Inform 7 text adventure creator

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ral-clan
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Inform 7 text adventure creator

Post by ral-clan »

Hi,

I recently found out about the open source Inform 7 text adventure creator. Apparently it's very easy to use (even by non programmers) and can create standard text-adventure Z-files (.z3, .z4, .z5). Interpreters for these files exist for current (Mac, PC, Linux) and classic (C64, Apple II, Amiga, etc.) platforms!

http://inform7.com/
http://inform-fiction.org/zmachine/interpreters.html

It sounds great!

Since there is already a C64 interpreter - MAYBE it would be possible for some talented programmer to easily(?) make a VIC-20 interpreter! Wouldn't that be amazing!

I'm guessing adventures would have to be made smaller to accomodate the VIC-20's max 32K, but you'd still have the benefits of the Inform 7 adventure creating application.

Could spawn a whole slew of great VIC-20 text adventures from non-programmers.
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Re: Inform 7 text adventure creator

Post by Vic20-Ian »

Rather than port the creator tool (would many people create the adventure on the Vic keyboard?), can a PC created file be read on a Vic-20 adventure reader?
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orion70
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Re: Inform 7 text adventure creator

Post by orion70 »

Yep Ian, it would be great. Maybe someone very skilled in VIC programming could start from Kweepa's Yoho, TNT's Infocom interpreter (fully working but no savegame) available in my collection, or the bugged German interpreter.
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ral-clan
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Re: Inform 7 text adventure creator

Post by ral-clan »

Vic20-Ian wrote:Rather than port the creator tool (would many people create the adventure on the Vic keyboard?), can a PC created file be read on a Vic-20 adventure reader?
Yes, that is what I meant. The part that should be ported to the VIC-20 is the Z-intepreter. That way you can make the adventures on at PC/Mac/whatever and they will be playable on a VIC-20 provided they fit in RAM.
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Pedro Lambrini
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Re: Inform 7 text adventure creator

Post by Pedro Lambrini »

TNT has one. Sadly though, he won't release it to the public. I know it doesn't save games (I think orion said that) but I'm sure one of you geniuses could fix it... He just won't give it out. :(
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orion70
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Re: Inform 7 text adventure creator

Post by orion70 »

Pedro Lambrini wrote:He just won't give it out. :(
Infocom adventures are included in my FE3 collection here :). They are in D81 format, each including the LOADER (I think this is TNT's Z interpreter) and the directly accessed story file.
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ral-clan
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Re: Inform 7 text adventure creator

Post by ral-clan »

But if the Z-machine interpreter for Inform-7 already exists for the Commodore 64 and is open source - shouldn't it be easier to just use that code as a basis for the VIC-20 Z-machine interpreter (since the two machines are similar).

Here is the source code to a 6502 based open source interpreter. Surely this would be easier to start from than hacking TNT's (and more ethical).

http://www.linusakesson.net/software/zeugma/index.php

The one here does require a 512K storage device. But maybe there's still some valuable code in there.
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orion70
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Re: Inform 7 text adventure creator

Post by orion70 »

ral-clan wrote:Surely this would be easier to start from than hacking TNT's (and more ethical).
Agree. I did put these files in my collection, just to let people enjoy TNT's valuable effort, and stimulate him to complete it some day.
ral-clan wrote:The one here does require a 512K storage device.
Well, D81 disk images are 800K files, so there are about 300K left for the story file. D81s can be read by any SD2IEC device, also in direct access mode.
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