IFDB is truly the crowning jewel of the IF community. Besides all the data monging about IF works, the polls, the lists and the reviews, it offers readily available web playing for most games.
I long knew z-machine and Glulx had handy javascript interpreters, but today I learned TADS3 games can be played online too! I know it’s actually a service running an interpreter server-side, but it’s impressive nonetheless: besides the nifty exit-listing in the interface, it integrates progress neatly into IFDB, effectivelly turning it into something akin to App Store games or Android Play.
It is really cool, isn’t it? It says the TADS3 games can be played by multiple users at the same time, which sounds fun, though I haven’t tried that.
Since I can never celebrate something without complaining in the same breath, the only thing that annoys me is the amount of z-machine games which can’t be played online because they’re in zip format.
The original (and current) one was written in Python, but I started rewriting it in Javascript. If anyone felt like rewriting it in any other language then that would be okay, it’s a very simple app.
I know it’s actually a service running an interpreter server-side, but it’s impressive nonetheless: besides the nifty exit-listing in the interface, it integrates progress neatly into IFDB, effectivelly turning it into something akin to App Store games or Android Play.