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1997-10-25
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TADS/2 1.0.0 - The Text Adventure Development System (TADS) runtime for OS/2.
Copyright (c) 1997 Stephen Granade.
All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents
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1. What is TADS/2?
2. What is TADS?
3. How do I run games with TADS/2?
4. What are the basic menu options of TADS/2?
5. What are macros, and how do I use them?
6. What special keys does TADS/2 recognize?
7. Could you explain the TADS/2 settings?
8. What's this "bound game" business?
9. What are those extra files TADS/2 created?
10. Who helped you with this?
11. How can I reach you?
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1. What is TADS/2?
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TADS/2 is the OS/2 PM port of the TADS runtime. With TADS/2 you can run any
text adventure game written using the TADS programming language. Thus TADS/2
is not a game per se; it is a program for running games. TADS game files are
easily recognized by their .gam extension.
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2. What is TADS?
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TADS is a design system for writing text adventures. It was created by Michael
Roberts. TADS consists of a compiler, a library to make text adventure writing
easier, and a runtime. A debugger is also available, though under MS-DOS and
not OS/2 specifically.
The TADS language and many TADS adventures are available from the interactive
fiction archive at GMD. The TADS development system is located in the
directory ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/tads; TADS games are located
in the directory ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/tads.
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3. How do I run games with TADS/2?
------------==========------------
One of three ways:
1) Start TADS/2. Select "Load .gam file" from the "File" menu (or press
CTRL-L). TADS/2 will ask you to select the .gam file.
2) Drag and drop the .gam file on the TADS/2 program.
3) Create an association which links .gam files with TADS/2.
Right-click on the TADS/2 program and select "Properties". Choose the
"Association" tab and type "*.gam" into the "New name" entry field.
Press the "Add >" button. Then, whenever you double-click on a .gam file,
TADS/2 will automatically load it.
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4. What are the basic menu options of TADS/2?
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File
Load .gam file: Loads a TADS game file and runs it
Save game: A shortcut for saving a game while in the middle of it
Restore game: A shortcut for loading a previously saved game
Bind standalone game/Unbind TADS/2: See "What's this 'bound game' business?"
below.
Quit: Quit the game
As you play games, they will be added to the File menu between the Bind game
and Quit menu items. This is the "most recently played" list. Up to ten
games will be stored this way. Selecting one of these games will re-load
and run the game.
Edit
Undo: Undo your last move during a game
Cut: Copy the selected text to the clipboard and remove
it. Note that the text will be removed only if
_you_ typed it
Copy: Copy the selected text to the clipboard
Paste: Paste text from the clipboard to the game
Find: Search for text
Find again: Search for the previously-searched-for text
Options
Story window settings: Set the characteristics of the story window
Interpreter settings: Set the behavior of the TADS interpreter engine
Program settings: Set how the program behaves
Set font
Set main window font: Set the main window font
Set status window font: Set the status window font
Set colors: Set the window colors. This option opens the color
palette. Drag the color you want to the window;
TADS/2 will ask you if you want that color to be
the foreground (text) color or the background color
Separated status bar: The status bar can be part of the main TADS/2
window or a window of its own; your choice.
Macros: see "What are macros, and how do I use them?" below
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5. What are macros, and how do I use them?
---------------============---------------
Good question. Macros are designed to save you from having to type things over
and over and over and over and... Macros can be assigned to the twelve
function keys.
To assign a macro, select some text using the mouse. Either choose "Define
macro" from the Macro menu or press CTRL-D. Then press the function key to
which you want the macro defined. Then, to use the macro, press that function
key. If you start to define a macro and change your mind, press CTRL-D again
to cancel the macro define.
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6. What special keys does TADS/2 recognize?
---------------=============---------------
Escape erases anything you've typed on the current command line. Up and Down
Arrow will scroll through the previous commands you've typed. PageUp and
PageDown scroll the entire text window up and down by a page; Ctrl-Up Arrow
and Ctrl-Down Arrow scroll the text window up and down by one line. Left Arrow
and Right Arrow move the cursor through the text. Home takes you to the
beginning of the command line and End takes you to the end of the command
line. Ctrl-Home moves you to the top of the text window; Ctrl-Down moves you
to the bottom.
Holding shift while using Left/Right Arrow, Ctrl-Left/Right Arrow, Home,
or End keys will move the cursor and select text.
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7. Could you explain the TADS/2 settings?
--------------=============--------------
Sure.
Story Window Options
Left/right margins: The margin (in pixels) between the left/right side of
the text and the border of the window. The margin
can be between 0 and 99 pixels
Top/bottom margins: The margin (in pixels) between the top/bottom of the
text and the border of the window. The margin can
be between 0 and 99 pixels
Justify text: If checked, the game text will be full-justified
Bold input: If checked, your input to the game will be in bold
Two spaces after period: TADS normally puts two spaces after each period. If
you don't like that, leave this box unchecked.
Interpreter Options
Command history length: How many commands you want TADS/2 to keep track of.
Can be between 2 and 99 commands.
Buffer size: The number of characters output by the game that
TADS/2 keeps track of before it begins throwing
them away. Can be between 400 and 30000 characters.
Buffer slack: The number of characters over the buffer size that
TADS/2 is willing to remember before throwing away
characters. This is to allow TADS/2 to throw away
one line at a time, or at worst one word at a time.
This can be between 100 and 5000 characters.
Pause while paging: Should TADS/2 pause between screens of text or
scroll all the way to the bottom without stopping?
Clear by scrolling: Should TADS/2 clear the screen by printing a bunch
of blank lines, or should it instead get rid of all
the text previously printed?
TADS/2 Options
F1 is a macro: Normally F1 brings up a program's help. Since
TADS/2 has no help implemented yet, this means that
F1 would do nothing. Instead, you can check this
box and let F1 be a macro instead. Any changes you
make to this won't take effect until next time you
run TADS/2.
F10 is a macro: F10 normally highlights the menu bar. (If you don't
know what I mean by this, uncheck this box, quit
TADS/2, rerun it, and press F10.) However, you can
make F10 be a macro key instead. Any changes you
make to this won't take effect until next time you
run TADS/2.
Sticky paths: Sticky paths means that TADS/2 remembers the last
directories where you saved or restored a game and
where you loaded a .gam file.
Sticky macros: Sticky macros means that TADS/2 remembers the
macros you defined from session to session.
Close when ending a game: If checked, TADS/2 quits when the game ends. If
unchecked, TADS/2 won't quit, allowing you to run
several games in succession.
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8. What's this "bound game" business?
------------=============------------
TADS/2 has the ability to create another copy of itself with a .gam file
bound to it, thus making the adventure game a self-executing program. If
your copy of TADS/2 is not bound to a game, when you load a game you can
select "Bind stand-alone game" from the File menu to make a stand-alone
or "bound" game. If your copy of TADS/2 is already bound, you can select
"Unbind TADS/2" from the File menu to make a separate, unbound copy of TADS/2.
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9. What are those extra files TADS/2 created?
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TADS/2 creates two different types of files. The first is the file
"TADSOS2.INI," in which TADS/2 records all of your settings. The second are
files which look something like "sw635561.000". These are swap files, which
TADS/2 creates while running an adventure in order to keep memory overhead
low. Normally TADS/2 deletes these files when it is done; however, if you
cancel TADS/2 in the middle of a game, then one (or more) of these files
will be left in TADS/2 directory. You can delete them without worry after
you quit TADS/2.
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10. Who helped you with this?
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Oh, lots of people. The two major people who must be thanked are Mike Roberts
and Andrew Plotkin. Mike created TADS in the first place; if it weren't for
him, I'd have never renewed my interest in adventure games. Andrew wrote the
Macintosh TADS interpreter "MaxTADS". I took much of MaxTADS' interface and
text-handling code and warped it to my own nefarious purposes.
Gerhard Hoogterp, Heiko Nock, Lon Thomas, and Adam Thornton tested TADS/2 in
its various forms. They are responsible for many of the good features of the
TADS/2 interface.
TADS/2 was compiled using GCC and the EMX libraries.
If you have suggestions on how to improve TADS/2, please let me know. I'll
be sure to add you to this list.
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11. How can I reach you?
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The best way is by e-mail. I can be reached at sgranade@iname.com and at
sgranade@phy.duke.edu until some time after 2001. Beyond that, your guess
is as good as mine.