================================================= AGILITY: THE (MOSTLY) UNIVERSAL AGT INTERPRETER Version 0.7.2 (beta) ================================================= This is an interpreter for game files created with Malmberg and Welch's _Adventure Game Toolkit_. AGiliTy is universal in the sense that it understands and interprets most of the many versions of the AGT game file format (unlike the original interpreters which were only intended to run the game file format associated with them) and also in that it is written in ANSI C and so should be straightforward to port to other systems. It is *not* a port of the original interpreters but rather a completely new interpreter built around the game file format; while it follows the original interpreters on most things, there are some differences which are described below. For general information on AGT, I recommend Jay Goemmer's web page at http://netnow.micron.net/~jgoemmer/agt.html. This software is copyright 1996,1997 by Robert Masenten but may be freely distributed and used for non-commercial purposes so long as this file (and hence this copyright notice) is included unaltered. Since this is a beta version, I ask that this not be placed on FTP sites or BBSs other than the Interactive Fiction archive at ftp.gmd.de and its mirrors. Since this is free software, it has NO WARRANTY of any kind. For information on compiling and porting this program, see the file 'agility.doc'. A list of known bugs is in the file 'buglist' and a list of changes from earlier versions is in 'changes.txt'. (If this is with a binary and not the source version, some of these files may not be present). Send comments and bug reports to Robert Masenten at: masenten@math.upenn.edu. ----------------- AGT GAME FILES ----------------- Games in the AGT format can be found at the Interactive Fiction archive: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/pc (They are in the PC directory since that is the platform most of the original AGT interpreters run on). AGT games are recognizable by having several different files with names like 'MYGAME.D$$', 'MYGAME.DA1', 'MYGAME.DA2', ... , 'MYGAME.DA6', 'MYGAME.TTL', etc. They also usually come with a DOS runtime interpreter (usually called RUN.EXE or MRUN.EXE), which can be deleted without affecting AGiliTy. (DOS users might want to keep it around 'just in case', depending on how much hard drive space is available) As of version 0.5, AGiliTy also has its own file format (with extension "AGX", which stands for "Adventure Game eXecutable"); existing AGT games can be converted into this format using the utility agt2agx which comes with AGiliTy. The new format takes all of the various AGT files (MYGAME.DA1, MYGAME.DA2, MYGAME.DA3, MYGAME.DA4, MYGAME.DA5, MYGAME.DA6, MYGAME.TTL, MYGAME.INS, MYGAME.VOC, MYGAME.D$$, MYGAME.OPT, and parts of MYGAME.CFG) and puts all of the data in one file (MYGAME.AGX). Aside from the reduction in directory clutter, it has the following advantages: 1)It's smaller; for large games the new format can save over 100K (The most extreme case I've run across so far is Shades of Gray: 790K vs. 568K uncompressed or 273K vs. 148K ZIPed) 2)It loads faster since it's closer in structure to AGiliTy's internal format. (In particular, the interpreter doesn't need to build the dictionary or convert metacommand opcodes into a common format). 3)It's more portable. For example, there are platforms out there that can't handle the 'D$$' extension. ----------------- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ----------------- Thanks to the following people: *Jay Goemmer, my most active beta tester, who has sent me pages of useful suggestions and bug reports. *David Kinder, responsible for the Amiga port and a source of much valuable feedback. *Everyone else who has sent me suggestions and bug reports, including Audrey DeLisle, John Hartnup, Sami Kivela, Alexander Lehmann, Ben Straub, Adam Thornton, Mark Tilford, and Gil Williamson. *Volker Blasius, maintainer of the Interactive Fiction archive at ftp.gmd.de. *Robert Pelak, who suggested the name "AGiliTy". *All of the other people on rai-f who suggested names for my interpreter. ----------------------- AGT VERSIONS SUPPORTED ----------------------- AGiliTy understands the following versions of AGT (which includes every AGT game at ftp.gmd.de that I know of): --1.0 --1.18 --the early "Classic AGT": e.g. 1.19, 1.2, 1.21 --"Classic AGT", both big and small: e.g. 1.3, 1.32, 1.35, 1.5, 1.7 --the "Even Bigger 1.32" used by _Cosmoserve_ --the "Chemically Altered 1.32" used by _Shades of Gray_, --Menichelli's 1.82[untested] and 1.83 --All three known "proto-Master's Edition" 1.5 variants --The "Master's Edition", versions 1.0, 1.5, 1.55, and 1.56/1.6. _The Pyramids of Mars_ and _Cliff Diver_ require configuration options to be set; they use variant interpreters that are supported but can't be detected by the interpreter. In particular, _Pyramids_ needs the ALT_ANY option and _Cliff Diver_ requires the IRUN option. _Klaustrophobia_ is now supported. Use AGiliTy to play each of the chapters as usual. To switch between chapters, just SAVE at the end of one chapter and RESTORE at the beginning of the next (the game will tell you when to switch chapters; however, use SAVE instead of DONE1 or DONE2). This is still experimental and so I'd appreciate any feedback on how well it works (or doesn't work, as the case may be). Unlike the MS-DOS programs that _Klaustrophobia_ originally used for this, AGiliTy doesn't check that you've actually reached the end of the previous chapter; be warned that if you switch chapters before the game tells you to, things may break. There is also no way for AGiliTy to support the intermission or endgame text from the original game: these are all printed out by DOS programs rather than by the AGT interpreter. ----------------------------------------------------------- DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AGILITY AND THE ORIGINAL INTERPRETERS ----------------------------------------------------------- --Disambiguation is done on the normal command entry line rather than having a special prompt. --LISTEXIT ON, LISTEXIT OFF will turn automatic listing of exits on or off (in AGT there is a LIST EXITS command, so some AGT games don't list exits to rooms). --OOPS, UNDO, and RESTART are supported (at least on systems with enough memory). --Adjective-only matches are accepted by the parser. --The parser is capable of intelligent disambiguation. --It is is also able to expand ALL and ALL EXCEPT. --Some more multiple word verbs are automatically recognized (for example, GET IN is automatically translated into ENTER). --Some built-in verbs have additional synonyms. (In particular, standard one-letter abbreviations are supported: X for EXAMINE, Z for WAIT) --The standard error messages are different than the original (except in Master's Edition games where most of the standard error messages are included in the game file) --SCRIPT output is sent to a file rather than to the printer. --AGiliTy has an extended AGILDEBUG debugging verb and supports more detailed metacommand tracing output. --There are some minor differences in the way that weight and size are handled, and in the behavior of thrown liquids. --AGiliTy uses a different save file format. --COLORS is not supported, although on some systems equivalent functionality may be supported in the configuration file. --The special title screen effects of the Shades of Gray and Cosmoserve97 interpreters aren't duplicated. --Graphics, sound, and fonts are not supported by any of the existing ports, although hooks exists to implement them. (And all of the remaining Master's Edition language extensions _are_ supported). ---------------------- LIST OF SPECIAL VERBS ---------------------- These are all of the special verbs recognized by the interpreter: SCORE Print out your score. NOTIFY Turn score notification on and off INSTRUCTIONS or INS Display the instructions for the game. INTRODUCTION or INTRO Repeat the introduction of the game. BRIEF Don't print room descriptions for rooms you've seen. VERBOSE Print room descriptions even for rooms you've already seen. LIST EXITS List the exits from a room. LISTEXIT ON,OFF Turn on/off automatic listing of exits. SCRIPT Start sending a transcript to a file. UNSCRIPT Stop creating a transcript. SOUND ON, OFF Turn sound on/off. LOG Start sending all of your commands to a file. REPLAY Replay your commands from a file, one every seconds. REPLAY STEP Replay your commands from a file, one for every keypress. AGILDEBUG Access debugging commands. MENU Toggle menu mode on or off. OOPS Correct a word you just mistyped; must be the first command on a line. UNDO Undo your last move; must be the first command on a line. SAVE Save the game. RESTORE Restore the game. RESTART Restart the game. QUIT Quit -------------------- CONFIGURATION FILES -------------------- The interpreter get configuration information from as many as three places: the global configuration file, the game-specific configuration file (usually with an extension '.cfg'), and, in the case of AGX-format games, the game file itself. Options in the game-specific file override options specified from the other two sources; options in the AGX file override those in the global file. The following configuration options are supported on all platforms. Other options may be supported on your particular system; see appropriate platform-specific documentation for information. Each option should be on a separate line in the configuration file. Lines starting with '#' will be treated as comments and ignored. Options can be negated by prefixing them with 'NO_' so that, for example, DEBUG would become NO_DEBUG. General options: VERBOSE Start the game in VERBOSE mode DEBUG Allow the use of AGILDEBUG for pre-Master's games (For Master's Edition games, this decision is based on the DEBUG flag in the game file itself) PATH Gives a space-separated search path for AGT games. (not implemented yet) TONE Enables the *tone* action token, which allows games to make annoying beeps on some platforms. The only game I might recommend enabling this for is _CosmoServe_ which has some interesting sound effects. Not all platforms support this command. INPUT_BOLD Makes the input line bold. (This doesn't work on all platforms) IBM_CHAR Try to use the IBM character set; don't translate them. If your platform doesn't support the IBM character set, this will probably just produce garbage. Game specific options ROOMTITLE Print the room title in bold before the room description in pre-Master's games. (Master's Edition games do this automatically) IRUN Print error messages in first person. This should be set for _Cliff Diver_. NO_BLOCK_HOSTILE Allow the player to leave a room containing a hostile creature if they go back the way they came. NO_GET_HOSTILE Prevents the player from picking up objects in a room containing a hostile creature. (Intended to be used with NO_BLOCK_HOSTILE) NO_OBJECT_NOTES Turns off notes after object description, such as '[providing light]'. CONST_TIME Increment time at a constant rate instead of randomly. SLASH_BOLD If set the slash character toggles bold on and off. (This should be set automatically for 1.8x games, but you may still need to set it explicitly for version 1.82 ) PRONOUN_SUBS Do $you$-style substitutions even in game-author defined messages. ALT_ANY This scans the ANY metacommands *with* the metacommands rather than before them. Should be set for _Pyramids of Mars_ and not for any other games I know of. SMART_DISAMBIG This turns on smart disambiguation. This works better with some games than others. EXPAND_ALL This turns on ALL and ALL EXCEPT expansion in the parser (by default, expanding them is the responsibility of the individual verb execution routines); see remarks on SMART_DISAMBIG: both of these options use the same engine and so they are likely to work or fail together. If you're using this, you'll probably also want to set FIX_MULTINOUN. Technical options: These are fine tuning. FIX_METAVERB Don't run ANY metacommands when executing a metaverb. FIX_MULTINOUN Only advance one turn when manipulating multiple nouns, rather than a turn for each noun. PURE_ANSWER Require AND-connected answers to be in the right order. (The Master's Edition documentation claims order doesn't matter, but in the actual interpreters it does) Parse Options: These are all pretty technical. PURE_DUMMY Allow dummy verbs to be run by typing "dummy_verb3" PURE_SUBNAME Allow subroutines to be run by typing "subroutine3" PURE_SYNONYM Treat synonyms exactly as nouns. ADJ_NOUN Don't pick noun matches over adjective-only matches. ------------------- DEBUGGING OPTIONS ------------------- With AGILDEBUG you can access various debugging commands. You can move objects around; change the values of flags, variables and counters; list objects in the game; examine and edit objects; and turn metacommand tracing on or off. When metacommand tracing is on, every metacommand that is run will be displayed. You can turn off tracing of ANY metacommands and tracing of metacommands during disambiguation (the latter is off by default). ----------------- AGT GAME LIST ---------------- Here is a list of a few of the better or more popular AGT games, along with their filename in ftp.gmd.de, if-archive/games/pc/. I've also included references to reviews in issues of SPAG and XYZZYnews; these can be found in if-archive/magazines/SPAG and if-archive/magazines/XYZZYnews respectively. Shades of Gray (soggy97.zip) by Mark Baker, Steve Bauman, Belisana Magnificent, Mike Laskey, Judith Pintar, "Hercules", and Cindy Yans Widely considered to be the best AGT game ever written. This is a 'real life' game that is concerned more with the protagonist's ideals and mental state than with "adventuring". You open the game with amnesia and need to figure out who you are and recover your memory. To say more would give too much away. It's a bit uneven (it was written by a team of seven people) and it opens with a rather arbitrary puzzle that's a potental show-stopper, but overall this is an excellent game. SPAG 2, 8; XYZZY 11(interview with one of the authors) Cosmoserve (cosmos97.zip) Judith Pintar Another strong AGT game. In it, you take the role of R.J. Wright, free-lance programmer/plumber, who is trying to finish a program that is due the next morning. You will need to log on to Cosmoserve and interact with the other users in order to be able to do this. It has a clever interface that really captures both the DOS command-line and life online pre-GUI. This is, however, a game you'll have to play through several times to win since it requires fairly tight timing to be in all of the right places at the right times. SPAG 5; XYZZY 1, 11(interview with the author) The Jeweled Arena (tja.zip) David S. Raley This game is divided into four chapters; in each chapter you are a different person (although the first and third chapters share the same main character). Games like this often suffer from a lack of unity; this game, however, holds together quite well. In part, this is because all of the chapters take place in a single, large, setting: the city of Kumeran. You can visit locations multiple times, as different characters. Locations that are unimportant in one chapter may be of great importance in a later chapter. In general, the world has a lot of depth, from diaries of the main characters to newspaper articles to books on law. On the other hand, it could have used some more beta-testing. There are several guess-the-verb puzzles and a quite a few bugs; most of the bugs are just amusing, but at least one (in chapter 3) can cause the game to become silently unwinnable for no obvious reason if you do a certain action in the wrong place. Pastoral Pitfalls (pp20.zip) Guy Marquardt In this game you are the pastor of a Lutheran church; you need to make it through the day fufilling all of your responsibilities (which include visiting the sick, teaching a confirmation class, preparing a sermon, and still finding time to pray) I haven't finished this game, but the parts I've seen I've liked. The game seems to have been well tested; its mostly free of guess-the-verb problems and bugs. It feels very open; you have a lot of freedom in what order to do things (although some care is needed so you don't run out of time). XYZZY 9(preview) The Multi-Dimensional Thief (mdthief1.zip) Joel Finch The is a puzzle game, with virtually no plot. You're a thief who, as a test for the Multi-dimensional Thieves' Guild, have been dumped into a dungeon made up of a patchwork of worlds and have to escape. I haven't played the game through; pure puzzle games aren't to my taste. However, there are a lot of clever bits and other people like this game a lot. SPAG 2, 4, 9