Usenet 1994 January/usenetsourcesnewsgroupsinfomagicjanuary1994.iso/sources/games/volume15/dinkum2/part01/README

Text File | 1993-01-27 | 6KB | 86 lines

                Comments on the Revised Version of Dinkum
                              5 January 1993

This version  of  Dinkum  (Ver.  2.3)  has  several  slight  improvements
perceptible to the user and significant improvements perceptible  to  the
programmer.   Because  the  improvements  are  slight  from  the   user's
perspective, a non-programming user should not delete the  older  version
of Dinkum until it has been established  that  this  newer  version  will
compile on the user's computer.  The user will  notice  some  minor  bugs
corrected and there being more "Australia content" in the  above  ground,
pre-game component of Dinkum.  There were some fairly  glaring  omissions
in the earlier version of the game  concerning  Australia  content,  i.e.
there is a road in Dinkum but the earlier version had no  road trains  or
dead kangaroos (the  two  most  striking  characteristics  of  Australian
roads).  Many people complained about the  lack  of  a  Save  command  in
Dinkum.  My original omission of the Save command  was  deliberate.   The
two main reasons why people play a text adventure game is either to be  a
an active  participant  in  an  action/fantasy  story  or  to  experience
communicating through natural language to  a  computer.   Both  of  these
aspects are defeated by using a Save command.  However my  impression  is
that many people insist on having a Save command and won't play the  game
if it isn't there.  Consequently I've come up with a compromise.  If  you
start the game by typing "dinkum -s" rather than simply "dinkum" then the
game creates a "data recorder" which appears  in  the  beginning  of  the
game.  The data recorder acts like a tape recorder allowing the  user  to
save moves and play them  back  in  the  current  or  later  games.   The
generated file is in ASCII format  and  can  be  edited  after  finishing
Dinkum.  Type "examine recorder" after having taken it  and  Dinkum  will
explain how to use it.  This data recorder  has  a  couple  of  important
limitations:  Unlike most adventure games, Dinkum is  dynamic,  viz.  the
game changes every time you play it.  So if you record  a  script  for  a
game which takes you to a room where  you  find  a  weapon  and  then  to
another room where you find a monster, then the next time  you  use  that
script you may find the monster where you  previously  found  the  weapon
(leading to a fairly short game).   The  other  limitation  of  the  data
recorder is if you use the  "dinkum -s"  switch  then  you  will  not  be
admitted into the end game with  the  consequence  being  that  "winning"
Dinkum is impossible.  To win Dinkum you  must  play  it  "on  your  own"
without the unfair advantage of script files and a data recorder.

In the "dinkum -h" help description I have  a  strict  "NO  MODIFICATION"
rule for Dinkum.  This rule is to protect myself against  people  hacking
on Dinkum and releasing to the public indecent or buggy versions  of  the
game with my name on it.  Despite this rule I strongly  encourage  people
to hack on Dinkum provided they comment all of  their  modifications  and
don't release their hacked versions directly to the public.  If you think
you have an improvement to Dinkum then please send me a  copy  and  if  I
agree that it benefits the game then I'll incorporate it  into  the  next
release with suitable acknowledgements to yourself.

I've significantly improved the coding style of Dinkum from  the  earlier
version, i.e. you won't find a single "goto" in Dinkum.  Dinkum  is  much
better structured than it was before  and  makes  better  use  of  the  C
programming language.  Dinkum has lots of scope for  improvement  and  is
still full of blemishes.  However I would like  to  limit  the  scope  of
modifications to Dinkum in some significant ways:  First, no  enhancement
to  Dinkum  can  be  allowed  that  reduces  portability.   If   anything
portability needs to be enhanced.  Dinkum is designed for both  the  Unix
and  DOS  operating  systems.   Dinkum  will  presently  compile  without
warnings in DOS/TURBO-C Ver. 2, Sun OS, IBM RISC/6000, 386BSD  and on the
SGI Iris.   The Dinkum executable must remain a single file and be  small
enough that the uncompressed DOS executable can fit on  a  double  sided,
double density floppy disk.  This insures naive DOS users  with  old  PCs
can easily use Dinkum.  The central layout of the game  from  the  user's
perspective should remain unchanged.  Improvements should  focus  instead
on enhancing natural language recognition, for example:  Dinkum  can  not
currently support compound sentences, i.e. "Take the whidjitty grub after
lifting the rock and eat the  grub".   Dinkum  does  not  really  support
questions, i.e. a character appears and the user asks the character  "How
do I unlock the door?".  Questions represent an entirely different syntax
from imperative commands.  Also question answering capability would allow
for inclusion of an ELIZA type subroutine for responding to questions not
accounted for in the game's context.  This could allow for the game going
through many question/answer  cycles  before  failing  the  Turing  test.
There are many words and synonyms that Dinkum  does  not  recognize  even
though these words appear in the game.  Anyway these are the improvements
I would like to see in Dinkum and over the years will probably write them
in myself if someone else doesn't beat me  to  it.   Any  suggestions  or
software contributions along these lines would be gratefully received.

I hope you enjoy playing Dinkum.  If you succeed in winning at Dinkum (it
isn't easy) then please let me know,  my  address  appears  if  you  type
"dinkum -h".

                            Gary A. Allen, Jr.