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2D All the way! / Text Games

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Oracle
21
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Joined: 2nd Nov 2002
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Posted: 2nd Nov 2002 22:12
any one, ever made a game based on the ye olde text games like Zork?
im really addicted to text games and im trying to make on, any tps?
plz?
The Darthster
21
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Joined: 25th Sep 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 2nd Nov 2002 23:54
I made a game like that in Qbasic and tried (unsucessfully) to port it to DB.

My tip would be to use a different language, specifically one that handles text games. [url]www.tads.org[/url] is a good one, really easy to pick up. You'll need to find the right download however, I think you'll need htads_authkit_257.exe from http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXprogrammingXtads2Xexecutables.html . You can make half-decent text games within a day using tads, as long as you plan out well.

Either that or work for ages on a good text parsing system, mine took weeks to write and still only recognized two word commands.
Caldazarian
21
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Joined: 5th Nov 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 6th Dec 2002 13:02
To create a text game in DB is going to be a project, of course. But it can be done.
First you need to storyboard your game. The best thing to do is make a map, like the ones in Zork.
Then add the inventory items in the rooms that they will be located at in the game.
Then you will need to make the puzzles, this could be as simple as "unlock door with key" etc.
The biggest thing to understand is that you are going to need to put your information into arrays.
For example, you can have an array for the places (or rooms) in your game. Then one for room descriptions of rooms, objects, etc.
Creating A.I. (like in Zork) is not hard either. It is a matter of deciding where you want your enemies to start out, and how you want them to pursue your character.
Understand fully that Zork (or any text game) is just a set of locations (with descriptions), with a set amount of objects (added to the descriptions - then deleted from descriptions when put into your inventory).
The biggest portion of your program will be creating the arrays, and messages that the player will see.
The challenge will be creating the flow of the game, and the locations etc.
I know that this may not have answered your question fully, but realized that console (and I don't mean xBox or PS2 etc - I mean MS-DOS Prompt) programming is not difficult in Dark Basic.
You can email me here: w-dot-lipira-at-attbi-dot-com

It is written in the stone, the Laws of Life...
Written in the stone, the promise of Death...
Flashing Blade
21
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Joined: 19th Oct 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 10th Dec 2002 22:26
i love the old interactive fiction/text adventure games
i found lots @ www.theunderdogs.org
i should imagine the parser to be the trikiest thing to code. One of the best parsers I have found is in The Pawn - a game by magnetic scrolls (you can get it from the underdogs).
I typed this into The Pawn:
"Plant the pot-plant in the plant-pot"
and it understood it!
indi
21
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Joined: 26th Aug 2002
Location: Earth, Brisbane, Australia
Posted: 11th Dec 2002 08:46
lee had one in patch 1 and webdext showed me one he made for his school game class but webbys wasnt DB.

Id store everything into arrays or data statements.

Id prepare it like a command line action application.

Similar to dos but the content wouldnt be file directories it would be room descriptions.

Mr_Insane
21
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Joined: 14th Nov 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 11th Dec 2002 19:14
If you can write a novel, you can make text games.
indi
21
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Joined: 26th Aug 2002
Location: Earth, Brisbane, Australia
Posted: 11th Dec 2002 19:17
if u remember steve jackson and Ian livingstone books I highly suggest u take a peek at them

Kangaroo2
21
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Joined: 26th Sep 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 13th Dec 2002 02:12
text games are great, but unpractical in DB. However now in DBPro they are more possible again! (The possibilities to 'text' strings, and change print fonts, and add strings)

Yay I might just have a go

* If the apocalypse comes, email me *

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