FAQ

The ifwiki Interactive Fiction FAQ was created to offer succinct, up-to-date information to those who are new to IF or new to the IF community. The FAQ is intended to give brief, helpful answers to those questions that do actually come up frequently, and to direct readers to the most important online resources. While it is meant to be a useful part of ifwiki and to have current, useful links, this FAQ also should serve well as a stand-alone document that someone might read offline or print out. Another resource for newcomers that is helpful (although it hasn't been updated recently) is Roger Firth's Ifaq.

What is "interactive fiction"?

The term refers to programs (sometimes called "games" or, less often, "works") that let you type commands to a character. This character wanders around in a simulated world of some sort, usually one that is described in text. "Text adventure" and "text game" have been used to mean pretty much the same thing. Examples include Adventure, Zork, Deadline, Planetfall, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Hobbit, and Curses. Some people include graphical adventure games such as Myst when they use the term, but those sorts of games aren't the focus of this FAQ, nor are they the main concern of the IF community. The ifwiki offers a formal definition of interactive fiction; there is a longer discussion of the topic in the rec.arts.int-fiction FAQ; and other definitions can be found in various essays and books.

What happened to Infocom (Magnetic Scrolls, Level 9, etc.)?

None of the companies that produced IF during the 1980s are still around and producing IF. Infocom was acquired by Activision in 1986, for instance, and is now a (not very active) "label" of that company. Interactive fiction from this era is often hard to find outside of abandonware sites and online auction sites, although some of it has been made available to the public by the company that produced it. Plenty of people are still creating IF, however, and there are hundreds - perhaps thousands - of new games, most of which are free, that have been developed since the "commercial era" of interactive fiction.

How can I download and play IF?

The IF Archive is the major repository for free interactive fiction, and includes hundreds of recent games, games in many different languages, and many historic games. You'll probably want to download games from there, using the convenient interface provided by Baf's Guide to the IF Archive.

Authors have made some game available for you to play on the Web or download in stand-alone form. But you will usually need to download both an interpreter for your particular platform (a sort of "reader" or "player") and the particular game's "story file" (the data file that is read by the interpreter).

If you use Windows and want to run the zcode file curses.z5, for instance, you need a Windows zcode interpreter. Windows Frotz is a popular one. One you have installed Windows Frotz, you will be able to play any zcode interactive fiction just by downloading and opening the file, which usually will end with .z5 or .z8.

You can find a popular interpreter for your platform and IF format in the following table:

	Zcode	TADS	Glulx	Hugo	ADRIFT	Alan2	Alan3
Story File Extension	.z5, .z8,.z3,.zblorb (other .z# or .dat, rarely)	.gam, .t3	.ulx, .blb, .gblorb	.hex	.taf	.acd/.dat	.a3c/.a3r
Windows	Windows Frotz	HTML TADS Playkit	Glulxe, Git, Zag	Hugo Multimedia Interpreter	ADRIFT Runner	Gargoyle, ARun, Glk Arun	Gargoyle, WinARun
Linux	Gargoyle, Frotz (redhat binary RPM)	Gargoyle, QTads	Gargoyle, Zag	Gargoyle, Hugo wxGTK	Gargoyle, SCARE	Gargoyle, Glk Arun	Gargoyle, ARun in Full Distr
Mac OS X	Spatterlight, Zoom	CocoaTADS, Spatterlight, QTads, HyperTADS1	Spatterlight, Zag	Spatterlight, Hugo Mac	Spatterlight, SCARE	(none)	Spatterlight, Arun in Full Distr
Mac System 9	Nitfol, MaxZip	HyperTADS	Glulxe for Mac	Hugo Mac	(none)	ARun, Glk ARun	(none)
RISC OS	Zip2000, Frotz	AcornTADS	(none)	AcornHugo	(none)	(none)	(none)
Palm	Frobnitz	(none)	CellarDoor	Hugo Palm	(none)	(none)	(none)
PocketPC	Pocket Frotz	Pocket TADS	Git PocketPC	Hugo WinCE	(none)	(none)	(none)
DOS	DOS Frotz	DOS TADS	Git for Dos	Hugo DOS (16 bit)	SCARE DOS	ARun, Glk ARun	(none)
Symbian	Frotz 1.08 uiq	?	?	?	?	?	(none)
Java	Zplet	?	Zag	?	Jasea	?	(none)

¹ HyperTADS isn't native to MacOS X yet, but runs in the Classic compatibility environment.

These are not all the interpreters available, just some of the most popular ones for the most popular platforms. The IF Archive has a fairly comprehensive, if not exactly friendly, list of interpreters that you can download:

• http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/interpreters-infocom-zcode/
• http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/interpreters-other/
• http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/interpreters-tads/

Also see Websites for downloading or playing IF.

Where can I find out what games I might enjoy?

• Baf's Guide is a complete listing of the games on the IF Archive. Many games have capsule reviews, and there are powerful search tools to allow you to select for certain features or look games in a particular genre.
• The Usenet group rec.games.int-fiction is a good place to ask if you have specific tastes and interests that you're willing to explain.
• Interactive Fiction Ratings is a site that lets anyone rate games on a 1 to 10 scale and offer very brief comments. A list of the highest-scoring games is available. A similar site with fewer reviews is Interactive Fiction Reviews Organization.
• In October 2007, IFDB, the Interactive Fiction Database, was created for person-to-person recommendations about IF games. IFDB users can edit the database of games, create Recommended Lists, associate "tags" (keywords) with the games, add reviews and ratings, etc. Its Download Adviser tool makes it easier to download and install games.
• Looking back through past XYZZY winners or games that did well in the IF Competition can also give you some idea of which games are (or were) highly thought of.
• There are several sites that collect and publish reviews: SPAG, Brass Lantern, and IF-Review are the most prominent of these.
• Several members of the community have extensive collections of their personal recommendations: Emily Short, Yoon Ha Lee, and Sam Kabo Ashwell, for example.

What can I do when I get stuck?

Some games have in-game hints; try typing 'help', 'hint', 'hints', 'about', or 'think'. For others, hints or a walkthrough (a list of commands that will win the game, sometimes annotated) may be available on the IF Archive or elsewhere on the Web. If Baf's Guide doesn't list any files for the game you're playing, search the Web for the name of that game and the term "walkthrough" or "solution." You can also ask fellow players for a hint on rec.games.int-fiction. Just be sure to include a spoiler warning and spoiler space before you reveal any details of the game, so you don't ruin the game for others by giving away some of its surprises.

How can I post a review of a game I've finished?

If you like, you can simply post a review to rec.games.int-fiction, as many people traditionally do with the Comp game after the Comp has ended. You can also submit your review to SPAG, IF Review or IFReviews Organization, or post it on your own site or blog.

What is this "IF Comp"?

The IF Competition is an annual, Internet-wide competition for short games (ones you can complete in less than two hours), started in 1996 and currently run by Stephen Granade. Anyone who is online can vote in the competition. Having played and rated five games is the only qualification necessary for judges. Recent years have seen dozens of entries and hundreds of judges: The 2004 Comp had 38 games voted on by 174 judges.

How can I write my own game?

Although some people try to develop IF from scratch in general-purpose languages, winners of the IF Comp and developers of successful longer games have shown that it can be a good idea to use one of the highly capable and free interactive fiction development systems. Inform, TADS, and Hugo are the most powerful and cross-platform of the options, but there are others. You can seek help from fellow developers on rec.arts.int-fiction as you work, and avail yourself of some of the extensive documentation, tutorial material, and sample code that is online.

Which development system is best?

No one knows for sure, but a safe way for you to decide for yourself is to review all of them at Roger Firth's Cloak of Darkness page. You should also consider the development communities for different systems, what sample code and tutorial and reference information is available for each, the whole range of these systems' capabilities (including multimedia capaibilities, if these are important to you), and whether interpreters are available on the platforms you care about.

Why not create my own IF development system?

You're welcome to, and we're all very glad that people such as Graham Nelson (creator of Inform) and Mike Roberts (creator of TADS) have done this. There are sometimes discussions about how to create IF development systems on rec.arts.int-fiction and on ifMUD's #craft channel; you can also check ifwiki's Building a New Interactive Fiction System. While some people will be glad to offer reactions and advice, many people on raif and #craft do prefer to discuss writing games, and almost all of them now are effectively using some existing system such as Inform, TADS, or Hugo. If you're developing a new system, it will certainly help to be very familiar with how all of these existing systems work, so you can imitate their better features and avoid imitating anything you think is a mistake.

It's also worth noting that with the dominance of Inform and TADS, many players will be less likely to play games written in other, less-popular languages. This is chiefly due to the bother of obtaining and installing yet another interpreter, when there are frequently many games equally as good available for the interpreters they already have. If this is a factor, then before you begin you should consider whether you're willing to trade greater exposure for programming convenience and the additional benefits of writing your own system.

How do I get people to test my game?

A very good question. It's very important to have others test and review your game before releasing it. The IF Beta Site Info Page and if.game-testing.org have information about beta-testing, including links to several articles about how to helpfully test games, and it also provides a way for you to sign up as a tester and submit your game to be tested. There are several other ways to find testers. If you've tested someone else's game, you might ask them to reciprocate. You can also politely ask for testers on rec.arts.int-fiction or on ifMUD.

How do I get people to play my game?

Releasing it in the IF Comp can be a very effective way, if it fits the bill by being a two-hour game that is not based on previous copyrighted work. There are other competitions at other points in the year which are less popular but still provide good ways to release a game. If you don't release your game as part of a competition, you should announce your game on rec.games.int-fiction. Although the editors of IF review sites will learn about it from rgif, it's fine to politely bring your work to their attention by email if it hasn't been reviewed after a while.

You may also want to publicize your game outside the IF community, if there are other groups who might be interested in it: e.g., Latin teachers, if your game is in Latin; the Electronic Literature Organization, if your game is written for a literary audience; the Keeler Society, if your game is an adaptation of a Harry Stephen Keeler novel.

Major Resources

• Baf's Guide to the IF Archive, a friendly interface to the IF Archive, with capsule reviews and powerful search features.
• The IF Archive, the main repository for games, interpreters, and development systems.
• SPAG (Society for the Promotion of Adventure Games), an email newsletter also available on the Web.
• Brass Lantern, "the adventure game website," with information for beginners, and numerous reviews, articles, and other resources
• XYZZY News, "the magazine for interactive fiction enthusiasts," with a wealth of older articles about IF.
• IFReviews Organization, huge repository for game reviews written and rated by IF community players and members.

Newsgroups, Chatter, Events

• rec.arts.int-fiction, the Usenet newsgroup known as "raif" and devoted to discussing of authoring interactive fiction. A place to discuss programming, craft, and theory. raif on Google Groups, raif FAQ, past raif topics
• rec.games.int-fiction, the Usenet newsgroup known as "rgif" and devoted to playing games. Annoucements of new games, requests for hints, and reviews go here. rgif on Google Groups
• r*if is a term used to refer to both raif and rgif.
• Intfiction.org, another web-based forum whose community overlaps with raif.
• ifMUD, a MUD where members of the IF community hang out and chat.
• There is an annual awards ceremony on ifMUD for the XYZZY Awards, the Oscars of interactive fiction. Transcript from the 2003 XYZZY Awards, February 28, 2004

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.