Text Adventure Development System (TADS) is a prototype-based

domain-specific Domain specificity is a theoretical position in cognitive science (especially modern cognitive development) that argues that many aspects of cognition are supported by specialized, presumably evolutionarily specified, learning devices. The posit ...

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

and set of

standard libraries In computer programming, a standard library is the library made available across implementations of a programming language. These libraries are conventionally described in programming language specifications; however, contents of a language's ...

for creating

interactive fiction '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

(IF) games.

History

The original TADS 1 was released by High Energy Software as

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...

in 1988, and was followed by TADS 2 not long after. From the late 1980s to early 1990s, free development tools such as TADS and

Inform Inform is a programming language and design system for interactive fiction originally created in 1993 by Graham Nelson. Inform can generate programs designed for the Z-code or Glulx virtual machines. Versions 1 through 5 were released betwe ...

enabled amateur communities to create

. In the mid-1990s, TADS was a top development tool for interactive fiction. At the time, it was a more improved tool for

parsing Parsing, syntax analysis, or syntactic analysis is the process of analyzing a string of symbols, either in natural language, computer languages or data structures, conforming to the rules of a formal grammar. The term ''parsing'' comes from ...

and world building than existing systems like AGT (

Adventure Game Toolkit The Adventure Game Toolkit (AGT) is a development system for text based adventure games. Description It was written in 1987 by David Malmberg, based on Mark J. Welch's 1985 Generic Adventure Game System (GAGS). AGT was produced until 1992, after w ...

). TADS 2 syntax is based on C, with bits of

Pascal Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to: People and fictional characters * Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name * Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** Blaise Pascal, Frenc ...

. TADS 2 has been maintained and updated at regular intervals by its creator, Michael J. Roberts, even after it became freeware in July 1996. Graham Nelson, creator of Inform, describes Inform and TADS as the "only two systems... widely used" in the last half of the 1990s, and TADS has been called "The second most commonly used IF programming language today". Multimedia TADS, introduced in 1998, allows games to display graphics, animation and play sounds, if the platform supports it. In 2006, TADS received a major overhaul with the release of TADS 3, which is a complete rewrite of the TADS engine, only retaining the platform-dependent code to ease

porting In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desi ...

. TADS 3 uses a language with a syntax that resembles

C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...

and

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

. It has many new features, such as efficient dynamic objects (with automatic

garbage collection Waste collection is a part of the process of waste management. It is the transfer of solid waste from the point of use and disposal to the point of treatment or landfill. Waste collection also includes the curbside collection of recyclabl ...

), structured exceptions, native

UTF-8 UTF-8 is a variable-length character encoding used for electronic communication. Defined by the Unicode Standard, the name is derived from ''Unicode'' (or ''Universal Coded Character Set'') ''Transformation Format 8-bit''. UTF-8 is capable of e ...

strings, and many useful function classes. The TADS 3

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs tha ...

and interpreter have been ported to the

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

and

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, ...

platforms. Several TADS 3 games have been released.

TADS games

Games written in TADS are compiled to a platform-independent format that can be played on any computer for which a suitable

virtual machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization/ emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve specialized h ...

(VM) exists. Such virtual machines exist for several platforms, and in this respect, TADS closely follows the example of the original

Infocom Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called '' Cornerstone''. Infocom was founded o ...

Z-machine The Z-machine is a virtual machine that was developed by Joel Berez and Marc Blank in 1979 and used by Infocom for its text adventure games. Infocom compiled game code to files containing Z-machine instructions (called story files or Z-code ...

, as well as modern languages such as

and C#. Whereas the TADS 1 and 2 VMs had to

parse Parsing, syntax analysis, or syntactic analysis is the process of analyzing a string of symbols, either in natural language, computer languages or data structures, conforming to the rules of a formal grammar. The term ''parsing'' comes from Lat ...

the commands entered by the player, before sending the results on to the game, TADS 3 employs a more general-purpose virtual machine, where the command-parsing is done by the game code itself, akin to Inform. The rationale for this is that it is easier to customize the parser.

Notable games developed in TADS 2

* '' Uncle Zebulon's Will'', by Magnus Olsson (1995). It won the TADS category at the inaugural 1995

Interactive Fiction Competition The Interactive Fiction Competition (also known as IFComp) is one of several annual competitions for works of interactive fiction. It has been held since 1995. It is intended for fairly short games, as judges are only allowed to spend two hours pla ...

and was included on

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...

's 1996 commercial release of ''

Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom ''Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom'' is a collection of 33 computer games from interactive fiction pioneer Infocom, and the top 6 winners of the 1995 Interactive Fiction Competition, released in 1996. All 39 games are combined on a si ...

''. * ''The Frenetic Five vs. Sturm und Drang'', the first game in the " Frenetic Five" series by Neil deMause (1997). The game won a

XYZZY Award for Best NPCs The XYZZY Awards are the annual awards given to works of interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards for film. The awards were inaugurated in 1997 by Eileen Mullin, the editor of ''XYZZYnews''. Any game released during the yea ...

that year. * ''Worlds Apart'' by Suzanne Britton (1999). Winner of

XYZZY Award for Best Story The XYZZY Awards are the annual awards given to works of interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards for film. The awards were inaugurated in 1997 by Eileen Mullin, the editor of ''XYZZYnews''. Any game released during the year ...

and finalist in seven other XYZZY Award categories in 1999, the game features a huge amount of detailed worldbuilding. * '' Kaged'' by Ian Finley (2000). Winner of the 2000 annual

. * '' 1893: A World's Fair Mystery'' by Peter Nepstad (2002). The game is one of a handful to be released commercially in recent years, garnering attention from the New York Times and the Associated Press. It also won the 2002

XYZZY Award for Best Setting The XYZZY Awards are the annual awards given to works of interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards for film. The awards were inaugurated in 1997 by Eileen Mullin, the editor of ''XYZZYnews''. Any game released during the year ...

Notable games developed in TADS 3

* ''Max Blaster and Doris de Lightning Against the Parrot Creatures of Venus'' by Dan Shiovitz and

Emily Short Emily Short is an interactive fiction (IF) writer. She is perhaps best known for her debut game ''Galatea'' and her use of psychologically complex non-player characters (NPCs). Short has been called "a visionary in the world of text-based game ...

(2003). Winner of the 2003

Spring Thing Spring Thing is an annual competition to highlight works of text adventure games and other literary works, also known as Interactive Fiction. Adam Cadre, author of several works of Interactive Fiction, including '' Photopia'' and '' Varicella'', ...

; a somewhat unusual example of multiple player characters (or PCs). * '' The Elysium Enigma'' by

Eric Eve Eric Eve is an author, interactive fiction writer, and New Testament scholar at Harris Manchester College in Oxford. He is known in the interactive fiction community for his writings on TADS 3, including three tutorial/reference books (''Getting ...

(2006). Eve was awarded

XYZZY Award for Best Game The XYZZY Awards are the annual awards given to works of interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards for film. The awards were inaugurated in 1997 by Eileen Mullin, the editor of ''XYZZYnews''. Any game released during the year ...

XYZZY Award for Best Individual NPC The XYZZY Awards are the annual awards given to works of interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards for film. The awards were inaugurated in 1997 by Eileen Mullin, the editor of ''XYZZYnews''. Any game released during the yea ...

, and took third place in the 2006 annual

References

External links