More activity on BBS's then on most forums...

[Michael Slaunwhite]

Remember BBS's? The software that really helped give everyone what they have now?

The increase of new BBS's, and the BBS's activities have really picked up over the last few months as more people are returning to (what I like to call) the old ways, and enjoying once more the feeling of being a larger part of a close nit community. BBS's still provide the same old feeling. Today everything seems so much more sanitized, and is much more a part of our throw away society which also includes graphics which leaves very little left for your imagination.

One of the better, and more memorable attributes of a bbs is it's lack of graphics, and the doors themselves were not much more than an ansi graphics nightmare database which left your imagination run wild with anticipation of having to wait until 1 minute after midnight so you can log back in to play Tradewars, BRE, or some other grand game which mercilessly just kept demanding more of your time.

Remember the old time text games? These games in my mind are the best games ever created...Like any great novel you, (again) you created the world you were exploring, and it's these games that stay riveted into your minds eye until you grow too old to remember.

I am very pleased that these BBS's are still online today, and have been updated to take advantage of the Telnet protocol. Even now there are still a small handful of dial up bbs's online which from time to time I still visit (can't stay on for too long, long distance charges can kill my chance of ever buying the addons NSD keeps creating).

Cheers, and one day I hope to see a few of you online.

Link to Master BBS list: http://www.synchro.net/sbbslist.html
Link to Syncterm terminal program: http://wiki.synchro.net/resource:term

[Modem sound while dialing out]
http://www.freesound.org/people/Jlew/sounds/16475/

[Michael Slaunwhite]

I mentioned earlier about text adventures of the early 80's, and here is a small list of adventures you can play. All of these text adventures are originals created by Scott Adams. A Few of you will recognize a few of these titles such as "Pirate Adventure" which I played for hours on end on a Vic 20.

[Gist]

This archive contains 13 text adventures by Scott Adams. These versions of the game have been converted to their raw game data format, which can be used with one of the many freeware Scott Adams interpreters available (one of which is included in this archive).

Not all of Scott's games are featured here, and all of these titles are based on the text originals, not the re-releases that were made with graphics. The Quest probe series (based on Marvel comics characters) are not featured for copyright reasons, as is adventure 14 ("Buckaroo Banzai").

This pack will run on most PCs and with the right interpreter, most of these adventures should run on other formats as well. You can save your progress in any of these at any time, and you can change between games without having to exit the program.

For more information on Scott and his work, or to buy his latest adventures or possibly send him a donation as a way of saying thanks for these great games, you can visit his site at http://www.msadams.com

Enjoy.

[born2see]

What about Zork? And all those other Infocom titles. One of my first experiences with computer adventure games.

B

[Michael Slaunwhite]

You might find it here.

http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/342/Z ... mpire.html

Try here..not too sure though.

http://www.ironrealms.com/text-based-ga ... heir-roots

[born2see]

Thanks Mike. A trip down memory lane for sure.

B

[Michael Slaunwhite]

It tis...

[Marching Thru Georgia]

born2see wrote:

What about Zork?

A game that has never been equaled. Those text adventure games were truly flights of the imagination. Given that they were ported over from mainframes to machines where 32kb was considered a monster PC, it was an impressive programming feat.

[Michael Slaunwhite]

Years ago I was given a one of the best gifts people can give to one another, and that is the ability to read. My first book was called "A Wrinkle in Time", and I have never looked back.

The best gaming machine, with the best graphics, and with no loss of FPS is one own imagination which now leads me to posting what follows...

[The Adventure Game Toolkit (AGT)]

May 24, 1997 — In 1985, Mark J. Welch designed the Generic Adventure Game System (GAGS), a computer programming tool for creating “text adventure” games for MS-DOS computers. GAGS was released as “shareware” in 1985 and enhanced several times in 1986 and 1987.

In 1987, David Malmberg made substantial enhancements to the Generic Adventure Game System, which was renamed the Adventure Game Toolkit (AGT). Over the next few years, many additional features were added to AGT, and versions were released for MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, the Apple Macintosh, the Commodore Amiga, and the Atari ST. From 1987 through 1992, AGT was distributed by Softworks of Mission San Jose, California. The final version of AGT, known as the “Adventure Game Toolkit Master’s Edition,” includes some graphics and sound capabilities. The final version of AGT is version 1.7. You can download AGT and many games from The Interactive Fiction Archive.

Why post this?

If you need to ask this Question than this isn't for you, it's for those who wish to go a step further, and create from scratch a world which they can create for their own children, and help guide them on a road to worlds that only the human imagination can conjure, and in which you can guide personally.

I used the dos version many, many years ago, and created a world for my Nephew which taught him about our universe (I'm a science geek at heart), and it happens to be one of his finest memories even to this day....and in that I did something that I will always be proud of.

I know that there are some who would say "well there are many adventure toolkit's out there which has graphics".

My answer is "the whole point is to allow a persons imagination draw their own images, and create their own worlds from scratch without drawing them for him or her."

Adventure Game Toolkit (AGT): http://www.markwelchblog.com/1997/05/24 ... e-toolkit/
AGT download Link: http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-arc ... gXagt.html

This program believe it or not is very powerful, and the things you can do with it are mind boggling.

[Marching Thru Georgia]

Mike,
Check out Inform 7. It is the latest extension of the language used in the zork games. It is very easy to use and very powerful.

[Michael Slaunwhite]

Mike,
Check out Inform 7. It is the latest extension of the language used in the zork games. It is very easy to use and very powerful.

Now were talking... good job MTG, and thanks. Reading all about it now.

Great find.