The issues reported earlier today have been resolved with Zoom running glulxe games. A good strategy for reading the status line now is to interact with it, move to the top and read down. This is easy to do with VoiceOver. After interacting with the status line with VoiceOver Shift Down arrow, press Shift Home then VoiceOver A. Stop interacting with VoiceOver Shift up arrow and move back to the main window and interact as usual. Remember, for best results, turn off Cursor tracking with VoiceOver shift F3. Do remember to switch it back on again at the end of the game using the same command.
October 31, 2007
October 30, 2007
Issues with Zoom and VoiceOver under Leopard
Just a quick note to those wanting to use Zoom under Leopard with VoiceOver. Unfortunately, VoiceOver is unable to see the status line. Games that use it to give feedback on such things as the current conversation topic or mood state will not be able to access this information. I am working with Andrew Hunter on this and will post when an improved version fixes these problems.
October 20, 2007
Big things in the works for Zoom
Andrew Hunter’s “Zoom” interpreter has really gone up in the world. It’s most recent beta can be downloaded here. With it’s direct integration with the newly launched IFDB, we can expect great things to come. One of it’s most promising features is the ability to automatically download and install plug-ins for interpreters as they become available. Adrift is now supported in the default set, making this one of the best IF front-ends around. It now supports games written in TADS 2/3, Hugo, ZCode, Adrift and Glulxe.
October 15, 2007
Some thoughts on Stephen Granade’s “Common Ground”
I recently got round to playing “Common Ground” and have a few comments to make. The first is that it is remarkably American. Many American words don’t have synonyms for there English counterparts (Billfold for Wallet, mom for Mum) etc. To me, this smacks of laziness. I’m not familiar enough with the TADS system but it must be easy enough to add in additional synonyms for the names of objects and NPCS.
The other problems I have with this piece are the lack of interactivity and NPC interaction. The story is linear and has no way to alter the outcome, except for the final section. The NPCS are static, indeed “”ask” and “tell” are substituted for the simple “talk to” which limits characterisation somewhat. I can’t say I agree with this. I prefer having the “choice” to move conversation forward, rather than having it on a platter, even if this means writing some extra generic responses for some topics.
Finally, playing the same scenario from the perspective of 3 character’s viewpoints is good in theory but somewhat badly implemented in practice. Much of the game is spent waiting for specific cut-scene’s to occur before one can advance the plot for the character in question.
To conclude, this game is recommended for those who like snack-sized IF pieces and don’t expect much from it. I can regard it as an interesting experiment in story-driven IF, but it fails on a few fundamentals. I would recommend it for a lunchtime playing.
October 1, 2007
The 13th Interactive Fiction competition is now underway
The 13th interactive fiction competition is now underway. You can download all the games at The official site. Some of the games look really promising this year and there are plenty of Inform 7 entrants. Enjoy and I look forward to your comments.
