Just coincidentally mentioned a Japanese IF from 1983 in the chat:
Chat messages mentioning Japanese IF:
So, someone kindly shared this to the Interactive Fiction Club Discord. This is basically an actual attempt to replace a traditional parser with an AI model. It also has the virtue of being free to play:
"This software is an educational demonstration of Natural Language Processing (NLP), an AI technology, as applied to the adventure game “The Portopia Serial Murder Case” (created by Yuji Horii and first published in Japan in 1983). At the time of the game’s original release, most adventure games were played using a “command input” system, where the player was asked to type in text to decide the actions of their character. Free text input systems like these allowed players to feel a great deal of freedom. However, they did come with one common source of frustration: players knowing what action they wanted to perform but being unable to do so because they could not find the right wording. This problem was caused by the limitations of PC performance and NLP technology of the time.
40 years have passed since then, and PC performance has drastically improved, as have the capabilities of NLP technology. Using “The Portopia Serial Murder Case” as a test case, we’d like to show you the capabilities of modern NLP and the impact it can have on adventure games, as well as deepen your understanding of NLP technologies."
If you would like to play the original game this was based off of first, some hardcore fans spent 4 years porting (and translating to English) the original NEC PC-8801 version to the NES emulator. It's really a labor of love:
Our Rev. B/B2 release features:
- Fully re-translated script by a native Japanese person who grew up in the USA and played the game when it first came out on a Famicom
- Additional code hacking to allow emulation on more emulators, more special characters creating improved Shinkaichi scene, more accurate menus, and more
- Fully translated manual in HTML format with graphics from the original Japanese manual
- Updated read-me with hints tailored to this release, since it now includes the actual manual translation
- New Secret Word, Secret Word entry form, and Updated Secret Page
- New map of game locations based on a Google Earth shot of Japan
You can read more about that restoration/translation project here: Romhacking.net - Translations - Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken
If you want to play the original Japanese version (text is Japanese, obviously), that rom can be found as well.
