! Menu "Instructions for playing Mordred"; ! Menu -> "How to play adventure games"; ! Option -> -> "Looking around" ! with description "I am your eyes and ears ..."; ! Option -> -> "Taking and Dropping" ! with description "When you find items ..."; ! Option -> "About the author" ! with description "The author was born in ..."; Menu top "Instructions"; Menu -> l1 "How to interact with this game"; Option -> -> binQ "The bins" with description [; print_ret "The bins are for sorting the ", (number) total_games, " games in this contest. They all start out in the 'unsorted' bin, predictably. The 'playable' bin is for games you have the capacity to play. For example, if you can play this game, chances are you can play other Inform games. See the information about the switches to find an easy way to put appropriate games into the appropriate bins.^^ You can examine any individual game to find out more about it, or read it to find out if you can play it or not. Any game you cannot play (due to not having a computer which can play it, for example), you should put in the 'unplayable' bin. Likewise, if you feel you must exempt yourself from playing a particular game, due to having a prior bias for or against it (say, you betatested the game, or you have strong feelings about issues raised in it), you can put it in the 'unplayable' bin as well. Note that this is a personal choice, and not a requirement."; ]; Option -> -> switchQ "The switches" with description "The rack of switches is provided to easily sort the different games. Turning on the switch moves all games of that type into the 'playable' bin, and turning off the switch moves all games of that type into the 'unplayable' bin.^^There is one switch for each game system submitted. Each switch starts off 'unset', and you can flip it on or off (as in FLIP INFORM SWITCH ON or TURN OFF AGT SWITCH) depending on whether or not you can play those types of games. As an added bonus, you can FLIP ON ALL IBM SWITCHES, and all the switches whose systems can be played on IBM machines will be turn on. You can also FLIP ALL NON-MAC SWITCHES OFF, and all the systems which cannot be played on a Macintosh will be turned off.^^ Examining an individual switch (EXAMINE INFORM SWITCH or even just EXAMINE INFORM) will tell you about the interpreters available for that system, as well as the switch's current state."; Option -> -> gameQ "The games" with description "Inside the bins are representations of the various games in this contest. You can examine an individual game to get basic information about it, and to find out what rating you've given it. If you would like more detailed information, you can 'READ THE BLURB ON ' or simply 'READ '. The blurb will give you the title and subtitle of the game, the directory where you can find it, and information about the interpreter(s) you can use to play it."; Option -> -> leverQ "The lever" with description "When all of the games are sorted into either the 'playable' or 'unplayable' bin, the light will turn green, and you can pull the lever. This will cause a rack to rotate into the room, and all of the games from the 'playable' bin will be moved to this rack, sorted in a random order. If you find you have made a mistake, or wish to re-sort your games, pull the lever again, and it will deposit the games from the rack back into the 'playable' bin, where you can re-arrange them."; Option -> -> rackQ "The rack" with description "The rack, when it appears, will hold all the games you indicated you could play, in a random order. A game must be inside the rack before you can rate it, which you can do by typing 'RATE ', where is a number (integer) between one and ten. The idea here is that you play the first game on your list first, then the next, and so on, until you either finish or run out of time. You can rate as you go, or wait until you finish and rate them then. You can always change your old ratings, and the program will not insist on you rating them in order (though it will comment on it).^^(The formatting is based on a fixed-width font, and assumes a screen width at least a few characters wider than the longest game name. I apologize if it looks bad on your interpreter.)^^NOTE: For the second year in a row, people have submitted games with numbers in the titles (~Six Stories~ and ~Four Seconds~). This makes things slightly tricky with the ratings, because not only can you give these and other games a '6' or a '4', but you can also refer to games by their slot number--including 6 and 4. The way I've resolved this is that the word will refer to the game by that name, while the number will refer to slot number. Ratings can be either numbers or words.^^ So: Comp99 will consider the word 'six' to always refer to the game, and not the game sixth in your list. If you want to rate ~Six Stories~ '6', you can >RATE SIX 6 or even >RATE SIX SIX. If, however, you type >RATE 6 5, it will give the game in *slot* six a five, not the game ~Six Stories~.^^Does that make sense? I sure hope so. Whatever happens, the game will tell you what it's done, so if you pay attention, you should catch any mistakes."; Option -> -> buttonsQ "The square and round buttons" with description "The buttons will output to a text file your list of games and ratings. The square button will save a list of just the games you've rated, while the round button will save the entire list, in the same order as is listed in the rack. It may not get good results on all interpreters, (many ZIP-based interpreters are known to not perform this operation correctly) but I think I've worked out the major bugs. If it doesn't work for you, I'd recommend turning scripting on, examining the rack, then turning scripting off again. ('SCRIPT ON. EXAMINE RACK. SCRIPT OFF'). If your interpreter prompts you for a file name, then that's the file your list will turn up under. If it doesn't, it either didn't work, or turned up in the file ~rating.txt~ At any rate, if it works, you can use this file to mail to the vote collector, if you wish."; Option -> -> buttonQ "The Big Red Button Which, If You Push It,..." with description "This really needs no extensive documentation, as it does precisely what its title implies. You can think of it as an automatic 'walkthrough' for this game. All the typed commands you see yourself executing would actually work if you typed them yourself."; Option -> -> nextQ "The word 'next'" with description "Once all the games are sorted, you may refer to the first game on the list which you haven't rated as 'next', as in EXAMINE NEXT or RATE NEXT. This is a convenience so you don't have to look at the rack each time you want to figure out which game is next on the docket."; Menu -> rules99 "Rules for Competition '99"; Option -> -> "Introduction" with description [;print_ret" What began five years ago as an effort to encourage the development of short works of interactive fiction has grown into a competition involving around thirty authors and one hundred judges. Each year people from around the world write text adventures that can be played in two hours or less. In recent years the definition of what interactive fiction is has changed; this year several of the ~text~ adventures included graphics, and one consists of a series of web pages.^^ "," If you are a fan of old text adventures like ~Zork~ and ~The Pawn,~ or would just like to play some of the best amateur-written games available, I invite you to try the games of the Fifth Annual Interactive Fiction Competition.^^ ","Stephen Granade^ Competition Organizer"; ]; Option -> -> "Rules for Judges" with description [;print_ret" Anyone may vote on the games, with the following exceptions: authors who have entered the competition may not vote at all, and beta testers may not vote on any games they tested.^^ "," To vote, rate each game you have played on a scale of 1 to 10, with higher numbers being better. Your ratings must be integers; that is, use only whole numbers (1, 2, 3, ..., 10). You must judge each game based on no more than two hours of cumulative gameplay. If you want to play a game for longer than two hours, at the two-hour mark you must rate that game and not change that rating later.^^ "," Play and rate as many games as you can before the November 15th, 1999 voting deadline. Comp99 (this program) has some handy features to help you do this, though you aren't required to use it. Comp99 will tell you which games to play in random order so that, in the event that you can't play all of the games, you will have played a random sample of games. Comp99 will also keep track of the ratings you give games.^^ "," There are three ways to submit your votes once you have played as many games as possible. The first is to use the web-based interface located at http://www.textfire.com/cgi-bin/vote.cgi. The second is to use Comp99. Comp99 will create a file called ~rating.txt~ which will hold all of your votes. You can e-mail that file to the vote-counter, Mark Musante, at vote@@64textfire.com. The third is to put all of your votes in an e-mail message and send that to Mark. You may submit different votes, and only the last one you send in will be counted.^^ "," If you choose to e-mail your votes to Mark and you do not use Comp99's ~rating.txt~ file, use the following format for your e-mail. In the subject line of your message, put ~VOTE~. In the body of the message, put the name of each game you are rating followed by its rating, with one game name and rating per line. Send your message as plain ASCII. Do *not* use HTML or send your votes as an attached non-ASCII file like a Microsoft Word document.^^ "," Remember, you must vote before the end of the day on November 15th, 1999. Votes submitted after that date will not be counted, so if you won't have access to the Internet around that time, be sure to vote early. You can always change your votes at a later date."; ]; Option -> -> "T-shirts" with description [;print_ret" This year we are selling competition t-shirts. They will be short-sleeve cotton shirts with the competition logo on the front and a list of the games and their authors on the back. The cost in US dollars will be $15 for people living in the US or Canada, $20 for people living in other countries. The shirts will be sent out after the competition ends. We will be taking orders through October 30th, 1999.^^ "," If you would like a shirt, send a check, money order, or cash for $15 ($20 if you don't live in the US/Canada) along with a card containing your name, shipping address, and requested shirt size (S, M, L, XL) to:^^ ","Stephen Granade^ 1221 C Rosedale Ave.^ Durham, NC 27707^ U.S.A.^^ "," I can only take cash, checks, or money orders, and they must be in US dollars. If your order will not reach me by October 30th, *do not send it*. This is a very limited-time offer."; ]; Menu -> rules98 "Rules for Competition '98"; Option -> -> "Introduction" with description [;print_ret" It's become a grand tradition since starting in 1995. The Annual Interactive Fiction Competition. If you thrilled to your Commodore 64 or Apple II disk drive whirring after you typed^^ "," > KILL TROLL WITH SWORD^^ "," or the less violent^^ "," > TAKE NO TEA^^ "," then you'll love the Interactive Fiction Competition. Traditionally an all text contest, this year promises a graphic flavour also with the Hugo and HTML-TADS game engines. Anyone can enter the IF Competition, and anyone else can download the games and be a judge. So join in the fun!";]; Option -> -> "Rules for Judges" with description [;print_ret" The Judging system this year will be very similar to the previous years':^^ "," Everyone but authors is able to vote, including betatesters for games entered. Beta testers may not, however, vote on a game which they tested. All you have to do is play every game that you are able to, bound on your honor to play as many as possible and give each of them an equal chance. Rate each game on an integer scale of 1 to 10 (not 0 to 10), higher meaning better. You have 2 hours in which to rate each game. At the end of 2 hours, if unfinished, you should stop and rank the game immediately. You may continue to play the game after that, but you may not change your rating of it based upon anything you find after the 2 hours are up.^^ "," An Inform Z-machine module, ~Comp98.z5~, made to resemble another text adventure, will be available to act as a front end for the competition judging process, a sort of starting point. The program puts all the games that the user is able to run in a random order, and outputs a list of them (alongside any scores you've given) as ~rating.txt~. This way, if a judge plays the games in this order, but is unable to play all of them in the voting period, no biases will enter into the decision which games will need to be left unplayed. Comp98 also has information on how to run each game on your computer, and contact information on the authors.^^ "," Three voting formats are possible. Comp98, the front end, has a feature for scoring the games, and will output a formatted text file (~rating.txt~) that can then be e-mailed to the vote counter for the competition, Colin Turnbull, at ct@@64ecs.ox.ac.uk. Judges may, of course, decide not to use Comp98, and simply mail their votes the same way. Thirdly, there is now a page on the Competition website to submit votes on the web via an HTML form, the Vote Submission Page.^^ "," E-mailed votes should have a subject header of ~VOTE~, and each game should be rated on a separate line. You may submit multiple votes, but only the latest dated ratings of each game will be kept. Any game that does not receive at least 10 votes on it is removed from prize consideration. (This should have encouraged authors to make sure their game could be run on several platforms. The best way to accomplish this is to use a pre-existing authoring system.) Competition authors' votes will not be tallied at all this year.^^ "," The precise voting period will be determined once the number of entries is known. Votes submitted after the voting period expires will not be counted, so if you won't have access to the net at that time, get your votes in early! You can always change them later.^^"; ]; Option -> -> "Rules for Authors" with description [;print_ret" This year's competition rules, like in 1997, are reasonably strict and well defined. Violators of any rule will be given a warning the first time, and disqualified if a second transgression is made. Sorry for the harsh crackdown, but it seems to be neccessary to ensure a tranquil and pleasant competition for all.^^ "," 1. Judges must stop playing to judge each game after 2 hours. Authors may write a game of any length they like, but would be well advised to take this rule into account when determining the length of their game. This is to promote small games, and encourage authors to enter who might feel intimidated going up against a huge game.^^ "," 2. Games must not be based upon works currently under copyright. You may parody established works, but you may not, for example, write a game based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld. This avoids the entire issue of copyright and the ethics involved. If, however, you are yourself the copyright holder, or you have specific permission from the copyright holder, you may submit such a game. Note also that, if contest games were later to be published, as they were in Masterpieces of Infocom, such derivative works could not be used.^^ "," 3. All entries MUST be freeware or public domain. So don't enter a game you've worked on for 2 years if you don't want to give it away. No shareware, no donorware, no commercial products, etc. Only clear and free games.^^ "," 4. All entries must be previously unreleased at the opening of voting. If an entry has previously been circulated, it will be disqualified. If you are unsure whether your game fails to meet this rule, please ask me.^^ "," 5. Authors of a competition entry may not discuss the entries in a public Internet forum while the voting is open. This means don't post about your entry (or anyone else's) on a newsgroup until the deadline for voting has passed.^^ "," 6. Anyone who impersonates a contest official in any capacity related to the contest will be banned permanently from involvement in future, as well as immediately disqualified if they are an entrant.";]; Option -> -> "Procedures and Recommendations for Authors" with description [;print_ret" It is recommended that you enclose a complete text walkthrough with your game. With a walkthrough, I can and will doublecheck your entry to ensure that it is winnable, and judges can get by hard puzzles to see the rest of your game. Authors may submit a walkthrough for me to check their game, but not for general distribution, if they so desire.^^ "," The entry may be written in any programming language, including any of the text adventure creation utilities available (such as TADS, Inform, AGT, or Alan, to name a few.) If your game is unplayable, then it won't receive enough votes to be eligible for prizes (See Judging).^^ "," It is strongly recommended that your game be tested thoroughly at the beta stage. This not only includes different testers but different platforms if possible, and different interpreters. I speak from personal experience of my own game in 1997 working on Jzip but crashing on Frotz- something I did not know about until after the contest began. In testing authors' walkthroughs I will endeavor to use different interpreters where possible.^^ "," Multiple entries by the same author are fine, so long as all entries meet all the rules above. Let me just close this with a caveat emptor: you will likely be better off investing more time in a single entry rather than trying to finish two.^^ "," To enter this year, you must e-mail me, the contest organizer (ddyte@@64cricket.org), by September 1, 1998, with your intent to enter.^^ "," You will need to e-mail me your entry privately, either through e-mail (as a uuencoded file) or some other arrangement that you will have to work out with me. The entries must be received by September 30th, 1998. No entries will be accepted after this date."; ]; Option -> -> "Prizes!" with description [;print_ret"Money:^^ "," $150 (US), donated by David Cornelson^^ "," $100 (US), donated by David Cornelson^^ "," $100 (US), donated by Mark Musante^^ "," $100 (US), donated by Martin Braun^^ "," UKP50 (that's UK pounds), donated by Dylan O'Donnell^^ "," $50 (US), donated by David Cornelson^^ "," $50 (US), donated by Howard Liu^^ Food:^^ "," A 12 oz. can of Ass Kickin' Peanuts, donated by Jason Penney^^ "," One box of Turkish delight (aka aplets and cotlets), donated by Mary Kuhner^^ Books, Records n Stuff:^^ "," Infocom books: Wishbringer, The Integrated Man, Planetfall, and Zork CYOA, donated by Stephen Granade^^ "," A copy of the book Singularities: Three Eric Gregory Award Winners (poems by Polly Clark, Tim Kendall and Graham Nelson), signed and donated by Graham Nelson^^ "," A copy of the book Singularities: Three Eric Gregory Award Winners (poems by Polly Clark, Tim Kendall and Graham Nelson), signed by all three authors, donated by Jane Kerr^^ "," The Neil deMause Multimedia Fun Pack: a copy of Field of Schemes, a tape of Neil's music, free registration to every game he has written or ever will write, and a lifetime susbscription to the magazine HERE: Stories of Where You Are, donated by Neil deMause^^ "," A t-shirt featuring the logo of now defunct Seattle rock band CPLT, a copy of the first single of new band Sadie Hawkins, and a guest pass to a Sadie Hawkins gig in the city of your choice, donated by Matthew Amster-Burton, Liza Daly and Adam Cadre^^ "," A super-8 projector, adapted for the voltage of your choice, reels, splicer and splice tapes PLUS about 200 feet of assorted (and bizarre) film loops - ideal for projection at wild parties, and some instructions on how to set the whole thing up, donated by Simon Stapleton^^ "," An original drawing by Dave Cockrum depicting a scene from your game, donated by Ivan Cockrum^^ Games:^^ "," A Solid Gold edition Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, on 5.25~ disks for IBM PC, can be copied to 3.5~ if required, donated by Jason Dyer^^ "," A folio edition of Deadline, on 5.25~ disks for Apple II, with all the items included as well as Invisclues, donated by Liza Daly^^ "," An original edition of Suspended, on 8~ disks for PDP-11, with all the items included, signed and donated by Mike Berlyn^^ "," A grey box edition of Spellbreaker, on 5.25~ disks for IBM PC, with all the items included (cards unopened) but the box has been chewed (by a frustrated adventurer?) -- can substitute a better box (for the C64) if you don't need everything to match, donated by Lelah Conrad^^ "," A copy of Fable, by Sir-Tech, for PC, donated by Howard Liu^^ "," A registered copy of Losing Your Grip: A Journey in Five Fits, complete with extra goodies, donated by Stephen Granade^^ "," A customised game especially for you: fill in a survey, and the author does the rest, donated by Rybread Celsius^^ "," A copy of the Unlimited Adventures game design system (warning: high cheese content), on 3.5~ disks for DOS systems, donated by Luc French^^ "," The David Cornelson Used Adventure CD Pack: one copy each of Starship Titanic and Riven, for Windows 95, donated by David Cornelson^^ Toys:^^ "," A teddy bear, complete with nightshirt and nightcap, holding a disk with English and German versions of A Bear's Night Out, signed and donated by author David Dyte and translator Gunther Schmidl^^ "," Thirteen Genestealer Hybrid miniatures for use with Warhammer 40K, donated by Howard Liu^^ "," A Cube of Quendor, which is a Rubik's Cube with the squares replaced by rooms from well known text adventure games, donated by Andrew Plotkin^^ Extra Stuff for the top few people:^^ The top few get some lovely certificates designed and arranged by Lucian and Sara Smith:^^ "," An nth place certificate, good for one ruby wherever finely cut rubies are carted about by roadrunners, signed and donated by Brian Moriarty^^ "," An nth place certificate, good for a romantic pirate cruise in the Carribean, signed and donated by Amy Briggs^^ "," An nth place certificate, good for a year's supply of grue repellent, signed and donated by Marc Blank^^ "," And more certificates to come!^^ "," Also, bonus mouse pads for the next 10 place winners donated by The Mining Co."; ]; Option -> -> "Results" with description "The results of the '98 competition (and the author's real names) were as follows:^^ 1: Photopia, by Adam Cadre^ 2: Muse: An autumn romance, by Christopher Huang^ 3: The Plant, by Mike Roberts^ 4: Arrival, by Stephen Granade^ 5: Enlightenment, by Taro Ogawa^ 6: Mother Loose, by Irene Callaci^ 7: Little Blue Men, by Michael Gentry^ 8: Trapped in a One-Room Dilly, by Laura Knauth^ 9: Persistence of Memory, by Jason Dyer^ 10: Downtown Tokyo. Present Day, by John Kean^ 11: Informatory, by Bill Shlaer^ 12: The Ritual of Purification, by Jarek Sobolewski^ 13: The City, by Sam Barlow^ 14: Where Evil Dwells, by Steve Owens and Paul Johnson^ 15: Purple, by Stefan Blixt^ 16: Four in One, by J Robinson Wheeler^ 17: Research Dig, by Chris Armitage^ 18: CC, by Mikko Vuorinen^ 19: Spacestation, by David Ledgard^ 20: Cattus Atrox, by David Cornelson^ 21: In the Spotlight, by John Byrd^ 22: Lightania, by Gustav Bodell^ 23: Acid Whiplash, by Cody Sandifer and Rybread Celsius^ 24: I Didn't Know You Could Yodel, by Andrew Indovina and MichaelEisenman^ 25: Fifteen, by Ricardo Dague^ 26: The Commute, by Kevin Copeland^ 27: Human Resources Stories, by Harry Hardjono^"; Menu -> rules97 "Rules for Competition '97"; Option -> -> "Introduction" with description [;print_ret" Announcing the Third Annual Text Adventure Authorship Competition^^ Administered by whizzard@@64uclink.berkeley.edu^^ "," ~Third time's the charm.~^ -Most Common Programmer Saying, right after ~&$%&@@64%!!~^^ "," Text adventures still exist and thrive on the Internet. If you enjoyed Zork, Trinity, Corruption, or any of the many other text based games put out in the 70's and 80's, then I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that. You'll be even happier when you find out that there is an annual competition on the Internet to see who can write the best text adventure, and that you can enter it, or judge the entries, for free."; ]; Option -> -> "The Rules" with description [;print_ret " This year's competition is a bit different in that the rules are stricter and better defined. Violaters of any rule will be given a warning the first time, and disqualified if a second transgression is made. Sorry for the harsh crackdown, but it seems to be neccessary to ensure a tranquil and pleasant competition for all.^^ "," 1. Any text adventure you enter must be winnable in under two hours. The judges are only allowed to play it that long before quitting and rating it. This is to ensure small games, and encourage authors to enter who might feel intimidated going up against a huge game.^^ "," 2. All games must be entirely your own creations. You may parody established works, but you may not, for example, write a game based on Sherlock Holmes. This avoids the entire issue of copyright and the ethics involved.^^ "," 3. All entries MUST be freeware or public domain. So don't enter a game you've worked on for 2 years if you don't want to give it away. No shareware, no donorware, no commercial products, etc. Only clear and free games.^^ "," 4. All entries must be previously unreleased at the opening of voting. If an entry has previously been circulated, it will be disqualified. If you are unsure whether your game fails to meet this rule, please ask me.^^ "," 5. Authors of a competition entry may not discuss the entries in a public Internet forum while the voting is open. This means don't post about your entry (or anyone else's) on a newsgroup until the deadline for voting has passed."; ]; Option -> -> "Procedures and Recommendations" with description [;print_ret " 1. It is recommended that you enclose a complete text walkthrough with your game. With a walkthrough, I can doublecheck your entry to ensure that it is winnable, and judges can get by hard puzzles to see the rest of your game.^^ "," 2. The entry may be written in any programming language, including any of the text adventure creation utilities available (such as TADS, Inform, AGT, or Alan, to name a few.) If your game is unplayable, then it won't receive enough votes to be eligable for prizes. (See Judging.)^^ "," 3. Multiple entries by the same author are fine, so long as all entries meet all the rules above. Let me just close this with a caveat emptor. You will likely be better off investing more time in a single entry rather than trying to finish two.^^ "," 4. To enter this year, you must e-mail me by September 1, 1997, with your intent to enter.^^ "," 5. You will need to e-mail me your entry privately, either through e-mail (as a uuencoded file) or some other arrangement that you will have to work out with me. The entries must be received by September 30th, 1997. No entries will be accepted after this date."; ]; Option -> -> "Judging" with description [; " The Judging system this year will be very similar to the previous years':^^ "," Everyone is able to vote, including, this year, betatesters for games entered. All you have to do is play every game that you are able to, bound on your honor to play as many as possible and give each of them an equal chance. Rate each game on an integer scale of 1 to 10, higher meaning better. You have 2 hours in which to rate each game. At the end of 2 hours, if unfinished, you should stop and rank the game immediately. You may continue to play the game after that, but you may not change your rating of it based upon anything you find after the 2 hours are up.^^ "," This Inform Z-machine module, ~Comp97.z5,~ is acting as a front end for the competition judging process, a sort of starting point. The program puts all the games that the user is able to run in a random order. This way, if a judge is unable to play all of them in the voting period, no biases will enter into the decision which games will need to be left unplayed.^^ Send your votes to:^^ct@@64ecs.ox.ac.uk (Colin Turnbull)^ ^who has graciously agreed to be the vote counter for the second year running. Thank you again, Colin!^^ "," Three voting formats are possible. Comp97 (this game) has a feature for scoring the games, and can output a formatted text file that can then be e-mailed to Colin (ct@@64ecs.ox.ac.uk, in case you missed it). Judges may, of course, decide not to use Comp97, and simply mail their votes the same way. Thirdly, there will be a page on the Competition website to submit votes on the web via an HTML form.^^ "," E-mailed votes should have a subject header of ~VOTE,~ and each game should be rated on a separate line. You may submit multiple votes, but only the latest dated ratings of each game will be kept. Any game that does not receive at least 10 votes on it is removed from prize consideration. (This should encourage authors to make sure their game can be run on several platforms. The best way to accomplish this is to use a pre-existing authoring system.) Competition authors' votes will not be tallied at all this year.^^ "," The voting period will extend to the end of the year, December 31st, 1997. Votes submitted after that time will not be counted, so if you won't have access to the net at that time, get your votes in early! You can always change them later. ";]; Option -> -> "Awarding of Prizes" with description [;print_ret" 1. The winner will be the game with the highest average score. Each winner will have a draft pick to choose a prize of his/her choice until there are no longer any prizes left. Tied entrants who both select the same prize will be decided between by a flip of the coin, the loser receiving his second choice.^^ "," The Prizes So Far Include:^^ ","* $100 cash, donated by Martin Braun ^^ * A cash award of UKP50 (about $70-75 US), donated by Dylan O'Donnell ^^ * Planetfall the novel, donated by Martin Braun ^^ * A copy of Michael Berlyn's novel, The Integrated Man, donated by Jay Goemmer ^^ * Shogun on 3.5~ disk for IBM, in shrinkwrap, donated by David Gasior ^^ * A copy of Neil deMause and Joanna Cagan's currently untitled book on corporate welfare and sports, donated by Neil deMause. ^^ * $20 Canadian (only available to first-time entrants), donated by Brad O'Donnell. ^^ Trophies will be awarded for first, second, and third place in addition to the normal prize picks.^^ Trophies donated by Kevin Wilson. This is likely to be a fairly expensive prospect, so donations of money (or trophy-making talents) are needed this year as well. ^^If you would like to donate a prize for this year's competition, please contact me as soon as possible with your prize. The competition is dependent on prize donations from interested parties to boost interest and the number of entrants."; ]; Option -> -> anon "Anonymity" with description [; print_ret "At one point, Whizzard considered requiring all entries to be anonymous. This quickly turned out to be more trouble than it was worth, so he dropped the idea. However, there was still interest in the option of anonymity, so some people looked into the prospect of anonymous remailers. In the end, this is what became official:^^ "," ~Anonymous remailers allow users to post usenet messages and send email, without the receiver knowing who sent it. This could be, for authors, a voluntary alternative to the former rule enforcing and providing this anonymity. Matt Kimball has generously created a remailer for use relating to the competition. Addresses are of the form '[whatever]@@64ifcompetition.org.' For a complete description of the functionality of the remailer, send a message to 'instructions@@64ifcompetition.org' and you will receive an automated reply describing the use of the remailer. If the service is not satisfactory to you, refer to http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/@@126raph/remailer-list.html for a large list of anonymity services.~^^ "," In addition, even if someone does not want to enter anonymously, they may still use this remailer for use in the competition."; ]; Option -> -> "Results" with description "The results from the Competition '97 (and the author's real names) were as follows:^^ 1 - The Edifice, by Lucian Smith^ 2 - Babel, by Ian Finley^ 3 - Glowgrass, by Nate Cull^ 4 - She's got a Thing for a Spring, by Brent VanFossen^ 5 - A Bear's Night Out, by David Dyte^ 6 - Sunset Over Savannah, by Ivan Cockrum^ 7 - Poor Zefron's Almanac, by Carl Klutzke^ 8 - The Lost Spellmaker, by Neil Brown^ 9 - Sins Against Mimesis, by Adam Thornton^ 10 - A New Day, by Jonathan Fry^ 11 - Zero Sum Game, by Cody Sandifier^ 12 - Zombie!, by Scott W. Starkey^ 13 - The Frenetic Five vs Sturm und Drang, by Neil deMause^ 14 - Travels in the Land of Erden, by Laura A. Knauth^ 15 - Unholy grail, by Stuart Allen^ 16 - Friday Afternoon, by Mischa Schweitzer^ 17 - Madame L'estrange and the Troubled Spirit, by Ian Ball and Marcus Young^ 18 - Sylenius Mysterium, by C.E. Forman^ 19 - Phred Phontious, the Quest for Pizza, by Michael Zey^ 20 - Down, by Kent Tessman^ 21 - Virtual Tech, by David Glasser^ 22 - The Obscene Quest of Dr Auurdvarkbarf, by Gary Roggin^ 23 - A Good Breakfast, by Stuart Adair^ 24 - The Town Dragon, by David A. Cornelson"; Menu rules96 "Rules for Competition '96"; Option -> "Introduction" with description [; print_ret" The Second Annual Text Adventure Authorship Competition^^ Administered by whizzard@@64uclink.berkeley.edu^^ ~He that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss.~^ - John Locke, _An Essay Concerning Human Understanding_^^ -=Introduction=-^^ "," Many years ago, a game was written by two people named Crowther and Woods. The game was called, variously _Adventure_, and _Collosal Cave_. It used a text parser that the player could communicate with by typing in commands, and it formed the foundation of many, if not most, of today's computer games. The interface may have changed, but deep down, many of today's gaming conventions are holdovers from that long ago game.^^ "," Last year, a competition was held on the internet. Enthusiasts of text based games wrote short games and posted them for others to play and enjoy. The players voted on which game they liked best, and the games that got the best response had their pick of prizes from a prize pool. Later, 6 of those games were put on Activision's _Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom_ collection, and the authors received a pretty nice payment in return.^^ "," This year, we're going to do it again, and you have the chance to be a part of this event. However, while last year's competition had only 12 games entered, this year's has a grand total of 27 entries. That's more text adventures than you can shake a stick at. To participate, just read the section on Judging and follow the instructions there."; ]; Option -> "Judging" with description [;print_ret " The judging will be a 'People's Choice Awards' type deal for the most part. Everyone is able to vote. All you have to do is play every game that you are able to (you are bound on your honor to play as many as possible and give each of them an equal chance.) and then rate each game on a scale of 1 to 10, no decimal places please. You have 2 hours in which to rate each game. At the end of 2 hours, you should stop and rank the game immediately. You may continue to play the game after that, but you may not change your rating of it based upon anything you find after the 2 hours are up. Please be honest. The site to mail votes to is:^^ "," ct@@64ecs.ox.ac.uk (Colin Turnbull)^^ "," Let's all give him a big round of applause.^^ "," Please note that this is not my address. If you email me votes I will trash them without notice and without looking at them, because I am a big meanie.^^ "," Messages with votes in them should have a subject header of: VOTE (unless you are entered in the competition or served as a betatester for one of the entries, in which case it should be MISS CONGENIALITY) Each game should be rated on a seperate line, and you may submit multiple votes, but only the latest dated ratings of each game will be kept.^^ "," Votes will begin to be taken on Oct. 20, and must be in by Nov 30. Shortly thereafter, results will be announced, and prizes will begin to be distributed to the winners. For those of you who know how much different this timescale is from the original, please just note that there are many more entries than were expected, so more time has to be allowed for everyone to play them. At 2 hours apiece, that's still over 50 hours of play time total.^^ "," Any game that does not receive at least 10 votes on it is removed from prize consideration.^^ "," The winner will be the game with the highest average score. Each winner will have a draft pick to choose a prize of his/her choice until there are no longer any prizes left. Tied entrants who both select the same prize will be decided between by a flip of the coin, the loser receiving his second choice.^^ "," Authors and official betatesters may vote, but must head their votes with the subject: ~MISS CONGENIALITY VOTE~ so that the counter is able to seperate them. These votes will be counted towards an author's best of show choice. The winner will receive a copy of ~The Interactive Writer's Handbook~, donated by me."; ]; Option -> "Authoring" with description[;print_ret " -=The Rules=-^^ "," The text adventure you enter must be winnable in under two hours. Judges will be asked to rate it after playing for that long. Please note that your game will NOT be disqualified if it exceeds this length, but judges may not see it in its entirety before rating it.^^ "," The entry may be written in any programming language, including any of the text adventure creation utilities available (such as TADS, Inform, AGT, or Alan, to name a few.) If your game is unplayable, then it won't receive enough votes to be eligable for prizes. (See Judging.)^^ "," This year, do NOT post your entries ahead of time. Jumping the gun is punishable by disqualification. Instead, you will need to send me your entries privately, either through e-mail (as a uuencoded file) or some other arrangement that you will have to work out with me. The entries must be received by September 30th, 1996. No entries will be accepted after this date.^^ "," Entries will be sent by me to ftp.gmd.de on October 1st, 1996. Only entries uploaded by me will be eligible.^^ "," If you want your entry to be anonymous, then leave your name off it and email me that it's your entry. I advise a secret command that pops up the author and copyright message. Anonymity is not required, and I hope to be able to continue to do this in the future.^^ "," Speaking of copyright, all games must be entirely your own creations. You may parody established works, but you may not, for example, write a game based on Sherlock Holmes. This avoids the entire issue of copyright and the ethics involved.^^ "," All entries MUST be freeware or public domain. So don't enter a game you've worked on for 2 years if you don't want to give it away. No shareware, no donorware, no commercial products, etc. Only clear and free games.^^ "," Lastly, and this is a NEW rule, somewhat controversial at that. All entries must include some sort of walkthrough. By this I only mean that somewhere in the game package there must be explicit directions on how to play the game from beginning to end, and that this info must be available to the player from the very start of the game. A walkthrough is fine, as is a hint system that progresses all the way to blatant spoilers. If you like, you could even have an NPC take over for the PC if enough time has been spent on a single puzzle. I don't care how you do it, but do it. Any entry without something of this nature will be returned to its author, and the author will be asked to rectify the oversight."; ]; Option -> "The Prizes Pool" with description [;print_ret " $75.00 cash, donated by Martin Braun.^^ ~Creating Adventure Games on Your Computer~, by Tim Hartnell. Copyright 1984, donated by Matthew Amster-Burton.^^ The original sketch of the ~Path to Fortune~ map, donated by Christopher E. Forman.^^ A registered copy of ~Lost New York~ (which includes on-screen hints, a manual, and some goodies), donated by the author, Neil deMause.^^ 5 copies of the book: ~Computer Adventures - The Secret Art~, donated by the author, Gil Williamson.^^ A PC copy of the Magnetic Scrolls Collection which includes Fish, Corruption and the Guild of Thieves, donated by Colm McCarthy.^^ ~One-of-a-kind deluxe scraps of paper with stuff written on them~^ registered version of ~The Light: Shelby's Addendum~, signed, with hint sheets and maps, and a whole mess of scribblings that no-one in their right mind would ever want, donated by Colm McCarthy.^^ One free copy of ~Avalon~, whenever it's done, donated by the author, me, as if you didn't know.^^ "," Cecilia Barajas of Activision (Author of Zork Nemesis) has donated the following items:^ -A copy of ~Lost Treasures of Infocom vols. 1 and 2.~ (to be awarded as a matched set.)^ -A copy of ~Zork Nemesis.~^ -A Zork Nemesis t-shirt^^ "," Andrew C. Plotkin (Last Year's Inform Winner) offers the awardee's choice of:^ A) Dinner at a (pretty) fine restaurant in the Washington, DC area, with me, plus hours of fine conversation on the art of interactive fiction or other topics as desired.^^ or^^ B) $20.00 cash (US), plus I'll email you some of my old posts from r.a.i-f.^^ "," Lastly, assuming that:^^ 1) We have at least 20 entries in the competition. (By that, I mean 20 valid, on-time, non-disqualified entries.)^^ 2) At least 5 of the entries are done by female authors.^^ "," Then Christopher Forman will also award five free registrations of ~Circle of Armageddon~, Volume 2 of ~The Windhall Chronicles~.^^ Thank you to all prize contributors for helping to make this yeat's contest a reality."; ]; Option -> "Revised Time Table" with description "October 20, 1996 - Votes will begin to be accepted at:^ ct@@64ecs.ox.ac.uk^^ November 30, 1996 - The voting account will close. No further votes will be accepted after midnight on this date. (Midnight for the person whose account this is. Save yourself grief and vote early.)^^ December 1-5, 1996 - The winners of the competition will be announced at various places of interest on the internet."; Option -> "Legalese" with description [;print_ret" All games entered in this year's competition are freeware. You may play any of them without being expected to pay a fee, mail a postcard, or even blow your nose.^^ "," All games are copyrights of the respective authors. I make no claims on them, but I do disclaim that any games that violate another's copyrights are in violation of the rules set down for this competition."; ]; Option -> "Online Resources" with description [;print_ret " Lastly, for those of you unfamiliar with the online resources available to text adventure authors, here are some interesting sources.^^ "," ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/^ Main directory for the interactive fiction (text adventure) archive. It is mirrored at several sites, but the info escapes me for the moment.^^ "," ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/^ The location of several programs designed to help authors write text adventures. I recommend TADS, Inform, Hugo, Alan, or AGT, particularly the first two: TADS and Inform. Please see the relevant directories for further info.^^ "," ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/info/authorship-guide.base^ The main document for Whizzard's Guide to Text Adventure Authorship. This is something I wrote to give ideas to prospective authors, mostly dealing with the non-technical aspects of writing text adventures.^^ "," ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/info/Craft.Of.Adventure.txt^ A file by Graham Nelson also discussing the less technical aspects of how to write text adventures. Included is a Player's Bill of Rights that is very useful.^^ "," ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/info/Index^ A filelist that lists numerous other helpful files for new text adventure authors to peruse.^^ "," Newsgroups:^^ "," REC.ARTS.INT-FICTION^ For the use of text adventure authors in discussing the mechanics and other important topics of text adventure creation. Important contest announcements will be posted here.^^ "," REC.GAMES.INT-FICTION^ For the players of text adventures to discuss games and hints, and to buy/sell used text adventures."; ]; Option -> "Results" with description "The results from the '96 competition (and the author's real names) were as follows:^^ 1st: The Meteor, The Stone, And A Long Glass Of Sherbet by Angela M. Horns, aka: Graham Nelson^ 2nd: Tapestry by Dan Ravipinto^ 3rd: Delusions by the author, aka: C. E. Forman^ 4th: Small World by Andrew D. Pontious^ 5th: Kissing the Buddha's Feet by Anonymous, aka: Leon Lin^ 6th: Fear by Chuan-Tze Teo^ 7th: Maiden of the Moonlight by Brian P. Dean^ 8th: Wearing the Claw by Paul O'Brian^ 9th: Alien Abduction by Charles Gerlach^ 10th: Aayela by Magnus Olsson^ 11th: Lists and Lists by Andrew Plotkin^ 12th: Ralph by Miron Schmidt^ 13th: Reverberations by Russell Wain Glasser^ 14th: The Land Beyond the Picket Fence by Martin Oehm^ 15th: In the End by Joe Mason^ 16th: Piece of Mind by Giles Boutel, aka: Geoff Durden^ 17th: Phlegm by Adjacent Drooler, aka: Jason Dyer^ 18th: Sir Ramic Hobbs and the Oriental Walk by Gil Williamson^ 19th: Stargazer by Jonathan Fry^ 20th: Of Forms Unknown by Chris Markwyn^ 21st: The Curse of Eldor by Stuart Allen^ 22nd: Don't Be Late by Greg Ewing^ 23rd: The House of the Stalker by Jason Clayton White^ 24th: Rippled Flesh by Rybread M. Celsius^ 25th: Punkarita Quest One: Liquid by Rybread M. Celsius^ 26th: My First Stupid Game by Daniel McPherson"; Menu rules95 "Rules for Competition '95"; Option -> "Whizzard's raif post" with description [;print_ret "[From rec.arts.int-fiction, June 26th, 1995]^^ Announcing the First Annual Text Adventure Authorship Competition^^ "," This idea has been bandied about on r.a.i-f for awhile, so I am making it a reality. The original concept of the contest was to get more Inform source code out in the public domain. However, the TADS authors wanted to play too, so a category was added for them. Here is my own personal vision for the contest.^^ "," ~This competition is to inspire IF authors to write something, however small, and make it available for people to play. IF as a hobby cannot survive unless there are people out there writing and playing it. Hopefully, some of the people who enter the competition will enjoy it, and decide to write more on their own.~^^ "," Anyways, here are the rules (I mean, the rule.)^^ "," The Rule: The text adventure you enter must be winnable in under two hours. Judges will be asked to rate it after playing for that long.^^ "," That's the main point of the competition. You don't have to enter something really long to have a chance at winning, because you aren't allowed to. That way we get more entries.^^ "," The rule is not debatable. It's the only rule, and it's not very unreasonable.^^ "," Now, to enter, simply write a game, using either the TADS authorship system, or the Inform authorship system. The two groups will be judged seperately. Once you have your game, put anything that comes to mind with it (that's related to the game) such as maps, read.me files, hints, walkthroughs, source code, whatever and .zip it. I know some folks may have trouble with .zips, but I'm here to help. If someone needs their game zipped or needs a game unzipped, just email me, and we'll work out something. You cannot enter a game in both categories by porting it over to the other development language.^^ "," Upload your .zip file to: ftp.gmd.de:/incoming/if-archive/competition^^ "," The deadline to do this is Midnight on the last day of August. (That's midnight in Germany obviously. Plan ahead, upload a day early. I doubt I'll disqualify slightly late entries anyway.)^^ "," If you want your entry to be anonymous, then leave your name off it and email me that it's your entry. I advise a secret command that pops up the author and copyright message.^^ "," Which reminds me. All entries MUST be freeware or public domain. So don't enter a game you've worked on for 2 years if you don't want to give it away.^^ "," Judging^^ "," The judging will be a 'People's Choice Awards' type deal for the most part. There may be a few prizes that are just awarded by the person who donated them to whichever game they liked best, but not many. In general, everyone is able to vote. All you have to do is play every game in the TADS and/or Inform category (which will be sorted out on the 1st of September) and then choose your three favorite games, in no particular order, for that category (or both categories, if you've played them all.) Email me your votes at whizzard@@64uclink.berkeley.edu. The games with the most votes in each category will win. The winners will have their pick of prizes available in a draft sort of thing. If there are conflicts between the TADS/Inform choices, a coin flip will decide the matter, with the loser choosing another prize, if there is one.^^ "," The deadline for submitting votes is September 30. Prizes will be awarded the next day.^^ "," The Prizes So Far Include:^^ ","$100.00 cash, donated by Eileen Mullin^^ 1 free copy of Avalon (upon its completion), donated by me.^^ One free registration for Save Princeton, donated by Jacob Weinstein.^^ ~Castles and Kingdoms: An electrifying compendium of 15 BASIC adventures you can type in to your Commodore 64~ by Bob Liddil, donated by Gareth Rees.^^ 1 year subscription to the printed version of XYZZYnews, donated by Eileen Mullin^^ ~Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur~ for the Mac, complete with box, etc., donated by Jacob Weinstein.^^ An autographed copy of my first novel, if and when it's published--for a winner who feels like taking a big gamble, donated by Jacob Weinstein.^^ "," More might be donated as we go along. If you have something you want to donate, email me with details.^^ "," Good luck, now get out there and write!"; ]; Option -> "Results" with description " -=-INFORM-=-^^ 1st Place: A Change in the Weather, by Andrew Plotkin.^^ Andrew chose as his prize: The very first copy of Avalon, autographed and donated by me.^^ 2nd Place: The Mind Electric, by Jason Dyer.^^ Jason chose as his prize: $50.00 cash, donated by Martin Braun^^ 3rd Place: The Magic Toyshop, by Gareth Rees.^^ Gareth chose as his prize: One free registration for ~The Path to Fortune~, donated by Christopher E. Forman.^^ 4th Place: MST3K1: Detective, by Christopher E. Forman ~and Matt Barringer,~^^ Christopher chose as his prize: ~Castles and Kingdoms: An electrifying compendium of 15 BASIC adventures you can type into your Commodore 64~ by Bob Liddil, donated by Gareth Rees.^^ 5th Place: All Quiet on the Library Front, by Michael S. Phillips.^^ Michael chose as his prize: An autographed copy of my first novel, if and when it's published--for a winner who feels like taking a big gamble, donated by Jacob Weinstein.^^ 6th Place: Tube Trouble, by Richard Tucker.^^ -==-TADS-==-^^ 1st Place: Uncle Zebulon's Will, by Magnus Olsson.^^ Magnus chose as his prize: $100.00 cash, donated by Eileen Mullin^^ 2nd Place: Toonesia, by C. J. T. Spaulding aka Jacob Weinstein, the author of Save Princeton.^^ Jacob chose as his prize: 1 year subscription to the printed version of XYZZYnews, donated by Eileen Mullin^^ 3rd Place: The One That Got Away, by 'The Author' aka Leon Lin^^ Leon chose as his prize: ~Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur~ for the Mac, complete with box, etc., donated by Jacob Weinstein.^^ 4th Place: ~It appears to be a tie, ladies and gentlemen.~^^ A Night at the Museum Forever, by Chris Angelini.^^ Chris chose as his prize: One free registration for Save Princeton, donated by Jacob Weinstein.^^ Undertow, by Stephen Granade.^^ Stephen chose as his prize: A copy of ~Leather Goddesses of Phobos~ on 5.25~ disk for IBM compatibles, donated by Jon Uhler.^^ 5th Place: Undo, by Null Dogmas aka Neil Demause"; Option rules06 "Rules for Competition Aught-Six" with description "Special thanks to Dan Shiovitz for help with some inspiration here, as well as unwitting supporter Dave Coleman-Reese, whose post can be found at^^ http://x35.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=413590368&fmt=text^^ and others who have contributed silly posts to raif in years past."; Option propQ "How This Game Relates To the Judging Rules" top with description "In brief: it doesn't, not really. I intended this game as a tool, nothing more. If you don't like it, push the Big Red Button and quit. If you do like it, use it as a scratchpad to record your ratings and print them out. Use it to find where the odd interpreters reside on the archive, or to find out if your platform has a new interpreter somewhere. If you absolutely hate it, either rate all the games or find another way to choose which games to play first. Any option will work."; Option note "A note from the author" top with description "We're back!^^ This has gotten pretty stable over the years, so not much has been changed for this release. The major change was in the blurbs that are now on those games where the author provided one. Other than that, it's the same old switch, button, and lever-filled front-end judges have grown to love.^^ The astute among you might notice that while the total number of games has remained fairly constant over the last few years, the size of this gamefile has continuously increased. I leave it to your finely-honed adventuring instincts to discover if there's a reason for this.^^ If you have comments, bug reports, ideas, whatever, feel free to contact me at:^^ lpsmith@@64rice.edu^^ Enjoy!";