And now, for something completely dissimilar... The (Other) TADS Game List - Part 1 -------------------------- Maintained by Gerry Kevin Wilson and Paul David Doherty Provided by The Grue! Version 1.1 (March 25, 1996) @~These games are being added to the SynTax library as we get hold @~of them. If you can help out with any I haven't got, please send @~them in for a 1-to-1 swap ... Sue -=-=-=- This is our attempt to list and describe all (three dozen or so) TADS text adventures that currently exist. It was inspired by a similar list by Alan Mead, which unfortunately hasn't been updated for a couple of years. With Alan's permission we've made liberal use of comments and descriptions from his list. We would appreciate it if the reader e-mailed us about any mistakes or omissions, and if TADS authors sent us information about their upcoming releases. We'd also be glad if other players would send us comments or (very short) game reviews for incorporation in the list. All the games listed here (except the commercial ones of course) are available from the official Internet repository of all kinds and flavours of adventure games: the Interactive Fiction Archive, maintained by Volker Blasius and located at ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/. Check it out. For those unfamiliar with TADS, it is a text adventure design system (hence the name) written by Michael Roberts. It is shareware, with a registration fee of $40, which nets you a beautifully done TADS manual. See "A Note About TADS" at the end of this file for availability information. **NEWSFLASH** Since this was last posted on 11/21/95, eight more games have been unleashed upon the community: "The Light: Shelby's Addendum," "The Broken String," "Hero Inc Volume 1," and "Lost New York" are brand new, while Jim MacBrayne has thankfully ported his four classics (The Golden Fleece, The Holy Grail, Frustration, The Mission) from the Amiga. Updated versions of four other games (The One That Got Away, Toonesia, Waystation, Dungeon) showed up in the IF archive. Finally, we are happy to announce an important and long-awaited new port of the TADS system: David Kinder's Amiga version of TADS 2.2.0.5. (Next on the waiting list are ports for the Acorn Archimedes and the Apple ][gs...) Apart from these additions to the list, a few e-mail addresses have been corrected, and we've also added some quotes from reviews published in interactive fiction fanzines like SPAG and XYZZYnews. We still need more short reviews and opinions about the games, so please send us some. (Thanks to the folks who have mailed in additions and corrections: The Grue!, Doug Harter, AnneJ2, Bonnie Montgomery, Jim MacBrayne, and Hans Persson.) One function of this list is to give adventure players up-to-date information on how to reach the game authors by e-mail. We would appreciate it if TADS authors could let us know whenever their e-mail addresses change. **END OF NEWSFLASH** Index ----- Existing TADS Games (by genre) College Games: Ditch Day Drifter MacWesleyan/PC University Save Princeton Veritas Classics: Colossal Cave Revisited Dungeon Eliza Educational Games: The Pesach Adventure Fantasy: Curse of Vengeance The Four Symbols Frustration The Golden Fleece The Holy Grail John's Fire Witch Lethe Flow Phoenix The Mission Perdition's Flames Unnkulia Zero Unnkulia One-Half Unnkulian Unventure I Unnkulian Unventure II Horror: The Horror of Rylvania Programming Exercises: +=3 Alice in Wonderland Kitchen Encounters Shadowland Science Fiction: Deep Space Drifter Enhanced High Tech Drifter The Legend Lives! The Light: Shelby's Addendum Lost Waystation Other (or no) Genre: The Broken String Gerbil Riot of '67 GC The Great Archeological Race HERO, INC Volume 1 Lost New York Modernism Tyler's Great Cube Game IF Competition Entries 1995: A Night at the Museum Forever The One That Got Away Toonesia Uncle Zebulon's Will Undertow UNDO Forthcoming TADS Games A Note About TADS High Energy Software Existing TADS games (by genre, sort of...) ------------------- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=COLLEGE GAMES: Ditch Day Drifter (DITCH.GAM) "You wake up to the sound of voices in the hall. You are confused for a moment; it's only 8 AM, far too early for anyone to be getting up. Then, it dawns on you: it's ditch day here at the fictitious California Institute of Technology in the mythical city of Pasadena, California. Ditch Day, that strange tradition wherein seniors bar their doors with various devices and underclassmen attempt to defeat these devices (for no other apparent reason than that the devices are there), has arrived." (author's blurb) "The game takes you into a realistic university atmosphere with just a small bit of overstatement to make you smile. ... The puzzles are fairly easy, but all logical and well-thought-out. This makes the game an excellent introduction to IF." (Lars Joedal, in SPAG #2) Author: Michael J. Roberts (c) 1990 Freeware (Source included with TADS distribution) Released: Latest Version: 1.0 (TADS 2.0.1, 7 Apr 1993) -=-=- MacWesleyan (a.k.a. PC University): An Everyday Nightmare (PCU.GAM) "Your goal is to obtain all the necessary signatures on your Student Identification Form and return it to the Registrar's office. This includes getting signatures from your faculty advisor, department chair, dean, the university president, and the U.S. president, not to mention getting your own signature (harder than it sounds). Based at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, the game also features speeding Domino's pizza trucks that hinder your safe passage, unusual psychology experiments, and a bus labelled 'House of God' that indeed houses the Famous One." (author's blurb) "It's lighthearted, charismatic, and just challenging enough to hold an experienced player's interest while at the same time catering to newcomers. And besides, the author is distributing it as freeware. You can't beat that." (C.E. Forman, in XYZZYnews #4) Author: Neil deMause (c) 1989-95 Freeware Released: March 1995 Latest Version: 1.0 (TADS 2.2.0, 6 Apr 1995) -=-=- Save Princeton (SAVEPTON.GAM) "Have you ever wanted to kill somebody by feeding them school food? To hobnob with F. Scott Fitzgerald? To be single-handedly responsible for the salvation or destruction of one of the oldest universities in the United States? Save Princeton offers you the chance to do all this and more. In the role of a visitor to the campus, you must save Princeton from a mysterious invasionary force. Saving Princeton doesn't require any familiarity with the place. In fact, all it requires is an off-beat sense of humor and a little bit of brains." (author's blurb) In the past, the game has been treated rather harshly because of a somewhat silly intro (featuring the author himself). This intro will probably be changed in the next release. "The puzzles in this game are done fairly well, but some tend to be rather illogical or bizarre. ... The characters add to the humor of the game, although many of the characters could have been more developed. ... All in all, Save Princeton is a fun, enjoyable game." (Brian Reilly, in SPAG #8) Authors: Jacob Solomon Weinstein , Karine Schaefer (c) 1991-95 Shareware US$10 Released: Latest Version: 2.0 (TADS 2.2.0, 21 Mar 1995) -=-=- Veritas: A Harvard Game of Interactive Fiction (VERITAS.GAM) "Before you can graduate from Harvard in this game, you must complete a scavenger hunt that takes you through a labyrinth of food tunnels, the Harvard Lampoon headquarters, library stacks, and other noteworthy spots on campus." (author's blurb) Reminiscent of Zork, or other treasure gathering games. You can chose your gender at the beginning. "The puzzles [...] range from the mundane to the harder-than-average -- a couple I wouldn't classify as puzzles at all, since you can easily solve them without even trying. ... But this is nit-picking, because the true genius of 'Veritas' isn't in the puzzles, but in the details. ... If you hate red herrings, be forewarned: probably one-third of the items [...] are there for nothing but atmosphere, but they do a terrific job of providing that -- I feel like I came away from the game with a decent understanding of Harvard culture..." (Neil deMause, in XYZZYnews #1) Author: James T. Reese (c) 1995 Shareware US$10 Released: January 1995 Latest Version: 1.2 (TADS 2.0.1, 26 Dec 1994) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=CLASSICS: Colossal Cave Revisited (CCR.GAM) "CCR is a remake of the first major adventure game ever written: Colossal Cave, otherwise known as 'Adventure.' The original Adventure was written in FORTRAN by Willie Crowther and Don Woods, and had only a simple two word command parser. Its descriptions were so vivid, however, that it captivated a generation of computer enthusiasts and quickly became part of the 'hacker lore.'" (author's blurb) Porter: David M. Baggett (c) 1993 Freeware (Source available) Released: July 1993 Latest Version: 1.0 (TADS 2.0.1., 9 Jul 1993) -=-=- Dungeon (DUNGEON.GAM) The original 'Zork' as written in 1977-79 at the MIT by a group including Marc Blank and Dave Lebling. It was programmed in MDL but ported to Fortran (and renamed 'Dungeon') by Bob Supnik in 1979/80. This is a TADS port of the Fortran port (based on Dungeon v3.1). Porter: Darin Johnson (c) 1994 Freeware (Source available) Released: June 1994 Latest Version: 0.3beta (TADS 2.0.1, 15 Mar 1996) -=-=- Eliza (ELIZA.GAM) "Psychiatrist simulation" via string substitution, first implemented by Joseph Weizenbaum in the 1960s. This TADS port is based on a 1979 BASIC version. Porter: David Allen (c) 1994 Freeware (only available as source) Released: Latest Version: ? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=EDUCATIONAL GAMES: The Pesach Adventure (PESACH.GAM) "TPA is a simple game which is designed to provide a fun learning experience for children in about the ten-year-old range. It will be of interest mostly to Jewish children and to their religious school teachers. TPA has a decidedly Jewish theme, and the correct solution of the game requires a certain amount of Jewish knowledge." (author's blurb) Author: Bob Newell (c) 1993 tzedakah-ware Released: Latest Version: ? (TADS 2.0.1, 1 Jun 1994) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=FANTASY: Curse of Vengeance (CURSE.GAM) Fairly typical Dungeons & Dragons meets text adventure. Includes extremely simple combat system, armor and weapon classes, and a 'Save the princess' plot. "Unfortunately, the programmer considered combat to be more important than puzzles, and the general course of a game involves a lot of slogging through extremely boring battles." (Russ Bryan) Author: Scott C. McNab 3328 East Kimberly Road #322 Davenport, IA 52807, U.S.A. Shareware US$10-20 (Source available for US$20) Released: Latest Version: 1.3 (works with TADS 1.04 for Macintosh ONLY!) -=-=- The Four Symbols (SYMBOLS.GAM) "A seemingly simple quest, but with a sting in its tail! Can you prove yourself innocent of witchcraft? Will you curse the day you encountered the black cat? Will you survive? Only time will tell as your wits are challenged in this adventure." (author's blurb) "I'm sorry, I've played it and I still have no clue what the heck it's about." (GKW) Author: The Grue! (c) 1992-93 "Shareware" (Crippleware) UKP5 (Demo version available) Released: Latest Version: 1.1 (works with TADS 1.20 ONLY!) -=-=- Frustration (FRUST.GAM) Chasing after a wayward shopping list given to you by your Aunt Maud, you accidentally plummet down an open manhole. What adventures await you at the other end? Author: Jim MacBrayne (c) 1990,95 Freeware Released: January 1996 Latest Version: 1.01/960114 (TADS 2.2.0, 14 Feb 1996) -=-=- The Golden Fleece (FLEECE.GAM) "As he lifted the pawn and advanced it one square on the board, Zeus' voice thundered, causing the circle of watching Gods to wince. 'An interesting concept, my son, but one with which I cannot agree. Mortals are by their very nature worthless, serving merely as playthings for our amusement.' Hermes' face carried an almost mocking smile as he replied. 'Not so, my father. Indeed this very day have I witnessed such courage in battle as would have done credit to any God. I would wager that amongst all your 'playthings' I could find one mortal at least whom you would be proud to call Brother.'" (from intro) Return the Golden Fleece and prove your worthiness. Author: Jim MacBrayne (c) 1989,96 Freeware Released: February 1996 Latest Version: 1.00/960114 (TADS 2.2.0, 15 Feb 1996) -=-=- The Holy Grail (GRAIL.GAM) The consequences to be faced if you fail in your mission are dire indeed. Are you up to the challenge? Author: Jim MacBrayne (c) 1989,95 Freeware Released: January 1996 Latest Version: ?? (TADS 2.2.0, 13 Jan 1996) @~More next issue - o -