Save and Load a Game?

Hopefully this is my last noob question: how does a player Save and Load a game I created in Inform? I’d like to include this in my instructions, but I can’t seem to find the answer. Is it dependent on the Interpreter they’ve downloaded to play the game, or does Inform have a built-in system? Maybe I just missed this part in the manuals?

Thanks!

Inform has a built-in system. (Specifically, saving and restoring are out of world actions. For a full list of out of world actions, go to the Index, Actions tab, and look under ‘Standard actions which happen out of world’.) >SAVE and >RESTORE are the relevant commands.

Whether or not those actions actually work is interpreter and platform dependent, however.

Thanks, but when I try that in Inform (in the “game” tab/window) it says “save failed”. Is this because I’m “in” Inform i.e. - I have the skein and the editor? If I was simply playing it would work? Also, it’s not very specific about what the player actually types. Do they just type “Save” or do they have to specify the name of the save game? Ditto for Restore?

EDIT: Thanks Blecki - I didn’t see your post there.

I don’t think you can save or restore in Inform 7’s editor unless you make your own data recording system. As for the original save system, it will always result in a “failed” message if you try under the game tab.

By default the only commands that work are “save” and “restore.” The user should not specify file names, as the interpreter will bring up its own window or other kind of prompt to let people choose the file to work with.

You generally type Save and then get a dialog box asking where to save the file, the same way you would in a normal application. Same with Restore.

Save and restore should work in the Inform application. If they don’t, could you file a bug report?

Should they? Every time someone has asked about this it’s been dismissed with “it’s just the IDE”. I assumed it’s by design, especially since save games aren’t compatible between versions and the story file you’re working with in the IDE is changing all the time.

Save and load work in the Mac IDE. (Although, as you say, they’re not all that useful.)

Really? I’ve always assumed that save and restore weren’t meant to work in the Inform 7 IDE and that they’re only meant to work when the game is released. In that case I can file that report if no one has already done so.

That’s done now. You can view it here.

Apparently, save and restore in the Inform 7 IDE deliberately doesn’t work.

The Windows IDE, you mean.

So, belatedly, yes, although save and restore work on other platforms, I see the Windows IDE source intentionally causes a failure. Sorry for my unqualified statement. Further discussion on Mantis.

Well, it’s better that save and restore work rather than not since it could come in useful for those tinkering with the save and restore mechanism and the author wouldn’t have to “release” the game just to test such features. Plus, everything else that doesn’t deal with the save and restore mechanism won’t be affected.

Yeah, that one! :wink: