GameShell

I came across this little castle exploration Unix shell game.

It is an interesting idea…the idea is to teach shell commands. Each directory represents a room, and each text file represents an object.

I’m sure text adventure games have been made in bash scripts before but this this is a little different. What I find interesting is that it is not self contained; you can interact with it with just about any other app on your system.

Although the script is checking the status of what you’ve done, it is basically just checking the location of files in folders. So you can actually view the ascii art in different rooms with any text editor of your choice, or you can see the structure of the map in a GUI file browser.

One idea from the game that might have potential in parser IF is the ability for users to create aliases/synonyms/shortcuts of some sort. Do any IF games currently give players the ability to create custom names for objects (or, even less likely, create custom names for rooms)?

It’s also possible to develop “missions” for it.

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Aotearoa lets you name your pet dinosaur.

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In Beyond Zork, you can name some weapons and creatures. List:

Dagger
Shillelagh
Spade
Battle-axe
Longsword
Pterodactyl
Minx
Butterfly/Caterpillar

E: Oh! You can also name the cubes in Spellbreaker by writing on them.

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