Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
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From: htc@dcl-nxt01 (htc)
Subject: Re: Writing IF games
Date: Wed, 26 May 1993 18:04:56 GMT
Message-ID: <C7nBK8.Lo8@news.cso.uiuc.edu>
References: <1993May26.005836.24231@news.duc.auburn.edu>
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Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
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First of all, good luck to you! I've been trying to develop an IF game system
for the past two years in windows, with automapping, graphics, iconic objects
multiple windows, etc. And after all that time, I'm just now getting to the
point of writing what I call the command processor, the part that handles 
the verb processing. I am also an engineer (and proud of being a Nerd), 
and they way I learned about game programming was by purchasing the Adventure
Game Toolkit (AGT). It is a very good, simple game system, and gave me a lot
of insight into how games could be structured. I exceeded the memory limits
fairly quickly, but it was a very good learning experience. Some other systems
are also available, with TADS and GAGS and ADVSYS coming to mind. I've not used
these much, but I've heard they are good. (I'm sure someone on the net would
love to argue the merits of these systems.) Anyway, good luck, and here are
some thoughts that might help: 1. It's lot's of work, so be prepared, and 2.
I have to make an appeal for you to learn C and try it. Why? The biggest
reason (other than that I am a C fan) is that the 64K limits in BASIC may end
up hurting you as your game gets bigger. (No arguments, please!)
Jim Montanus +++
htc@sumter.cso.uiuc.edub
