The Uncomplete, Unoffical list of TADS games. v3.00 This list of TADS games and sources is unofficial and casual. I started out of curiousity and will maintain it as time allows. This list is not an endosement of TADS or the games listed here. TADS is one of several excellant products. The discussion of which language/system is best re-occurs periodically and this is NOT IT! In all cases I have attempted to be accurate and current. If you spot any inaccracy or descrepancy, please contact me. In particular, I don't know where to obtain some of these games. TADS is shareware as are most TADS games. Support shareware by registering or else it WILL disappear. Nathan Torkington (gnat@kauri.vuw.ac.nz) also maintains a list of IF games. The majority of TADS games are not yet finished, and a good deal of space is devoted to these in this list. Hopefully, announcing the games here will encourage authors to release games in a timely fashion and hopefully only serious efforts will be pre-announced here. Many TADS authors have email access through Compuserve. Bear in mind that they must pay actual cash to read and reply to email. Their addresses are formed as xxxxx.xxxx@CompuServe.com . Thanks to ... DB David Baggett (dmb@ai.mit.edu) RLB Russell L. Bryan (rbryan@Mail.trincoll.edu) Comments, etc to: amead@s.psych.uiuc.edu Existing TADS games Curse of VengeanceA (CoV) Description/Comments: Fairly typical Dungeons & Dragons meets Text Adventure. Includes extremely (perhaps too much so) simple combat system, armor and weapon classes, and a save the princess plot. "Unfortunately, the programmer considered combat to be more important than puzzles, and the general course of a game involves a lot of slogging through extremely boring battles."-RLB Author: Scott C. McNab Deep Space Drifter (DSD) Description\Comments: Sequel to Ditch Day Drifter, you crash land onto a mysterious, recently deserted space station. At one point you have to fly, very interesting. Was actually written before DDD, very large game. Available from mdsos.archive.umich.edu in /msdos/gammes as 'deepspac.zip' or the HE BBS. Source available to registered users. Authors: Michael J. Roberts and Steve McAdams Ditch Day Drifter (DDD) Description\Comments: Bundled (ie, with source) in the TADS distribution. Break into the senior's dorm room on Ditch Day. Has a maze. "[S]et on the Caltech campus; Mike Roberts' answer to Lurking Horror I guess (which is set on the MIT campus, where the Infocom folks all hailed from) [except that it's not gothic horror]."-DB Author: Michael J. Roberts (73737.417@CompuServe.com) High Tech Drifter (HTD) Description/Comments: The very first TADS game! Available with source from the HE BBS. Described as not quite finished. Author: Jim Cser (no-net-access?) Lost (Lo) Description/Comments: While searching for riches in the forest, you come across a spaceship which takes you to different places and times. Difficult from what I have heard, whatever that means. Available from??? "The game is quite large (the code is over 10,000 lines long) and has the largest vocabulary that the compiler would allow." -- JH, the author Author: Jeffrey Hersh (???) Save Princeton (SP) Comments/Description: You're a visitor to Princeton's campus. While you're there, mysterious invaders take over campus, and you have to oust them. Mac version available from umich. DOS version due 1 FEB 93. Neil K. (n_k_guy@sfu.ca) says, Might best be summarized by this line from the game: "Jacob takes the disk and reads the label. "TADS? This looks neat. I've always wanted to write my own adventure game." he says. "I'll make a game with all my friends in it, and clever puzzles, and oodles of self-reference." Author: Jacob Solomon Weinstein (jacobw@phoenix.Princeton.EDU) The Great Archeological Race (TGAR) Description/Commnets: Adventure where you play the curator of a museum...and it's your job to help increase failing patronage by finding new artifacts. Your quest leads you deep into the heart of the South American jungle, where you discover a whole new world! Shareware ($21.95), from Absolute Zero. The version currently available at the HE BBS uses TADS v1.2x, so no undo etc. Also, this game seemed slightly easier than some (perhaps because of its initial setting is rather more familiar than castles or space stations). The plot, though, was rather more developed and explicit than most. Source available to registered users. Author: John LaBonney (jlabonney@aol.com) Unnkulian Underworld: The Unknown Unventure (UU1) Description\Comments: The first third-party TADS game to be generally circulated on Internet. Irreverent parody of contemporary IF games. Has a medieval flavor. Has a maze. Available from the HE BBS and most Internet FTP sites. "Actually [Leary] wrote the first version in Pascal about eight years ago."-DB Author: D. A. Leary (76440.2671@CompuServe.com) Unnkulian Unventure II: The Secret of Acme (UU2) Description\Comments: Sequel to sucessful UU1. Seems to have more contemporary flavor. Is, perhaps, wackier. Available from the HE BBS and most Internet FTP sites. "Also has a maze, unfortunately. Seemed like a good idea at the time. (It wasn't.) [None the less, it's the] greatest thing since sliced bread!" -DB :-) Author: David Baggett (dmb@ai.mit.edu) Forthcoming TADS games Harold Jenkins, 30th Century Archaeologist: The Undergods Trilogy Description: The beginning of a series with no visible end concerning the adventures of an archaeologist with the charisma and style of Indiana Jones and gadgets that would make James Bond blink. The Undergods Trilogy: Unsavory characters forcefully hire Harry to recover three jewels from the temples of three rival cults on three different planets. Part one, Firegods, is expected to be released in February of 1993. Seuqels Windgods and Watergods expected September 1993 and February 1994. Having seen the background materials to the Firegods game, I think it will be quite interesting. Author: Russell L. Bryan Anticipated release: FEB 1993 The Horror of Rylvania Author: D. A. Leary Comments: Leary's second TADS game. A hard-edged gothic horror game that has been uploaded to a few BBS's but never officially released. This probably won't be an official ADVENTIONS game but one of these days we'll make an archive of it and upload it to Internet sites. (It's been on the "to do" list for a long time.) Anticipated release: ??? The Legend Lives! An Unnkulian Universe Unventure Author: David Baggett Comments: "The beginning of a new series. We learn what life is like 500 years after UU2. Needless to say, a lot has changed; unfortunately, the Unnkulians still appear to be around and causing trouble. You take the role of a graduate student at Akmi Yooniversity who has made a terrifying discovery while exploring some old literature about the Unnkulians. The fate of the galaxy rests in YOUR hands. (Surprise.)" "I'm working on this one now, and have been for many months. The game has several times as much text depth and density as, for example, UU2; hence it's been taking a *long* time. Also, this one gets "serious" at points, though it still has plenty of humor scattered through it." Anticipated release: early 93. Unnkulia Zero: The Search for Amanda Author: D. A. Leary Comments: Finished and now in beta-test. Quite possibly one of the biggest text adventures ever written, at least in terms of amount of text. A truly mammoth game, it forced the switch to TADS 2.0 because 1.X couldn't handle it under DOS. (Not enough conventional memory.) In this game we learn about the early history of the Valley and the Unnkulians. And we get a glimpse at the future. Anticipated release: hopefully prior to MAR 93. Unnkulia 1/2: The Salesman Triumphant Author: D. A. Leary Comments: Somewhat smaller than UU1 and UU2. Explores the trials and tribulations of a down-and-out Acme salesman. Easy, especially compared to Unnkulia Zero or UU2. Anticipated release: The schedule on this is the same as for Unnkulia Zero. Unnkulian Unventure III: [to be determined] Author: Chris Nebel Comments: The sequel to UU2, wherein the cliffhanger ending is resolved. May be the funniest one yet. (Certainly the wackiest.) Anticipated release: ??? A note about TADS The Text Adventure Development System (TADS) is one of many systems that make it easiler to write text adventures. TADS currently supports MSDOS, and Macintosh with a Atari ST port reportedly underway. Game sources and (v2.x) game files are portable. TADS is shareware as are most TADS games. Support shareware by registering or else it WILL disappear. TADS is available via anon-ftp from: msdos.archive.umich.edu mac.archive.umich.edu atari.archive.umich.edu and from the High Energy. High Energy Software -------------------- Distributing: TADS, DSD, DDD, HTD BBS: US MAIL: EMAIL: High Energy BBS (HE BBS) PO Box Internet: 73737.417@compuserve.com speeds up to 14,400 Palto Alto, CA GEnie: M.ROBERTS10 (415)493-2420 (N-8-1) 94303 CIS: 73737,417 Absolute Zero ------------- Distributing: TGAR US MAIL: PHONE: EMAIL: 121 Park Avenue (201)993-8146 jlabonney@aol.com Convent Stsation, NJ 07961 Adventions ---------- Distributing: The Unkuulian Unadventures (UU1,UU2,etc) EMAIL: dmb@ai.mit.edu