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From: lazuli@eskimo.com (Fred Sloniker)
Subject: Re: Limitations of Inform and TADS?
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References: <4775gf$pa@uwm.edu> <478i7t$mkv@life.ai.mit.edu> <47bjo8$lr8@phakt.usc.edu> <47cdru$euu@life.ai.mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 1995 19:48:56 GMT
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In article <47cdru$euu@life.ai.mit.edu>, David Baggett <dmb@ai.mit.edu> wrote:

>I bet there is almost *no one* with net access who can't also get access to
>a reasonably modern machine --- this *is* philosophical.

Good thing you had that 'almost' in there.  I own an Amiga 500,
several years old.  I cannot afford a PC, as I am unemployed.  My
parents, whom I live with, have a 286.  They also cannot afford a PC
(at least, a 386 or better), having myself and three other people to
support.  How do I have net access?  I paid the last $120 of my last
paycheck from my last job to get it for a year.  I may be the only one
in this situation, but I doubt I'm the only one in a similar one...

I also don't understand your comment about philosophy in this context.
(Geez, I sound like a parser there.)  What precisely is
'philosophical' about not owning, and not being able to afford to own,
an IBM?

>Not when "my machine" is "An Amiga, though I have a PC but refuse to use it
>for IF because I don't like DOS," or "my Atari 800, though I have a PC, but
>IF *should* run on my 800, so if yours doesn't, I won't play it."  I
>certainly don't need to give people more reasons to not play my games, but
>this is ridiculous!

How about when 'my machine' is "an Amiga, though I have a PC but it
won't play 'Legend' either because its 30-meg hard drive is full of my
parents' files and its 286 processor won't cope with the interpreter"?

>This comment exactly illustrates the attitude I'm talking about.  You don't
>feel you should need to use a faster machine to run games that only do
>"standard adventure game" sorts of things, even if it means that IF authors
>have to use low-paradigmicity languages to provide you with said games.

I'm beginning to get angry, Mr. Baggett.  Not so much because of what
you said, but because of the attitude behind it.  Everywhere I look
today, I see video games loaded with six CDs of graphics and sound
that won't play properly on anything less than a 66 MHz 486 with eight
megs of memory, an SVGA card, and Windows.  In six months, that will
be an 100 MHz Pentium, 16 megs of memory, and Windows 95.  This is to
be expected from programs that want to push the limits of what is
possible with graphics and sound (gameplay is a whole other issue, and
one I'm not going to get into).  Lamented, but expected.

You must remember, however, that we are talking about text adventures.
Almost *no* one plays text adventures any more.  I'd guess the exact
number is in the thousands.  Therefore, you want to do as much as you
can to let everyone possible play your game, because the audience is
so small to begin with.  Furthermore, there is no technical reason
text adventures shouldn't be playable on any but the tiniest computers
(I wouldn't expect my old Commie 128, or a TRS-80, to load up
"Curses", but my Amiga happily multitasks it with my terminal program
and a few shell windows...)  They simply don't need huge whopping
computer resources.

That said, I don't really mind if a turn takes a few seconds to
process.  Use all the programming tools you want.  (Though perhaps an
optimizing compiler might not be a bad thing to have handy, that
applies to language writers, not game writers.)  However, as best I
can interpret what you've just said, you're saying that it's my own
fault I can't play 'Legend' because I can't afford to buy a 'decent'
PC.  (Remember when that meant 'personal computer'?  Anyone?)  That's
just... arrogant.

I don't hold grudges, so one of these days I may even play 'Legend'
and see what all the fuss is about.  But not until I can.

				---Fred M. Sloniker, cleric at large
				   L. Lazuli R'kamos, FurryMUCKer
				   lazuli@eskimo.com

Don't bug me, or I'll hex you with my bopamagilvie.  (:3
