text based adventure game for the ti 83 series

[geekboy1011]

ok well after remembering a really cool game i played oh so long ago i spent the better half of last night finding it again so i could play it XD

this game was called photopia it was a text based adventure game
http://adamcadre.ac/if.html

choose the self contaned exe so you can play it (if your on linux use wine i guess ):)

ok now on to the point

i was wondering if people would like to be able to play games like this on the calc

and also what people think of the style of game play :)

tell me what you think

[Bhaliar]

Text-based games have been done. They may be interesting if something unique or new is in them. I made my own version actually. But text based is easy to do in ti-basic so its done alot.

[hotdog1234]

That's just it...whatever you could do in text-based games, chances are it's already been done, because people have been programming for the ti-83 series for at least 13 years.

That's why many people do xlib, asm or Celtic III...because of what you can do with it, it adds a whole palette of new and innovative ideas one can do. If you want to look at text-based, you would need to give people a reason to play it, not just "Another text-based game." And let me just say that people have come up with some great text-based games.

[IAmACalculator]

Actually, text based games of that type, technically called Interactive Fiction (IF), are still being developed, with thriving communities built around them. They're kinda like MUDs and calculators in that respect. Photopia is one of the most popular games in the genre.

The Quill RTI and Quill Writer are IF implementations for the 89 and 92. They work pretty well in my experience (use Ghostbuster on an 89Ti). Another program of this type is Foblub, which actually can convert old Infocom adventure games into calc format. I haven't tested that one, though.

EDIT: There's also this for the 68ks again. I haven't seen anything really outstanding for the z80 series.

[geekboy1011]

Yay some one who actually knows what a IF game is and hasn't said it to be to unoriginal and overly done before


i agree that there would need to be a good reason to have this original but i was thinking more along the lines of a engine
with a easy to use format for the actuall info files

iAmAcalculator: do you think it would be worth it to make this (asking out of curiosity to someone who seems somewhat interested )




Edit: relized i was sounding rude so i fixed it not wanting to be mean/rude

[IAmACalculator]

One major issue is that IFs generally require massive amounts of typing, which is a big pain in the neck on a system with a slow keyboard and no copy-paste. The pages of description could also be a problem on such a low-res screen, but that's not that big of a problem. You have the rare advantage of having a medium designed for a less capable machine than a graphing calculator. There's no question of processor power.

The thing is, though, that people likely wouldn't use your engine very often. IF is already an obscure medium, and has a ridiculously high learning curve, and it's likely that only people who already play IF would pick it up.

I personally do have an interest in interactive fiction, but I don't play them very often, because of the aforementioned learning curve. I can do the basics, but am not proficient enough to do anything other than wander around and pick up random objects. I haven't really learned how they work, in short. That and the fact that I was introduced to IF through the INSANELY difficult Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game probably contributes to my lack of confidence. I would play your engine though, if I had a TI83+/84+. Sorry about that.

[Bhaliar]

I'd just like to point out that I never said it was impossible, or said anything about IF. I'm kinda insulted by your response to my and Hot dog's post. As we only said Text based games are made a lot. Which they are. There are quite a few good ones, but text based needs something new and original, and I actually have recently thought up a good idea. I need to look around though, check if its been don before, on a Ti calculator.

[IAmACalculator]

I didn't mean to be insulting. When I defined IFs, I just meant to distinguish between generic text based games and IFs, which was the topic at hand, and I just didn't know if that distinction had been made. Sorry if I came across as rude or pretentious. And I know you said that they are possible on a calc. I was just pointing out some of the issues with those that had already been made.

I also didn't think originality would we too much of an issue, because IF isn't a very popular medium on the calc.

Sorry for any confusion.

[Mapar007]

About the massive amount of typing: you can relatively easily do that on the PC.

[IAmACalculator]

I know, but it would be a pain on any calc other than the 92/V200s. The alternative would to buy one of the lame TI-Keyboards for $30.

Just in my experience, it doesn't make things unplayable, but it does get tedious after a while, especially because some IFs unfortunately require you to play a game of "guess the phrase" to get them to do what you want.

[Bhaliar]

[Mapar007]

Oh sorry, you mean for the end user. I thought it'd be a pain in the neck for the programmer, my bad.