hi, im cory, im 38. grew up playing IF via infocom and i always wanted to write my own, then about two years ago i stumbled upon the IF community online, thank god. now i can finally do it now that ive learned Inform 7. im an english/philosophy/film major and my writings never took off until i made them interactive. working on a magnum opus right now because i think we need more really long works of IF in this community. anyway, for anyone interested, here’s my blog about IF:
Hey, I’m Akis, 25 and studying Computer Engineering in Athens, Greece.
Even though I had the occasional encounter with IF, I’ve only recently gotten into it, as a result of some after hours discussion about game design possibilities text games can allow. That was of course shortly followed by the(usual?) realization “How could I even match such awesome writing” after going through a couple of games, but well, hopefully there is always space for improvement.
For the time being, I’m just getting my feet wet with Inform 7, which comes with a small amount of frustration(but mostly panic) for the lack of all the lovely C/C++ syntax influence programmers tend to expect, and of course trying to catch up and play at least a couple of decades worth of text adventures.
im the opposite. not a programmer in any way. took me a solid year to figure out how to talk to Inform7 so it doesnt yell at me and call me names. but, for a neophyte like myself, it was one of those things that suddenly clicked for me. now i code away without having to consult a book for every damn thing. :mrgreen:
Hi all, I’m Sark, aka Sarah. I’ve been playing IF on and off for about five years, and while I freely admit to not being very good at it, I’m fascinated by the medium. I’d love to try collaborating on a game, so if anyone’s interested in starting a project together PM me or post on the thread I’ve started in “Looking for Collaborators.” I’m very flexible and
On a less advertisement-like note, I’d say my favorite piece of IF is Emily Short Suzanne Britton’s “Worlds Apart,” due to the vivid world it creates and the quality of the storytelling. Outside of the IF genre I love just about everything Bioware has made, for much the same reasons. I’m an English major and general purpose nerd.
To be fair, Emily Short’s games are also characterized by vivid worlds and quality storytelling. (You should definitely check some of her games out if you haven’t already.)
Ok, I’ll try to introduce myself without giving out too much information.
I used to do IF when I found the Internet Fiction Archives in 1992.
People were talking about TADS (which I thought was a retro Frogger) all the time, so I just had to play it.
My first game was something called Arrival: Land Of Stereotypes or something like that (which looked better on HTML Tads).
My second game was a detective story set at 2121 Baker street, you guessed it, Sherlock Homes (mid 90s).
I started getting into AIF with Star Trek parodies like A Night With Deeana Troy (witch later split first and last name for two different games) and A Night With Captain Janeway (Captain dropped).
After I got HTML TADS, I went to the The Brass Lantern again, which directed me the Tads home (tads.org).
It was there I got my first taste of picture Tads in The Cristal Skull (which should be renamed 12-21-2012).
For a while I was at the Yahoo Groups for AIF, but I still liked my IF.
Now I don’t go there anymore.
I consider myself a noobie (nooby? noob? whatever,) because I really haven’t played for many years.
It’s now 2011, and HTML Tads has gotten to 3.0.18.1.
Are there any new games out there that can take advantage of the new features (if there are any)?
On this computer I’ve just downloaded filfre 1.0, so I would be interested in those formats as well.
Wow, it’s kind of rude of me to have made a few posts without having introduced myself. Time to rectify that.
I’m James. Been a fan of IF ever since my cousin introduced me to the genre around 2000 or so. Every few years I try to start up an IF project but I suffer from chronic “starts up a project of some sort and never finishes it” syndrome. I’ve recently begun coding a new game in Inform 6 that’s a sort of messy mashup of previous ideas (all of them highly cliched, though); time will tell if it gets finished, but I have a good feeling about this one. I’ve also been quite a fan of other, more “big-budget” video games - multiplayer shooters, as well as just about anything by Valve software - up until somewhat recently; my new laptop’s pitiful processor bars me from playing all but the most lightweight games.
I’m also a music producer/nerd, currently working on an experimental hip-hop album with a friend of mine (as well as a solo instrumental album). If you’re a fan of underground rap, keep your eyes peeled!
People who start up project and frequently don’t finish them are running experiments with themselves. Finishing is important, and you have to figure out what’s stopping you and work such that you can step around that block, but that’s just a logistical problem: you still are in a way better spot than someone who never gathers the motivation to start anything at all. 8)
I need a smiley with wrinkles! My first programs were entered into a computer via toggle switches and push buttons. Fortunately I have been able to keep up with most of the technology. I made the decision that I would concentrate on my specialty (utilities) and my son could do the internet sites. That has worked out quite well. Anyway, punch card machines have never been mysterious - at least to me. I still remember when a machine with 4k of storage was so better than the “old” 1k machines. Now I’m setting in front of a machine with a total of about 2.2Tb. Who would have thunk it?
Wgm003, it sounds like you are even more of an old-timer than I am. My first exposure to computers was a “bits for nit-wits” college course in which we learned how to say “hello, world” in WATFIV.
I think there are not too many of us are still around to whom the phrase “Do not fold, spindle or mutilate” means anything.
I have one of those!
I didn’t think anybody would remember those square flat floppy disks (where we get the name “floppy disk”).
I always hated that grinding sound the drive made.
My inclination is not to respond to this kind of nonsense, but for the benefit of anybody who might be misled: “Do not fold, spindle or mutilate” has nothing to do with floppy disks. The phrase was often printed on punchcards, particularly during the period when a lot of companies (e.g., the telephone company, of which there was only one at the time) would include a punchcard with their bill; you would send the card back with your payment, which (theoretically) was supposed to ensure that your payment got credited to the proper account. What this meant was that punchcards wound up in the hands of lots of people who had never seen them before. Based (I assume) on some actual experiences, it was decided to warn people that these new-fangled cardboard bills with holes in them had be handled somewhat more delicately than the regular paper bills that they were accustomed to. Folding would, presumably, interfere with the ability to run the card through the reading machinery. Spindling – which I believe refers to impaling it on a spike (like Rod Steiger’s hand in The Pawnbroker) – would, I imagine, totally screw things up by allowing light to pass through the wrong places in the card. As for mutilating, I shudder even to think about what that might have done to the processing equipment of the day.
Don’t assume you know everything before you’ve experienced it.
The phrase was also used among computer geeks when that kind of disk was misused or abused.
The disk was just a piece of plastic between to carbon sheets with what looked like modern videotape ribbon around the center ring.
The sheets were glued together to keep the plastic in place, but the environment the user was in would often melt the glue causing the plastic ring to be off center.
This would cause a grinding sound in the drive as the off center ring spun.
It would be fine this way for a week or 2, but then you start noticing a jagged edge on the ribbon (sometimes on both sides) that got more pronounced as you ran the disk.
Sometimes the weather was so harsh, the disks became brittle.
The user had to be careful not to break it.
Other times the disk might be shipped folded or creased, which would make your game stop working (or not work at all).
When the user got so enraged he would take it out out the disk, he would rip apart the carbon sheets (you’d be surprised how easy that is to do).
The Apple Computer, Apple II, Apple IIe, and Macintosh paved the way for more “modern” disks (the little ones that would get stuck in your drive) and most likely the computer’s CD drive itself!
PS: QWERTY are the keys that had the most problems on the typewriter and early computer keyboards.
Punchcards were originally inspired by player piano, pipe organ, and calliope spools.
Spindling refers to tangling the spool’s paper in on itself like a big spinning wheel (word comes from spin and thimble).
Folding the paper would also have an affect on playing the instrument.
Tearing would often be a problem to the most careful players and sometimes the paper ended up shredding itself.
As for the phone company, they had little to do with it.
The phrase was either started in or more popular in times of war, when the USO and medical facilities had a time clock to manage their working hours.
Most of these jobs had a time share program which would keep the employees up late.
You tend to have more accidence when groggy, punching holes too close together to another hole, or letting the machine chew on you chads (those little pieces of paper).
By the way, Ma Bell (the name before AT&T) was not the only phone company.
General Electric (originally using the telegraph) was actually the first phone company.
Ma Bell was a more popular company due to it’s large “switchboard” (wiki it) that gave another use for the 0 on the phone dial.
