Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)
I was at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago this weekend, (as I
often am, as they are one of the handful of places that carry 1893: AWFM in
their gift shop), and this time went to a special exhibit they've got
running for the summer, GAME ON, the history of video games from 1962 to
today. Alas, no traditional IF in the whole place, though they did have a
Spectrum, they had a shooting game on it. The Atari 2600 game they had
running was the one where you cross the road as a chicken, for some reason
(no ADVENTURE? Come on!). I spent a few hours in the exhibit, it is quite
large, and one could easily spend much more time, I played only a fraction
of the games.
Near the end there was a recent "no vision required" game called
CHILLINGHAM. After playing, I immediately thought it would be great to buy,
though the price point is a bit high ($43.00). Here's their website:
http://www.bavisoft.com/index.htm
What was interesting is that it was a purely audio model of Interactive
Fiction. The location is described by the narrator, then you use the arrow
keys to cycle through commands. The "Up" arrow selects the command. If there
is more detail required, you cycle through another list, then select with
up. Only the arrow keys are used and there are no visuals whatsoever. But
what little I had time to listen to was quite entertaining.
An example of the user interface: The location is described. Press arrow,
the word "Inspect" is spoken. Press up arrow, "Inspect what?" Cycle through
options, each spoken: "The old well" "the village", etc. Select, you get the
detail.
The commands are all the same from any work of IF: Take, Inspect, Drop, Talk
to, etc. etc. There are apparently also action sequences as well.
I almost wish the programming language to design the game was made into a
development environment like TADS or INFORM, it would be great fun to play
around with creating an entirely audio adventure. I also think this would be
great to play on a pocket pc or something, with headphones, with just a
couple keys necessary to play you could just have it in your hand without
even looking at it, walking around, riding the train, crossing the street,
driving, all while playing an adventure. I can see the accident report
now...
-- Peter
http://www.illuminatedlantern.com/1893
I was at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago this weekend, (as I
often am, as they are one of the handful of places that carry 1893: AWFM in
their gift shop), and this time went to a special exhibit they've got
running for the summer, GAME ON, the history of video games from 1962 to
today. Alas, no traditional IF in the whole place, though they did have a
Spectrum, they had a shooting game on it. The Atari 2600 game they had
running was the one where you cross the road as a chicken, for some reason
(no ADVENTURE? Come on!). I spent a few hours in the exhibit, it is quite
large, and one could easily spend much more time, I played only a fraction
of the games.
Near the end there was a recent "no vision required" game called
CHILLINGHAM. After playing, I immediately thought it would be great to buy,
though the price point is a bit high ($43.00). Here's their website:
http://www.bavisoft.com/index.htm
What was interesting is that it was a purely audio model of Interactive
Fiction. The location is described by the narrator, then you use the arrow
keys to cycle through commands. The "Up" arrow selects the command. If there
is more detail required, you cycle through another list, then select with
up. Only the arrow keys are used and there are no visuals whatsoever. But
what little I had time to listen to was quite entertaining.
An example of the user interface: The location is described. Press arrow,
the word "Inspect" is spoken. Press up arrow, "Inspect what?" Cycle through
options, each spoken: "The old well" "the village", etc. Select, you get the
detail.
The commands are all the same from any work of IF: Take, Inspect, Drop, Talk
to, etc. etc. There are apparently also action sequences as well.
I almost wish the programming language to design the game was made into a
development environment like TADS or INFORM, it would be great fun to play
around with creating an entirely audio adventure. I also think this would be
great to play on a pocket pc or something, with headphones, with just a
couple keys necessary to play you could just have it in your hand without
even looking at it, walking around, riding the train, crossing the street,
driving, all while playing an adventure. I can see the accident report
now...
-- Peter
http://www.illuminatedlantern.com/1893
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