Short: Produces Infocom-like adventure games
Author: nelson@vax.oxford.ac.uk (Graham Nelson)
Uploader: werther@karunko.nervous.com (Werther 'Mircko' Pirani)
Type: game/role
Replaces: game/role/AmigaInform5p4.lha
Distribution: CD
Action: NoStart
Inform is a compiler for text-only adventure games, writtem by
Graham Nelson <nelson@vax.oxford.ac.uk>. It produces `story files' in
"Z-code" format, which was designed by Infocom and used for all their
adventure games from "Zork I" to "Shogun". This format is computer
independent and represents the most portable form in which games can
ever be written, as no alteration whatever is required to move a game
from one model of computer to another -- these games can be played
using Infocom's interpreters or one of the freely available
interpreters.
Inform is not just a compiler but an `operating system' too: its
library allows designers to begin coding at once. An Inform source
file is very similar to a C source file, but need not contain any of
the parser code, or the running of the `game universe' -- only
descriptions and exceptions to the usual rules.
The library understands rooms, objects, duplicates, containers,
doors, things on top of other things, light, scoring, switching things
on and off, opening, closing and locking things, entering things,
travelling about in them and so forth.
The parser it uses (which can be entirely invisible to the
designer, but is programmable and very flexible) is sophisticated
enough to handle ambiguities, clarify its input by asking questions
and to cope properly with plurals, vagueness, conversation, pronouns
and the player becoming someone else in mid-game.
============================= Archive contents =============================
Original Packed Ratio Date Time Name
-------- ------- ----- --------- -------- -------------
121452 66768 45.0% 02-Aug-95 02:04:40 +Inform
134848 37364 72.2% 02-Aug-95 02:04:36 +advent.inf
70080 21171 69.7% 02-Aug-95 02:04:36 +balances.inf
680 419 38.3% 02-Aug-95 02:04:36 +hellow.inf
618 318 48.5% 02-Aug-95 02:04:36 +shell.inf
38833 12417 68.0% 02-Aug-95 02:04:36 +toyshop.inf
37122 15677 57.7% 02-Aug-95 02:04:36 +changes.txt
16781 2860 82.9% 02-Aug-95 02:04:36 +grammar.h
119307 36310 69.5% 02-Aug-95 02:04:36 +parser.h
60644 15444 74.5% 02-Aug-95 02:04:36 +verblib.h
99214 43198 56.4% 02-Aug-95 02:04:36 +Craft.Of.Adventure.txt
299483 104009 65.2% 02-Aug-95 02:04:36 +designers_manual.txt
4214 2068 50.9% 02-Aug-95 02:04:40 +general-notes.txt
20688 8506 58.8% 02-Aug-95 02:04:40 +release-note.txt
8151 3541 56.5% 02-Aug-95 02:18:02 +Amiga.txt
-------- ------- ----- --------- --------
1032115 370070 64.1% 03-Aug-95 16:28:44 15 files