Infocoms ZIL manual not in if archive??

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

I've noticed the ZIL manual isnt in the IF-Archive (or certainly not
in any easy place to find where I looked....)

I would have thought it to have been in the archive for posterity...

makes for interesting reading...

if anyone wants to read it

David Betz hosts it (david of drool, advsys, etc).

http://www.mv.com/ipusers/xlisper/

Here is a users guide to the ZIL programming language used by Infocom
to develop their excellent works of interactive fiction back in the
1980's. I was given permission to release this manual by Activision,
the current owners of the Infocom intellectual property.

_here_ being http://www.mv.com/ipusers/xlisper/zil.pdf



Learning ZIL
- or -
Everything You Always Wanted to Know
About Writing Interactive Fiction
But Couldn't Find Anyone Still Working Here to Ask
Copyright ©1989 Infocom, Inc.
For internal use only.
Comments to SEM
Conversion to Microsoft Word -- SEM -- 8/1/95


- Stu : Email via http://public.xdi.org/=stu

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

In article <0oe7h1tui057vivt4imsqndhsu96iebjhl@4ax.com>,
fakeaddress@fakedomain.com says...
>
> I've noticed the ZIL manual isnt in the IF-Archive (or certainly not
> in any easy place to find where I looked....)
>
> I would have thought it to have been in the archive for posterity...
>
> makes for interesting reading...
>
> if anyone wants to read it
>
> David Betz hosts it (david of drool, advsys, etc).
>
> http://www.mv.com/ipusers/xlisper/
>
> Here is a users guide to the ZIL programming language used by Infocom
> to develop their excellent works of interactive fiction back in the
> 1980's. I was given permission to release this manual by Activision,
> the current owners of the Infocom intellectual property.
>
> _here_ being http://www.mv.com/ipusers/xlisper/zil.pdf
>
>
>
> Learning ZIL
> - or -
> Everything You Always Wanted to Know
> About Writing Interactive Fiction
> But Couldn't Find Anyone Still Working Here to Ask
> Copyright ©1989 Infocom, Inc.
> For internal use only.
> Comments to SEM
> Conversion to Microsoft Word -- SEM -- 8/1/95
>
>
> - Stu : Email via http://public.xdi.org/=stu
>

Hi folks,

Any chance of this in TXT or does it rely on a lot of graphics?
--
Best

-James-

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 10:08:57 +0100, James Jolley said to the parser:

> Hi folks,
>
> Any chance of this in TXT or does it rely on a lot of graphics?

James,

TXT version is on its way to you via email.

--
Michael Coyne
http://turthalion.blogspot.com

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 01:52:19 GMT, Stu George
<fakeaddress@fakedomain.com> wrote:

>
>Here is a users guide to the ZIL programming language used by Infocom
>to develop their excellent works of interactive fiction back in the
>1980's. I was given permission to release this manual by Activision,
>the current owners of the Infocom intellectual property.
>
>_here_ being http://www.mv.com/ipusers/xlisper/zil.pdf
>

Wow! Very fun to look at. Thanks for pointing this out!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Michael Coyne <coyneAT@mtsdot.net> wrote:
> On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 10:08:57 +0100, James Jolley said to the parser:

>> Hi folks,
>>
>> Any chance of this in TXT or does it rely on a lot of graphics?

> James,

> TXT version is on its way to you via email.

I remember someone presented a test implementation of ZIL a year or so
ago. Does anyone here know its current status?


--
David Griffith
dgriffi@cs.csbuak.edu <-- Switch the 'b' and 'u'

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Stu George <fakeaddress@fakedomain.com> writes:

> I've noticed the ZIL manual isnt in the IF-Archive (or certainly not
> in any easy place to find where I looked....)
>
> I would have thought it to have been in the archive for posterity...

Maybe somebody should upload it to the archive; files don't usually
just appear there on their own... ;-)

--
Esa Peuha
student of mathematics at the University of Helsinki
http://www.helsinki.fi/~peuha/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

On 31 Aug 2005 12:43:18 +0300, Esa A E Peuha <esa.peuha@helsinki.fi>
wrote:

>Stu George <fakeaddress@fakedomain.com> writes:
>
>> I've noticed the ZIL manual isnt in the IF-Archive (or certainly not
>> in any easy place to find where I looked....)
>>
>> I would have thought it to have been in the archive for posterity...
>
>Maybe somebody should upload it to the archive; files don't usually
>just appear there on their own... ;-)

i live in the mountains and get a roughly 20-24kbps dialup connection,
sometimes its not always prudent to be online for 5 hours trying
to upload a file

now, if you could convince them to lay adsl/cable out to where I live,
I'll upload it in every format know to man if you want



- Stu : Email via http://public.xdi.org/=stu

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

I just uploaded the pdf version to the Archive, in case no one else
reading this thread beat me to it. ;-)

On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 13:11:31 GMT, Stu George
<fakeaddress@fakedomain.com> wrote:

>On 31 Aug 2005 12:43:18 +0300, Esa A E Peuha <esa.peuha@helsinki.fi>
>wrote:
>
>>Stu George <fakeaddress@fakedomain.com> writes:
>>
>>> I've noticed the ZIL manual isnt in the IF-Archive (or certainly not
>>> in any easy place to find where I looked....)
>>>
>>> I would have thought it to have been in the archive for posterity...
>>
>>Maybe somebody should upload it to the archive; files don't usually
>>just appear there on their own... ;-)
>
>i live in the mountains and get a roughly 20-24kbps dialup connection,
>sometimes its not always prudent to be online for 5 hours trying
>to upload a file
>
>now, if you could convince them to lay adsl/cable out to where I live,
>I'll upload it in every format know to man if you want
>
>
>
>- Stu : Email via http://public.xdi.org/=stu

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Here, Josh Lawrence <jjsonick@earthlink.net> wrote:
> I just uploaded the pdf version to the Archive, in case no one else
> reading this thread beat me to it. ;-)

Thanks, but I do want to contact David Betz and get more detail on "I
was given permission to release this manual by Activision".

--Z

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
I'm still thinking about what to put in this space.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Here, Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath@eblong.com> wrote:
> Here, Josh Lawrence <jjsonick@earthlink.net> wrote:
> > I just uploaded the pdf version to the Archive, in case no one else
> > reading this thread beat me to it. ;-)
>
> Thanks, but I do want to contact David Betz and get more detail on "I
> was given permission to release this manual by Activision".

(Which I have now done. I'll report what he replies.)

--Z

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
I'm still thinking about what to put in this space.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

"Josh Lawrence" <jjsonick@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:au7ah1h7hqp1897j0gtijrelq31pmn50ku@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 01:52:19 GMT, Stu George
> <fakeaddress@fakedomain.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>Here is a users guide to the ZIL programming language used by Infocom
>>to develop their excellent works of interactive fiction back in the
>
> Wow! Very fun to look at. Thanks for pointing this out!

So what do you think, should we make a ZIL compiler and abandon
Inform? Good idea?

Kevin Venzke

 

[Collin]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

On 2005-08-30 20:17:53 -0700, Josh Lawrence <jjsonick@earthlink.net> said:

> On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 01:52:19 GMT, Stu George
> <fakeaddress@fakedomain.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Here is a users guide to the ZIL programming language used by Infocom
>> to develop their excellent works of interactive fiction back in the
>> 1980's. I was given permission to release this manual by Activision,
>> the current owners of the Infocom intellectual property.
>>
>> _here_ being http://www.mv.com/ipusers/xlisper/zil.pdf
>>
>
> Wow! Very fun to look at. Thanks for pointing this out!

Oh this is too cool! I had no idea such a complete description of ZIL
existed. The only tidbits I'd seen prior to this were the concise
excerpts of MDL from MIT Zork in the old IEEE article. This, however,
is complete enough that you can really get a feel for how the language
worked and how Infocom's games were structured. It's also very
entertaining for a programming language primer. It's credited to SEM.
Steve Eric Meretzky perhaps?

- Collin

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

In article <pan.2005.08.30.13.36.15.281000@mtsDOT.net>,
coyneAT@mtsDOT.net says...
> On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 10:08:57 +0100, James Jolley said to the parser:
>
> > Hi folks,
> >
> > Any chance of this in TXT or does it rely on a lot of graphics?
>
> James,
>
> TXT version is on its way to you via email.
>
>
Hi Mike,

I did email you but not sure it got through. Thanks for it and i'll give
it a look and see how it works with screen access programs.

--
Best

-James-

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 21:05:09 GMT, "Kevin Venzke" <stepjakk@yahooo.frr>
wrote:

>
>So what do you think, should we make a ZIL compiler and abandon
>Inform? Good idea?
>
>Kevin Venzke

Well, I imagine a 64K or 128K ZIL comp or challenge, if possible, and
if enough people were interested, could be fun, even as a one-time
thing.

There are some holes in the manual - the section on NPCs (Actors)
ends abruptly, there's several sections marked "Stu, I think you
should write this" and the chapter on compiling your game is
conspicously blank - but there seems to be enough there that a decent
ZIL game could be made, if compiling tools were available.

For some perverse reason I would really like to write a game in ZIL,
even just one time. Then perhaps I could move on to a complete game
in Inform.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Andrew Plotkin wrote:
> Here, Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath@eblong.com> wrote:
> > Here, Josh Lawrence <jjsonick@earthlink.net> wrote:
> > > I just uploaded the pdf version to the Archive, in case no one else
> > > reading this thread beat me to it. ;-)
> >
> > Thanks, but I do want to contact David Betz and get more detail on "I
> > was given permission to release this manual by Activision".
>
> (Which I have now done. I'll report what he replies.)
>
> --Z
>
> "And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
> *
> I'm still thinking about what to put in this space.


Perhaps someone might also question him on the mysterious whereabouts
of chapters 15 and 16...