Zork, Infocom, and other interactive fiction on Android.

Discuss Android apps here.
Apr 13th, 2013, 11:02 pm
#1362435 by Guy1731
Image


Overview
    Our favorite old Adventure game and many Infocom games (like Zork, Suspended, Planetfall), as well as many newer “Interactive Fiction” games (like Spider and Web) are also available for Android devices.

Here’s how it works:
    The original games were generally written for, or ported to, a portable virtual machine / interpreter called the Z-Machine.

    The "Z" of Z-machine stands for Zork, Infocom's first adventure game. Z-code files usually have names ending in .z1, .z2, .z3, .z4, .z5, .z6, .z7 or .z8, where the number is the version number of the Z-machine on which the file is intended to be run, as given by the first byte of the story file. Version# and specification. This is a modern convention, however. Infocom itself used extensions of .dat (Data) and .zip (ZIP = Z-machine Interpreter Program), but the latter clashes with the present widespread use of .zip for PKZIP-compatible archive files starting in the 1990s, after Activision had shut down Infocom. Infocom produced six versions of the Z-machine. Files using versions 1 and 2 are very rare. Only two version 1 files are known to have been released by Infocom, and only two of version 2. Version 3 covers the vast majority of Infocom's released games. The later versions had more capabilities, culminating in some graphic support in version 6.
    For more info, see Wikipedia

    In this realm, a game is embodied as Z-code file, and typically has a .zn file extension like .z5 or .z8, with n indicating the interpreter version it is made for (requires at least that version).

There are now Z-Machine interpreter apps on Android:

There are various online libraries of Z files.
    Here is the Z-Machine section of the Interactive Fiction Database (IFDB)
    (they don’t have the games that were commercial and never released as free, including most of the Infocom Games)
    Here is a pretty complete looking library of downloadable Infocom games.
    Here is The Infocom collection. v1.0 released on mobilism.org (Though posted in Windows Mobile section, the games are device-independent)

    On Android and PC, you can just download the file (.e.g. the .z5 file) from an archive, then open it in the player app.

Authoring new Interactive Fiction
    You can write new Z-machine Interactive Fiction (IF) games or stories.
    A popular free tool for doing so is “Inform” (available here: http://inform7.com/)

More interactive text adventures:
Apr 13th, 2013, 11:02 pm
Apr 13th, 2013, 11:30 pm
#1362464 by Guy1731
The Infocom collection. v1.0 - Reviews (source)

" The nostalgia value of these games is immense."

These games are ten, maybe even fifteen years old in some cases. If you've never heard of Infocom or these games before, you're probably going to be disappointed in them.

On the other hand, if your first computer was an Apple II, Commodore 64, or a TRS 80, this collection is quite a kick of nostalgia. I grew up on these games and they're what inspired me into computers as a career. I sank hundreds of hours of my childhood into these wonderful adventures, which I still consider very fun and somewhat challenging today. Some of them bring a tear to my eye reminding me of all the fun I had.

If you can relate to this feeling, you might enjoy some of these games. They are broad, immersive, and fun, if quite antiquated. They are all text. No graphics at all. The world you are set in is described a paragraph at a time in a beauty that can't be explained or compared to today's games.

I played these games when I was about 12 to 14 years old. However, I don't think they would make a good gift for a child today unless that child has a real passion for reading. This would make a better gift for that quirky older guy you know that builds his own computers and lives in his basement. The nostalgia value of these games is immense.

It's also easy to get stuck in these games, and since it's doubtful your friends are also playing them, it can be hard to get help. There are, however, ample resources on the internet from other nostalgics. You just need to look.


" For some this is a godsend..."

The Infocom collection is a delicious piece of 80's nostalgia and features a strong cast of imaginative games that force you to think for yourself. Without graphics to explain things for you, you'll need to create your own images and build the story in your mind. For some this is a godsend... for others it will be sheer doom. Doubtful that teens of today could get into this, but there may be hope for youngsters. My 9-year-old daughter loves the junior level games. Then again, she likes to read and found these game mentally expansive... she thought it was fun to "play" a book.

The collection includes them all, from the foundational Zork series, the humorous "Hitchhiker's Guide..." and "Leather Goddeses", the detective mysteries like "Deadline" and the sci-fi mindbenders like "Suspended" and "A Mind Forever Voyaging". Obviously some are better than others and the difficulty levels swing wildly... some are darn-near impossible and require extreme patience.

A major issue will be your own willpower. Can you resist the burning temptation to scan the Internet for hints or will you stick it out and be honest? FYI - you can download most of these for free at this point.
Apr 13th, 2013, 11:30 pm
Apr 14th, 2013, 7:04 am
#1362711 by Guy1731
Quick reference card for interactive fiction games. (source)

Image
Apr 14th, 2013, 7:04 am
Apr 15th, 2013, 10:45 am
#1364015 by Guy1731
Forgotten Night Text Adventure – like an interactive Mystery Novel game - Review - (source)

" Read the review to see why you must download this game!"

Forgotten Night Text Adventure is a text based game, similar to reading an engrossing book, you use your own imagination to fill in the scenery. The story starts with you waking from a terrible car crash, you’ve rolled over, and must free yourself. You lost your memory and cannot figure out how the crash happened, where you are or where you were going. No one is around and you’re in a creepy rural area, you explore the vicinity to help yourself out of the ordeal… yet more challenges and more questions emerge. Have I enticed you into this story yet? Read the review to see why you must download this game!

Pros & Cons:
    Pros
      An interactive text based game!
      Engrossing story filled with hidden clues, hints and witty responses!
      Find hints online in the support forums!

    Cons
      Although this is clearly a text based game, graphics should not be mentioned, however, upon first glance at the graphics and the organization of the UI really makes the game not enticing to initially try. But I implore you to disregard the graphics completely and try it!

Features:
    Let’s first start by clarifying that this is not one of those high octane 3D games, it is however, a text based game. Yet my only gripe is that, upon first glance of the screenshots it may scare off some users, but please read on as this game is definitely download worthy!

    Continuing from our intro… you read the dialogue of this fantastic story of you awaking a deadly crash unscathed and do not remember a thing, not even your name. Hint: you free yourself with a pocket knife found on a key ring as you’re still upside-down and strapped to your seat belt. The game has a hand-drawn map that shows you visually where you are as you explore this abandoned acreage.

How to Play Forgotten Night Text Adventure
    I have to be honest, at first I could not figure out how to play, as there is no tutorial to tell you what the buttons mean nor exactly how to play. However, I guess this adds to the challenge of figuring out the mysterious game. To jump start you, here’s an explanation of the gameplay. At the top is a text field that you do not type in, yet select key words along the bottom in green (note: there is a full list of keywords on the second tab along the bottom- running man icon). Under the text box is the story text, commands and direction joystick near the bottom right (this can be toggled on/off, which you will need to in order to read some story text as it gets in the way, as the last icon on the bottom row of tabs.) The first tab along the bottom row always brings you back to the story-line view, as you’ll be toggling the views often as you explore the story.

    As we jump into the second- running man tab, it lists all the verbs you use to combine actions to commands; i.e. “Open” “Door”. Hint: some areas combine more than two actions to complete a command, for example “Use” “pocket knife” on “seat belt”. Also there are the available Doors, Visible Items, and Inventory or items you find and keep to help you along the way.

    A humorous touch is in some of the responses you get as you combine actions that don’t go together like:

      when at the broken bridge and use combo “Use” “collapsed bridge” on “yourself” you get the reply “Why? Do you have super human strength”
      …or “Use” “collapsed bridge” on “river” you get the reply “I don’t feel monkey-like at the moment”
      …or try “Use” “pocket knife” on “yourself” and get the reply “That wouldn’t be very smart! Don’t give up now!”

    If you ever get stuck in the game it will provide you with hints and if that is not enough you can visit the support forums where other readers offer hints.

Fun Factor & Addictive:
    Once you get over the aesthetics and learn how to create commands with the text actions, you’ll find the story quite suspenseful and you get wrapped into it like a good book! The mystery to find out what all is going on and the origin of it all keeps you coming back and searching for more answers.
    Graphics:

    I would offer advice to the developer for a cleaner UI with better structure in the navigation, a starter tutorial to get acquainted with controls and even an enticing novel cover graphic so users won’t initially judge this book by the cover.

Rating! (4.1 out of 5)
    Should you Download Forgotten Night Text Adventure? See… I advised you must download this text based adventure app! Hopefully I didn’t give away too many spoilers in the review (like finding the ladder in the first house to cross the collapsed bridge- Oops!) :oops: The first story is free, so be sure to check out the sequel The Forgotten Nightmare II, judging by the first story the second one should be worth the spend.


Install Forgotten Night Text Adventure from Google Market or from mobilism.org
Apr 15th, 2013, 10:45 am
Apr 15th, 2013, 2:27 pm
#1364239 by Guy1731
Colossal Cave Adventure - Review - (source)

" This is definitely worth downloading!"

The original text adventure game is back on android :) :) OK, I got this long before Amazon opened it's ap store. It is one of the first things I went looking for when I got my tablet (an archos 70)... but I have not, yet been able to put it on my archos 5 because of lack of market access (I will try downloading to that device later now that Amzon has it, but it works fine on the archos 70!)

Writing this review makes me feel old indeed. I spent so many night awake until all hours of the night playing this on my dad's apple 2c back in 1975,6,7... it is a very rich game and one you will not finish in an hour or a day. This is the game which spawned an entire genre (or 2 or 3): rpgs, text adventures, d & d sims... they all started here.

So far this port seems very true to the original; at least I have not found a place where it deviates (but for the addition of voice control, if that is available/ enabled on your device). I have not used that component (I would feel very odd sitting in a waiting room, e.g. and talking to my tablet) but the text component is true to the original.

Colossal cave takes you on a grand adventure underground: dragons, pirates, and other slithery things :) I would not want to spoil it for the uninitiated by giving a blow by blow. I will just say that this is definitely worth downloading! You can't get much more "retro," as this is the first of its kind. if you grew up with games which are heavy on the graphics... well you are missing something in terms of engaging your imagination. Give this a try. What have you got to lose? (other than hours and hours and hours.... heh heh heh).

" The game is implemented well, and I highly recommend it"

I played Colossal Cave (a.k.a. "Adventure") when it was first developed, back in the 1970s. At the time, it was one of the most fascinating computer games available. And its long life -- and the fact that I'm playing it again almost 40 years later -- support the fact that this is the greatest adventure game of all time. There is a fascination with something that at first appears so simple, yet without "awesome graphics" or "3-D whiz bangs" or any other "modern gaming devices", and is still challenging and enjoyable.

The game is implemented well, and I highly recommend it -- especially to younger players (by which I include anyone under about 35!) -- as a wonderful break from the fast and furious trigger-finger mindless destruction games that are so prevalent today.


Install Colossal Cave Adventure from Google Market or from mobilism.org
Apr 15th, 2013, 2:27 pm