Programs well-suited to creating old-fashioned text-adventure games?

[Hamlet]

Hello. I am interested in creating a text adventure game. I'd like it to be in an old-fashioned, simple-looking style similar to the likes of Hitchhiker's Guide or Zork. What program or programs might you recommend for that? I tried Quest but had some frustrating problems with it (such as not being able to remove the look-disrupting automatic "You are in..." type announcements). With Twine I found that it was geared too much to a gamebook design. Has anyone heard of or tried ThinBASIC Adventure Builder (aka T.A.B.) ? Is it trustworthy? Is it any good? Thank you for reading.

 

[User_920791]

Any visual novel engine can be used in this type of project. If you have any familiarity with HTML, CSS, and Javascript, I recommend

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.

Most developers here use

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for this type of game.

 

[Hamlet]

Any visual novel engine can be used in this type of project. If you have any familiarity with HTML, CSS, and Javascript, I recommend

You must be registered to see the links

.

Most developers here use

You must be registered to see the links

for this type of game.

Thanks. I've tried that and used it to some extent. My problem with it has been that I cannot find a way to create an enter-key operated command bar/text box. I might give it another go, though.

 

[W65]

Sounds like you're wanting to work in the "interactive fiction" genre. That name's pretty broad, and I think folks use it for VNs, too, but around here when you say "text based" folks are going to think of things like Lilith's Throne, being text with a graphical UI.

You might want to start with ifarchive.org, inform7.com, and figuring out whatever glulx does for you, although from looking at your first post you're probably already familiar with ifarchive.org at least.

I don't know anything about TAB.

Doesn't RAGS also support a parser? It's slow and clunky, though, and I don't think the interface can be modified very much.

 

[HiEv]

Yeah, if you're looking to do a Zork-style game, then W65 nailed it with recommending

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.