# West of House \>Call all text adventure fans **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 22, 2005, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283 "2005-02-22T02:56:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Skott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skott)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/21 "2005-02-23T06:45:03Z")
Sorry, I can’t provide many hints as to good IF games to play these days. I played a strange one a while back where I went to the bathroom and next thing I know, I’m working hyperspace transport devices created by pre-Incan aliens… or something. I was working on a piece of IF that I was beginning to be quite proud of, until I got to programming NPCs. What I needed was a fairly complex one, and I was having a hard enough time understanding the one in The Inform Beginner’s Guide (_William Tell_’s Helga). And then my laptop broke down. The game, _Funarama_, took place in an amusement park, where one of the hardest parts (similar to _Hollywood Hijinx_, one of my favorite Infocom games) was actually getting in the park itself. Now that I look at it again, maybe I’ll find a way to get the momentum rolling again 🙂 > [@](#): > > You are standing before the amazingly bright and exciting entrance to the amazing and exciting amusement park, Funarama. Ticket booths lie to either side of you and turnstiles are to the north. A non-descript parking lot is behind you. > > \>s > The parking lot isn’t all that interesting, and you defintely don’t want to visit the park on the other side of it, Funarama’s Montana Adventure! > > \>sing > You start to sing, a little off key. People around you join in, and then more and more, until the whole park is singing your little song. When the song’s over, everyone goes back to their business. I guess Funarama induces a mindless zombie mode from time to time. > > \>remove clothes > Like a streaker at a soccer game, you strip down and go running through the crowds. People cheer and prudent parents cover their eyes, while their children grin. After everyone in the world has seen you naked and enough pictures have been taken to start several webpages, you put your clothes back on and go about your business. > > \>xyzzy > You utter the magical incantation into the air and, after nothing happens, reflect on how much computer games have influenced your life. It is interesting to note that _Deadline_ was [ported to Inform](http://www.wurb.com/if/game/1244), with permission, so you can go through and look at the inner working of a great game. A collaberative Doper game would be interesting but would required hard work, concentration, and the ability to agree on anything 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CatsCradle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cab0a1/32.png) [@CatsCradle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CatsCradle)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/22 "2005-02-23T08:22:08Z")
My first post for Infocom games…yay, Infocom! _Trinity_ was my favorite, with _Beyond Zork_ coming in a close second (although looking back it was a pretty feeble attempt at an RPG by Infocom…but the story was great!). The hardest one for me was _Spellbreaker_, the third in the Enchanter series. I was stuck at 465 points for a year, until I finally gave in and checked Invisiclues just for that one hint…I then proceeded to solve the rest of it in an hour or so. I never felt that I truly “solved” Spellbreaker, though, because I used a hint. What killed me though was that I _knew_ the solution, I just couldn’t figure out how to phrase it correctly! “Gnomon is an island.” _sigh_ I really liked that game. Every once in a while I dust off Masterpieces of Infocom (sadly missing _Hitchhikers_) and re-play my favorites. I miss Floyd too. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/23 "2005-02-23T14:41:43Z")
I don’t think a collabarative Doper entry would work, but I would appreciate a Doper block of entries. Maybe a bit of mutual support, some friendly assistance with beta-testing and ideas. I’m really glad this thread came up. Now I’m getting kind of excited about doing this. Maybe I’ll start tossing together a rough framework to build on this weekend… ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/24 "2005-02-23T14:59:43Z")
> [@Robot Arm](#): > > C’mon, man; > > \> XYZZY > > Nothing happens. > > (Try that command at the OS prompt on a 32-bit Data General some time.) \>XYZZY Twice as much happens. ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/25 "2005-02-23T15:34:27Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > So does anyone have any recommendations for some IF Comp type games? I’m about to go download Jane - 9th place is certainly very cool, I’d be seriously chuffed with myself if I ever managed to accomplish that (of course, I’d be kinda chuffed with myself if I could ever actually write a game!). > > I already mentioned The Edifice. There was one called Anchorhead (Michael Somebodyorother) that I really enjoyed - excellent NPCs in that game - and another favorite was Jigsaw (I want to say it was written by Graham Nelson, also the author of Curses!) - very well written, a lot of fun, and definitely hard. Excellent stuff. Don’t expect Jane to be anywhere near to The Edifice, or Anchorhead, or Another Earth, Another Sky, or any of the well-regarded games. As I mentioned above, it was my very first foray into writing IF, and it generated very strong feelings in both directions. Very few people had a neutral reaction to it. The comp games that I really enjoyed and recommend are:[ul][li]The Edifice, as mentioned[/li][li]A Bear’s Night Out (5th place, 1997)[/li][li]Photopia (1st place, 1998)[/li][li]Winter Wonderland (1st place, 1999)[/li][li]For A Change (2nd place, 1999)[/li][li]Metamorphoses (2nd place, 2000)[/li][li]Ad Verbum (4th place, 2000)[/li][li]All Roads (1st place, 2001)[/li][li]The Moonlit Tower (4th place, 2002)[/ul][/li] I neither played nor wrote IF in 2003 and 2004, so I have no recommendations from those comps. **Just Some Guy** , sure. I’ll enter if you enter, and I’ll happily betatest any Doper’s game. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/26 "2005-02-23T16:12:57Z")
I used to play Infocom games a lot. I have a good number originals still sitting around doing nothing. My favorite was Trinity, and then probably Wishbringer. I remember it took me years, of on and off playing. Then I saw the one thing I was missing and finished the game. I started writing a game a couple of years ago, though never got around to doing much. I keep having ideas for it, but never going back to it. I do have a copy of The Inform Designer’s Manual that was written a few years ago. My idea was based off the Iron Maiden mascot Eddie the Head, go figure, and you jump back and forth through time either helping or killing people and in the end you can either be good or evil depending on how many you helped or killed. I really should go back through it. ---
**Author:** ![silverfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@silverfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silverfish)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/27 "2005-02-23T19:13:09Z")
I’ll give you a selection of relatively recent games I’ve enjoyed, or found interestings, in no particular order. 9:05 is a short, fairly entertaining game. You should be able to play it in a matter of minutes, so it’s worth a try. Aisle is an experimental game, you only get to make one move, then the game restarts. Each move gives a different story fragment, and according to the intro, they may not be about the same version. Common Ground tells an interesting story, told from three different perspectives. Exhibit isn’t really a game as such, unless I’m missing something. Four characters are at a exhibit of the work of an artist who has committed suicide (I think), and you can get some insight into him, by looking at his paintings through the eyes of these characters, who each have a different perspective on the paitings, which reveal something about these characters as well. I can be rather interesting to how different reactions to the works. ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000 Presents “Detective”’ is a Mystery Science Theatre 3000 type parody of a rather amateurish text adventure called ‘Detective’. It is very funny, although given the rather odd design of the original game, you should save regularly. Another vote for Photopia, a very interesting story, told in an interesting way. Shade is a game that messes with your head, and I rather like it. I’m not going to say anymore as I don’t want to spoiler anything, and in any case, I’m not sure I could explain things very well if I tried. Shrapnel is also a rather odd game, but I think it was rather interesting as well. Spider and Web is more puzzle based, but with a twist. The puzzles are logical, and fairly interesting. Maskerade is a rather entertaining adventure, with a fair amount of romance, set in the 19th century. This is more story based, and there are a number of different endings to the game. There are a few humourous touches. Gourmet is a very entertaining, and funny, game set in your restaurant, where everything seems to be about to go wrong, when an important guest is due to visit. Finally, I found Square Circle rather interesting, from the latest Interactive Fiction Competition. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/28 "2005-02-23T19:34:09Z")
Ooh, Gourmet was a great one - loads of fun. Damn lobster. Shades of Grey is another that comes to mind… Very well written, excellent environment. Spider and Web and Shade - and all the other Andrew Plotkin games. He’s one of the few IF writers whose games I will play simply because of the author. Intriguing, different, hard and extremely well-written. Good stuff. Although Space Under the Window gave me a headache. Very odd. And a few years ago I learned the value of some of the speedcomp stuff which I’d always previously ignored. Some of them are cheesy, and clearly show that they are speedcomp material, but some of them are great! Oh and I can’t remember the name of this one… Damn… A key feature in the game was a Christmas tree that dropped out of a hole in the ceiling (provided you could figure out how to do that!) and had some really cool scenes. And I’ve just remembered the name - the Mulldoon Legacy. And one more before I go - the game that made me love non-commercial text adventures - The Multi-Dimensional Thief. It had a portable magic hole; it had robots; it had the Wizard of Oz and Sherwood Forest. It had everything, and it was so much fun to play. Authored in AGT, it remains one of my favorite games to this day. ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/29 "2005-02-23T19:50:22Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > The problem is, figuring out which games are dreck and which rule the world. Every year I download the entries to the Interactive Fiction [oh how I despise that term] Competition, and try to play through at _least_ the winning entries. But as is often the case with me and judges, I don’t always agree with the choices. For some reason, I missed this entirely. You may already know this, but just in case, and for those who don’t, anyone can enter the annual Interactive Fiction Competition, and anyone can judge the entries. While detailed statistical analysis of the scores is provided after results are in, the actual ranking is simply the average score received by a game. The judging period for a Comp runs from the beginning of October to the middle of November, and each person is allowed no more than two hours to play a game before assigning it a score. So this year, I encourage every interactive fiction fan out there to download the games once they’re made available on October 1 and give good scores to the good games and bad scores to the bad games. And, of course, a score of 10 for any game written by me. That’s only fair, right? ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/30 "2005-08-13T05:06:15Z")
I was just reading over a very funny, and yet at the same time quite vile comic strip called [Something Positive](http://www.somethingpositive.net/index.html), when I came across some [Zork tribute strips](http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp07152005.shtml). rkmilholland really nailed it. Due to reading those strips, I felt like starting a thread, until I actually took two seconds to search, and lo and behold, here is one. What else is left to be said? It was simply one of the best games of all time, and I wish to proclaim my love for it. Oh, and I really felt like mentioning that I found a playable online copy of Zork, but it looks like someone beat me to it > [@emekthian](#): > > There are some online versions of Zork. > > [http://thcnet.net/error/index.php](http://thcnet.net/error/index.php) From [Online Text Based Games](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=238466) Btw, **capybara** , I know you are around here somewhere. Any interest in continuing [Who wants to be the Dungeon Master?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=321543)I fear bumping the actual thread, then hearing the reasons why you can’t continued would be too much of a letdown with in the thread, so I am not asking there. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/31 "2005-08-13T05:14:38Z")
Whenever I describe Zork to my students, they’re bewildered. ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/32 "2005-08-13T05:43:16Z")
Augh, text adventures. I could never figure out what to do. It didn’t help that the text parser seemed particularly literal and there wasn’t a lot of commands in the first place. Then again, I highly suspect all the stuff I tried was shareware. THY DUNGEONMAN, anyone? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/33 "2005-08-13T05:48:34Z")
dotchan, have you tried Zork? ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/34 "2005-08-13T05:52:28Z")
:smack: I should mention that the reason I ask is that, personally, I have found that it is far less literal than the parser in other games. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/35 "2005-08-13T06:10:31Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > :smack: I should mention that the reason I ask is that, personally, I have found that it is far less literal than the parser in other games. Indeed, the Infocom parser was far from limited, and was, in my opinion, rather genius. “Pick up all but leaflet, then get sword and stab troll with it” Better than the two word parsers of games like Circus. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/36 "2005-08-13T07:47:01Z")
I thought the Infocom parser was getting overly nitpicky near the end, though. You couldn’t just LOOK BOOK any more, you had to specify if you wanted to LOOK AT, LOOK UNDER, LOOK ABOVE… _grrrr…_ ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/37 "2005-08-13T08:00:42Z")
I’ve got all this free time on my hands… Maybe I should try writing a game. Anyone have recommendations as to an easy platform to write in? The last time I tried seriously to write one, I was using AGT, which was… well, really easy. I just didn’t have the time to see it through. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/38 "2005-08-13T22:28:25Z")
Since you last posted, I have been looking up misc. construction kits. After a lot of thought, I have decided that I am not the person to ask. Sure, I tested a few, but I didn’t put two hours worth of dialog writing into them, so I have to conclude I am not the right person to ask. Nonetheless, I am answering. My advice to you would be to read [this](http://emshort.home.mindspring.com/) page of advice, then go back to your old project in [AGT](http://www.markwelch.com/agt.htm), and salvage what you can, rather than starting from scratch on some program you know nothing about. . ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283/39 "2005-08-16T21:54:49Z")
I’m so excited… I just started writing my first game. In Inform, no less! I admit that when I first started reading the manual, I was entirely overwhelmed and almost lost courage, but I decided to give it a whack. So I created two rooms, and a handful of objects, compiled the program and ran it… Voila! It works! This is gonna be soooo much fun. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-of-house-call-all-text-adventure-fans/291283.md?page=1)