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fishmech · 5 years ago

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THE ALT.GAMES.XTREK FAQ (unnoficial)

1 FAQ History

Originally posted by Optimus in November 1999, with some additions from Rap, Mycophile, and Tenhawk. Other information integrated from the AIF Archive maintained by Mycophile, from the IFFG maintained by ArKane, and from the FAQ for the newsgroup rec.arts.int-fiction which is currently maintained by Stephen Griffiths.

2 Introduction

Hello, and welcome to the FAQ for the newsgroup alt.games.xtrek. What we have here is a list of frequently asked questions that come up in the newsgroup. We also have some frequently given answers (FGA) too. Please take the time to read through this document before posting a question on the newsgroup. You could save yourself some time and frustration.

If you've got a question that isn't answered here, feel free to post it. If you'd like to suggest an addition to this FAQ, please e-mail the maintainer.

3 Commonly Used Abbreviations

AIF - Adult Interactive Fiction ADRIFT - A Windows based form style game generator. Agility - An updated runtime engine that supports AGT and MAGX games. AGT - Adventure Game Toolkit AGX - alt.games.xtrek newsgroup FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions FGA - Frequently Given Answers GMD - Interactive Fiction Archive, formerly hosted on ftp.gmd.de GUE - Great Underground Empire, Zorkian reference. GUI - Graphic User Interface IDE - Intergrated Development Environment IF - Interactive Fiction IFA - The new home of the Interactive Fiction Archive. MAGX - Extension of the AGT language with more power. NG - newsgroup NPC - A non-player character in a work of IF PC - In game context, the player character. PC - In computer context, a personal or home computer. SO - Significant Other TADS - Text Adventure Development System RAIF - rec.arts.int-fiction newsgroup, used by IF programmers mostly RGIF - rec.games.int-fiction newsgroup, used by IF players mostly RTFM - A machine at MIT home to many FAQS RTFM! - Read The Fine Manual! RTFF! - Read The Fine FAQ! YANNI - Yet Another New Naughty Idea (abundantly used by Rap)

4 What is Interactive Fiction?

That is a good question. In days past, both interactive fiction and text adventure had the same meaning. Interactive fiction has a broader interpretation these days. For the sake of this FAQ and the topic it covers, text adventure is more accurate, but still not perfect.

Basically, Interactive Fiction is a text-based game where the player has some direct impact on the story. This impact is usually from some action that they perform such as finding an item, solving a puzzle, opening a locked door, finding the treasure, or other similar action. Some games even change when the player doesn't do something.

Another attempt to define IF can be found at the Interactive Fiction Basement.

4.1 What is Adult Interactive Fiction?

Adult Interactive Fiction, commonly called AIF, is a catch phrase used to describe Interactive Fiction with strong sexual themes, hence the 'Adult' in AIF.

4.2 What is XTrek?

X-Trek is a subgenre of AIF, based largely on characters and locations from the Star Trek universe.

5 What is AGX?

AGX is the abbreviation of the newsgroup alt.games.xtrek. AGX was originally set up for discussion of X-Trek games, but has since moved on to become the forum for all forms of AIF.

AGX is a bit different from the other IF newsgroups. RGIF is for questions related to game play and RAIF is for questions about the programming side of IF. Both programming and game playing questions about AIF are on topic in this group. While there is nothing in the R*IF charters that say anything about sex not being on topic, there's not much of it in mainstream works of IF. Well sex is definitely on topic here! So is food! (see the RAIF FAQ)

But enough of the silly banter for the moment. Here is a concise, if not complete list of what is considered on-topic for AGX:

Questions about playing AIF games. Questions about programming AIF games. Questions about where to find an AIF game. Hint requests for AIF games. AIF game reviews. Hentai games. Sex. Food!

Stupidly Posted Annoyance Messages. You know what it is, we don't want it here.

Silly Requests for Posted Games. AGX is not a binary newsgroup. Some servers automatically kill binary attachments in non-binary newsgroups. Also, some people pay for Internet access by the minute. Posting binaries to the group costs them money. Be considerate to all in our community.

To my knowledge there is no site that is actively archiving everything posted to AGX. Old posts might be found by searching at a newsgroup archive site such as Google.

AGX was originally setup for the Xtrek game, which later evolved into Xtrek2 and then Netrek. This game was and is a multiplayer online starship combat system and has no relation to Xtrek in it's AIF incarnation.

This particular group was abandoned for more than a year by it's original creators, who moved on to alt.games.nettrek. Until it came into use by people requesting sequels to Xtrek and Troi, after they mistook it for an adult group.

As recent as the first posting of the DS9 beta by Tenhawk, noone was using this group at all. He posted to ABSA [alt.binaries.startrek.adult] and didn't actually crosspost here until the last revision was released. It wasn't until that post, and Newkids posting of TSG that the new community moved in.

6 How do I play these games?

6.1 Interpreters

Most IF games require a program called an interpreter to run the game file(s). A majority of AIF games are written in TADS, Inform, or AGT. For these (and many other) systems, you'll need the game file plus a program that runs games written in that language. These programs can be found at IF Archive, and have been ported to many platforms.

6.2 Troubleshooting 6.2.1 Error 200 when running AGT games?

AGT was programmed in Pascal. There is an error in the screen handling routines that will cause a divide by zero error on faster machines. For you technical people, the error is in the CRT module and affects many versions of Pascal and Turbo Pascal. I don't have all the specifics, that isn't what this site is for.

Download this patch file for the AGT runtime and compiler. Use it. If you have problems with this link, it can also be found on the nearest IF Archive mirror in the agt directory.

Use Agility as your runtime engine, it was programmed in C and doesn't have this problem. Agility will run most AGT games, but some will not work properly. It can be found at the IF Archive, or the Agility homepage.

7 Where can I find AIF games?

Most of the AIF sites only archive the best examples of AIF. Perhaps one day there will be a server that houses everything, but at this time there is no such place.

If it is a newer game and you can't find it on any of the sites listed below, it probably doesn't exist, or it still remains in development hell. There are ocassionally posts where somebody mentions a game they are considering working on, this by no means guarantees a release.

7.1 I can't find game X, where can I get it?

At this time, none of the AIF archives has every AIF game made. One way around this is a polite request to have the file e-mailed to you. That way, you can get the game you want, the newsgroup isn't filled with wasted bandwith about getting a game, and nobody has to worry about downloading a binary from the group.

7.1.1 Have you heard about this Safe Sex game?

Safe Sex may very well have been the first AIF game. It was programmed with the Computer Novel Construction Set and released as a demo sometime around 1993. Much of the text in the game and the archive refers to a company called SOS Software. To the best of our knowledge, there isn't, nor was there ever a full version of this game. Any references to the company, and requests for monetary donations should be considered bogus.

7.2 Can somebody post this game to the newsgroup?

This was covered in the section about the newsgroup, but it bears repeating. While AGX isn't moderated, it is not a binary group. In short, don't post games to the newsgroup!

7.3 Sites that host AIF games

The following sites have AIF games available for download. They don't have everything ever made, but contain the best examples.

Adult Interactive Fiction Archive

The oldest AIF site, Back with a new maintainer!

Lesser AIF Archive

A smaller archive, but catching up in content and games.

CycoONE's Vortex

A site about TADS games, AIF and IF, and more.

Interactive Fiction for Grownups

A site with AIF programming, writing, and plot ideas for budding writers.

Interactive Fiction Archive

The biggest archive for everything about IF in general. This is an ftp site.

IF Archive Web Interface

Web interface to the Interactive Fiction Archive.

8 Is there a walk through for this game?

This is a very common question, especially right after a new game has been released. Some people just don't want to try and figure a game out before they ask for a walk through. It happens to us all at some point.

Try to work your way through it before asking for a walk through. If you get stuck on a particular part of the game, ask for a hint on that. From what I've seen, people are more willing to help with a certain tricky spot in a game.

8.1 Where can I find walkthroughs? 8.1.1 XTrek Walkthroughs

XTrek walk throughs can probably be found by searching the archives for AGX on Google.

8.1.2 Other Walkthroughs

Non-Xtrek walk throughs can be found at the AIF Archives and the Lesser Archives.

8.2 Can I post a hint or walk through?

Heavens sake, of course you can! We are a community, it is good to help your friends and neighbors. There are a few important things you should do when posting a hint or walk through.

First, use a subject line that denotes that the post has clues in it so that people who don't want them can skip that post. Common practice is to include the word SPOILER in your subject line, followed by the game being asked about. For example, in response to a question about Rogue Cop, a subject line with [SPOILER] Rogue Cop, would warn AGX readers that there are answers about the game in the post and they may want to skip it.

Second, leave several blank lines between the question and your hint, just in case somebody accidentally opens the message in their reader. They can see what the question is and determine if they want to read further.

8.3 Pophints and other hint systems

Pophints is a simple program for providing hints to games on DOS based systems. There are other hint systems that will run on most platforms. More information can be found in the hints section on your local IF archive mirror.

9 Can I ask when new games are coming out?

An ocassional post asking about this isn't a terrible thing. It lets authors know that people are still interested in their project. Frequent requests of this sort only serve to annoy the authors and readers of AGX. A rough guideline on this would be, at most, once a month.

The short answer is that they will come out when they get finished.

The long answer is that these games take time and patience to code, and writers usually only do this in their spare time. So a new game, depending on the scope, can easily take months. So don't bug them, the more time they spend reading posts in their spare time is less time that they will spend working on a game!

10 How can I write these games?

10.1 Reading

There are various documents that discuss what is involved with writing any work of IF. Before you seriously start working on something you should look over a couple of these, if not all of them. There are not rules set in stone, but these articles cover a host of things you might not have considered. The first couple deal with IF in general, while the others are aimed more at AIF in particular.

Craft of Adventure

, by Graham Nelson

Crimes Against Mimesis

Whizzard's Guide to Text Adventure Authorship, by G K Wilson

AIF: What Does it Take

, by ArKane

Writing Adult Interactive Fiction

, by Rap

10.2 IF Languages

The first thing you need to do is pick up one of the many languages available for writing Interactive Fiction games. There are various languages for creating these types of games.

Each language has it's own benefits and pitfalls. Check out the section of the RAIF FAQ for an overview. Ultimately you have to choose which language you are most comfortable using. Roger Firth maintains a page with several code examples that may help you make a decision. (see below) The most popular languages are:

TADS is more powerful that AGT, and a bit easier to learn than Inform. It's programming style is more object oriented, and the code resembles the C language in many ways. The newer versions of TADS also support integration with HTML and graphics.

This language can handle much more complexity than AGT. It is the closest thing to the language that Infocom used back in the text adventure age, the Zork years. Inform uses a mostly procedural based coding, and has a higher learning curve than AGT or TADS.

This was one of the first languages for programming IF. It's one of the oldest, and while it has been said it is easier to learn, you sacrifice some power in doing so. If you decide to go with AGT, I highly recommend getting the MAGX package which extends it's funtionality.

There are a couple of other languages that are a bit newer. This is not to say that you can't write AIF in these languages, there just hasn't been as much development so it may be more difficult.

Hugo

ALAN

10.3 Programming Resources

Most of the major IF languages have dedicated web sites that have all sorts of useful information on them. This is good if you're looking for specific help or an update.

There is also the Interactive Fiction Archive, which houses almost everything there is dealing with IF. Both new and old languages for programming IF can be found here, as well as manuals, games, help, and other related documents.

This can be a complex question. To make it more basic, you need to choose a language, get it, get the documentation, READ the documentation, and mess around with any example code and techniques mentioned in the documentation.

You may not understand it all at once, but that is to be expected. Creating a work of IF requires both writing and programming. It takes practice and time to understand how to get both your text and your code to work the way you want it to.

10.4 Other Resources

There are tutorials available for several of the IF languages. Once you've looked at your documentation it's good to see if you can also find a tutorial. Some sample code may also help you get an idea how certain things work in your chosen IF language.

Inform Tutorial Inform Source Code Engelberg's TADS Tutorial Online Tutorial TADS Source Code

Once you start coding you may find that your chosen language just doesn't do something you want it to. Chances are that somebody has already thought of what you were looking to do and may have written a library extension for that purpose already. You may want to check these locations before you start trying to code it yourself.

Aside from the newsgroups RAIF and AGX, you may get some useful feedback from the folks on RGIF. There are also two lists of people willing to help with some part of the IF process.

The IF Collaborator's List lists many people and specific languages they'd be willing to help with. There is also the IF Assistance List, which lists some of the same info as the Collaborator's list plus specific areas of interest such as fantasy, mystery, etc.

More information about these languages can also be found at the following sites. Interactive Fiction at MiningCo.com The IF Basement Roger Firth's Cloak of Darkness site.

10.5 What Editor should I use?

Well the quick answer is that any editor that allows you to save in a pure text format will do the job. You can use a word processor, but if you do you've got to remember to save your files in a text-only format!

A better choice may be to get your hands on an editor designed more for programming that allows you to hook your compiler, debugger, or spell-check into it. One thing that you will definitely want is an editor that displays line numbers! Macro recording and sytax highlighting are nice, but you can write IF without them.

If you are using a windows based system, I highly recommend getting PFE. It is a highly configurable editor that allows for everything mentioned above except for syntax highlighting.

11 Food for thought...

What was I thinking about putting in this section? Probably some screwy idea of involving food in games. It could be rather interesting. Maybe I was just going to ramble about what sort of foods I usually have handy when I get into coding. That would be Doritos, pizza, Dew, and chocolate. I might have just taken this oportunity to ramble on a bit more. You never know what might spark an idea though...

12 Resources

TADS Homepage

Inform Homepage

Jay Goemmer's AGT Pages

AGT Homepage

Interactive Fiction Archive

The AIF Portal

Adult Interactive Fiction Archive

Interactive Fiction for Grownups?

Lesser Adult Interactive Fiction Archive

Other resources...

Those writing in TADS may consider checking out the source code for Moist, just keep in mind that the author warns that it was never meant to be instructional, and can get pretty messy.

There are also a couple of libraries made for use with TADS to make AIF easier to put together. The first is MMX, created to reproduce the character interaction found in Moist. The second is Rogue Redux, which expands on MMX and adds some other functionality. Both can be found at the IF archive and on some of the AIF sites as well.

#old internet #old computer #geocities #interactive fiction #usenet

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