Why the heck did you call it Interactive Fiction Basement? Well it kinda just jumped into my head. I used to live in an old house, which oddly enough happens to be old and white (sorry, obligatory IF reference). Like most old houses it had a basement which concealed some old yet very interesting things. Text Adventures are today's old, and somewhat forgotten things, but they remain interesting. So this site will be my little basement of jewels about interactive fiction.

Text adventures were some of the first games I played. Zork was awesome, Infocom ruled. In some cases I still think they do. But there is a new generation of IF out there, just waiting for players, old and new. Things have changed, systems have improved. Is your imagination still up to the challenge?

I'm not sure if my imagination is still up to the challenge. Recently it has been occupied with work and my latest attempt to learn to code a work of interactive fiction. Sometime I've got to take a break and play some of the newer games.

Right now, this site deals mostly with TADS. It was the second language I tried to learn for IF coding. Don't ask about the first, please! *L* We do have some basic information about various other systems that are available. I hope to have some useful files and information for these other systems at some point.

What's my personal history with text adventures? I mean, really, what do I know that might make you think I have some clue about what I'm talking about? Well it started out back in the early 1980's. A friend of mine showed me Zork on an apple II computer. I was instantly hooked. Later on, that same friend play-tested Infocom's Moonmist. Oddly enough, I can't get very far in that particular game now, it's been so long. My friend and I went on to complete the Zork Trilogy, Enchanter, and Wishbringer. I never did manage to do much with Spellbreaker because I didn't have documentation. That's about the extent of it. I haven't played many of the newer games, but I'm hoping to change that fact soon.

Now that you know about me and where I'm coming from, what's the rest of this about? What can you find on this page? This page contains some basic information to various resources for interactive fiction. This includes my simplistic definition of what interactive fiction is, how to go about creating your own IF, links to tutorials, IF language homepages, and more.

So what is a text adventure? A text adventure is a sort of game where all the descriptions are textual, which is vastly different compared to today's trend toward the graphical. In a text adventure, the images and pictures are left to your imagination. There have been recent additions to some of the best IF creation tools that allow for graphics, like any tool, how they are used will determine wether it's a good addition or not. In my opinion, so long as the graphics are used to enhance the story, I can put aside my (somewhat) fanatic thoughts that IF can only be text. (Hey, I grew up with Infocom, cut me a little slack ok?)

Is it 'text adventure' or 'interactive fiction'? In the old days of IF, the terms were reasonably interchangeable. The lines are a little more blurred today. My quick description and explanation would be that interactive fiction is a game that uses text and the player's input to evolve a story. In most cases, the player has some direct bearing on what happens in the story based on what they do.

What's a good system to use to create some IF of your own? That's a good question. Ask anyone in the IF community and you'll probably get a different answer. The typical answer is to look over the choices and pick the one that seems to fit you best. Some factors that you may want to consider in choosing a system to use may include how easy it is to learn the language, can it do what I want it to, is it supported, are there manuals, does it cost anything?

Those are all good points to think about. One other point may have popped into mind, that being who else is using it? It's a good question, but I think it's less important really, although it's good to be able to ask for help when you get stuck. Below is a list of the foremost languages currently available for creating interactive fiction. I've given a brief comment about each, please keep in mind that I haven't used them all and am only relating what I have heard in my travels of the IF community.

If you're interesting in checking out some of the details about each language, Roger Firth maintains a nice page that shows a small test game in several languages that you can compare. It can be found here.

INFORM - This system is supposed to be the closest thing to what Infocom did back in the 80's
TADS - This system is comparable in ability to Inform, and seems to be a bit easier to learn.
HUGO - Recent addition to the IF world, similar to Inform, easier to learn.
ALAN - An easy to learn system with the ability to do some amazing things.

I personally use TADS and have been following it's development over the past 10 years. Yes, I even remember when it was shareware and considered buying it. I'm picking up on how it works much better this time around. Please don't ask how many times I've tried to get into this! *L* (If at first you don't succeed...)

Below are a couple of links to some general Interactive Fiction resources. A more complete listing can be found in the Online Resource Library.

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Last updated 5/31/2001, Copyright © 1999-2001 AKP, TjR