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- * Winner of GAGS adventure game contest announced
-
- Date: October 23, 1986
-
- WINNER OF ADVENTURE GAME CONTEST ANNOUNCED
- ------------------------------------------
-
- Douglas Asherman, of Oakland, California, has won the
- first Official GAGS Game Contest, sponsored by Mark J. Welch,
- author of the Generic Adventure Game System*. Asherman's game
- is called "Alice," and is patterned after the character
- invented by Lewis Carroll in the book "Alice in Wonderland."
-
- The contest, which began May 24 and ended September 30,
- 1986, offered a $100 prize to the author of the best text
- adventure game written using GAGS, which is an adventure-game
- development system MS-DOS computers. The winning game will
- also be included with each copy of GAGS distributed from
- October 1986 to October 1987. GAGS is distributed as
- Shareware, so users can copy it without charge, paying $15 for
- registration if they enjoy it.
-
- Asherman's game allows a player to play the role of Alice
- as she goes through the Looking-Glass, and to meet many of the
- same characters described in Carroll's book. Asherman also
- adds some humorous 20th-century perspective to the 19th-
- century character.
-
- The contest generated nationwide publicity and interest,
- Welch said. "The main purpose of the contest was to encourage
- people to share the games they'd written using GAGS," Welch
- said. "A lot of people had started games, spending quite a few
- hours on them, but stopped before they'd really finished them,
- or before they'd really made them playable."
-
- As one result of the contest publicity, Welch learned that
- several computer bulletin boards have made GAGS available for
- callers to play on-line.
-
- "I was surprised at first, since anyone can download GAGS
- and play it on any MS-DOS computer, even systems that aren't
- IBM-compatible," Welch said. "Then I realized that other
- computer owners can't use it. If you've got a Commodore or an
- Apple, the only way you can play GAGS right now is to call a
- bulletin board. I hope some of these BBSs will allow callers
- to play 'Alice' now, since it's much more enjoyable than the
- sample game I've been distributing with GAGS."
-
- Welch said he has not yet decided whether to sponsor a
- second game contest.
-
- Although GAGS currently works only on computers that use
- the MS-DOS operating system (including the IBM PC and
- compatibles as well as non-compatibles), Welch hopes to
- release a version for the Apple Macintosh this winter. "I'm
- just waiting for Borland to release its Turbo Pascal compiler
- for the Macintosh," Welch said.
-
- Welch sells GAGS on disk for $10. Registration is $15
- more. Registered users can also buy the complete GAGS source
- code for $25, Welch said, if they wish to add features to the
- program.
-
-
- * GAGS and Generic Adventure Game System are trademarks of
- Mark J. Welch.
-
-
-
- For more info, contact:
-
- Mark J. Welch
- P.O. Box 2409
- San Francisco, CA 94126
- Voice phone: 415-845-2430 [Berkeley]
- Fido 161/459
- BIX: 'mwelch'
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- THE FOLLOWING IS A SAMPLE OPENING SCRIPT OF THE WINNING GAME
- ------------------------------------------------------------
- (Copyright 1986 by Douglas A. Asherman)
-
-
-
-
- C>ADVENT ALICE
-
-
- The Adventures of Alice
- Who
- Went Through the Looking-Glass
- And
- Came Back
- Though Not Much Changed
- Based on characters created by Lewis Carroll
- Game and Text Copyright 1986 D.A. Asherman
-
- Developed using: The Generic Adventure Game System (GAGS)
- Version 1.06b -- 6/15/86
- Copyright 1985, 1986 by Mark J. Welch -- All Rights Reserved
- P.O.Box 2409, SF, CA 94126, (415) 845-2430
- GAGS is distributed as "Shareware."
-
- Initializing data, please wait (should take 1 minute)...
-
-
-
- You've woken up to a fine, fine morning. The sun shines,
- the birds sing, and you feel wonderful. Your cat, Dinah,
- greets you at your bedroom door. You see that her kittens
- follow her lovingly, and you feel that nothing could be finer
- than to be greeted by Dinah in the morning.
- There is, however, a spectre on the horizon. Today is the
- day for your mathematics lesson. Of course, you could plead
- illness, but that would ruin your opportunity to go out and
- enjoy the rest of the day. You get dressed and go downstairs,
- ruminating on how you could possibly skip your mathematics
- lesson and still be able to enjoy the rest of the day.
- "There must be some solution," you think, "some way to
- elude my tutor and go out to play." If you lived far in the
- future instead of in A.D. 1865, we would say that you suffered
- from a malady called "female math anxiety." But as you are
- only a little girl, and as you DO live in 1865, we can only
- say that you haven't studied.
- Ah, well . . . . perhaps there is some way to avoid your
- imminent academic embarrassment . . .perhaps. Perhaps it's
- somewhere in the house.
-
- You are standing on the west side of the fireplace in the
- drawing room of your house. The chairs here are made of
- nicely polished wood, and the mantle over the hearth is very
- well kept up. Everything, in fact, is exactly as it should
- be. The sun is shining, birds are singing, and you feel that
- today of all days, nothing could possibly go wrong.
-
- << Drawing Room >>
- There is a ball of yarn lying on the floor here
-
- What Now? EXAMINE YARN
-
- The ball of yarn seems to be incredibly tangled. In fact, it
- seems to have gotten tangled into the rug itself!
-
- << Drawing Room >>
- There is a ball of yarn lying on the floor here
-
- What Now? PULL YARN
-
- The yarn untangles easily....perhaps a bit too easily.
-
- You are standing in an alcove. To the south is the west side
- of the drawing room. Your father says that standing in this
- alcove puts you exactly north of the west side of the
- fireplace. You think you understand what he means, but have
- never really taken the time to ask.
-
- << Alcove >>
- Your nanny is standing here.
-
- What Now? SOUTH
-
- << Drawing Room >>
- There is a ball of yarn lying on the floor here
-
- What Now? EAST
-
- You are standing on the east side of the fireplace in the
- drawing room of your house. The sun is shining in through all
- of the windows, even through the little stained-glass window
- in the southern door. Once again, you feel that everything is
- as it should be. You can't decide, however, whether to go out
- and play or to prepare for your Mathematics lessons.
-
- << Drawing Room >>
- There is a lovely Swiss clock on the mantelpiece
-
- What Now? EXAMINE CLOCK
-
- The clock, although obviously a fine piece of craftsmanship,
- seems to be telling the wrong time.
-
- << Drawing Room >>
- There is a lovely Swiss clock on the mantelpiece
-
- What Now?
-
- .
- .
- .
- . [portion omitted]
- .
- .
- .
-
- You are sitting down in front of the fireplace in the drawing
- room of your house. You feel as if you've fallen. "But" you
- think "that is ridiculous. One must have been up somewhere to
- have fallen down, and as I've not been up I can't possibly
- have fallen down." You think that this is good logic, but
- still make a mental note to ask you mathematics tutor, Mr.
- Dodgson, about it. Suddenly you notice that the southern door
- (the one with the lovely little stained-glass window in it) is
- open.
-
- << Drawing Room >>
- There is an old umbrella here
-
- What Now? OPEN UMBRELLA
-
- The umbrella is now open.
-
- << Drawing Room >>
- There is an old umbrella here
- There is a small dagger here. (In the umbrella)
- There is a small silver key here. (In the umbrella)
-
- What Now? TAKE ALL
-
- The umbrella won't budge.
- You are now carrying the dagger.
- You are now carrying the key.
-
- << Drawing Room >>
- There is an old umbrella here
-
- What Now? SOUTH
-
- You are in the garden. The sunlight out here lends a radiance
- to all of the flowers and plants. Even the forest on both
- sides of the garden is..... "Wait," you think. "There never
- used to be a forest on the east and west sides of the garden.
- In fact I'm quite sure that the Finchley-Smythes lived to the
- east of us, and the Hatton-Carrolls to the west. Hmmm..."
- Stranger still is the fact that there is a wall to the south
- where you could've sworn there was a path down to the river.
-
- << Garden >>
- There is a musical instrument case here.
- There is an unclimbable wall at the south end of the garden
-
- What Now? . . . . . .
-
-
-