JamesD Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 You know what would be cool? This might even be done, remake the Scott Addams games with the Z-interpreter (like Zork had) engine. Rebuilding them with today's tools would not be too difficult but you'd need a complete map of the game before you convert it. It would certainly be easy enough to strip out the text for inserting into a remake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ripdubski Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 Definately Scott Addams. Having not played them, i thought they had half gfx half text. I booted a couple and they appeared to be text only. Is there a trick? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 Having not played them, i thought they had half gfx half text. I booted a couple and they appeared to be text only. Is there a trick? As was mentioned, they were all initially text only for many years on most platforms, but then later upgraded to text and graphics on some of the platforms. The poor parser only marginally improved over the years. Look for the graphics versions from roughly 1982 to when the company folded. Certain platforms, like the VIC-20 or TI-99/4a (save for one) never got the graphics versions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Usotsuki Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 You know what would be cool? This might even be done, remake the Scott Addams games with the Z-interpreter (like Zork had) engine. Was done with Adventureland - there's a Z5 version of that written in Inform. If it could be done with Inform 5, there's a possibility of a Z3 version (the actual back end of Zork). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moycon Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 How about adapting these games to a modern audience? Make them cheap, like $1.00-$5.00 download. You read the text but instead of typing in your choice, you just say it. "go north" "climb tree" "use axe" That would be pretty cool in my opinion. The Xbox One with it's (crappy) mandatory Kinect with built in voice recognition would be the perfect platform. If you're force to buy a peripheral, you should at least get some decent use out of it. I would totally buy into the old retro text adventures with updated voice commands. Would anyone else? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorfy Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 The AtariAge store sells a text adventure homebrew for the 2600 called "Dark Mage", which I enjoy. However, I missed out on the original text adventures back "in the day". I was wondering two things: 1. Have you guys tried Dark Mage, and if so, how does it compare to the old text adventures you guys discuss in this thread?, and 2. How might a newbie best introduce himself to the old classic text adventures? Which games on which system might serve as a good starting point? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 (edited) I think text Adventures (aka interactive fiction) appeal more to people who love books and would rather read an intricate description which they imagine for themselves.Don't get me wrong, everyone loves to see a movie version of their favorite book, but there is always something different than you imagined and you end up disappointed. Edited February 8, 2014 by JamesD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 (edited) The AtariAge store sells a text adventure homebrew for the 2600 called "Dark Mage", which I enjoy. However, I missed out on the original text adventures back "in the day". I was wondering two things: 1. Have you guys tried Dark Mage, and if so, how does it compare to the old text adventures you guys discuss in this thread?, and 2. How might a newbie best introduce himself to the old classic text adventures? Which games on which system might serve as a good starting point? Looking into the Crystal Ball of Youtube to see Dark Mage... I would say it is pretty close. Scott Addams Adventures, at least the early ones, were all text and always simple commands. But you know, they were fun. I bet that Adventureland and other games likes it could easily be made into the 2600 Dark Mage engine. So my suggestion, start with... err... Zork 1 by Infocom. Now that was a fun game and introduces you to some basic concepts on text adventures and also not real difficult. Once you have had fun with a lot of the Infocom games, then maybe go more retro with a more limited command system with the Scott Addams Adventures and even to the great Grand Daddy of them all, ADVENTURE. Looking over Youtube, there are many many other text adventures out there for many computer platforms, and if you ever get a Z-Interpreter, many many fan written Text adventures as well. As for the Z-Interpreter, I thought I had really arrived when I got Zork (one my favorite games on the Atari 800) running on my Newton 2000 back in 1996. And once again I was playing that and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy constantly. Edited February 8, 2014 by doctorclu 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 How about adapting these games to a modern audience? Make them cheap, like $1.00-$5.00 download. You read the text but instead of typing in your choice, you just say it. "go north" "climb tree" "use axe" That would be pretty cool in my opinion. The Xbox One with it's (crappy) mandatory Kinect with built in voice recognition would be the perfect platform. If you're force to buy a peripheral, you should at least get some decent use out of it. I would totally buy into the old retro text adventures with updated voice commands. Would anyone else? There was a commercial attempt at this on the PlayStation 2 called Lifeline. You used a headset to basically direct the actions of a woman in danger with your voice. It's an intriguing concept, but we're probably still a bit of a ways away from it being truly reliable. Even all the resources Nuance, Apple, Google, and Microsoft have invested in speech recognition and we still have plenty of misses. It's OK for casual use - asking questions and issuing commands - but once you get to needing a more profound understanding of certain words, you start to run into issues. Again, this will get better over time and almost certainly there will be games that are controlled completely with voice through natural language commands. The thing is, even today's best parsers still aren't perfect at understanding everything, so even that will have to improve along with the speech recognition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 I think text Adventures (aka interactive fiction) appeal more to people who love books and would rather read an intricate description which they imagine for themselves. Don't get me wrong, everyone loves to see a movie version of their favorite book, but there is always something different than you imagined and you end up disappointed. Certainly for some people, but not for others. I still think there's something inherently cool about interacting with a good (read: Infocom, modern IF, etc., not the inferior two word jobbies)text parser whose commercial development we were sadly robbed of when iconography and hot spot clicking became the "preferred" interface for adventure games. Don't get me wrong, there are tremendous modern IF works out there today, but it's crazy to imagine how the engines would have advanced by now had a major publisher still been able to keep developing new and improved engines. After all, we got some pretty impressive results from 8-bit computers with just 48K of memory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cvga Posted February 9, 2014 Author Share Posted February 9, 2014 2. How might a newbie best introduce himself to the old classic text adventures? Which games on which system might serve as a good starting point? you can play the Scott Adams games online for free! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cvga Posted February 9, 2014 Author Share Posted February 9, 2014 I think text Adventures (aka interactive fiction) appeal more to people who love books and would rather read an intricate description which they imagine for themselves. The Scott Adams games don't have intricate descriptions but I agree that actual graphics often are different than my imagination. I really enjoy these older (and somewahat short) text adventures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorfy Posted February 9, 2014 Share Posted February 9, 2014 Thanks for the input, Doctorclu and cvga! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanBoris Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Was done with Adventureland - there's a Z5 version of that written in Inform. If it could be done with Inform 5, there's a possibility of a Z3 version (the actual back end of Zork). It has been done for all of them: http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXscott-adamsXgamesXzcode.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cvga Posted February 17, 2014 Author Share Posted February 17, 2014 you can play the Scott Adams games online for free! Here's the link my 8 year old and I have been using to play Voodoo Castle online if anyone is interested... http://www.ifiction.org/games/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.