The SPAG Frequently Asked Questions File (FAQ) version 2.8, August 10, 2005 Maintained by Jimmy Maher (maher@grandecom.net) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= What is SPAG? SPAG is an informative e-zine designed primarily to keep the gaming public aware of text adventures and other types of interactive narrative available today. Most of the space is devoted to reviews. A new edition of SPAG is published each quarter. Generally, you can expect a new issue around the first of January, April, July, and October of each year. SPAG was founded by G. Kevin "Whizzard" Wilson, and is currently edited by Jimmy Maher. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= What about graphic adventures? SPAG has traditionally focused on games whose primary medium is text, and this general policy will continue. There is, however, a wider universe of interactive storytelling, and SPAG may ocassionally (to thoroughly mix my metaphors) dive into these waters when something particularly fascinating, such as the recent "interactive drama" Facade, is unleashed. If you are interested in writing a review of a graphical game, feel free to contact the editor to see if your proposal will be a good fit for SPAG. The main thing to remember is that SPAG is not about kill counts, frames per second, or any of the other traditional video game metrics. We are rather all about this brave new medium of storytelling on the computer. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= What does SPAG stand for? As you may have guessed, SPAG is an acronym. It means "The Society for the Promotion of Adventure Games". Originally, the 'P' was for "Preservation"; however, in early 1997 a growing consensus that text adventures weren't in immediate danger of extinction any more led to a name change. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Cool. How do I join? Well, actually you don't. There is no formal Society, just a loose association of the contributors and readers of the SPAG 'zine. In a sense, you join SPAG by reading it and/or writing for it. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= What is SPAG's format? Each issue will begin with an editorial, any articles or letters to the editor, and a news section reporting new games and recent developments in the IF community. After that come the reviews, which will make up the bulk of any issue. Some issues will include a "SPAG Specifics" section after the regular reviews. This section is devoted to in-depth analyses of IF, with spoilers included. Lastly, at the end of each issue will be the SPAG submission policy and any closing notes. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Didn't there used to be a scoreboard or something? For its first eight years, SPAG featured a scoreboard, a chart listing the scores that SPAG readers gave to various IF games. The scoreboard was discontinued as of issue #29 (June 20th, 2002), but the final results are still available on the SPAG website. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= How did the scoring system work for the Readers' Scoreboard? The scale worked like this: there are 4 categories, and readers awarded up to 2 points in each. The categories are: Atmosphere 0 - Little or no attempt at atmosphere. .5 - A few nice touches. 1 - Good Atmosphere. 1.5 - Feels like you're there. 2 - Edge of your seat the whole way. Gameplay 0 - Frustrating to play, poor parser, few synonyms. .5 - A little better. Still pretty unbearable. 1 - Good parser. Not too hard to figure out. 1.5 - Good parser. Most 'ease of use' commands implemented. 2 - Excellent gameplay. Understands almost everything you try. Writing 0 - Poorly written. Lots of spelling errors, sloppily done. .5 - Some effort put into the writing. Still terrible. 1 - Few or no spelling errors. Stumbles along shakily. 1.5 - Good grammar, prose flows well, absorbing writing. 2 - Excellent prose and style, on a par with that in "The Witness". Plot 0 - Poorly planned, incoherent plot. .5 - Rudimentary plot, adds little to game. 1 - Developed, simple plot. Fairly linear. 1.5 - Complex plot, well planned and implemented. 2 - Excellent plot. Twists and turns, holds you on the edge of seat. Enough freedom for the player to feel free to try things easily. NOTE: These point values are merely benchmarks. Readers could award any value between 0 and 2 so long as they kept it down to one decimal place. This scoring system is loosely based on the Olympic system. The other 2 points are discretionary, and could be awarded on the basis of thoroughness, realism, or anything else the voter feels is important to a text adventure. These are wildcard points, meant to encompass all the little things in a good game. These five categories add up to a maximum of 10 points. This is the total score. Finally, there are two seperate categories, rated the same as the other five, that do not count in the total score, and are averaged only with other votes on the same category. These two are: Characters 0 - No NPCs, or cardboard caricatures. .5 - Uninteresting NPCs. 1 - Stereotypical NPCs, not developed too much. 1.5 - Interesting NPCs, some background. 2 - Well-developed cast of characters. Realistic. Puzzles 0 - Illogical puzzles. Poorly implemented, or there is not enough info in the game to solve them. .5 - Illogical, requires bizarre actions to solve. 1 - Logical, uninteresting and add little to the game. 1.5 - Logical, interesting. 2 - Logical, fascinating, well implemented. No 'guess the word' puzzles. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= What do those strange "notes" mean? Availability codes: C - Commercial, no price given. C30 - Commercial, with a fixed price of US$30. F - Freeware (including Public Domain). S20 - Shareware, registration costs $20. ARC - Available on the IF archive at ifarchive.org (and mirrors). Platform codes show on which computers and operating systems you can play the game. Some games are distributed as executable files only. Such files are generally quite platform-specific. A - Runs on Amigas. AP - Runs on Apple IIs. GS - Runs on Apple IIGS. AR - Runs on Acorn Archimedes. I - Runs on IBM compatibles under MS-DOS or Windows. M - Runs on Macs. 64 - Runs on Commodore 64s. ST - Runs on Atari STs. Other games are distributed as system-independent game files, that require a special interpreter to run. Interpreters exist for a number of different platforms, depending on which game system was used to produce the game file. In some cases, you can extract a game file from an executable, thus enabling you to play it on other platforms. ADVSYS - Written with Advsys. Interpreters for MS-DOS and Mac are available from the IF-archive, as well as interpreter source code. AGT - The original AGT interpreters are available for MS-DOS, Mac, Amiga, and Atari ST. However, availability is strongly dependent on which version of AGT was used! There is also a portable interpreter called AGiliTy that can be used to play all (or almost all) AGT games. The IF archive contains the source for AGiliTy as well as compiled versions for MS-DOS, Linux, Mac and Amiga. ALAN - Written with ALAN. Interpreters are available for MS-DOS, Mac, Amiga, HP-UX, Solaris and Linux. ETC - Has been ported to quite a number of languages and development systems, and is present in many locations on the archive. HUG - Written with Hugo. Runs on: Windows (9x/NT), MS-DOS, BeOS, Linux/Unix, and Amiga, Acorn, Macintosh, and OS/2. The interpreter can also be compiled for any platform for which a wxWindows, Glk, or stdio library is available. INF - Infocom or Inform game. (Infocom invented the format, Inform is a freeware compiler that uses the same format). There are a large number of different interpreters for most existing computers, from mainframes to pocket-sized PDA's. See the IF-archive for more information. Interpreter source code available. MAG - Magnetic Scrolls. These (commercial) games were originally distributed as C64 and Amiga executables. There is now a portable interpreter, Magnetic, available for other platforms as well, including MS-DOS and Amiga. Interpreter source available. TAD - Written with TADS. The IF-archive contains interpreters for the following platforms: AmigaDOS, NeXT, MS-DOS, Atari ST/TT/Falcon, DECstation (MIPS) Ultrix, IBM RT, Linux, Macintosh, SGI Iris/Indigo running Irix, Sun 4 (Sparc) running SunOS or Solaris 2, Sun 3, OS/2, Acorn Archimedes. The interpreter source code is available so it can be ported to other platforms (including most Unix variants). Other computers will be added as pointed out to the editor. Readers are asked to notify the editor if any games are available on a platform for which SPAG does not list them. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= What is SPAG's submission policy? Reviews, letters and ratings should be sent by email to Jimmy Maher, maher@grandecom.net. ASCII text format is preferred, but MS Word and other formats will be accepted as attachments. If in doubt, query first. A SPAG review should be an intelligent discussion of a piece of interactive fiction, and it should be written in polished prose. Within those guidelines, all publishable reviews will be accepted as long as they deal with a game that satisfies a (rather broad) definition of "text adventure" or "interactive fiction". Reviews of games that have already been reviewed three or more times in SPAG will only be accepted if they make a significant original contribution to the discussion of those games. Authors may not review their own games. SPAG employs a "no-spoiler" policy for reviews, with the exception of reviews intended for SPAG Specifics (see below). This policy has been stretched a bit in the past, but now that SPAG Specifics exists, the no- spoiler policy will be enforced rather more strictly. SPAG Specifics is a small section that appears in some issues of SPAG. This section is devoted to in-depth criticism of text adventures and has no restrictions on spoilers, recognizing that avoidance of spoilers can sometimes hinder the detailed examination of a piece of interactive fiction. Specifics reviews are required to provide in-depth analysis to justify their use of spoilers. SPAG also occasionally publishes articles. If you'd like to submit an article for the next issue of SPAG, query first. SPAG does not pay anything for contributions. Authors retain the rights to their works. SPAG accepts reviews that have been published before, but original works are preferred. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Must I have completed a game to review it for SPAG? In general, yes. You would probably not be impressed by a published movie review from someone who had wandered into the theatre halfway through, or by a book review from someone who had lost interest and quit reading before reaching the end. An interactive fiction review is really no different. To give a game a fair shake, the reviewer must have seen it through to the end. The only exceptions apply to more experimental pieces which perhaps have no traditional ending, or to games which are so bug-ridden as to be uncompletable. (Whether the latter is even worth your effort as a reviewer when there are so many serious efforts worthy of your attention is of course very much an open question.) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= How is SPAG distributed? SPAG is primarily distributed via a mailing list. To subscribe, send email to majordomo@df.lth.se with the line: subscribe spag To be removed from the list, send an email message to the same address with the line unsubscribe spag SPAG is also available from the if-archive: ftp://ftp.ifarchive.org/if-archive/magazines/SPAG/ Finally, SPAG has a web page of its own which includes all published issues, a partial index of reviews, and HTML tables displaying the Readers' Scoreboard. The web site is: http://www.sparkynet.com/spag =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Why don't you just post SPAG to ? The current policy is to distribute SPAG via the mailing list, and just post pointers on Usenet. One reason for this is keeping track of the number of readers (currently over 400). =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Where can I get back issues of SPAG? Through anonymous FTP on ifarchive.org, in /if-archive/magazines/SPAG/. Just login as 'anonymous' and give your e-mail address as your password. The archive is kept current now, so don't worry about asking for the latest copy when you subscribe (which we still strongly encourage you do.) Back issues are also available from the web page, at http://www.sparkynet.com/spag. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Revision History v 2.0 970917 - FAQ taken over by Magnus Olsson. Major revision. v 2.1 970918 - Added ADVSYS and ALAN to platform codes. v 2.2 990820 - FAQ taken over by Paul O'Brian. Minor revision. v 2.3 991203 - Revision to scoring info and web page address v 2.4 000925 - Updated submission policy v 2.5 010925 - Changed GMD references to IF Archive v 2.6 020617 - Updated FAQ to reflect discontinuation of scoreboard v 2.7 050720 - FAQ taken over by Jimmy Maher Revisions to follow. v 2.8 050810 - Made a few changes to SPAG's editorial focus, publication schedule, and submission policy. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Thank you for helping to keep text adventures alive!