Introductions

EDIT: Somehow I managed to screw up (well, it’s not surprising): this should have gone in the ‘Introducing Ourselves’ sticky.

'Allo, folks.

My name is Jonathan Dobson. I’m in school for mechanical engineering. Became a dad 4 months ago. Live in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Been dabbling with programming since the TRS-80, and have been pleasantly distracted by the subject my whole life.

Unlike 99% of folks into IF (warning: assumption [yes, I do that]), I have played .1% of what’s out there. As far as the classics go, I managed Zork when I was nine years old. After which I didn’t play another IF game for 20 years (1987 to 2007).

I have been attempting for the past two years (on and off) to create an IF/RPG model with a lesser-known IF interpreter called Quest. Quest is going to be revamped drastically over the next while, so I’ve decided to make a move towards TADS in the interim.

The only game I’ve created is a small, one-room effort via Quest called Brew Dog, and I was on this forum asking for beta-testers as ‘jdobson’. Unfortunately, I am no longer using the email address attached to ‘jdobson’, so I’ve created a new account. Brew Dog has never been released, although I think I’ll wrap it up by February.

Presently I am swimming in the TADS 3 documentation (without a life jacket), and have yet to see the shoreline. (For those of you who have already constructed beach-houses along the cliffs, I suppose you will be spotting my emergency beacon flashing off in the distance soon enough.)

I’ve joined the TADS 3 Study Group, and am hoping to make good use of the discussions there.

If anyone has any experience drafting a turn-based, role-playing-esque game with TADS, I would certainly be interested in what you’ve developed so far. (Part of me doesn’t expect anyone to have done this, but, who knows!)

I’m also a fledgling writer, and pianist (non-classical). Does TADS support music files?

I haven’t said it yet, so welcome! (Nice to have another TADS user on board!)

Yes, it does. According to the Introduction to HTML TADS, it supports MIDI, WAV, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis formats. Sound requires HTML TADS interpreters, which are only available for Windows and Mac, but the game will still run in non-HTML interpreters - it just won’t play the embedded sounds. See the Introduction to HTML TADS manual for more information. (But beware, it’s the manual most direly in need of rewriting and clean-up. You may need to do some spelunking to find the information you want.)

Welcome to the forum, Jonathan, and good luck for your game! :smiley: