HTML TADS interpreters on IFDB and ifwiki

[dfabulich (Dan Fabulich)]

@bg

If I click the “play online” link on the IFDB page, it seems to get stuck on a “Loading” page for a while before getting to the menu screen.

I don’t reproduce that. It did take about ten seconds to load, but then it loaded for me in Parchment.

1893.gam is 70MB large; it seems likely that the download was just slow for you at the time.

@bg

Do we need a separate list of interpreters at IFWiki just for interpreters that will run HTML TADS games? I understand not all interpreters support all features, but if this is a situation where the game won’t even run at all, that seems like a different situation than an interpreter that has a reduced set of features but still runs the game.

I’m not aware of any multimedia-enabled “HTML TADS” games that aren’t completable in Parchment.

FWIW, I’ve updated a few of the interpreters on https://www.ifwiki.org/TADS_interpreters to say “No TADS multimedia support” in the “Multimedia” column. Now, only QTads states clearly that it has multimedia support for TADS.

@clintmbishop

TADS has been beaten up over these issues for years now. The full game, with its images, maps, and compass rose in QTADS, looks so polished and professional. It’s almost a shame to default the game to a Play Online version instead of the complete version. Makes some of the IF classics look less appealing, not more.

IFDB prefers to include a “Play Online” button wherever it can, because it is quite challenging for IF newbies to download interpreters.

First, you have to acquaint newbies with the idea of an “interpreter,” and then present them with a list of interpreters, then they have to pick a decent interpreter that works on their OS, then they have to download the interpreter, then download the game file–which can be quite challenging on mobile–and then open the game in the interpreter.

By comparison, the “Play Online” button just works when you click on it, even on mobile. QTads doesn’t even run on iOS or Android.

Currently, IFDB thinks it should include a “Play Online” button for all “TADS 2” and “TADS 3” games, but not “TADS 3 WebUI” games (which, confusingly, is a separate thing from HTML TADS 3).

Most of the top-rated TADS games in IFDB don’t use multimedia, or not in any essential way.

It’s not at all clear to me that games that do have multimedia support, like According to Cain or 1893 would be improved by removing the Play Online button.

I’m not even sure it’s wise to discourage the Play Online button for these games. “This game will play better when you download an interpreter, so here’s a list of interpreters, but, gotcha, only one of these interpreters is the good one, and good luck if you don’t even know what an interpreter is” is not going to make these IF classics more approachable for IF newbies; quite the opposite.