digital Arts and Culture Version Author's final manuscript Citable link http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/100288 Terms of Use Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. Shaping Stories and Building Worlds on Interactive Fiction Platforms Alex Mitchell Nick Montfort Communications and New Media Programme Program in Writing & Humanistic Studies National University of Singapore Massachusetts Institute of Technology [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT simulates an intricate, systematic world full of robots, made of Adventure game development systems are platforms from the components and functioning together in curious ways. The world developer’s perspective. This paper investigates several subtle model acts in ways that are mechanical and nested, making the differences between these platforms, focusing on two systems for code’s class structure seemingly evident as one plays the game. In interactive fiction development. We consider how these platform contrast, Emily Short’s Savoir-Faire (2002), written in Inform 6 differences may have influenced authors as they developed and of similar complexity, exhibits less obvious inheritance and systems for simulation and storytelling. Through close readings of compartmentalization. -
TADS-A CFD-Based Turbomachinery and Analysis Design System with GUI Volume I--Method and Results
j/l _ 7 NASA Contractor Report 198440 ( -_ e/ i" TADS-A CFD-Based Turbomachinery and Analysis Design System With GUI Volume I--Method and Results D.A. Topp, R.A. Myers, and R.A. Delaney Allison Engine Company Indianapolis, Indiana (NASA-CR-198440) TADS: A CFD-BASED TURBOMACHTNERY AND ANALYSTS DESIGN SYSTEM WITH GUT. VOLUME 1: METHOD AND RESULTS Final Report (A1|ison Engine Co.) 121 p G3107 0099810 December 1995 Prepared for Lewis Research Center Under Contract NAS3-25950 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Contents 1 Summary 1 2 Introduction 3 3 Analysis Coupling 7 3.1 Solution Procedure ........................ 7 3.2 Programming Philosophy and Standards ............ 10 3.2.1 File Naming Convention ................. 11 3.2.2 Data Standards ...................... 11 3.2.3 Coordinate Systems .................... 12 3.2.4 Shared Routines and Data ................ 13 3.3 Input Requirements ........................ 13 4 Development of Program Modules 15 4.1 INTIGG .............................. 15 4.2 TIGGC3D ............................. 19 4.3 ADPAC Input Generation .................... 20 4.4 BODYF .............................. 22 4.4.1 Airfoil Thickness Determination ............. 22 4.4.2 Mean Stream Surface Determination .......... 23 4.4.3 Carter's Rule ....................... 26 4.4.4 Mean Stream Surface from MEANSL .......... 26 4.5 ADPA C .............................. 27 4.5.1 Body Force Implementation ............... 27 4.5.2 Verification of Blockage Model .............. 30 4.5.3 Verification of Body Force Formulation ......... 30 4.6 Streamline Finder and Airfoil Slicer ............... 36 4.6.1 RADSL .......................... 36 4.6.2 SLICER .......................... 40 4.7 GRAPE .............................. 40 4.8 RVCQ3D ............................. 44 4.9 Locating the Mean Stream Surface ............... 44 4.9.1 RESTACK ........................ -
Jay Simon 3/18/2002 STS 145 Case Study Zork: a Study of Early
Jay Simon 3/18/2002 STS 145 Case Study Zork: A Study of Early Interactive Fiction I: Introduction If you are a fan of interactive fiction, or have any interest in text-based games from the early 1980’s, then you are no doubt familiar with a fascinating series known as Zork. For the other 97 percent of the population, the original Zork games are text-based adventures in which the player is given a setting, and types in a command in standard English. The command is processed, and sometimes changes the state of the game. This results in a new situation that is then communicated to the user, restarting the cycle. This type of adventure game is classified as belonging to a genre called “interactive fiction”. Zork is exceptional in that the early Zork games are by far the most popular early interactive fiction titles ever released. It is interesting to examine why these games sold so well, while most other interactive fiction games could not sell for free in the 1980’s. As we will see, this is a result of many different technological and stylistic aspects of Zork that separate it from the rest of the genre. Zork is a unique artifact in gaming history. II: MIT and Infocom – The Prehistory of Zork Zork was not a modern project developed under a strict timeline by a designated team of programmers, but credit is given to two MIT phenoms named Marc Blank and Dave Lebling. Its history can be traced all the way back to the invention of a medium-sized machine called the PDP-10, in the 1960’s. -
Reading and Acting While Blindfolded: the Need for Semantics in Text Game Agents
Reading and Acting while Blindfolded: The Need for Semantics in Text Game Agents Shunyu Yaoy∗ Karthik Narasimhany Matthew Hausknechtz yPrinceton University zMicrosoft Research {shunyuy, karthikn}@princeton.edu [email protected] Abstract et al., 2020), open-domain question answering systems (Ammanabrolu et al., 2020), knowledge Text-based games simulate worlds and inter- act with players using natural language. Re- graphs (Ammanabrolu and Hausknecht, 2020; Am- cent work has used them as a testbed for manabrolu et al., 2020; Adhikari et al., 2020), and autonomous language-understanding agents, reading comprehension systems (Guo et al., 2020). with the motivation being that understanding Meanwhile, most of these models operate un- the meanings of words or semantics is a key der the reinforcement learning (RL) framework, component of how humans understand, reason, where the agent explores the same environment and act in these worlds. However, it remains in repeated episodes, learning a value function or unclear to what extent artificial agents utilize semantic understanding of the text. To this policy to maximize game score. From this per- end, we perform experiments to systematically spective, text games are just special instances of reduce the amount of semantic information a partially observable Markov decision process available to a learning agent. Surprisingly, we (POMDP) (S; T; A; O; R; γ), where players issue find that an agent is capable of achieving high text actions a 2 A, receive text observations o 2 O scores even in the complete absence of lan- and scalar rewards r = R(s; a), and the under- guage semantics, indicating that the currently lying game state s 2 S is updated by transition popular experimental setup and models may 0 be poorly designed to understand and leverage s = T (s; a). -
Zork • Manual Cover C M Y K August 1993
It was once believed that evil magic had been defeated and cast from the lands forever…that a once great underground empire had collapsed, never to rise again. This was foolish, wishful thinking…prayers of the innocent and naive. Evil magic can not die…it waits. Waits for the precise moment in time to regroup and return to claim its dominance. In the dark recesses of every shadow… In the heart of every terrifying nightmare… In the echo of every painful shriek… These are the way stations for the dark An Epic Adventure elements! in the And now is the moment of their return… Great ™ Underground Empire ™ ™ An Activision™ Company An Activision Company 28849 The Disc Company Return To Zork • Manual Cover C M Y K August 1993 25% 75% 100% 50% 50% 25% 75% 100% 50% 50% 25% 75% 100% 50% 50% 25% 75% 100% 50% 50% 25% 75% 100% 50% 50% 25% 75% 100% 50% 50% 25% 75% 100% 50% 50% 25% 75% 100% 50% 50% 2% 97% 2% 97% 2% 97% 2% 97% 2% 97% 2% 97% 2% 97% 2% 97% 3% 95% 3% 95% 3% 95% 3% 95% 3% 95% 3% 95% 3% 95% 3% 95% 4% 93% 4% 93% 4% 93% 4% 93% 4% 93% 4% 93% 4% 93% 4% 93% C+M+Y K C+Y C C+M M M+Y Y 3x80% 3x50% 50% K 50% C, 41% M, 41% Y C+M+Y K C+Y C C+M M M+Y Y 3x80% 3x50% 50% K 50% C, 41% M, 41% Y Manual 6/9/99 12:17 PM Page 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS HOW TO PLAY RETURN TO ZORK .........................................................¤ Navigating through the Empire of Zork .............................................¤ Using your Inventory.........................................................................› Action Interface.................................................................................‡ -
IF Theory Reader
IF Theory Reader edited by Kevin Jackson-Mead J. Robinson Wheeler > Transcript On Press Boston, MA All authors of articles in this book retain their own copyrights. Neither the editors nor the publisher make any copyright claims. Version 1, March 2011. Version 2, April 2011. Please send corrections to [email protected]. Contents Preface Crimes Against Mimesis 1 Roger S. G. Sorolla Theory Toward a Theory of Interactive Fiction 25 Nick Montfort Characterizing, If Not Defining, Interactive Fiction 59 Andrew Plotkin not that you may remember time: Interactive Fiction, Stream-of-Consciousness Writing, and Free Will 67 Mark Silcox 2 Brief Dada Angels 89 Ryan Stevens, writing as Rybread Celsius Object Relations 91 Graham Nelson IF as Argument 101 Duncan Stevens The Success of Genre in Interactive Fiction 111 Neil Yorke-Smith Parser at the Threshold: Lovecraftian Horror in Interactive Fiction 129 Michael Gentry Distinguishing Between Game Design and Analysis: One View 135 Gareth Rees Natural Language, Semantic Analysis, and Interactive Fiction 141 Graham Nelson Afterword: Five Years Later 189 Graham Nelson Craft Challenges of a Broad Geography 203 Emily Short Thinking Into the Box: On the Use and Deployment of Puzzles 229 Jon Ingold PC Personality and Motivations 249 Duncan Stevens Landscape and Character in IF 261 Paul O’Brian Hint Development for IF 279 Lucian Smith Descriptions Constructed 291 Stephen Granade Mapping the Tale: Scene Description in IF 299 J. Robinson Wheeler Repetition of Text in Interactive Fiction 317 Jason Dyer NPC Dialogue Writing 325 Robb Sherwin NPC Conversation Systems 331 Emily Short History 10 Years of IF: 1994–2004 359 Duncan Stevens The Evolution of Short Works: From Sprawling Cave Crawls to Tiny Experiments 369 Stephen Granade History of Italian IF 379 Francesco Cordella Racontons une histoire ensemble: History and Characteristics of French IF 389 Hugo Labrande Preface This is a book for which people in the interactive fiction community have been waiting for quite some time.