Interactive Fiction and Squeak (Re: Developing RPG)

Jesse Welton jwelton at pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu
Mon Jul 30 13:48:49 UTC 2001


G.J.Tielemans at dinkel.utwente.nl wrote:
>
> RPG: RolePlayGame or IF: InteractiveFiction... [...]
> Core of these programs is handling natural language [...]

As Frantisek already pointed out, he was talking about tile-based
games like Angband and NetHack rather than language-based interactive
fiction.  (These are commonly called Roguelike games, after the
classic prototype of the genre, Rogue.)

> Wouldn't it be nice to combine the power of Squeak with this virtual
> Z-machine?

Frankly, I don't see much point to this.  If you mean implementing a
z-code interpreter in Squeak, it might be a fun project, but there are
already fine z-code interpreters available for more platforms than
Squeak runs on.  If you mean compiling Squeak to the z-machine, I
don't in fact think that Squeak would be any more powerful or
convenient than top IF languages because it lacks convenience features
(that while not actually necessary, are *extremely* convenient) for
writing IF.  Furthermore, compiling to the Z Machine places severe
memory constraints on a program which Squeak would be hard pressed to
satisfy.

More interesting would be an entirely Squeak-based IF system that
could offer something new (which couldn't really be said for a z-code
implementation in Squeak or compiling Squeak to z-code).  An etoy-like
or etoy-based graphical adventure construction kit could fit the bill,
as I think it would be the first widely cross-platform compatible such
system, and one of the few providing access to a complete and flexible
underlying system.

Roger Kenyon wrote:
> 
> The Cloak of Darkness site (http://homepages.tesco.net/~roger.firth/cloak/)
> is a good place to compare the various text adventure languages. Inform is
> the most powerful, but not very friendly.

That's a bold unilateral statement.  Inform has, hrm, Very Strong
Competition for that title from TADS, at the very least.  I would
certainly direct interested Squeak programmers to TADS before Inform,
because it has a much higher-level object model that I think would
appeal more to Squeak programmers.  The object model is, in fact,
rather reminiscent of Self; it's basically prototype-based and has a
remarkably sensible multiple inheritance scheme.  With TADS 3 are
coming many other high-level features Smalltalkers will like, such as
anonymous functions (ie, Blocks).

>  ALAN is the most friendly, but not
> very visual. Adrift is easy and visual, but Windows only. A digiTALE
> implemented in Squeak might be a better way of going about browser-based
> text adventures. 

I've never understood why someone would want to run a text adventure
in a browser.

-Jesse





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