Adrift In The Stratosphere
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Adrift In The Stratosphere
ADRIFT is a graphical user interface used to create and play text adventures. The name is an acronym for "Adventure Development & Runner - Interactive Fiction Toolkit". The project was solely developed by Campbell Wild until he made it open source in 2018. Since then, only minor contributions to the main programs (Developer and Runner) have been given by others, though there have been contributions elsewhere to alternative Runners and the default Standard Library. The toolkit consists of two programs; a developer (used to write games - known as the generator before ADRIFT 5), and a runner (used to play them), though the runner is available to download separately. In the current stable release (version 5.0.36), released in 2020, both programs only run on Microsoft Windows platforms as they are written in Visual Basic. ADRIFT started out as shareware. When ADRIFT 5 was released it became donationware until it became open source. For a while ADRIFT 5 was able to run on Linux using ...
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Interactive Fiction
Interactive fiction (IF) is software simulating environments in which players use text Command (computing), commands to control Player character, characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the form of Interactive narratives or Interactive narrations. These works can also be understood as a form of video game, either in the form of an adventure game or role-playing video game, role-playing game. In common usage, the term refers to text adventures, a type of adventure game where the entire interface can be "Text mode, text-only", however, graphical text adventure games, where the text is accompanied by graphics (still images, animations or video) still fall under the text adventure category if the main way to interact with the game is by typing text. Some users of the term distinguish between interactive fiction, known as "Puzzle-free", that focuses on narrative, and "text adventures" that focus on puzzles. Due ...
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BSD Licenses
BSD licenses are a family of permissive free software licenses, imposing minimal restrictions on the use and distribution of covered software. This is in contrast to copyleft licenses, which have share-alike requirements. The original BSD license was used for its namesake, the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), a Unix-like operating system. The original version has since been revised, and its descendants are referred to as modified BSD licenses. BSD is both a license and a class of license (generally referred to as BSD-like). The modified BSD license (in wide use today) is very similar to the license originally used for the BSD version of Unix. The BSD license is a simple license that merely requires that all code retain the BSD license notice if redistributed in source code format, or reproduce the notice if redistributed in binary format. The BSD license (unlike some other licenses e.g. GPL) does not require that source code be distributed at all. Terms In addition to ...
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Microsoft Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sectors of the computing industry – Windows (unqualified) for a consumer or corporate workstation, Windows Server for a Server (computing), server and Windows IoT for an embedded system. Windows is sold as either a consumer retail product or licensed to Original equipment manufacturer, third-party hardware manufacturers who sell products Software bundles, bundled with Windows. The first version of Windows, Windows 1.0, was released on November 20, 1985, as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The name "Windows" is a reference to the windowing system in GUIs. The 1990 release of Windows 3.0 catapulted its market success and led to various other product families ...
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Shareware
Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. Shareware is often offered as a download from a website. Shareware differs from freeware, which is fully-featured software distributed at no cost to the user but without source code being made available; and free and open-source software, in which the source code is freely available for anyone to inspect and alter. There are many types of shareware and, while they may not require an initial up-front payment, many are intended to generate revenue in one way or another. Some limit use to personal non- commercial purposes only, with purchase of a license required for use in a business enterprise. The software itself may be time-limited, or it may remind the user that payment would be appreciated. Types of shareware Trialware Trialware ...
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Donationware
Donationware is a licensing model that supplies fully operational unrestricted software to the user and requests an optional donation be paid to the programmer or a third-party beneficiary (usually a non-profit). The amount of the donation may also be stipulated by the author, or it may be left to the discretion of the user, based on individual perceptions of the software's value. Since donationware comes fully operational (i.e. not crippleware/freemium) when payment is optional, it is a type of freeware. History An example of donationware is the 1987 Atari ST video game '' Ballerburg'', whose programmer distributed the game for free but asked for a donation, offering as incentive the source code for the game.April 1987: Ballerburg - Zwei Spieler, zwei Burgen und ein Berg dazwischen...
on ...
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Mono (software)
Mono is a free and open-source software framework that aims to run software made for the .NET Framework on Linux and other OSes. Originally by Ximian which was acquired by Novell, it was later developed by Xamarin which was acquired by Microsoft. In August 2024, Microsoft transferred ownership of Mono to Wine_(software), WineHQ. History When Microsoft first announced their .NET Framework in June 2000 it was described as "a new platform based on Internet standards", and in December of that year the underlying Common Language Infrastructure was published as an open standard, "ECMA-335", opening up the potential for independent implementations. Miguel de Icaza of Ximian believed that .NET had the potential to increase programmer productivity and began investigating whether a Linux version was feasible. Recognizing that their small team could not expect to build and support a full product, they launched the Mono open-source project, on July 19, 2001, at the O'Reilly Media, O'Reilly ...
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Interactive Fiction Competition
The Interactive Fiction Competition (also known as IFComp) is one of several annual competitions for works of interactive fiction. It has been held since 1995. It is intended for fairly short games, as judges are only allowed to spend two hours playing a game before deciding how many points to award it, but longer games are allowed entry. The competition has been described as the "Super Bowl" of interactive fiction. Since 2016 it is operated by the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation (IFTF). Organization In 2016, operation of the competition was taken over by the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation. The lead organizer 2014–2017 was Jason McIntosh, and in 2018 it was Jacqueline Ashwell. Categories Although the first competition had separate sections for Inform and TADS games, subsequent competitions have not been divided into sections and are open to games produced by any method, provided that the software used to play the game is freely available. In addition ...
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IPad
The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. Since then, the List of iPad models, iPad product line has been expanded to include the smaller iPad Mini, the lighter and thinner iPad Air, and the flagship iPad Pro models. As of 2022, over 670 million iPads have been sold, making Apple the Tablet computer#By manufacturer, largest vendor of tablet computers. Due to its popularity, the term "iPad" is sometimes used as a Generic trademark, generic name for tablet computers. The iPhone's iOS operating system (OS) was initially used for the iPad, but in September 2019, its OS was switched to a Fork (software development), fork of iOS called iPadOS that has better support for the device's hardware and a user interface tailored to the tablets' larger screens. Since then, IPadOS version histor ...
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TADS
Text Adventure Development System (TADS) is a prototype-based domain-specific programming language and set of standard libraries for creating interactive fiction (IF) games. History The original TADS 1 was released by High Energy Software as shareware in 1988, and was followed by TADS 2 not long after. From the late 1980s to early 1990s, free development tools such as TADS and Inform enabled amateur communities to create interactive fiction. In the mid-1990s, TADS was a top development tool for interactive fiction. At the time, it was a more improved tool for parsing and world building than existing systems like AGT (Adventure Game Toolkit). TADS 2 syntax is based on C, with bits of Pascal. TADS 2 has been maintained and updated at regular intervals by its creator, Michael J. Roberts, even after it became freeware in July 1996. Graham Nelson, creator of Inform, describes Inform and TADS as the "only two systems... widely used" in the last half of the 1990s, and TADS has ...
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Programmers
A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles ''software developer'' and ''software engineer'' are used for jobs that require a programmer. Identification Sometimes a programmer or job position is identified by the language used or target platform. For example, assembly programmer, web developer. Job title The job titles that include programming tasks have differing connotations across the computer industry and to different individuals. The following are notable descriptions. A ''software developer'' primarily implements software based on specifications and fixes bugs. Other duties may include reviewing code changes and testing. To achieve the required skills for the job, they might obtain a computer science or associate degree, attend a programming boot camp or be self-taught. A ''software engineer'' usually is responsible for the same tasks as a develop ...
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XYZZY Award
The XYZZY Awards are the annual awards given to works of interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards for film. The awards were inaugurated in 1997 by Eileen Mullin, the editor of ''XYZZYnews''. Any game released during the year prior to the award ceremony is eligible for nomination to receive an award. The decision process takes place in two stages: members of the interactive fiction community nominate works within specific categories and sufficiently supported nominations become finalists within those categories. Community members then vote among the finalists, and the game receiving a plurality of votes is given the award in an online ceremony. Since 1997, the XYZZY Awards have become one of the most important events within the interactive fiction community. Together with events like the Interactive Fiction Competition and Spring Thing, the XYZZY Awards provide opportunities for the community to encourage and reward the creation and development of new work ...
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Open-source Software
Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative, public manner. Open-source software is a prominent example of open collaboration, meaning any capable user is able to online collaboration, participate online in development, making the number of possible contributors indefinite. The ability to examine the code facilitates public trust in the software. Open-source software development can bring in diverse perspectives beyond those of a single company. A 2024 estimate of the value of open-source software to firms is $8.8 trillion, as firms would need to spend 3.5 times the amount they currently do without the use of open source software. Open-source code can be used for studying and a ...
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