Short: Alien Abduction by Charles Gerlach (TADS) Author: Charles Gerlach (cagerlac@merle.acns.nwu.edu) Uploader: Bill Hoggett (mas supplies easynet co uk) Type: game/text Requires: TADS Run-Time v2.2+ Architecture: generic Welcome to the Interactive Fiction story "Alien Abduction?" by Charles Gerlach (cagerlac@merle.acns.nwu.edu) This file contains no spoilers for the game, only some helpful ideas so that the player/author communication will not be hindered by parser battles. Files: abduct.gam (TADS binary game file) aaintro.txt (This file) aawlkthr.txt (walk-through) aaqanda.txt (puzzle solutions in question and answer format) To play this game, you'll need the TADS runtime for your system, which you can download through anonymous ftp to ftp.gmd.de ************************************************************************ The notes for experienced IF players (Novice players should skip ahead) ************************************************************************ In general, I hate having to open and close doors within a game unless there's a good reason for it. Since this game has no need for accurate door mechanics, all doors that need to be opened are done implicitly when you go in that direction. There is a car in the game. To drive it, get in it and type >drive car There is a keypad in the game. Use the command structure: >type 1234 on pad When interacting with characters, it is possible to >talk to but in general, this does not yield satisfactory results. Most useful information will be gleaned by the standard four constructs: >ask about >tell about >show to >give to Although I'm sure I haven't covered everything, (and am therefore setting myself up for a fall), most characters should have something to say about everything relevant to the story, even if it's not an actual object that you can manipulate. For an example completely unrelated to my game: >ask priest about God Clearly, God is not something you're gonna pick up and carry around with you, unless the game is some bizarre existential nightmare. At the same time, it is a topic that will be relevant to a priest, and the priest should not say: "I don't know much about that." Having said this, of course, I am sure that there will be many ways to coerce equally stupid statements out of my characters, but I've really tried to cover the bases. (And in doing so, discovered that there are a *lot* of bases out there.) Please note that you are controlling a defined player character, Isaiah Knott. Isaiah definitely has his own personal history, which you will discover through the course of the game. The command "examine me" will give you a physical description of yourself. You should use it at various points in the game, just to check up on yourself. ******** Personal Preference On ************************* If you get stuck and are going to look at the solutions, I guess I'd encourage you to look at the walkthrough, instead of the Q&A file. The reason for this is as follows: I didn't want the Q&A file to be simply Q: How do I do this? A: Put flap A into slot B. and so I put some (but by no means all) of the reasoning behind the game into the answers. I'd really prefer people who are stuck to follow the walk-through, which will (hopefully) lay out the story as it was intended to be read, and then draw their own conclusions about motivations and mechanisms. The downside to this suggestion, is, of course, that it's much harder to avoid spoilers that you didn't want to see in a walk-through. Obviously, the choice is entirely up to the player, but this is my suggestion. ******** Personal Preference Off *********************** ******************************************************** Notes for Novice IF players ******************************************************** Welcome to Interactive Fiction! Here's the amazingly short course in what you need to know. You will be put inside of a story, where the narration will tell you where you are, what you can see, etc. In general, you type in whatever you want the player character to do in a complete english command, e.g. >get the key or >ask the policeman about the pickpocket or >examine the rodent You can omit the articles from your sentences for easier typing, if you wish. Movement is generally done with compass directions: north, east, west, etc. These can be helpfully abbreviated: n,ne,e,se,s,sw,w,nw. "In" and "Out" will also occasionally work. "Up" and "Down", while standard commands, are not needed in this particular game. "get" and "drop" are the crucial commands to get your character to carry objects around that he finds. If you ever wish to know what you are carrying, the single word "inventory" or the letter "i" will list your possessions. Other than that, the most important command is "examine ", which can be abbreviated by "x ". This will get you a more detailed description of the in the command. This concludes our whirlwind tour of IF games. You should now go back and read the tips for advanced players, if you have not done so already. **************************************************************************