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Interactive Fiction is a fancy name for 'text adventures', thought up by a company called called 'Infocom' circa 1979. Text adventures themselves probably started with 'Colossal cave' by William Crowther. Modern IF is still largely a text medium: you type your order to the game, and it responds. However, the format of IF has changed since the 1980s - modern innovations include games without puzzles (Photopia, The Cove), where the aim is much more to explore the world the author created than to 'win' a game. Of course, more traditional works still exist and are being created.
While games can vary widely, even the ones that Zoom can run, they usually have a few things in common. Commands are usually entered at a '>' prompt. Many verbs and commands are common through all games. The parser, the part of the game that tries to understand your input, can usually understand fairly complicated commands and can help you with complex aspects of the virtual world.
Probably the three most used verbs in a game are
LOOK, INVENTORY and
EXAMINE. You can LOOK to get a
description of the location you are currently in, take an
INVENTORY to see what you are carrying, and
EXAMINE things to discover more details. Often a game
will mention important objects in the room description as well as
separately: examine everything you can to find these.
Movement in IF is usually through the 8 compass directions, so you
can, for instance, GO NORTH to try to leave a
location to the north. Some games use different systems, however
this is still sufficiently rare that the game should give you fair
warning about this.
Other common actions include SEARCH, LOOK
UNDER, LOOK INSIDE, TAKE and
DROP. Kleptomania is usually mandatory in IF, so grab
all you can. Any given game will certainly allow you to do more
than just this: part of the fun of IF is working out what you can
do in a game. It's common to be able to LOOK UP
things in books; TALK TO other characters;
PUT items on, in or under other items;
OPEN or CLOSE bags, boxes and doors;
PUSH things around; SWITCH things on and
off; and more. You will almost certainly have to experiment: try
to phrase what you want to do as a command, and see if the game
understands you.
You may encounter other characters in a game - you can usually
interact with these. The conventional methods are Character,
COMMAND (which orders a character to do something),
ASK Character ABOUT Subject (which consults a
character about something), TELL Character ABOUT
Subject and ANSWER Something TO Character (which
responds to a question). TALK TO Character has also
become popular in recent times: usually this will give you a
menu-based conversation system.
Some very common commands can be abbreviated. In particular,
LOOK can usually be abbreviated to L,
INVENTORY to I and you should be able to
move around by typing abbreviating the directions to N, E,
S, W, NE, NW, SE, SE - so NORTH or
N will move you north.
Usually there are some 'meta' commands, which don't actually
affect the player character in the game, but rather provide you
information, or control particular aspects of the game. Games will
usually provide a QUIT command to leave the game, a
SAVE command to save the game state, a
RESTORE command to restore it again, an
UNDO command to undo your last move, a
SCORE and FULL command to check your
progress and RESTART to give up on your current game and
start again. A good game will also provide a command that will
provide access to an online manual or description of the game. The
name of this command varies and is not always present, but common
choices are HELP, ABOUT or
MANUAL. Some games provide an on-line hint system
with the HINTS or HINT command.
This is a transcript from a made-up game. It illustrates possible single scene in a science fiction work. Commentary is in italics.
Tundra
While StarCommand were typically vague of the details, you imagine the
strange blue rocks and pink sky might have something to do with the
research station you're supposed to be investigating. Most of the
planets you visit seem to have odd colour schemes, though.
A dragon is chewing on the remains of your security team.
Your No'I'Tal science officer is cowering behind a rock.
[ Well, here we are on a fairly standard planet. As per tradition, your security team has been killed by a monster. I suppose we should try and do something about it. ]
> x dragon
Not the cliched fire-breathing beast of myth, but a large reptile
indigenous to this planet. The No'I'Tal assures you that this species
is herbivorous and harmless. Those large teeth are merely for chewing
up the tough bark of the native trees.
This is certainly an impressive beast: its silver hide glitters
despite the dim sunshine, and the point of each of its dorsal spines
is a miniature nova. Its dark brown eyes contrast markedly to its
brilliant skin.
Thorough research is vital to the success of any mission, or so says
the StarCommand leadership manual. You really must press this point
home to your science officer one day. Right after you've reprimanded
him for cowardice.
[ Dragons are a bit of a cliche in IF. Fortunately, this is merely a native of this particular planet... It seems your science officer isn't much good at his job. 'x' is a common abbreviation for 'examine' - descriptions of things are often important and can contain vital clues. Sometimes you can 'look further' into an object - inspecting its parts. ]
> x science officer
You can't presently get a good look at him, because he's cowering
behind a rock and making whimpering noises. Good crewmen are so hard to
find.
The dragon happily crunches its way through a bone.
> i
You are carrying:
A SureKil MkII blaster
A yellow jumper (ripped) (worn)
A communicator (smashed)
[ Your inventory... Maybe we could just shoot our way out of this one... ]
> shoot dragon
(with the SureKil MkII blaster)
Well, it's always worth a second go. As before, the dragon's thick
mirror hide reflects the gun's particle beam, which bounces off and
demolishes a rock. Coincidentally, this is the rock that your
good-for-nothing science officer is hiding behind. At least you didn't
get your shirt ripped this time around.
The dragon purrs contentedly and warms itself on the remains of the
rock, as your science officer dances around looking for another rock
to hide behind.
[ Oh dear, this dragon is laser-proofed. Well, particle-beam proofed, but it's all the same to you. No easy answers here... ]
> x blaster
Standard StarCommand issue, made of cheap plastic. A small dial on top
allows you to set the power level of the blaster.
The dial is currently set to 8 - Kill with Extreme Prejudice.
Your science officer climbs a tree, and attempts to conceal himself in
the foliage.
[ Aha! The blaster has different power levels... Maybe if we increase the power ]
> set dial to 11
You've always wanted a blaster that goes to 11. But StarCommand
believe in cost cutting, and your salary is not enough to buy
one. This blaster only goes to 9.
A squadron of bat-like creatures barrel out of the tree, closely
followed by your science officer (who lands on his head, damaging
nothing important).
> set dial to 9
You set the dial to 9, overload.
> shoot dragon with blaster
The blaster overloads and explodes, detonating it's antimatter
core. This kills the dragon, and for an extra bonus, all the
potentially hostile wildlife within a mile. In a final
buy-two-get-one-free offer, it also vapourises you. SureKil really do
give very good value.
*** You have died ***
In that game you scored 20 out of a possible 500