Obscure Authoring Systems research
Gio
article I'd like to write, but that's really in the maybe-someday
department. I have 11 living (Windows ported, English-language)
authoring systems that I'm aware of, living being defined as having
active author support. These range from the popular community standbys
to the as-yet-unreleased. Those I can discuss later.
What I'm looking for right now is information on the following systems.
I'm mainly wondering if the systems can be confirmed to be living or
deceased. If the system is alive, some basic contact info that is
up-to-date would be nice so I can continue my research. I've used many
resources available, including Google and the ifwiki, to find these
systems and send an email to their authors. While the emails didn't
bounce, I've received no responses either.
1) PAWS (Python Adventure Writing System) by Roger Plowman (Wolf) -
http://home.fuse.net/wolfonenet/PAWS.htm
2) WinPAW (Windows Professional Adventure Writer) by Douglas Harter -
http://www.winpaw.com/
3) ACE (Adventure Creation Environment) by Andrew Clark -
http://www.aceadventuregames.com/
4) AIEE (An Interactive Environment Engine) by Mark D. Hughes -
http://markdamonhughes.com/Aiee/
5) CAT (Creative Adventure Toolkit) by Philip Richmond -
http://www.staining.fslife.co.uk/index.htm (the email I sent to this
author bounced, unfortunately)
So there you have it: the five systems I would like to know more about.
Any help you all can give would be MOST appreciated.
- Gio
Gio
> http://www.aceadventuregames.com/
Well, as I posted this, I received an email from Karen Tyers, the
maintainer of the ACE webpage. I'm pleased to announce that ACE is
formally living, if only just barely so. Active development has stopped;
however, the author (Andrew) will do bugfixes and small features
requests if they don't take much time to add. So.. YAY! That's 12 living
systems so far.
- Gio
Gio
> http://www.staining.fslife.co.uk/index.htm (the email I sent to this
> author bounced, unfortunately)
And CAT is officially declared dead, as ifwiki says it's no longer being
updated. Author (Philip) has moved on, and is working on TAB instead.
Which, in retrospect, was rather obvious.
Well, that's one system for the history books, I suppose.
- Gio
Conrad
> > 5) CAT (Creative Adventure Toolkit) by Philip Richmond -
> > author bounced, unfortunately)
>
> And CAT is officially declared dead, as ifwiki says it's no longer being
> updated. Author (Philip) has moved on, and is working on TAB instead.
> Which, in retrospect, was rather obvious.
>
> Well, that's one system for the history books, I suppose.
The system had problems: everything "tricky" you had to do, you did
by writing code in a proprietary language, which included non-standard
characters. There were three tables for such commands, and it
executed each line in each table once each turn. (One table it
executed immediately before asking the user for input; one immediately
after input; and one after it handled user movement.) No opportunity
for branching meant that each line had to be (in a substantial game) a
mammoth case statement. Which resulted in very boggy and unstable
program execution.
Nor could you dice a map up into sub-projects in ways that allowed you
to keep intact the status of the portion of dungeon you were leaving.
Also, the user environment was just unfriendly enough that I twice
blew away a game I was working on, by saving the blank default file
rather than loading my game file. Partly my fault, but it lacked the
basic safeguards that prevent this kind of thing.
After the second time, I gave up on the language.
With all that said, it was a *nice*, well thought-out, conceptual
design. You could easily import graphics, midi and sound files; room
design was quite intuitve, and character design was pretty good too.
It seems the kinks, while considerable, ought to be soluable; I wish
Phil would open up the platform rather than let it go completely.
To the original question, there was a yahoo group that Phil
maintained[http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/catventure/]; I see it's
been quiet this year. You might try joining it to chase down
survivors.
Or, try contacting authors of existing CATventure games.
Conrad.
Dr.Froth
these on your list?
1. Inform
2. Tads
3. Alan
4. Hugo
5. Adrift
6. Quest
7. SUDS
8. MechaniQue 2
9. Scribe
10. Thin Basic
11. RAGS
12. Legendary Tales
13. IFML
Plus the ones you stated for more info, plus JACL (which seems to be
way dead). Not sure if IFML is still being supported but the other
ones one the list are (which means you must be missing one).
Legendary Tales has shifted gears but the original format can still be
downloaded and as of a couple of weeks ago was still supported.
I have not listed Dreampath, because I am not sure if it is truly a IF
program or a gamebook program. I need a little more info on that, so
if you have some let me know.
I have been collecting information on the same subject as you for a
little while now (though I do not have the excuse of a reason). Feel
free to contact me for any further information.
Happy Hunting,
Dr. Froth
Gio
> 9. Scribe
Actually, I was missing MechaniQue 2 and Scribe. IFML is dead, I'm
pretty sure, and is browser-based anyway. Legendary Tales creates text
RPGs which, I guess, is a subgenre of IF, but not what I'm looking for,
really.
However, I *did* add DreamPath to my list until I see otherwise, that
is. Also, JACL /just/ had an update, Stuart even posted to this
newsgroup, so it's alive and well.
> I have been collecting information on the same subject as you for a
> little while now (though I do not have the excuse of a reason). Feel
> free to contact me for any further information.
Well, you seem to have done something of a better job than I did, Doc.
You have two whole systems on me. I'll have to look into them and update
my ifwiki page accordingly.
- Gio
Gio
> http://home.fuse.net/wolfonenet/PAWS.htm
PAWS is a interesting case. The author (Roger) has ceased active
development, however he will still support the program and authors that
wish to use it. So yay! That's.. 15 systems. Now we have 2 more unknowns
that we need info on..
- Gio