What exactly is the review command?

Jim Fisher

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Feb 1, 2003, 10:44:35 PM2/1/03

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I've had a request from a beta tester to add this to my WIP. The tads game
"Til Death makes a monk fish out of me" implements it, but it seems little
more than a meta version of "Look" (oops, speaking Inform jargon there.
That is, the verb functions without the passage of time, daemons, timers,
etc...)

Is there more to this verb than meets the eye?

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Andrew Plotkin

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Feb 2, 2003, 12:27:21 AM2/2/03

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Here, Jim Fisher <jimATonyx...@nospam.com> wrote:
> I've had a request from a beta tester to add this to my WIP. The tads game
> "Til Death makes a monk fish out of me" implements it, but it seems little
> more than a meta version of "Look" (oops, speaking Inform jargon there.
> That is, the verb functions without the passage of time, daemons, timers,
> etc...)

That's how I understand the "review" command to work, canonically.

--Z

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
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Jim Fisher

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Feb 2, 2003, 1:33:35 AM2/2/03

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> That's how I understand the "review" command to work, canonically.

I see. For some reason I was imagining the command to function as...

>REVIEW
[No time passing.]
You are in the living room. There is a table here.

>REVIEW TABLE
[No time passing.]
Its flat and square. On the table is a book.

>REVIEW BOOK
[You haven't examined the book yet, so there is nothing to review.]

The canonical way is definitely easier to implement.

Mike Sousa

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Feb 2, 2003, 9:41:46 AM2/2/03

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Jim Fisher wrote:
> I've had a request from a beta tester to add this to my WIP. The tads game
> "Til Death makes a monk fish out of me" implements it, but it seems little
> more than a meta version of "Look" (oops, speaking Inform jargon there.
> That is, the verb functions without the passage of time, daemons, timers,
> etc...)
>
> Is there more to this verb than meets the eye?

Nope, that pretty much sums it up. I originally implemented the review
meta command for Above and Beyond. There is a scene where the number of
moves is limited. I noticed that (through beta transcripts) players
were LOOKing for clues in the room description and then UNDOing each
look. That's the genesis of the review command (at least in the games
I've been involved with).

-- Mike

Lucian P. Smith

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Feb 2, 2003, 3:50:57 PM2/2/03

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Mike Sousa <mjsousa_R_...@attbi.com> wrote in <3E3D2E32...@attbi.com>:

: Jim Fisher wrote:
:> I've had a request from a beta tester to add this to my WIP. The tads game
:> "Til Death makes a monk fish out of me" implements it, but it seems little
:> more than a meta version of "Look"

: Nope, that pretty much sums it up.

Another option is simply to make 'look' a meta verb. At the other
extreme, you could go the Varicella route and make different verbs take up
different amounts of game time.

-Lucian