While pondering the relationship between IF, visual novels, and other kinds of text-heavy video games, I became curious about something. Is there a reasonably easy way to take the functionality of “[MORE]” and place it manually within a text?
Basically I’m thinking about a “wait for any key” style feature that prints and then later removes the [MORE] indicator. Similar to how interpreters do it automatically after a full page of text.
I’m guessing this might require the cooperation of a customized interpreter, but maybe there’s some sneaky combination of extensions, I7 and/or I6 code that can achieve a desirable effect?
I was thinking about something like this myself, for menu-based conversations - in some circumstances it might be nice to delete the menu after the user has made their choice, so it doesn’t break up the flow.
Depending on the context and on the exact effect you want to achieve, you could possibly get some results by experimenting with Emily Short’s “Basic Screen Effects” extension, which includes the ability to wait for a keypress from the player and to clear the screen. That should work on most interpreters (although Windows Frotz, for example, would clear the screen but would not purge your custom [More] indicator from the scrollback that the player could open in a separate window if he is so inclined - though I guess that would not really be a problem for your intended use).
If you need a lot of control over text that’s already been printed, then I’ll second maga’s suggestion to look at Vorple.
Otherwise:
The Interpreter writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Glulxe nor Git
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tricks wash out a Word of it.
(with apologies to Omar Khayyam)
Thanks for the ideas and hints, all. I’m inclined to go with the window route for the moment, as I have experience with the windows extension and know what’s what. Vorple is something I’ve been meaning to look into for reasons of curiosity as well, so I might explore it later on. I guess time (and the fluctuating nature of my project) will tell.
Of course, please do continue the discussion if you all please. The “flow control” of game text is always an interesting subject to me, and I’m sure others must have ideas as well.
I’ve been using VORPLE for a little while now. It seems to be very solid. I needed sounds for an adventure I’m writing.
Don’t count on using the Screen Effects extension. Some features of that package work and some don’t.
In VORPLE you often have to do things a bit differently e…g. screen clearing
Wait for a key won’t work in VORPLE, but the idea of using a modal dialog box might just be a temporary solution.