Hatrack II

Introduction

HATRACK II was a Text Adventure authoring system written for the Commodore Amiga computer by Tony Heap of Heley Software in 1990 and updated in 1991. It was written in HiSoft Basic and came on one bootable floppy disk.

The program came with a default set up containing enough information for a basic game to be created. Finished games could be published onto a floppy disk for distribution.

Mechanics

Hatrack II was essentially a database system where the author filled in tables of descriptions, messages, objects, variables and vocabulary that were then compiled into a playable game. In this way it was not so different to GAC and Adventure Creation Environment and similar systems.

Hatrack came with a default file which gave basic functionality such as movement and standard commands like examine and Inventory. The default file included all the messages, vocabulary and variables to make these work. The rest was up to the author to add as needed to complete a game.

For example, the location descriptions were added by filling in a form on the screen where the text and then exits could be set. Vocabulary was a numbered list as were messages.

In order to make things happen, the author had to use a simple version of BASIC to create a "puzzle." The defualt file contained a standard set of "puzzles" which were actually the code to make commands like "examine" and "look" work. The bulk of the programming, from my memory, consited of nested if...then statements and subsequent manipulation of variables, moving objects and printing messages.

Links

Reviews

• HATRACK II - Zzap! #72, April 1991.