Interactive Fiction Games
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 August 2009 02:32 Written by Administrator Tuesday, 11 August 2009 01:41
Interactive Fiction (IF) games are text only adventure games. Most of which were written years ago before computers went and got all prettied up with fancy things like color and pictures. In a nut shell you start the game, you read some text and tell the game what you would like to do via a command prompt. Go North, Sit Down, Turn on Lamp, Fill Bottle etc. are examples of commands you can give. Usually the simplier the command the better. IF games usually have great story lines, lots of puzzles to solve and are extremely addicting. Some of the original IF games had extremely simple parsers, meaning the commands you type in have to be very specific or the game will have no clue what you are telling it to do. Later games the parsers were much more advanced and are able to figure out your instructions better.
SPECIAL COMMANDS:
IF games use a number of special commands for various "housekeeping" chores. WARNING: Not all of these commands will work in every IF game.
| HELP | May (or may not) give you a hint. |
| SCORE | Will summarize your progress, so far. |
| INVENTORY | Will display a list of the items you are carrying, and those items you are wearing. |
| BRIEF | Will cause location descriptions to be brief. |
| VERBOSE | Will cause location descriptions to be very descriptive. |
| LOOK | Will give you a full (verbose) description of your current location. |
| LIST EXITS | Will list the obvious (visible) exits from your current location. There may be other ways to exit the location -- but they may not be obvious. |
| NOTIFY | Will cause game to notify player whenever the score changes. |
| SAVE GAME | Will save the current game status on disk. May not work due to browser security settings. |
| SAVE GAME | Will restore a previously saved game from disk.May not work due to browser security settings. |
| VIEW | Will allow you to view the various illustrations (if any) available at any location. For example, VIEW SCENE will show a picture of the current location, VIEW OGRE will show a picture of the ogre, etc. |
| QUIT | Quits the current game session. Always exit using QUIT -- so the game can erase some temporary data files and save disk space. |
Your commands should generally be in the format:
<verb> <(multiple) noun phrase(s)> <preposition> <noun phrase/object>
Some (hypothetical) examples of valid commands:
PLACE A RED ROCK IN THE SMALL BOWL
PUT THE GREEN ROCK AND THE SMALL PEBBLE BEHIND THE OAK TREE
READ MY POETRY BOOK
SWIM IN THE SWIMMING POOL
EXAMINE THE GOLD RING, THE DWARF AND THE SILVER NECKLACE
EAT THE CELERY, THE TUNA, THE APPLE AND THE ONION
THROW THE BATTLE AXE AND THE LARGE ROCK AT THE WEREWOLF
SHOOT THE BURGLAR WITH THE REVOLVER
ATTACK HIM ("HIM" will refer to last noun mentioned, e.g., the burglar)
FIRE THE LASER PISTOL AT THE ALIEN MUTANT
GET THE BOOK (also: TAKE THE BOOK)
READ IT ("IT" will refer to last noun mentioned, e.g., the book)
GET ALL (will get everything movable at the current location)
GET THE KEYS, BOTTLE, FOOD AND THE CLOAK
EXAMINE THE KEYS, BOTTLE, FOOD AND CLOAK
PUSH THE RED BUTTON AND THE GREEN BUTTON
UNLOCK THE FILE CABINET WITH THE STEEL KEY
JUMP THROUGH THE OPENING
JUMP OVER THE LOG
NORTH
GO NORTH
N (Short for North)
PLACE AN AXE AND THE SHIELD NEXT TO THE BIG TREE
PUT THE FOOD ON THE KITCHEN TABLE
TURN ON THE FLASHLIGHT
LIGHT THE TORCH WITH THE WOODEN MATCHES
SCREAM AT THE UGLY TROLL
CLIMB UP THE LADDER
EXTINGUISH THE FIRE (or PUT OUT THE FIRE)
DRINK THE WHITE WINE
THROW THE FIRE WOOD IN THE STOVE
PULL THE BELL CORD
WEAR THE STUPID HAT (also: PUT ON THE STUPID HAT)
TAKE OFF THE HAT (also: REMOVE THE HAT)
NE (for NORTHEAST)
DROP THE KEY AND THE BOTTLE
ENTER THE CAVE
XYZZY (i.e., a "magic" word)
TURN THE DOORKNOB
PLAY WITH THE DOG
TALK TO (or TALK WITH) THE OLD MAN (ABOUT THE WEATHER)
TELL JEFF ABOUT THE SWORD
ASK JODIE ABOUT THE CRIME
Compound commands can be created by connecting single commands (like those above) with "AND", "THEN" or the punctuation symbols "," or ";" to connect two or more separate commands. However, "end-of-sentence" punctuation symbols like ".", "!" and "?" should not be used. Below are a few examples of valid compound commands:
TURN THE DOORKNOB THEN ENTER THE CAVE
CLIMB DOWN THE LADDER THEN SOUTH, WEST AND NORTHWEST
GET THE CLOAK AND THEN EXAMINE IT; READ THE LABEL
DROP THE FOOD AND THE BOTTLE THEN UNLOCK THE DOOR AND THEN LEAVE
GET THE TORCH, LIGHT IT WITH THE WOODEN MATCHES THEN EXAMINE IT
If the game understands all of the words in your command, but still seems confused by the command -- then try to say the same thing using fewer words and a simpler sentence. When in doubt, simplify your input commands as much as possible. This also saves typing effort.