Thanks to someone who I’ll allow to speak up if desired, this problem has been fixed as of 13 minutes ago.
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I know this is an old thread, but have a quick question, relating to one of the earleir posts. A method was given for playing files from “The Obsessively Complete Infocom Catalog” through Parchment by inserting the file URL into the Parchment URL. I’ve got that part, no problem.
Here’s my question: some games in Parchment, when you enter a “save” command, will update the URL and that URL becomes your save game. To reload from that point you would just record the URL somewhere as a link and click on that link to pick up where you left off.
For other games, including these Infocom files on the “Obsessively Complete” list, when saving you instead get a popup letting you name save states which are then stored in you browser cache.
I’m asking this as a player, not as a coder: what is it that determines which of these save state methods is used? Is it possible to change the save state method, or is that locked in to the Parchment version, the game code itself, or something else?
Many thanks!
-Hubble
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Is there any interpreter with the capability for the user to create and store and execute their own macros/key remaps?
The URL method was the old one and no longer used. If you’re seeing it then it must be someone else’s old copy of Parchment, not the main installation at iplayif.com.
Since this thread has been brought back, I had some thoughts.
Purely from a player perspective it’s very easy to locate and download all/any of the Infocom games online (heck I can compile and email you them if necessary) so I wouldn’t even worry about the legalities.
A more interesting question is how actively owned and monitored the games are from Activision (or as noted the Adams estate or others where applicable).
Then from a developer perspective, if you wanted to create a new Zork-like game, how close could you comfortably get? I think a good modern comparison is Duck Season which is in no way associated with Nintendo but equally they haven’t gone after it either.
Nintendo has a reputation for aggressively DMCAing stuff. I’m surprised that’s still out there.
So far as corporate responses to community resources go, there’s no clear and universal answer. A lot depends on who owns the stuff and which one of their employees/teams has oversight. Teams and employees change, corporate policies change. Things change. It’s hard to predict what will be ok later, even if it’s ok now.
This is one of the things that makes me nervous about the Microsoft acquisition. Yes, they have been good about keeping legacy content available. Mostly available through them, though. Not through community resources. Sleeping dogs and all that.
Oh well, it’s probably fine.
OT, I prefer playing with fat local client (Frotz), local saves, and local story files (I keep my own copies of every version + source). For feelies I prefer MoCAGH for accuracy but sometimes Infodoc is better. It’s case by case. I download all of that stuff too because it may not be around in 5, 10, or 20 years. Almost everything available is available thanks to goodwill and individual efforts. And things change, all things do. It doesn’t add up to a ton of disk space.
I have started linking the Invisiclues *.z5 files to Parchment on Gold Machine because it’s so convenient for the readers and those are all reproduced with permission. Even if you like to play without them, they’re nice to read after you’ve beaten the games. Funny stuff and usually some insight.
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In Fabularium you can do such things with built-in keyboard.
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If you’re willing to do a small writeup of your expectation of such a feature on Gargoyle’s issue tracker, I’d look into the feasibility of adding it to Bocfel, at least, for Z-machine support. The level of difficulty depends on how you’d envision this feature working, but it sounds like a great idea that would be worth exploring.
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Also there is glulxe package for Termux.
pkg install glulxe
It seems you can reconfigure your keyboard layot and assign macros.
Thank you, Dannii - that must be it. I was seeing this on the PRIF website.
This is making me think of a followup question: is there any way to specify the method of saving, or is the browser cache method the ONLY way available in the newer implementations of Parchment? There were a few reasons why the URL method was helpful for me. I am a high school teacher who runs a class in game design using text adventures. My students play Lost Pig and Dreamhold at the beginning of the class to learn about the medium, then they pick a game in a genre they like to explore and journal about during the semester. While they do this, they are also learning to develop games in Quest.
The URL savegame method was helpful for two reasons:
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It allowed me to use a pre-made URL to drop the students in the middle of a game. For example, if I wanted them to critique and try to solve the babel fish puzzle in Hitchhiker’s Guide, without having to play through the intro. I could just send out the URL to everyone in the class and they could start at the exact point in the game I wanted them to, and restore if needed.
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My students are all on Chromebooks, and occasionally the IT department will push out an update to all the devices which will forcibly wipe out the browser cache, eliminating any stored save games.
I understand my needs here are unique, but I’m just curious if there is a way to get this old functionality in the new Parchment, or if it’s just gone for good.
Many thanks in advance!
-Hubble
It’s true, that site has a really old version of Parchment. (2012?)
Well it’s gone for now, though I’d like to eventually bring something similar back. It won’t be any time soon though sorry.
Could they host it on their own using an older version of Parchment? (Ignoring the legalities, of course.) Perhaps as a temporary solution until a version of this feature becomes available again?
Yeah that’d be fine. I don’t remember how far back you’d need to go to have that feature though.
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