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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