Introducing Ourselves

General
143

My name is Andrew. When very young I was enthralled by a new type of book called Choose Your Own Adventure. Eventually the randomness annoyed me, but by then I’d discovered the wide world of Text Adventures. I even annoyed my parents into buying some Apple program that created them for you, with dice rolls in some areas.

I grew up trying to create text adventures on my family’s Apple IIe. I loved the Infocom games but was horrible at them. I remember arguing with my older sister after I revealed all the InvisiClues in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

My games as a kid were derivative but impressive to everyone else. I remember having a different “INPUT A$” for each room, then the glorious day one line took care of all moves. I remember gleefully building up pointless porches and giving points for obvious commands. I also remember being crushed when an AppleSoft adventure got big enough and ran out of memory. Perhaps the greatest blow to my programming self was when I wrote a game collection for a school project. I watched people thoroughly enjoy a game where you were a dot, dodging other dots moving randomly. But my text adventures! My simple text RPG with hit points and spell points! They took days and this game–2 hours. (People also loved my driving game where a <-> had to stay on the road. It took 2 hours, too.)

Then I discovered RPGs, and only the occasional item on clearance in the shrinking Apple section of Babbage’s–or Egghead–brought me back to text adventures. But then there was Tetris, and getting a lousy grade in Advanced Placement Computer Science seemed to confirm I was not a programmer. (Of course, I probably just played BlockOut too much. I was the class champ!)

I gave up completely once our Apple II died, Infocom moved to spreadsheets, and graphic games took over. I’m glad others carried the torch–to the point of creating intuitive programming languages. I found some old Infocom games online. I finally figured the box puzzle in Zork 3. I also found a walkthrough for Pyramid of Doom–and felt dumb what I missed.

But I was too lazy and IF programming wasn’t intuitive enough yet. Until Inform 7.

My young days were a lot of fun, but I expect better of myself now. Especially with I7 doing the dirty work. I’ve got the ideas and want to execute them. I’ve already written two unreleasable, simple games and enjoyed doing so immensely. I’m looking forward to trading ideas, beta-testing, encouragement, etc.

144

Hi all. I ended up with “Mri” as my name in this forum, due to some account creation trouble that didn’t allow me to use my R.A.I.F. name Kathrel. Same person, different nicks.

Basically I want to give a nod and a wave to the community and say I’m here (too). Very quick about myself; I was born in -67 in Norway where I still live and work. I’m a woman, trying to juggle work, family and my computer related hobby without breaking anything in the process. Been successful so far, but only because I put the hobby part on the backburner from time to time. I came to IF through MUDS, I’m an amateur writer in a language that isn’t native to me, and an amateur coder. I can get very passionate about writing stories, and I really want to explore this genre to see what I can make of it :slight_smile:

Using TADS3 so far, no finished production to show for myself yet, and probably not for a year or more either. But eventually…

“Eventually” happens to function as a personal motto and helps me keep my goals in sight, so; Eventually, there will be IF games/stories by me and I owe the IF community a lot already for its patience with my questions. Hopefully, EVENTUALLY, I can repay the generosity too :slight_smile:

145

I know very little about Scandinavia, except that there are some Norwegians, Finns, and Swedes on just about every web forum I visit, on subjects from obscure 80s techno bands to Paleo low-carb diets. Since there doesn’t seem to be much else in common with those things, I’m guessing it’s a very technologically advanced place…?!

146

That is probably correct :slight_smile: According to The World Factbook Norwegian telecommunication is "modern in all respects; one of the most advanced telecommunications networks in Europe. " Maybe due to our rugged country? If it’s not going uphill, it’s going downhill, at least most of the places, and long cold winters gives indoor living and long distance connection from heated indoor spaces a certain appeal :wink:

147

Good consumer-protection laws might also have something to do with it. Around 1998 Canada was close to tops, worldwide, in connectivity. Now we trail most of the first world because our government (at least in Ontario) has let what is essentially a communications duopoly have their way with things. Download speeds have been pretty much frozen for most of a decade. Seems all our innovation now is inventing new ways of hiding/hiking fees, or new B.S. arguments justifying lower and lower bandwidth caps.

Paul.

148

Hi there,

My name’s Russ. I used to spend lots (and lots) of time on rec.*.int-fiction circa 1996, for which I can find myself credited precisely once on the ifwiki. I took a brief hiatus, attempted a return to form shortly before my country went insane, but managed to ruin one of the best games in the genre for N > 2 people (where N included the author of said game) within three days of my triumphant return. I’ve been living in relative seclusion since then, getting by on whatever scraps of enjoyment I could distill from the creatively bankrupt world of computerized entertainment (including a particularly geeked-out forum version of Werewolf and a beautiful little game called ‘Braid’). Somewhere along the way I managed to pick up a family. Too much sharing?

I have yet to publish a game and am desperately trying to lay the analysis paralysis aside and just start writing something in Inform 7 (although I do C++ professionally and therefore really really think I should be leaning towards TADS but that whole natural language thing is just so cool and…). It’ll be a miracle if I finish anything.

Glad to see the hobby is alive and well. I hope I manage to contribute something positive this time around.

– Russ

149

That may be so, but there are some Torontonians on just about every forum I visit too. And they’re all goths. :sunglasses:

150

I think Jim Aikin was the first to bring it up, but I’ve been hearing this everywhere and I think it’s great to know: You can’t think creatively and critically at the same time. Just write down a bunch of ideas, no matter how stupid they seem… I’m doing great with it so far. (okay, I guess that depends on who you ask, since I’m not being critical…)

Go for what’s fun! Learning new languages, and new styles of languages is good for you! TADS looks too much like what I do at work all day. Like I said in another thread, don’t be fooled by the “natural language” thing - I7 is a real programming language, and it’s got some very cool things about it from a programmer’s perspective. Ron Newcomb’s “Inform 7 For Programmers” goes into that a little bit…

151

Heh heh, we are still pretty numerous I admit. But when I hear about the connection speeds vs. prices they have in Northern Europe, it’s enough to make me weep.

P.S. Hi, Russ!

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I guess Canada got enough uphills, downhills and long cold winters on its own, to falsify my theory :smiley:

So hi, to all of you programmers! I admire your proficience in both your spoken and coded langue(s), inside and outside of Tads, and I am sure it’s just a matter of patience. If the motivation is there it will give results. Eventually!

153

I think I know the feeling. I’d like to contribute something positive to the community, but I’ve done far less than I feel like I should have been able to. Same goes for other internet communities I’ve been a part of, such as the MUD I used to play, where I think I did more harm than good. But I think the fact that you and I want to make a good difference means that we aren’t really ones who cause problems in the community. :slight_smile:

154

Hi, I’m Siavash. I’m Iranian and have lived my whole life in Tehran. During the rise and fall of commercial IF in the 80s I was yet to be reincarnated to my current soul, in other words I’m 20.
I became familiar with interactive fiction just a few weeks ago while reviving some old memories of “The Lone Wolf” books. I became so excited, started learning Inform and I’m already thinking about doing a game. anyway it’s nice to meet you all.

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155

Welcome to the forum, and good luck with the project.

156

I’m Bruno, and I’m a film student from Brazil. I’ve been a lurker, player, and very occasional participator in the IF community for a while now, but lately I’ve decided to get started on an IF writing project, largely due to a confluence of three factors: Towards the end of the year, I’ll have time for it; Inform 7 has really matured very nicely and is extremely usable; and I’ve actually had some experience with writing (I’m an honest to goodness screenwriter now, at least) that makes me more likely to actually get through a project. I have a great deal of ideas lying around and more than one game in some phase of planning or another, but I think I’ll do much better with help and by participating in the broader IF community. So, hello everyone.

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157

Greetings Wumpus-Hunters,

My name is Mark and I hail from the US. I guess a bit of background is in order…

My first computer was a C64, in the early 80’s. I was 15. I think it cost my parents something like $600. At the time, 64K surpassed the piddly 48K apple 2’s and trash-80s, and positively dwarfed Commodore’s own Vic 20. It came with the tape deck, but not the floppy-drive, which was a few hundred more.

I learned BASIC in a week, and was POKEing and PEEKing game designs shortly thereafter. My first computer adventure game was Temple of Apshai, by Epyx IIRC. It was basically a roguelike that came with a physical book (along with the tape-cassette) in which we looked up entries to describe the rooms and creatures we fought. To say the game was crude would be an understatement. Think gold-box D&D, but without the great :wink: graphics. But my buddy and I waited a half-hour for that damn cassette to load, and ended up playing most of the night. That and Jumpman.

So that’s some context. That’s about when I discovered Infocom. Zork 2 was my first text adventure, but I bought and played several later, including Starcross, Deadline, Enchanter, Planetfall, Infidel, Hitchhiker’s, and more Zorks, although some of them might of been on later machines (I got an Amiga after the C64 then eventually switched to IBM).

Sometime in the early to mid nineties I read an article in Computer Gaming World (I think it was called) about text adventures and TADS. A dedicated language just for text adventures? It was cool enough to set off my nerd-lust - I had to have it! So I ordered everything I could get from Mike Robert’s company (High-Energy?) - TADS 2.2 (with the hot-off-the-presses comb-bound Book of the Parser), Perdition’s Flames and Deep Space Drifter with hintbooks and feelies, and of course the TADS manual. Shortly thereafter I discovered the IF community on the internet, and have been lurking off and on ever since.

In 2008 I finally finished a game. It was an old-school puzzle-fest called Berrost’s Challenge that finished 10th and “won” the Golden Banana of Dischord award in the 2008 comp, a distinction of which I am proud for no rational reason.

That’s my background with IF, and way more than I intended to write, so I’ll shut up now and just say see ya round the campus.

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158

I have fond memories of Jumpman. I remember watching the guy climb the ladder in super-slo-mo as the tape loaded. I keep hearing about remakes, but I can’t imagine that any of them could be as good as the original.

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Berrost’s Challenge was one of the first IF games I played, and my first time through a puzzle-rich game involving a wizard’s apprentice. As a result I have a lot of fond nostalgia for it, despite the fact that it’s only been around for two years. I suspect it holds the same place in my heart that Zork does for others.

Thanks for making it!

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160

Wow, that is quite a compliment! I’m really very gratified that someone remembers my game so fondly. And you are very welcome!

Regarding Jumpman - Google Jumpman Under Construction if you are running windows - it is an extremely faithful windows clone of both Jumpman and Jumpman Junior. Retro-geeky overload! I installed it and ran it under windows 7 with no problems (just run as admin) and no need for dosbox or emulators.

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Awesome, Mike! I’m going to try this Berrost’s Challenge, I’ve just put it on my list. 8)

P.

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Hi, I’m Sean, a UNIX admin in the Twin Cities. I’ve been playing IF off and on for almost 30 years, but didn’t even know this community existed until last fall. Since then, I’ve been doing my best to catch up for all the lost time, but I still have a long list of must-play games ahead of me.

I’ve written a few reviews at IFDB, but mostly I just lurk. I bought Aaron Reed’s book a couple of months ago, and was inspired to try my hand at writing my own game, and it’s now in a testable state. If anyone is willing to test it, please drop me a line. (https://intfiction.org/t/beta-testers-wanted-for-bonehead/1711/1 – apologies for the plug).

Thanks, and nice to meet all of you.

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