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From: amead@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu ()
Subject: unofficial TADS games list
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Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1993 17:35:58 GMT
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Here is a new version of my rather unhearalded TADS games list.  This version
strives for more consistency, better pointers to where the games might be, and
introduces a few new games.  Comments and additions are welcome. Treat this
list as opinion and rumor.


The Uncomplete, Unoffical list of TADS games.

v3.00

This list of TADS games and sources is unofficial and casual.  I
started out of curiousity and will maintain it as time allows.  This
list is not an endosement of TADS or the games listed here.  TADS is
one of several excellant products.  The discussion of which
language/system is best re-occurs periodically and this is NOT IT!

In all cases I have attempted to be accurate and current.  If you spot
any inaccracy or descrepancy, please contact me.  In particular, I
don't know where to obtain some of these games.

TADS is shareware as are most TADS games.  Support shareware by
registering or else it WILL disappear.

Nathan Torkington (gnat@kauri.vuw.ac.nz) also maintains a list of IF games.

The majority of TADS games are not yet finished, and a good deal of
space is devoted to these in this list. Hopefully, announcing the games
here will encourage authors to release games in a timely fashion and
hopefully only serious efforts will be pre-announced here.

Many TADS authors have email access through Compuserve.  Bear in mind
that they must pay actual cash to read and reply to email.  Their
addresses are formed as xxxxx.xxxx@CompuServe.com .

Thanks to ...

DB   David Baggett (dmb@ai.mit.edu)
RLB  Russell L. Bryan (rbryan@Mail.trincoll.edu)

Comments, etc to: amead@s.psych.uiuc.edu


Existing TADS games

Curse of VengeanceA (CoV)

	Description/Comments:  Fairly typical Dungeons & Dragons meets
	Text Adventure.  Includes extremely (perhaps too much so)
	simple combat system, armor and weapon classes, and a save the
	princess plot.

	"Unfortunately, the programmer considered combat to be more
	important than puzzles, and the general course of a game
	involves a lot of slogging through extremely boring
	battles."-RLB

	Author:  Scott C. McNab


Deep Space Drifter (DSD)

	Description\Comments:  Sequel to Ditch Day Drifter, you crash
	land onto a mysterious, recently deserted space station.  At
        one point you have to fly, very interesting.  Was actually written
        before DDD, very large game.

	Available from mdsos.archive.umich.edu in /msdos/gammes as
	'deepspac.zip' or the HE BBS.  Source available to registered users.

	Authors: Michael J. Roberts and Steve McAdams


Ditch Day Drifter (DDD)

	Description\Comments:  Bundled (ie, with source) in the TADS
	distribution.  Break into the senior's dorm room on Ditch Day.
	Has a maze.

	"[S]et on the Caltech campus; Mike Roberts' answer to Lurking
	Horror I guess (which is set on the MIT campus, where the
	Infocom folks all hailed from) [except that it's not gothic
	horror]."-DB

	Author: Michael J. Roberts (73737.417@CompuServe.com)


High Tech Drifter (HTD)

	Description/Comments:  The very first TADS game!  Available
        with source from the HE BBS.  Described as not quite finished.

	Author: Jim Cser (no-net-access?)


Lost (Lo)

	Description/Comments: While searching for riches in the forest,
	you come across a spaceship which takes you to different places
	and times.  Difficult from what I have heard, whatever that
	means.  Available from???

	"The game is quite large (the code is over 10,000 lines long)
	and has the largest  vocabulary that the compiler would allow."
	-- JH, the author

	Author: Jeffrey Hersh (???)


Save Princeton (SP)

	Comments/Description:  You're a visitor to Princeton's campus.
	While you're there, mysterious invaders take over campus, and
	you have to oust them.  Mac version available from umich.  DOS 
        version due 1 FEB 93.

        Neil K. (n_k_guy@sfu.ca) says, 
        Might best be summarized by this line from the game:

          "Jacob takes the disk and reads the label.  "TADS?  This looks 
           neat.  I've always wanted to write my own adventure game."  he 
           says.  "I'll make a game with all my friends in it, and clever 
           puzzles, and oodles of self-reference." 

	Author: Jacob Solomon Weinstein (jacobw@phoenix.Princeton.EDU)


The Great Archeological Race (TGAR)

	Description/Commnets: Adventure where you play the curator of a
	museum...and it's your job to help increase failing patronage
	by finding new artifacts.  Your quest leads you deep into the
	heart of the South American jungle, where you discover a whole
	new world!  Shareware ($21.95), from Absolute Zero.

	The version currently available at the HE BBS uses TADS v1.2x,
	so no undo etc.  Also, this game seemed slightly easier than
	some (perhaps because of its initial setting is rather more
	familiar than castles or space stations).  The plot, though, was
        rather more developed and explicit than most.  Source available to
	registered users.

        Author: John LaBonney (jlabonney@aol.com)


Unnkulian Underworld: The Unknown Unventure (UU1)

	Description\Comments: The first third-party TADS game to be
	generally circulated on Internet.  Irreverent parody of
	contemporary IF games.  Has a medieval flavor.  Has a maze.
	Available from the HE BBS and most Internet FTP sites.

	"Actually [Leary] wrote the first version in Pascal about eight
	years ago."-DB

	Author: D. A. Leary (76440.2671@CompuServe.com)


Unnkulian Unventure II: The Secret of Acme (UU2)

	Description\Comments: Sequel to sucessful UU1.  Seems to have
	more contemporary flavor.  Is, perhaps, wackier.  Available
	from the HE BBS and most Internet FTP sites.

	"Also has a maze, unfortunately.  Seemed like a good idea at
	the time.  (It wasn't.) [None the less, it's the] greatest
	thing since sliced bread!"  -DB  :-)

	Author: David Baggett (dmb@ai.mit.edu)


Forthcoming TADS games


Harold Jenkins, 30th Century Archaeologist: The Undergods Trilogy

	Description:  The beginning of a series with no visible end
	concerning the adventures of an archaeologist with the charisma
	and style of Indiana Jones and gadgets that would make James
	Bond blink.  The Undergods Trilogy: Unsavory characters
	forcefully hire Harry to recover three jewels from the temples
	of three rival cults on three different planets.  Part one,
	Firegods, is expected to be released in February of 1993.
	Seuqels Windgods and Watergods expected September 1993 and
	February 1994.

	Having seen the background materials to the Firegods game, I
	think it will be quite interesting.

	Author:  Russell L. Bryan <rbryan@Mail.trincoll.edu>

	Anticipated release:  FEB 1993


The Horror of Rylvania

	Author: D. A. Leary

	Comments: Leary's second TADS game.  A hard-edged gothic horror
	game that has been uploaded to a few BBS's but never officially
	released.  This probably won't be an official ADVENTIONS game
	but one of these days we'll make an archive of it and upload it
	to Internet sites.  (It's been on the "to do" list for a long
	time.)

	Anticipated release:  ???


The Legend Lives!
An Unnkulian Universe Unventure

	Author: David Baggett <dmb@ai.mit.edu>

	Comments: "The beginning of a new series.  We learn what life
	is like 500 years after UU2.  Needless to say, a lot has
	changed; unfortunately, the Unnkulians still appear to be
	around and causing trouble.  You take the role of a graduate
	student at Akmi Yooniversity who has made a terrifying
	discovery while exploring some old literature about the
	Unnkulians.  The fate of the galaxy rests in YOUR hands.
	(Surprise.)"

	"I'm working on this one now, and have been for many months.
	The game has several times as much text depth and density as,
	for example, UU2; hence it's been taking a *long* time.  Also,
	this one gets "serious" at points, though it still has plenty
	of humor scattered through it."

	Anticipated release:  early 93.


Unnkulia Zero: The Search for Amanda

	Author: D. A. Leary

	Comments: Finished and now in beta-test.  Quite possibly one of
	the biggest text adventures ever written, at least in terms of
	amount of text.  A truly mammoth game, it forced the switch to
	TADS 2.0 because 1.X couldn't handle it under DOS.  (Not enough
	conventional memory.)  In this game we learn about the early
	history of the Valley and the Unnkulians.  And we get a glimpse
	at the future.

	Anticipated release:  hopefully prior to MAR 93.


Unnkulia 1/2: The Salesman Triumphant

	Author: D. A. Leary

	Comments:  Somewhat smaller than UU1 and UU2.  Explores the
	trials and tribulations of a down-and-out Acme salesman.  Easy,
	especially compared to Unnkulia Zero or UU2.

	Anticipated release:  The schedule on this is the same as for
	Unnkulia Zero.



Unnkulian Unventure III: [to be determined]

	Author: Chris Nebel <nebel@wam.umd.edu>

	Comments: The sequel to UU2, wherein the cliffhanger ending is
	resolved.  May be the funniest one yet.  (Certainly the
	wackiest.)

	Anticipated release:  ???


A note about TADS

The Text Adventure Development System (TADS) is one of many systems
that make it easiler to write text adventures.  TADS currently supports
MSDOS, and Macintosh with a Atari ST port reportedly underway.  Game
sources and (v2.x) game files are portable.

TADS is shareware as are most TADS games.  Support shareware by
registering or else it WILL disappear.

TADS is available via anon-ftp from:

msdos.archive.umich.edu
mac.archive.umich.edu
atari.archive.umich.edu

and from the High Energy.


High Energy Software 
--------------------
Distributing: TADS, DSD, DDD, HTD 

BBS:                       US MAIL:         EMAIL:
High Energy BBS (HE BBS)   PO Box           Internet: 73737.417@compuserve.com
speeds up to 14,400        Palto Alto, CA   GEnie:    M.ROBERTS10
(415)493-2420  (N-8-1)     94303            CIS:      73737,417


Absolute Zero
-------------
Distributing: TGAR

US MAIL:                    PHONE:              EMAIL:
121 Park Avenue             (201)993-8146       jlabonney@aol.com
Convent Stsation, NJ 07961


Adventions
----------
Distributing: The Unkuulian Unadventures (UU1,UU2,etc)

EMAIL:
dmb@ai.mit.edu
