Inform 7, YAY ^_^

Nihil Vulture · Post by **Nihil Vulture** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:03 am

Hey guys, this maybe common knowledge, but if you want to, you can make an Interactive Fiction easily with Inform 7... It's all in english sentence form... So it's very easy then to hard code it in a C/C++ like language... And best of all, it's FREE and compiles to a ZMachine file! I use DOS Frotz for the games I download...

And Jonesy, you made Fallacy of Dawn? I might as well play it now ^_^

NV

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:27 am

Inform 7 is absolutely one of those cool technologies I want to get into when I get a chance. Maybe after I get a chance to put something together in ACK, heh.

And Jonesy, you made Fallacy of Dawn? I might as well play it now ^_^

I did! It should be nice and stable at this point. Additionally, the links here should now never redirect to a dead server (like they were doing as of a week ago). Let me know if an attempt to download it gives you any trouble.

I also need to write up a page that references the amazing work Mike Roberts did on the site http://ifdb.tads.org. It lets you just browse for a game, click on it, and it runs. All the interpreter crap is streamlined.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 3:03 pm

The main problem I had learning I7 is that anytime you needed to do anything cool, you had to inline I6 in there. At that point, why not just write I6?

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 3:22 pm

Well, I7 creates a website for you, handles the interactions between objects very well, lets you debug and make changes "on the fly" (in a way that the other systems don't) and lets you -- as far as I know - set things up with a few master strokes of Englishy words.

One of the Bruces releases the source code to his work in progress. I think it must be the largest work in development for I7, you can check it to see how I6y he got/gets.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 3:43 pm

LINK PLZ

bruce · Post by **bruce** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 6:11 pm

pinback wrote:LINK PLZ

Ain't public.

PM me if you really want it. Or email me if you know my email address.

Also, I don't think I'm saying things I shouldn't when I say that the source code to I7 will not be closed forever.

Also also, I've heard of at least one larger I7 project. Although mine is now more than 100,000 words.

This project has also killed one character model (Vinnie, my eldest and deeply beloved dog, December 6, 2007) and one betatester (Gin, my one-time roommate and dear friend, July 28, 2007). So you might not want to look at it, in case it kills you too.

Bruce

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 6:29 pm

"One died of alcohol poisoning, and the other one was my roommate."

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 8:15 pm

I will get the two of you in mail together. My Internet Partner and the beard that has destroyed three other castles, all together, fighting for text adventures once again!

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 8:13 pm

bruce wrote:Also also, I've heard of at least one larger I7 project.

Is this the recreation of Anchorhead? I won't engage in the guessing game if so, but I am just curious if there is a game out there that I haven't heard about that is that size.

This project has also killed one character model (Vinnie, my eldest and deeply beloved dog, December 6, 2007)

We'll make sure he is still in the game for that pic I do. Also, did you get the message I sent out after you told me? A tribute to Vinnie in the game I am doing, which is basically about animals, seemed to fit.

bruce · Post by **bruce** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 10:29 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:
bruce wrote:Also also, I've heard of at least one larger I7 project.
Is this the recreation of Anchorhead? I won't engage in the guessing game if so, but I am just curious if there is a game out there that I haven't heard about that is that size.

Nope. This is something completely different, I think. It was news to me, although I don't know for totally sure that it's not the Anchorhead remake, but I don't think it is.

This project has also killed one character model (Vinnie, my eldest and deeply beloved dog, December 6, 2007)
We'll make sure he is still in the game for that pic I do. Also, did you get the message I sent out after you told me? A tribute to Vinnie in the game I am doing, which is basically about animals, seemed to fit.

I did not. Please resend it. Despite her rather masculine name, Vinnie was a she. It was short for "Piss and Vinegar." Damn, I miss her.

Bruce

Garth's Equipment Shop · Tue Dec 16, 2008 12:25 am

As a long time user of TADS, TADS2 and TADS3 [all TADS3 now - never looking back] I tried the new Inform out and quite frankly I hated it. It is certainly an impressive accomplishment for what it is but from an experienced IF designer's point of view - accustomed to having complete control over my code using long standing traditional programming concepts - I just could not get into this unprecedented newfangled approach to IF programming. But it would be cool if this new way did open up the world of IF design to a wider audience. I'm all for it if can do that. Though I will continue to use TADS3 myself for any IF I create. Michael Roberts, Eric Eve, Stephen Breslin and all the others who contributed to TADS3 over the years are the true gods of IF! :razz:

bruce · Post by **bruce** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 9:04 pm

Garth's Equipment Shop wrote:Michael Roberts, Eric Eve, Stephen Breslin and all the others who contributed to TADS3 over the years are the true gods of IF! :razz:

Two outta three ain't bad, as the redoubtable Mr. Loaf once put it.

Bruce

Garth's Equipment Shop · Wed Dec 17, 2008 10:50 pm

Yeah I know Steve was one of those people in the IF community who many loved to hate and I could have named quote a few others who did their part to keep the T3 enthusiasm alive. But while I followed as much of the technical IF discussions I could I generally steered clear of any threads that threatened to turn into a war between the two superpowers of the IF world.

I hated it when threads got hijacked by overzealous crusaders causing normally mature, civilized and extremely intelligent people to descend into a sickening miasma of mud-slinging madness. So I never paid much attention to those fights that broke out between Steve and everyone else.

All I know of him is from the many times he helped me figure out some of the really sophisticated coding you can do in T3 and also from the pioneering work he did with some of his great T3 library contributions. I definitely would never have gotten as far with T3 as I did without his help. So in spite of his personality or personal faults [which I know little about] I must give credit where credit is due.

Of course, I've been away from RAIF since 2006 so I have no idea what has transpired since then. I guess the infighting must have gotten worse since then.

bruce · Post by **bruce** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 6:28 pm

Garth's Equipment Shop wrote:Of course, I've been away from RAIF since 2006 so I have no idea what has transpired since then. I guess the infighting must have gotten worse since then.

It's like there are two Steve Breslins.

One is a pretty intelligent and interesting guy who has interesting thoughts about IF and sometimes writes them up as demos.

And then it seems like every so often he goes off his meds and goes apeshit attacking I7, Graham Nelson, and Emily Short.

It's weird.

Bruce