I cut my geek teeth on old Infocom games back in the very pre-Windows days. Iād like to introduce my 8 yr old to this genre of games. Can anyone recommend text-based games for the iPad or PC that would be age-appropriate?
The IFDB is the first place to look for text-based games by any criteria; thereās an excellent search option.
It took me about two minutes to find a list of child-appropriate recommendations.
How to play depends on which of the (several) popular IF writing systems was used for the game. Probably the most common are āZ-Machineā based games, which are direct descendants of the old Infocom engine and usually written in Inform. Games using TADS are also popular; there are good PC interpreters available for either.
(Personally, I use Gargoyle for the PC, but a little time with Google will produce many fine alternatives.)
For the ipad I couldnāt find a good TADS solution, but z-machine games (which are in the majority) will run fine using iphonefrotz.
Also: If you like to really play with words, donāt miss Nick Montfortās Ad Verbum, a text adventure about the English language. A favourite of mine, for sheer brilliance of concept and puzzle design.
Someone at Slate was all aflutter over Hadean Lands a little while ago.
Remember HyperCard? I rememebr HyperCard. It was so damn easy to put together something fun like this. I wonder if it ever could have been competition to html?
The most brilliant text adventure game I played recently (orā¦ at all, in the last 10 years) is Counterfeit Monkey, where you can change reality by manipulating words using (mostly illegal) high-tech devices such a letter-removing guns, homonym paddles, reversing mirrors and the like.
For example, suppose you needed to go down the highway, but have no vehicle. Fortunately, there is a chair near-by. Zap out the āiā and youāre left with a fish flopping on the ground ā a char. Zap out the āhā and drive away in your brand-new car. (Assuming you have the keys, of course.)
Or need to remove a screw? Try ordering a vodka-orange juice from the local pub and using the homonym paddle.
Itās extremely well-thought-out, very deep and detailed (as it would need to be, since it allows you to change huge numbers of things into other things, all within the confines of a text-adventure) and takes place in a very deep and believable world. (Hereās a more in-depth review.)
Unfortunately itās a little harder to start up than going to a website ā you have to download a runtime engine. But apparently itās a pretty common one that lots of text adventure games use.
Sounds a lot like Infocomās Nord and Bert Couldnāt Make Head or Tail of It.
[quote=āBoundegar, post:6, topic:53275, full:trueā]Remember HyperCard? I rememebr HyperCard. It was so damn easy to put together something fun like this. I wonder if it ever could have been competition to html?[/quote]Oh yes, quite unforgettable, that.
As far as text adventures go, Inform 7ās intuitive syntax gets some attention these days.
I used Andrew Plotkinās āThe Dreamholdā as my sonās introduction to IF; itās playable, engaging, and very much designed as an IF introduction.
After that, we went through all 3 Zork games together.
Weāve also played āLost Pigā and āCounterfeit Monkeyā.
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