Disclaimer: I’m a blind linux user who does 99% of what he doesn’t do in a web browser at the linux console(not to be confused with using a terminal emulator, my desktop is running on tty7, I switch to tty1-6 for non-GUI stuff unless I need a terminal emulator for somreason(such as copying a URL for batch downloading a youtube channel via yt-dlp).
That said, features I would like in a modern parser interface:
up/down to review command history.
Tab completion of commands and their arguments(and I confess, I didn’t realize Frotz includes this prior to it being mentioned above, though Glulxe doesn’t appear to have it).
automatic conversion of unicode characters to ascii.
Automatic transcript that’s on by default, ideally saved as a ascii encoded .txt in the same folder as the story file with the same base filename as the story file(e.g. play Zork I.z5 and the transcript is saved as Zork I.txt) with automatic append if a previous transcript is present.
Autosave, keeping multiple save files, default name being base filename a sequential number and .save, the transcript including markers along the line of <save ###> with a blank line before and after each marker, or some other mechanism to make it easy to tell which save corresponds to where in the transcript. perhaps also markers to indicate when a save was restored and perhaps an option to produce a shortened transcript that cuts out sections undone by a restore. Generally, automate “save early, save often”, prevent “I shouldn’t have overwritten that save” regrets, and make it easy for a player to figure out which save to restore when they get into an unwinnable situation.
The parser interface being smart enough to translate natural sentences into parserish for games with dumb or obtuse parsers would be nice, though I agree tiny llm is kind of oxymoronic, though it’s true that llms vary greatly in size and pretty much all size words are kind of arbitrary, vague and relative(which is why I hate clothes with small, medium, and large sizes instead of just listing the garment’s measurements or drink sizes of small, medium, and large instead of just listing the number of ounces or milliliters, plus what’s huge in terms of a precious gemstone that’s the centerpiece of a ring is a tiny pebble in terms of rocks in general).
An parser interface that’s connected to an AI-powered TTS engine and smart enough to apply different voices to different NPCs and the narrator would be nice, especially if it had voice sets for different aesthetic genres(e.g. giving the narrator a wise old wizard voice in a medieval fantasy game, but a sci-fi AI voice in a space opera game), but I’ll settle for continuing to use espeak-ng’s default British English voice for everything.