........In this seemingly lower-tech time, there existed "Text adventures." Upon booting one from an enormous floppy disk, you'd see a short paragraph or two of descriptive text. Something like:
You find yourself in a field of knee-high grass, hearing birdcalls and buzzing insects. The sun falls hot on your shoulders and forearms, bearing down from directly overhead. In the shade of a tree to the west stands a slumped old shed, gone dark with years of weathering. One of its doors stands halfway open. To the south, the field slopes downward to the treeline, where the forest begins.
........And then the game was afoot. You'd simply type what you wanted to do, and a text parser within the game would process that and give you more information. Let's say you typed:
>GO WEST
........This would prompt the game to print a new paragraph describing what happens next:
You stand in front of the weathered old shed. A rusted padlock sits broken on the stone step. The shed's door hangs half-open; it's all dark inside.
>EXAMINE PADLOCK
The metal is crumbling. It's old, but still... this padlock didn't break itself.
>TAKE PADLOCK
You pocket the rusty padlock.
........I love the writing style of these games: at its best, terse and vividly sensual. And knowing that you can explore and examine anything that's described definitely changes the reading experience to something even more lifelike.
........In a text adventure you might also talk to fictional characters; you might take, carry, and use tools and objects; you might solve puzzles and mysteries; in some stories, you might even die if you made poor choices.
........When I think of these games now, I go a little soft inside. There was such pleasure in being able to carve my own path through a story. Such pleasure.
........Thankfully, text adventures are alive and well today. To learn more about playing modern and historic interactive fiction, or to learn about what it takes to write your own, visit brasslantern.org.
You find yourself in a field of knee-high grass, hearing birdcalls and buzzing insects. The sun falls hot on your shoulders and forearms, bearing down from directly overhead. In the shade of a tree to the west stands a slumped old shed, gone dark with years of weathering. One of its doors stands halfway open. To the south, the field slopes downward to the treeline, where the forest begins.
........And then the game was afoot. You'd simply type what you wanted to do, and a text parser within the game would process that and give you more information. Let's say you typed:
>GO WEST
........This would prompt the game to print a new paragraph describing what happens next:
You stand in front of the weathered old shed. A rusted padlock sits broken on the stone step. The shed's door hangs half-open; it's all dark inside.
>EXAMINE PADLOCK
The metal is crumbling. It's old, but still... this padlock didn't break itself.
>TAKE PADLOCK
You pocket the rusty padlock.
........I love the writing style of these games: at its best, terse and vividly sensual. And knowing that you can explore and examine anything that's described definitely changes the reading experience to something even more lifelike.
........In a text adventure you might also talk to fictional characters; you might take, carry, and use tools and objects; you might solve puzzles and mysteries; in some stories, you might even die if you made poor choices.
........When I think of these games now, I go a little soft inside. There was such pleasure in being able to carve my own path through a story. Such pleasure.
........Thankfully, text adventures are alive and well today. To learn more about playing modern and historic interactive fiction, or to learn about what it takes to write your own, visit brasslantern.org.
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