Interactive Fiction

Interactive fiction -- what used to be "Text Adventures", though Infocom called it IF even back in the 80s -- didn't die out when the graphic adventure took over the commercial scene. There's a thriving community still experimenting with the form.

I've tried my hand at it, but I'm not a particularly major figure in the community.

I've also had a number of IF-related projects that may be of more general interest.

My IF

These games are all, unless otherwise noted, written with some version of the Inform authoring system. You will need a Z-Code interpreter to play them. Windows users should install WinFrotz; Unix users should install my port of Frotz, nfrotz. The nfrotz port will more or less work on Macs in the Terminal, but you're probably better off with Zoom.

• Weishaupt Scholars. Illuminated Collegiate Espionage. The final form of my entry in IntroComp 2005, which placed 2nd. This is the full game. (The prologue is unlikely to be of interest, but it remains archived as WS: Prologue.)
• The Stars are Right. SpeedIF Scenario 1. Sole Entry. Silliness with Horrors from Beyond Sanity. Also cookies. This was written in two hours, so don't expect a Hell of a lot from it.
• Fætt Tiw. SpeedIF IntroComp. More silliness with Horrors from Beyond Sanity, but they're really OK, all told. The Horrors, I mean. Uses every element of the premise. Also includes multiple endings based on an earlier gameplay choice! Source available.
• SCIENCE! Playing with the parser. Mostly just silly, but the program text gets some nice leverage out of Inform 7. Source available.
• A Late Delivery to #avalon. A testbed for Weishaupt Scholars's conversation system. Includes adorable kittens! Source available.

IF Projects

• nfrotz is a port of WinFrotz's core to the standard Unix Frotz backend. It allows for console-based Z-Code applications to read basic information out of a zblorb file's metadata, and also permits unicode output to work if the containing terminal supports it. If you're playing Inform 7-based games on Unix and want console support, nfrotz is your best choice.
• Blorple is a metadata browser for Inform 7 works. It will display cover art and descriptions, and allow one to sort a collection based on title, author, or other data. It's a lot more read-only than the iFiction support in MacZoom, but it's better than nothing and is at present the only simple option for Windows or Unix machines. It was originally written with Python and GTK, but has since been ported to Java and Swing.

Inform 7 Extensions

I have written five extensions for the Inform 7 design system.

• Reactable Quips lets you use tables of dialogue and topic lists to rapidly and easily implement ASK/TELL style NPC dialogue. It also implements the "quick-reaction" menus pioneered by Weishaupt Scholars: Prologue, in which LucasArts-style conversation menus are provided to characterize a player's reaction to an event, without actually working in the usual menu-of-conversation-options-to-exhaust style. Early versions of this extension claimed that you could easily implement that using this; feedback from the wider community has made it clear this is not the case. If you want to have a LucasArts-style conversation menu, you'll need to go with Quip-Based Conversation, below. (This extension has been tested on versions 4S08 and later of Inform 7.)
• Quip-Based Conversation uses the Reactable Quips framework to implement traditional numbered conversation menus, much like those used in LucasArts games or in Photopia. The general API is an Inform 7 translation of the classic phtalkoo.h extension to Inform 6, and provides a reimplementation of David Glasser's sample code. (This extension has been tested on versions 4S08 and later of Inform 7.)
• Assumed Conversers makes the person talked to optional in the ASK ABOUT and TELL ABOUT commands. This can make interaction smoother when holding extended conversations with a single NPC. (This extension requires version 4W37 of Inform 7, but only because it uses Authorial Modesty. If you remove that use clause, it should work on any version. It's only been tested on 4W37 and 4U65, though.)
• Unicode Interrogation is an I7 extension written entirely in I6. It safely wraps the check_unicode Extended Z-Machine Opcode so that you can check for whether a font supports specific characters or not without crashing implementations of pre-1.0 versions of the Z-Machine. (Works on 4W37 or later. If you remove the authorial modesty marker it should run on any version of I7 ever released.)
• All Actions Checked banishes Group 3 actions from the Inform Standard rules. (Should work on 4W37 or later; only tested on 5T18.)

Comp Reviews

I've been reviewing the annual IF competition since 2004. I tend to vary between analytic, grumpy, and extremely sarcastic, so be warned. I do tend to feel guilty about it later, at least.

• 2004
• 2005
• 2006
• 2007

Solutions

I have written up detailed walkthroughs for Slouching Towards Bedlam, Centipede, and the SpeedIF Need! More! Toast!. The last one is actually mechanically generated by a JavaScript program, and so requires Javascript in the browser.

Links

• Baf's Guide to the IF Archive. Keeps an index of everything in the huge IF Archive. My entry.
• The IFWiki. Also has lots of stuff in it. My entry.
• IFDB is a newer index to the IF archive. It maintains more detailed pages and is heavily searchable. My entry.

Other IF

I'm really just a dabbler in IF, though I've played a fair amount. I've put a list of a number of games I particularly enjoyed up under Recommended Games. This list is wildly out of date these days, so you really might as well just read my reviews in the IFDB.