Re: text adventures
On Wed, 22 Jul 1998, Philip Hands wrote:
> > On Wed, 22 Jul 1998, Philip Hands wrote:
> >
> > > > Do we really need to include the source of infocom text adventures to
> > > > put them in main (contrib, actually)? This is not the source code of a
> > > > program, I do not think we should require it.
> > >
> > > Of course it is. The game is a compiled program, running under a virtual
> > > machine.
> >
> > First of all these "game files" are not free. I spent lots of money on
> > infocom games and "own" several of the files that the "infocom" program
> > will play.
> >
> > These files are much more like GIFs. That is, there is a file format
> > definition that allows the program to "play" the game. Must the maintainer
> > of a GIF viewer provide all the files available, even if they are not
> > free?
>
> Oops, crossed wires, sorry.
>
> I thought that the ``them'' in the sentence:
>
> Do we really need to include the source of infocom text adventures to
> put them in main ...
> ^^^^
>
> referred to the adventures, whereas you seem to be talking about the
> interpreters now.
No, I am talking about the data file that contains the "specifications" of
the game read by the interpreter.
The interpreter is free software, the data files aren't, just like Doom,
you must get the room descriptor files from a non-free source.
>
> I'd have thought the interpreters can go in main, especially if there is an
> adventure compiler that allows freeware adventures (game files) to be written.
>
I know of no adventure builders that produce infocom data file format.
(there are several that let you build text based adventure games, but not
infocom)
As far as I can tell the interpreter (the infocom package) is free and can
go into main. I understood the question to be, "Why should the package be
required to include the data files for "The Leather Goddes of Phobos", or
any other Infocom Adventure.
> If there happen to be no freeware games available at present, then contrib
> seems more appropriate, since it's not going to be much use without a non-free
> game file to run on it.
I would still prefer to view this software like we do a GIF viewer. It is
free software, intended for the purpose of "viewing" a proprietary data
format.
If there are "freely distributable" files in this format, then they can
certainly be included as "examples" of the format. But the program
executes without flaw or failure, whether there is a dat file or not. It
is just more interesting if there is one.
This is a situation where the hammer is free but you must buy some nails
to make it useful. Actually it is more like a free VCR where you must pay
for video tapes.
Luck,
Dwarf
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