The week in IF #10
QOTW: “Well, the >TWIRL MOUSTACHE (cool thing you can’t believe the author implemented) along with the sensation of coming up with a solution to a puzzle in everyday life and racing back to the game to try it out are the two things that make IF the best genre of game, IMO. I don’t know that I’d personally want to create a game that robbed the player of a chance for either of those two things. But I also believe there’s grammar in all kinds of games – the gun that shoots nuclear missiles in Fallout 3 being unable to take out the wall of a building is just as bogus as a text game not understanding an adverb.” — Robb Sherwin
“Reminder: Grue Street Next Sunday June 13th” [Boston IF workshop]
http://groups.google.com/group/boston-if/browse_frm/thread/6ed4d04afc7784b9#
“Inform in my own language”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/02b9291e62a97516#
“Boston GameLoop unconference August 28th”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1145
“Adrift game beta tester needed”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1142
“D-Day trailer released”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1141
[see also]
“D-Day trailer release”
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/f/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=3;t=7393
“Emily Short — Down with Parsers!”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1144
[see also]
“So, Do We Need This Parser Thing Anyway?”
http://emshort.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/so-do-we-need-this-parser-thing-anyway/
“IF Accessibility”
http://chicagodave.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/if-accessibility/
“The IF Trainer project”
http://nitku.net/blog/2010/06/the-if-trainer-project/
“What is a completed IF game?”
http://chicagodave.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/what-is-a-completed-if-game/
“The First Oration against the Parser”
http://nickm.com/post/2010/06/the-first-oration-against-the-parser/
“The Parser as a Symptom, not a Problem”
http://chicagodave.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/the-parser-as-a-symptom-not-a-problem/
“Parser Discussion, Redux”
http://emshort.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/parser-discussion-redux/
“El profesor Moriarty critica el aspecto y el parser de las aventuras modernas” [discussion of Brian Moriarty's recent criticism of IF]
http://foro.caad.es/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3984&start=0&sid=4f03e0f3369ee80afe81272accce1115
“POLL: Parser in IF”
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/f/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7402
“VOTE, please” [Spring Ting voting]
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/f/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=17;t=7404
“New version of QSP” [Russian IF system with some English support]
http://forum.ifiction.ru/viewtopic.php?id=357&action=new
The week in IF #9
New Releases: A Sadly Hopeless Deja Vu, by Taro.
ROTW: Nusco reviews Duncan Bowsman’s The Ascot: “Very good against all odds”
QOTW: “- “It’s not just ______ anymore…” Look. I know what you’re trying to do here. You’re trying to put it into a trend-story framework (whether there’s enough momentum in the scene to even qualify as a trend story right now is another question; I’d love to think there is.) You want IF to be the Comeback Kid. You want IF to be cupcakes. But this sentence is as cliched as ledes that mention “POW! BIFF!” and it carries a subtle put-down: namely, that IF is not just the crap it used to be. Which is irritating to those of us who don’t see it as crap.” — Self as Fractal
[from]
“A list of things I never want to see again in IF coverage”
http://selfasfractal.blogspot.com/2010/06/list-of-things-i-never-want-to-see.html
“Said article” [IF article in Australian print magazine Hyper]
http://www.inthecompanyofgrues.com/?p=135
“Seeking testers for Mac OS X version of new Multimedia Tads interpreter” [new version]
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/b9951a444460e736#
“IF Podcast?”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/93e04c9823155769#
“Podcast #ifrus” [first Russian language IF podcast]
http://forum.ifiction.ru/viewtopic.php?id=1399
“QSP-Compo 2010″ [Russian IF compo]
http://qsp.su/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61&Itemid=64
“I7/Glulx: Text window I/O control extension”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/083270945f9cd3bc#
“Archive RSS feed” [IF Archive]
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/4ae5a77b2a3930f7#
“Quixe beta-test” [Glulx in the browser, like the Parchment interpreter]
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/29ef03dc2454f6da#
“Beta Testers Needed: ‘Flight of the Hummingbird’”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1136
“little story help” [collaboration, writer wanted for adventure game]
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/f/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=17;t=7383
“German radio chatter” [ISO audio resources for Adrift game]
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/f/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=17;t=7391
“Nintendo DS JACL”
http://jacl.game-host.org:8080/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=125
The week in IF #8
New Releases: The German Grand Prix 2010 [German IF compo]
QOTW: “I started writing JACL as a way of teaching myself C, armed only with my [trusty] Amiga 1000, a copy of The C Programming Language and a bottle of Coke. Having managed to get “Hello World” to finally compile I decided an IF language was the obvious next project. The arrogance of youth, hey?” — Stuart Allen
“How a work of IF comes together (from the inside)”
http://www.inthecompanyofgrues.com/?p=131
“May development update”
http://inform7.com/news/2010/05/28/inform-7-update/
“SPAG #58 is now available”
http://www.sparkynet.com/spag/backissues/spag58.html
“Chicago IF Group Moving Out of Ning.Com”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1122
“IF at Pax Prime, Sept. 3rd-5th”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1120
“IntroComp intent-to-enter deadline approaching”
http://groups.google.com/group/boston-if/t/9ea44abbba4d42de
“Seeking testers for Being There – a short experimental notgame”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/8f59df54db4eda3f#
“[Atmosphere]-heavy low-puzzle recommendations?”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/43fdb7fff9f7cbd3#
“JACL on the Haiku operative system”
http://jacl.game-host.org:8080/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=115
The week in IF #7
New Release: Works of Fiction, by JB (author of Ekphrasis among others).
ROTW: TempestDash reviews Nolan Bonvouloir’s The Primrose Path: “Everything coming up primroses…”
QOTW:
You: You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully.
Stranger: The fuck
You: That’s not a verb I recognise.
Your conversational partner has disconnected.
[from]
“Omegle and the Z-Machine”
http://www.joltcountry.com/index.php/features/chatroulette-and-the-z-machine
“Ten tips for writing entry-level IF”
http://www.inthecompanyofgrues.com/?p=121
“Ruby IF challenge” [Ruby Programming Challenge for Newbies due May 24th]
http://github.com/avdi/rpcfn-interactive-fiction
“IF in College Education?”
http://nickm.com/post/2010/05/if-in-college-education/
“IF on FaceBook”
http://www.inthecompanyofgrues.com/?p=124
“Endings in Interactive Fiction, Part 2 of 2″
http://www.jeremiahmattocks.com/blog/endings-in-interactive-fiction-part-2-of-2
“Endings in Interactive Fiction, Part 1 of 2″
http://www.jeremiahmattocks.com/blog/endings-in-interactive-fiction-part-1-of-2
“Network services, part 2″ [TADS 3 new features series]
http://community.livejournal.com/tads3/4495.html
“Grue Street: Next IF Writer’s Group Meeting on June 13th”
http://groups.google.com/group/boston-if/t/ccb71dd2201d105d
“Minutes of the Meeting of the Month of May”
http://groups.google.com/group/seattle-if/t/1eb54925834e02c1
“Text Zedventure for Xbox 360″
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/1871329d88449f0a#
“New Game: Works of Fiction”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/fe0c71d09a56d4c7#
“Playing Cards, Subtitles Processing, Virtual Maze Generator for TADS 3″ [extension release]
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/a92697a11dbcee8d#
“ZMPP/Glulx update” [Glulx games in the browser]
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/f9e3b8aa3aff6615#
“JACL 2.8″
http://jacl.game-host.org:8080/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=113
“InsideADRIFT Summer Competition 2010″
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/f/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=3;t=7377
“Adrift Critique?”
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/f/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7370
“Comp Ideas”
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/f/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7227
“We tried an IF Writer’s Workshop” [meeting report for Grue Street]
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1109
“Domain Specific Languages and IF”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1110
The week in IF #6
QOTW: “I have no interest in the history of flames or one’s democratic right to be an asshat. Some “knowledge” isn’t. Life is short.” — Ron Newcomb
ROTW: AmberShards reviews Andrey Grankin’s Suprematism in IF: “Huh?”
“June meetup: Monday, June 28″
http://groups.google.com/group/boston-if/browse_frm/thread/cb1ce939396649a8#
“1893: A World’s Fair Mystery 4000″ [1893: AWFM breaks 4000 sold, last chance to buy a hard copy]
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/1dcd98a1fb1c06b7#
“Seattle IF May meetup this Saturday, the 15th, at 3:30 PM”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/2f03703f8a937875#
“Reminder: IntroComp 2010″
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/85d960dacc864888#
“Promotional CD and Outreach”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1093
“Looking for writer/designer of graphical adventure game”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1098
“Network services, part 1″ [new networking capability for TADS 3]
http://community.livejournal.com/tads3/4250.html
“Text Games That Aren’t Parser IF”
http://emshort.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/text-games-that-arent-parser-if/
“Chicago IF Group Kicks Off” [meeting report]
http://chicagodave.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/chicago-if-group-kicks-off/
“Visual Grunking” [great hand-drawn map for Lost Pig]
http://www.inthecompanyofgrues.com/?p=111
“POLL: Any interest in a Summer Comp?”
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/f/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7355
“Multiplayer JACL”
http://jacl.game-host.org:8080/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=107
The week in IF #5
ROTW: Irfon-Kim Ahmad reviews Victor Gijsbers’ Fate: “Sufficiently makes its point, could have been more rewarding”.
QOTW: “Okay. Now, somebody just needs to write a ZIL program to use the Z-machine’s transcript facility to create a MIDI file of a Bach piece.” — Jayson Smith
“News on ClubFloyd: Game for May 8th: Fragile Shells”
http://ifdb.tads.org/newslog?newsid=9
“Grue Street, an IF Writers’ Group, meets May 16″
http://groups.google.com/group/boston-if/t/abc9e7614d44c27d
“As-yet-unnamed IF Players/Readers’ Group, meets June 27 at MIT”
http://groups.google.com/group/boston-if/t/ea10f9bef2db1b79
“ZIL: My first silly example game” [as in ZIL, the language used by Infocom]
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/e1343a0b7cdf5a34#
[see also]
“ZILF 0.3″ [compiler for ZIL]
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1081
“Chicago IF Group – Kickoff Meeting”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/f2ac0a5ec631e171#
“IF competition at @party – remote entries welcome”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/c491cd82c0de0316#
“Weekend beta testers” [for Aaron Reed's new tutorial game]
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1084
“Review guidelines?”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1070
“The Dreaded Inform Carriage Return Problem”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1067
“T3 in a Browser”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1068
“TADS3 on the Mac OSX”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1085
“Gargoyle for Mac”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=1071
“Update to 3.0.7-PL1″ [adds RSS support to Intfiction forum]
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1072
“Annual Adrift game of the year 2010″
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/f/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=3;t=7344
“D-Day beta” [call for beta testers]
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/f/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=4;t=7345
“Is Adrift finally dead?”
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/f/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7337
“JACL 2.7.1″
http://jacl.game-host.org:8080/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=106
“ZMPP now with Glulx” [Glulx games in the browser as an applet]
http://inform7.com/news/2010/05/02/zmpp-now-with-glulx/
“The Second Annual MetaFilter Interactive Contest”
http://metatalk.metafilter.com/19208/The-Second-Annual-MetaFilter-Interactive-Contest
“The TADS fatigue”
http://nitku.net/blog/2010/05/the-tads-fatigue/
“FyreVM now Open Source” [glulx interpreter for Textfyre games]
http://chicagodave.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/fyrevm-now-open-source/
The week in IF #4
ROTW: Saffron reviews Chris Klimas’ Mercy : “A haunting piece of humanity”.
QOTW: “I tend to way overcomplicate things (“hmm, that’d be cool, but of course I’d need to write seven hundred conversational replies for each NPC and incorporate a flocking algorithm”), which simply isn’t a thing you can do with 140 characters.” — Pissy Little Sausages
“Inform 7 Tips — Keyword Disambiguation for Verb/Noun Conflicts”
http://www.wigdahl.net/quern/2010/04/26/inform-7-tips-keyword-disambiguation-for-verbnoun-conflicts/
“Inform 7 Tips — Syntax Options for Action Responses”
http://www.wigdahl.net/quern/2010/04/28/inform-7-tips-syntax-options-for-action-responses/
“A New User Experience”
http://chicagodave.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/a-new-user-experience/
“TWIF Plus” [extended twitter-sized IF compo]
http://www.inthecompanyofgrues.com/?p=92
[see also]
“Bonus Extended TWIFcomp On Now! Tell Your Friends! Tell People You Don’t Even Like!”
http://pissylittlesausages.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/bonus-extended-twifcomp-on-now-tell-your-friends-tell-people-you-dont-even-like/
“[Boston] PR-IF (aka Boston IF) Meetup, May 3″
http://gameshelf.jmac.org/2010/04/boston-pr-if-aka-boston-if-mee.html
“Publications Etc.” [link to Aaron A. Reed interview and more]
http://lacunagame.blogspot.com/2010/04/publications-etc.html
“Change Log for the Next Build” [Inform 7]
http://inform7.com/news/2010/04/28/change-log-for-the-next-build/
“Dynamic features, part 4″
http://community.livejournal.com/tads3/3466.html
“Creating a ‘smartphone’ in ADRIFT”
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/f/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=4;t=7335
“TWIFComp” [IF in Whitespace?]
http://www.joltcountry.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6114
“TWIFcomp: Programming Languages”
http://blog.templaro.com/?p=172
“TWIFcomp” [homepage - voting ends 16:00 GMT May 1]
http://dhakajack.templaro.com/
“9 Phoenix conversions”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1060
“INSTEAD” [IF/Visual novel hybrid development system]
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1001
“PAX Panel Thoughts”
http://groups.google.com/group/seattle-if/t/6363b96123721930
“OMG It’s finally out!!!!” [JACL IF dev system new release]
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/bafb9e796a5aa540#
“Teaching and Learning with Interactive Fiction”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/7257714c1e8c8328#
The week in IF #3
QOTW: “IF: it’s like a crazy virus.” — Emily Short
“IF competition at @party this June!”
http://groups.google.com/group/boston-if/browse_frm/thread/25e2efb6eab51e78#
“PAX Prime IF Organizers Comittee”
http://groups.google.com/group/seattle-if/browse_frm/thread/704d67854ea4f91b#
“IF At Foolscap”
http://groups.google.com/group/seattle-if/browse_frm/thread/b8d132c9d435cef7#
“Looking for writers”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/affd4617aa62576a#
“New: San Francisco Bay Area Interactive Fiction Meetup”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/8b1f7895b36e6a79#
“New: Chicago Interactive Fiction Group”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/5815fd5439b09abd#
“Maze generator extension for TADS 3 released”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1056
“XBox 360 development with XNA Game Studio?” [for IF/CYOA]
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1052
“Meeting notes from Seattle meet-uip”
http://emshort.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/meeting-notes-from-seattle-meet-up/
“March Writing Spiel” [a couple of interactive non-fiction works]
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/f/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=6;t=7293
[see also]
“March Writing Spiel”
http://ifwiki.org/index.php/March_Writing_Spiel
“Convenience features, part 3″
http://community.livejournal.com/tads3/3203.html
“Dynamic features, part 3″
http://community.livejournal.com/tads3/3045.html
The week in IF #2
Realizing that anyone who wants a full list of links can subscribe to a source’s RSS feed, this week the format is a selection of newsworthy, notable, and interesting links according to our own prejudices. Any feedback is appreciated in the comments. — the eds.
QOTW: “Me (indignantly): ‘What do you mean you don’t care about the poker with the bloodstains on it?” — In the Company of Grues
“PAX East 2010 videos are up”
http://groups.google.com/group/boston-if/browse_frm/thread/f11ec7f85173add4#
“event at Readercon”
http://groups.google.com/group/boston-if/browse_frm/thread/b2715e2993574571#
“Request for Content for SPAG #58″
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/cb8bba69f57f379d#
“Seeking testers for Mac OS X version of new Multimedia Tads interpreter”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/8467bf6c2e3d5ba9#
“An I7 Game Template”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/fe3ea5c0e02921e3#
“YAIFC: Announcing TWIFcomp”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/bbc3bcd85bcd348c/5cdf87e4d2f0ddaa#5cdf87e4d2f0ddaa
“IF article in The Guardian newspaper (UK)”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/17e98846c03fc72b#
“how accessable is inform 7 for screen readers please?”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/d6bb6f8a7ca2efcc#
“I7: Z-Machine Readable Memory Saving Tips”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/4d317bd983e1c208#
“How is Frotz on the iPad”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/036e82ec2bdfe0fd#
“Spring Thing 2010 Results”
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/7370a33eb187cee0#
“Web based IF using any Platform”
http://chicagodave.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/web-based-if-using-any-platform/
“IF competitions: put an iPad where your mouth is! (pt 2)”
http://www.inthecompanyofgrues.com/?p=57
“Choice of… games (CYOA games)”
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/f/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=7324
“Ten twitter-length IFs released”
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1045
“Standards for creating a competent, modern IF in Inform 7″
http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1042
“Dynamic features, part 2″
http://community.livejournal.com/tads3/2531.html
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