ADRIFT

ADRIFT is a relatively new IF development system designed by Campbell Wild that allows you to create your own IF game. It was written in Visual Basic and is programmed for Microsoft Windows. ADRIFT is intended for people who do not like programming; it sacrifices some power and flexibility for easy usability, but it is still a respected tool with a loyal user base.

While ADRIFT games can be played for free, the latest version of the game generator, version 4.0 is shareware and costs $17 to register. (If you do not register ADRIFT 4.0 it is limited to: 10 rooms; 25 objects; 25 tasks; 5 events; 3 characters; 2 roomgroups; 10 synonyms; 5 variables)

The previous version 3.90 is still available for free, but the later version has many improvements. While you can convert version 3.90 games to run under version 4.0, it is generally advised to use the 3.90 runner as the execution may not be the same after conversion.

History

(Edited from the ADRIFT v4.0 Manual created by Campbell Wild, 25 Oct 2003)

Background

• Wrote Adventure Generator which had a command line

interface that asked a series of questions, then allowed you to play the game that it output. Although this made it quicker to create a game, it was not a very nice interface, and wasn’t particularly easy. I believe I wrote this in Pascal.

• Re-wrote the Adventure Generator, this time making it easy to edit

information that had previously been added. Again, choosing Pascal to do this. This was menu driven, and allowed 20 locations, 20 objects and 40 tasks. You can download TAG from ftp://ftp.adrift.org.uk/adrift/tag.zip.

• Started work on ADRIFT in December 1997 to rewrite a lot of the limitations of TAG

2, and to create it for the Windows environment. Initially, I just called it “Adventure Generator”, but renamed it later. A breakdown of the development of ADRIFT is as follows.

Adrift development

• Dec ’97 Started work on “Adventure Generator v3.00”
• 16th Dec ’98 Released Adventure Generator 3.10.
• 10th Jun ’99 Released Adventure Generator 3.22.

This was the first version to support backwards compatibility with previous versions of Adventure Generator. Deleting of objects, tasks and events was also introduced.

• 13th Jun ’99 Released Adventure Generator 3.23.

Up until this point, all TAF files had been plain text – 3.23 was the first version to encrypt the files with password protection.

• 19th Jul ’99 Released Adventure Generator 3.24.

The lists for Rooms, objects etc in the main window were separated into individual windows. The option to hide objects was also introduced. Event sub descriptions also came in this version.

• 3rd Aug ’99 Released Adventure Generator 3.30.

Version 3.30 saw the introduction of characters. Up until this point, objects had to be used instead. Object aliases were introduced, as was an additional room description based on task completion.

• 28th Nov ’99 Released Adventure Generator 3.31.

This was the first version to incorporate a dynamic map, based on the layout created by the user. Basic synonyms were also introduced for common commands.

• 6th Dec ’99 Released Adventure Generator 3.32.

This version had mostly small updates such as printing out the map, and improved tasks.

• 21st Dec ’99 Released Adventure Generator 3.40.

The task dependency viewer was introduced in this version. There were a number of improvements to events and tasks also.

• 28th Dec ’99 Released Adventure Generator 3.50.

First/Second person, wildcards in task commands, unlimited character walks, characters running tasks, toolbar, search facility and hints are amongst the improvements in this version.

• 7th Feb ’00 Released Adventure Generator 3.60.

Splash screen, individual high-score tables, controllable wait, room groups, word clicks, and better room descriptions were improvements in version 3.60. This is the first version which was used by any number of people, and when Adventure Generator started to become known in the Interactive Fiction community.

• 8th June ’00 Released ADRIFT 3.70.

Because of the generic name, and to raise the profile of the program, I decided to rename “Adventure Generator” to “ADRIFT” which is an acronym of Adventure Development & Runner – Interactive Fiction Toolkit. Version 3.70 also had simple TADS output, openable edible readable objects and objects with surfaces, enhanced player, improved tasks and simple ambiguity handling amongst minor changes.

• Version 3.80 was the first version of ADRIFT to be published in a

magazine, and became downloadable from many places on the Internet. Most of the improvements in this version were bug fixes and fine tuning to the whole program, making it a lot more reliable. Tasks were improved significantly.

• 1st Jan ’01 Released ADRIFT 3.90.

Version 3.90 was a big improvement over 3.80. It had an improved layout, graphics and sound, a battle system, Language Resource (ALR) files, feature disabling, system variables, undo facility, score overriding, much improved Player, 8 directional compass, room hiding, size and weight for objects, unlimited actions and restrictions per task, more powerful characters, integer variables, improved map, transcript, pausing and many more small changes.

• 27th May ’01 Released Final release (20) of ADRIFT 3.90

Version 3.90 was continually improved over nearly six months, during which time it became a lot more reliable, and also introduced extra features such as looping sound, dictionary amongst many others.

• 13th Feb ’02 Released Beta release 0 of ADRIFT 4.00.

Version 4.00 again was a big improvement over 3.90. This was the first version to become Shareware – previous versions had been Freeware. The main improvements were the ability to play MP3s, much better TAF file compression, images and sounds embedded into TAF files, tasks setting and unsetting other tasks, text variables, referenced text, lockable objects, adventure browser, graphics in main window, advanced command construction, multiple object and character aliases, initial object descriptions, and/or for task restrictions, unlimited room descriptions, text editing window, faster execution, improved battle system, random character movement, object states, and modules.

• 9th May ’02 Released ADRIFT 4.00 release 18.

Again, as with 3.90, ADRIFT 4.00 is continually being improved with many releases. Currently, improvements are much greater stability, user definable runner layout, and many bug fixes. Release 18 was the first non-beta version.

• 5th Oct ’04 Released ADRIFT 4.00 release 45.

As at writing, this is the latest release of ADRIFT.

Links

• ADRIFT Home Page. The site got a makeover on Dec 12, 2004.
• InsideADRIFT. A newsletter currently edited by Ken Franklin, always looking for contribution on all IF matters.
• Adrift Topic Tutorial System
• Shadow Vault is David Whyld's Adrift game reference site (includes comprehensive lists of ADRIFT games for download, reviews and walkthroughs)
• Online Adrift Resource site (O.A.R.S)- Recently revived, this site is intended to bring together tutorials and other reference material to assist Adrift users.