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Curses (video Game)
''Curses'' is an interactive fiction computer game created by Graham Nelson in 1993. Appearing in the beginning of the non-commercial era of interactive fiction, it is considered one of the milestones of the genre. Writing for ''The New York Times'', Edward Rothstein described the game as "acclaimed." Plot The player plays the part of the current owner of Meldrew Hall. In the course of searching the attic for an old tourist map of Paris, the protagonist steps into a surreal adventure to uncover a centuries-old curse that has been placed on the Meldrew family. The goal of the game is to find the missing map, and thus annul the curse. Development ''Curses'' was originally developed on an Acorn Archimedes using Acorn C/C++, before Nelson moved to his Inform programming language, which was simultaneously released. It was the first non-test game developed in the language. It is distributed without charge as a Z-Code executable. The Inform source code In computing, source cod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graham Nelson
Graham A. Nelson (born 1968) is a British mathematician, poet, and the creator of the Inform, Inform design system for creating interactive fiction (IF) games. He has authored several IF games, including ''Curses (computer game), Curses'' (1993) and ''Jigsaw (computer game), Jigsaw'' (1995). Education In 1994, Nelson received a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Oxford under the supervision of Simon Donaldson. Writing Nelson co-edited ''Oxford Poetry'' and in 1997 received an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors for his poetry. he was managing editor of Legenda, the imprint of the Modern Humanities Research Association (Modern Humanities Research Association, MHRA). Interactive fiction Nelson is the creator of the Inform, Inform design system for creating interactive fiction (IF) games. He has also authored several IF games, including ''Curses (computer game), Curses'' (1993) and ''Jigsaw (computer game), Jigsaw'' (1995), using the experience of writing ''Cur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acorn C/C++
Acorn C/C++ is a set of C/ C++ programming tools for use under the operating system. The tools use the Norcroft compiler suite and were authored by Codemist and Acorn Computers. The tools provide some facilities offered by a fully integrated development environment. Acorn included a copy of the Norcroft compiler targeted at the ARM architecture for RISC OS in the following development software. * Acornsoft ANSI C – 1988 * Acornsoft ANSI C (Release 2) * Acorn ANSI C (Release 3) – 1989 * Acorn Desktop C (Release 4) * Acorn C/C++ (Release 5) – 1995 History Acorn's work on ANSI C compilers was begun around 1987, with a commercial release in 1988 for its Archimedes computer. and Desktop Assembler were released in 1991. Codemist worked primarily on the ANSI C standard, while Acorn concentrated on the specifics and optimisation for the ARM. Both parties exchanged sources regularly. The tools were originally developed by university academics Alan Mycroft and Arthur C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Video Games About Curses
Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) systems, which, in turn, were replaced by flat-panel displays of several types. Video systems vary in display resolution, aspect ratio, refresh rate, color capabilities, and other qualities. Analog and digital variants exist and can be carried on a variety of media, including radio broadcasts, magnetic tape, optical discs, computer files, and network streaming. Etymology The word ''video'' comes from the Latin verb ''video,'' meaning to see or ''videre''. And as a noun, "that which is displayed on a (television) screen," History Analog video Video developed from facsimile systems developed in the mid-19th century. Early mechanical video scanners, such as the Nipkow disk, were patented as early as 1884, however, it took several decades b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1990s Interactive Fiction
Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Mesopotamia is partitioned into two Roman provinces divided by the Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Osroene. * Emperor Septimius Severus lays siege to the city-state Hatra in Central-Mesopotamia, but fails to capture the city despite breaching the walls. * Two new legions, I Parthica and III Parthica, are formed as a permanent garrison. China * Battle of Yijing: Chinese warlord Yuan Shao defeats Gongsun Zan. Korea * Geodeung succeeds Suro of Geumgwan Gaya, as king of the Korean kingdom of Gaya (traditional date). By topic Religion * Pope Zephyrinus succeeds Pope Victor I, as the 15th pope. Births Valerian Roman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1993 Video Games
The General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its calendar advanced 24 hours to the Eastern Hemisphere side of the International Date Line, skipping August 21, 1993. Events January * January 1 ** Czechoslovakia ceases to exist, as the Czech Republic and Slovakia separate in the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia. ** The European Economic Community eliminates trade barriers and creates a European single market. ** International Radio and Television Organization ceases. * January 3 – In Moscow, Presidents George H. W. Bush (United States) and Boris Yeltsin (Russia) sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. * January 5 ** US$7.4 million is stolen from the Brink's Armored Car Depot in Rochester, New York, in the fifth largest robbery in U.S. history. ** , a Liberian-registered oil tanker, runs aground off t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jigsaw (video Game)
__NOTOC__ ''Jigsaw'' is an interactive fiction (IF) game, written by Graham Nelson in 1995. The game begins on New Year's Eve of 1999, with the player discovering a time machine enabling them to travel throughout the twentieth century (including voyage of the ''Titanic'', discovery of penicillin, codebreaking of the enigma machine during World War II, opening of the Suez Canal, and the recording of ''Abbey Road'') to ensure history unfolds 'correctly' despite the activities of 'Black', a character who starts out as an antagonist but becomes the player's love interest. 'Black' has no explicitly stated gender, allowing players to choose that for themselves. ''Jigsaw'' contains references to other interactive fiction games, including ''Trinity''. Features of the game include attention to detail, and a romantic relationship between the player's character and another central character whose gender is never revealed (allowing the player to project the gender of their choice onto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Source Code
In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only understands machine code, source code must be Translator (computing), translated before a computer can Execution (computing), execute it. The translation process can be implemented three ways. Source code can be converted into machine code by a compiler or an assembler (computing), assembler. The resulting executable is machine code ready for the computer. Alternatively, source code can be executed without conversion via an interpreter (computing), interpreter. An interpreter loads the source code into memory. It simultaneously translates and executes each statement (computer science), statement. A method that combines compilation and interpretation is to first produce bytecode. Bytecode is an intermediate representation of source code tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freeware
Freeware is software, often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the freeware it offers. For instance, modification, redistribution by third parties, and reverse engineering are permitted by some publishers but prohibited by others. Unlike with free and open-source software, which are also often distributed free of charge, the source code for freeware is typically not made available. Freeware may be intended to benefit its producer by, for example, encouraging sales of a more capable version, as in the freemium and shareware business models. History The term ''freeware'' was coined in 1982 by Andrew Fluegelman, who wanted to sell PC-Talk, the communications application he had created, outside of commercial distribution channels. Fluegelman distributed the program via the same process as ''shareware''. As s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MIT Press
The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Access movement in academic publishing. History MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT published a lecture series entitled ''Problems of Atomic Dynamics'' given by the visiting German physicist and later Nobel Prize winner, Max Born. In 1932, MIT's publishing operations were first formally instituted by the creation of an imprint called Technology Press. This imprint was founded by James R. Killian, Jr., at the time editor of MIT's alumni magazine and later to become MIT president. Technology Press published eight titles independently, then in 1937 entered into an arrangement with John Wiley & Sons in which Wiley took over marketing and editorial responsibilities. In 1961, the centennial of MIT's founding charter, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inform
Inform is a programming language and design system for interactive fiction originally created in 1993 by Graham Nelson. Inform can generate programs designed for the Z-machine, Z-code or Glulx virtual machines. Versions 1 through 5 were released between 1993 and 1996. Around 1996, Nelson rewrote Inform from first principles to create version 6 (or Inform 6). Over the following decade, version 6 became reasonably stable and a popular language for writing interactive fiction. In 2006, Nelson released Inform 7 (briefly known as Natural Inform), a completely new language Natural language programming, based on principles of natural language and a new set of tools based around a book-publishing metaphor. Z-Machine and Glulx The Inform compilers translate Inform code to story files for Glulx or Z-machine, Z-code, two virtual machines designed specifically for interactive fiction. Glulx, which can support larger games, is the default. The Z-machine was originally developed by Infocom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acorn Archimedes
The Acorn Archimedes is a family of personal computers designed by Acorn Computers of Cambridge, England. The systems in this family use Acorn's own ARM architecture processors and initially ran the Arthur operating system, with later models introducing RISC OS and, in a separate workstation range, RISC iX. The first Archimedes models were introduced in 1987, and systems in the Archimedes family were sold until the mid-1990s alongside Acorn's newer Risc PC and A7000 models. The first Archimedes models, featuring a 32-bit ARM2 RISC CPU running at 8 MHz, provided a significant upgrade from Acorn's previous machines and 8-bit home computers in general. Acorn's publicity claimed a performance rating of 4 MIPS.These being equivalent to VAX-11/750 instructions. Later models featured the ARM3 CPU, delivering a substantial performance improvement, and the first ARM system-on-a-chip, the ARM250. The Archimedes preserves a degree of compatibility with Acorn's earlier m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Z-machine
The Z-machine is a virtual machine that was developed by Joel Berez and Marc Blank in 1979 and used by Infocom for its text adventure games. Infocom compiled game code to files containing Z-machine instructions (called story files or Z-code files) and could therefore port its text adventures to a new platform simply by writing a Z-machine implementation for that platform. With the large number of incompatible home computer systems in use at the time, this was an important advantage over using native code or developing a compiler for each system. History and design Nomenclature and conventions The "Z" of Z-machine stands for ''Zork'', Infocom's first adventure game. Infocom used file extensions of .dat (Data) and .zip (ZIP = Z-machine Interpreter Program), but the latter clashed with the widespread use of .zip for PKZIP-compatible archive files starting in the 1990s, after Activision had closed Infocom. Infocom produced six versions of the Z-machine. Files using versions 1 a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
