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From: librik@cory.Berkeley.EDU (David Librik)
Subject: Re: So you want to write a text adventure?
Message-ID: <librik.721876339@cory.Berkeley.EDU>
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References: <1992Nov14.211238.13372@starbase.trincoll.edu> <1992Nov15.234938.12993@starbase.trincoll.edu>
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 01:12:19 GMT
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Russell L. Bryan <rbryan@Mail.trincoll.edu> writes:

>In article <41025@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> Darin Johnson, djohnson@cs.ucsd.edu
>writes:
>>So, reading between the lines, can we assume TADS will only be
>>developed if there is a market?  I think the comment on "C" was
>>whether or not it would be available in source code form, so it
>>could be put on any machine (ie, unix, amiga, apple iigs, etc.)

>I don't want to speak for Mike Roberts, but I would suggest that if
>someone contacted him and offered to port TADS to the Apple II, then it
>might work.  Just understand that this is not a major software
>distributor we're talking about here -- the money-grubbing of commercial
>software is not at question, but the time required to conduct the porting
>operation is.

I doubt it.  He has turned down offers to port TADS to the Amiga, because
he doesn't own an Amiga.  (At least this is what an Amiga owner who made such
an offer told me).  He's running a professional operation here and has to
be able to support and upgrade what he sells.  And he's into making money from
his program ... which is fine with me, since it allows him to sell it with
great manuals and lots of support.

(An Apple 2 version?  Hey, then a TRS-80 version should be a snap!)

The trouble is, all of us here are such computer wizzes that what we *really*
want to do is write our own Adventure systems!  Much more fun than writing a
game, after all.  (Hey, just yesterday I was thinking about writing an
adventure parser for Cherokee -- a language in which the physical properties
of objects are reflected in the words.  "You can't drink that ... it doesn't
have a 'liquid' prefix!")

- David Librik
librik@cory.Berkeley.edu
