Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
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From: msphil@aardvark.cc.wm.edu (Michael S. Phillips)
Subject: Re: Next Years Competition.
Message-ID: <1995Sep29.153312.190@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu>
Sender: msphil@gateway.lawlib.wm.edu (Michael S. Phillips)
Organization: Marshall-Wythe Law Library
References: <44d29b$9g7@agate.berkeley.edu> <44gar6$imp@mercury.kingston.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 15:33:12 GMT
Lines: 61

In article <44gar6$imp@mercury.kingston.ac.uk>, te_s343@kingston.ac.uk (Adrian Preston) writes:
|> Gerry Kevin Wilson (whizzard@uclink.berkeley.edu) wrote:
|> 
|> : First of all, regardless of how cool or special you think a very 
|> : portable system is, that's no reason that everyone else should have to 
|> : learn YOUR favorite language in order to compete on a level even with 
|> : you.  While it may seem really fair to the Inform users  that TADS users 
|> : should get fewer votes because fewer people can play those games, such 
|> 
|> I don't understand why fewer people can play the TADS games. As long as
|> there is a copy of TR.EXE ( The TADS run-file ) and ZIP.EXE in the competition
|> subdirectory of the if-archive, then anyone in the whole wide interactive 
|> world can play either. ( Or at least directions of how to get the appropriate
|> version of either for the desired OS. )

There is no TR or tadsr (the run-time version of TADS) for the Acorn Archimedes, if I'm 
not mistaken.  Does that not preclude anyone who has only an Acorn Archimedes as their
computer from playing a TADS game?

I noticed Amiga, NeXT, Atari (ST), DecStation (MIPS), DOS, IBM RT, Mac, Linux, SPARC
Solaris and SunOS, and OS/2 currently on FTP.GMD.DE.  That's a lot of Unix platforms
missing (although many of the popular ones have been hit), and some older platforms
missing.  Apple ][gs?  I know someone who still uses one.  What about someone who has
access to only one machine on which they can play games, and it happens to be an
RS/6000 runing AIX?  ZIP and JZIP compile for it, but I don't see a TADS runtime for
it.

|> : Categories would be added if I was made aware of a need for them.  No one 
|> : asked me about advsys this year.  I'm hardly going to add a category if 
|> : no one asks for it.  There was one request for home-brew parsers.  One 
|> : entrant does not a category make.  "I am not a mind reader" (tm).
|> 
|> Again, for home-brewed parsers, as long as the interpreter is included in
|> the ZIP file, I can see no reason why they should not be lumped under the
|> same heading as everything else. i.e. the heading 'Interactive Fiction'.

There is one problem with home-brewed systems, especially those for which no source is
available, and only (as an example) a DOS binary to play it.  How will someone who
doesn't have a DOS machine or some form of DOS emulator play the game?

I think someone else summed it up well, in that he held that there should not be
categories of any sort.  That way, those who write to a narrow platform will have
fewer people playing their game, and those who write portably (Inform possibly being
highest on this chart, followed immediately by TADS) will reach the largest number of
voters.

On the other hand, some form of category *other than* by development system would be
nice, especially if there are considerably more entries next year than there were this
year.  Maybe categories along genre lines (e.g. humor, modern, sci-fi, fantasy,
mystery), although maybe that wouldn't work well in practice.

How about amateur vs experienced?  Say, three or fewer short games (e.g. the
competition entries) and one can enter in the amateur section.  More than three short
ones, or one medium-length/full-length (e.g. Curses, Christminster, Theatre, the
Unkuulian stuff, etc) qualifies one for the experienced section only.  That way, the
first-time writers aren't put off by having to compete directly against those they
worship :-)

Just a thought,

    Mike Phillips, msphil@aardvark.cc.wm.edu
