How to Run Interactive Fiction Games
Welcome to the world of modern interactive fiction! A game that brought you to this page is a proof that text adventures, or "interactive fiction" as we die-hard fans like to call them, are alive and well thanks to several excellent text authoring languages. Inform , TADS , and Hugo are the most popular languages in modern-day IF world. New TADS and Inform games are being produced almost monthly by IF enthusiasts. Inform has the added bonus of its ability to run Infocom games, but new versions of TADS allow HTML elements which make graphics and sound integration easier than ever. Hugo is a relatively new language that is gaining popularity among IF authors.
In order to play some of these games, you would need an interpreter program (which is similar to an operating system-- it's a "front-end," that reads the game data files and "interprets" them into a playable game. All of these interpreters are available at the GMD IF Archive, of which I recommend the following (click on the names to download)
- Interpreters for Inform games: JZip for DOS and Windows Frotz 2002 for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP (Zip is more cumbersome to use, but may be necessary to play some games that would crash under Windows Frotz). For more information on Inform, visit the Official Inform Page
- Interpreters for TADS and HTML TADS games: Windows TADS 2+3 Player Kit Installer. For more information on TADS and HTML TADS, visit the Official TADS Page
- Interpreters for Glulx games: Glulx interpreters. For more information on Glulx, visit the Official Glulx Page
- Interpreters for Hugo games: Download Page at Kent Tessman's official Hugo site has everything you need to play Hugo games
- Interpreters for Alan games: Download Page at official Alan site has everything you need to play Alan games in the "Runtime Only" section
- Interpreters for Adrift games: Official Adrift Site has everything you need to play Adrift games
Got those interpreters? Good. Now: Inform and TADS games are easy to distinguish by their file extension: .z5 (or .z8) are Inform games, and .gam are TADS. If you install HTML TADS, TADS games can be run automatically by clicking on their names. You can do the same with WinFrotz.
There are numerous sites dedicated to modern-day IF. For more information and thorough reviews, check out the following:
- IF Archive - THE central repertoire of all things IF related, including games, walkthroughs, and even manuals and adverts from old IF companies
- Trotting Krips - My most favorite IF reviews site, Trotting Krips boasts dozens of reviews for both famous and not-so-famous games, with a great sense of humor to boot
- Brass Lantern - an excellent news/information site about interactive fiction and adventure genres. Be sure to check out its comprehensive Links section!
- PARSIFAL - Arguably the most comprehensive index page to IF-related sites, including authors' personal sites, review sites, and more
- IF Library - A great place to start if you're new to IF. Be sure to go northeast and read the Beginner's Guide to IF. Also a great place to visit if you are an IF author looking for collaborators or beta testers
- rec.games.int-fiction - Lively usenet newsgroup for the discussion of IF or hint request. Many IF authors and fans hang out there... a real community
- rec.art.int-fiction - Similar to rec.games, but meant for IF authors looking for coding help with Inform, TADS, or other interpreters
- Baf's Guide to the Interactive Fiction Archive - A great IF review site
- Paul O'Brian's Interactive Fiction Page - Paul's excellent reviews of modern IF are legendary in the IF community
- XYZZY - Great IF magazine, full of game reviews, author interviews, and much more
- The Official IF Competition Page - Annual competition within the community, when IF authors submit entries to vie for prizes. A great birthplace of new talent and constant source of quality short works
- Last but not least, browse our Infocom company profile page for more great links in tribute to the best IF comppany of all time
Enjoy the games! Here's a tip: if you have any Infocom game, try to run them with WinFrotz (open the .DAT file)-- it's a much better way of playing :)
