Hello, and welcome to the FAQ for the AIFGames.com website. What we have here is a list of frequently asked questions that come up in the forums. We also have some frequently given answers too. Please take the time to read through this document before posting a question on a forum. You could save yourself some time and frustration.

If you've got a question that isn't answered here, feel free to post it. If you'd like to suggest an addition to this FAQ, please feel free to post that as well!

The FAQ was originally posted by Optimus in November 1999, with some additions from Rap, Mycophile, and Tenhawk. Additional information was integrated from the AIF Archive maintained by Mycophile, from the IFFG maintained by ArKane, and from the FAQ for the newsgroup rec.arts.int-fiction which is currently maintained by Stephen Griffiths.

 

A version of this FAQ was maintained by ArKane, and posted regularly to the newsgroup alt.games.xtrek, and hosted at the IFFG website.

When the new AIFGames.com website became active, it was soon clear that some new AIF enthusiasts were joining our community - enthusiasts who were not aware of the FAQ or even the alt.games.xtrek newsgroup. The FAQ was due for revision anyway, so it was reworked for this new forum by A. Bomire.

AIF	Adult Interactive Fiction
A/IF	The combined genre of Interactive Fiction and Adult Interactive Fiction
ADRIFT	A Windows-based format for game development.
AGiliTy	An updated runtime engine that supports AGT and MAGX games
AGT	The Adventure Game Toolkit - a game development system popular in the late 80's and early 90's.
AGX	A usenet newsgroup - alt.games.xtrek - used to discuss all aspects of AIF.
FAQ	Frequently Asked Questions
GUI	Graphical User Interface
HUGO	A format for developing interactive fiction that focuses on graphics.
I6	Refers to the Inform authoring system, version 6.
I7	Refers to the Inform authoring system, version 7.
IDE	Integrated Development Environment
IF	Interactive Fiction
Inform	A popular format for developing interactive fiction.
NG	Newsgroup
NPC	A non-player character
PC	In game context, the player character. In computer terms, a personal or home computer.
SO	Significant Other
SSS	Steamy Sex Scene
T&AIF	An AIF game that centers around sexual interaction, with little or no plot.
TADS	Text Adventure Development System - a popular format for developing interactive fiction.
RAIF	A Usenet newsgroup - rec.arts.int-fiction - used for discussing writing IF games.
RGIF	A Usenet newsgroup - rec.games.int-fiction - used for discussing playing IF games
RTFM	Read The Fine Manual
WT	Walk through - a step-by-step guide to completing a game

That is a good question. In days past, both interactive fiction and text adventure had the same meaning. Interactive fiction has a broader interpretation these days. For the sake of this FAQ and the topic it covers, text adventure is more accurate, but still not perfect.

Basically, Interactive Fiction is a text-based game where the player has some direct impact on the story. This impact is usually from some action that they perform such as finding an item, solving a puzzle, opening a locked door, finding the treasure, or other similar action. Some games even change when the player doesn't do something.

Another attempt to define IF can be found at the Interactive Fiction Basement.

Here is an example of an Interactive Fiction play session:

Equipment Room     You are in a room with two racks: one for armor, and one for weapons. To the south, you see a doorway next to which is a sign.     The armor rack seems to contain leather armor and chainmail armor. The weapon rack seems to contain a mace, a sword, and an axe. >read sign The sign reads: Prepare yourself for combat before entering! >get sword Taken. >get chainmail armor and wear it Taken. Okay, you're now wearing the chainmail armor. >south ...

Adult Interactive Fiction, commonly called AIF, is a sub-genre of Interactive Fiction dealing with "adult" themes. This generally means the games are a form of interactive erotic fiction, as the adult content is overwhelmingly sexual in nature.

Registration is quick, free, easy and non-intrusive. Basically we just want to make sure that commercial sites don't exploit our content and our bandwidth (they've done it before). All we need is an email address from you, and you get full access to the files and forums. Your email address WILL NOT be distributed or used for any commercial purposes. You won't get spam from us.

NOTE: Registered users can upload files, but those files need to be approved by an admin before they appear in the files section.

When you download a game, you receive a file that needs to be opened by a special program called an interpreter. This program is sometimes referred to as the game engine, or run-time (as opposed to developer used to create games). The interpreter will read the special codes contained within the game, and accept and interpret your input to play out the interactive story.

There are several popular game formats, and each one requires a different interpreter or game engine. All of them can be downloaded from the IF Archive, although several of them have their own dedicated websites. Among the most popular are:

TADS - comes in two versions: TADS 2    TADS 3
Many of the TADS 3 interpreters will also play TADS 2 format games.

ADRIFT - also comes in two versions: ADRIFT 3.9    ADRIFT 4.0
The ADRIFT 4.0 interpreter can run ADRIFT 3.9 games, but there are usually problems.

Inform - although there are two different versions of Inform (6 & 7), the interpreters for either will run either version of the game. You can download a version for just about any platform, OS, PDA, etc. here.

AGT - The Adventure Game Toolkit. Although considered outdated and little used these days, AGT was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. There are a large number of AIF games written in this system, but the AGT run-time software has problems running on modern machines. Instead, most people use AGiliTy.

Others - these are just the most popular formats. There are other game formats available, and you can find what you need at the IF Archive. 

When I unzip games I've downloaded from here I'm told the file is corrupt!

Don't worry, this is a surprisingly common problem. The simple solution is to manually rename the file, adding a .gz to the end of the file (so that ghost.zip would become ghost.zip.gz). Then extract the .gz file and you will get a file called, for example, ghost.zip. That resulting .zip file should extract as normal.

There is a more complete explanation in the sticky thread "Corrupt .zip files" in the general discussion area of the forum.

Error 200 when running AGT games?

The AGT system was programmed in Pascal. There is an error in the screen handling routines that will cause a divide by zero error on faster machines. For you technical people, the error is in the CRT module and affects many versions of Pascal and Turbo Pascal.

 

There is a patch intended to correct the problem, but the patch isn't adequate anymore. For most users, you should just use AGiliTy as your runtime engine. It was programmed in C and doesn't have this problem. AGiliTy will run most AGT games, although a few exhibit minor problems. It can be found at the IF Archive.

There are several places where you can find AIF games, including this website! To find games here, you need an account on this website. If you do not yet have an account, please sign up for one. They're free!

After you have your account, sign in. When you do, a menu option will become available for "AIF Files". Click on this menu option (look on the left side of the screen) to find the files that are available.

Many AIF authors have their own websites, where they make their games available for download. You can see these sites by clicking on the Links option on the left.

Other places where you can find AIF games include:
Yahoo! AIF Archive*
Yahoo! AIF Archive 2*
AIF Community

*Yahoo! groups require you to sign up for an account with Yahoo! before allowing you to download any games, post any messages, or generally do anything of interest within the group.

Well, first of all see the above topic for "Where can I find AIF games?"

If you've checked all of those resources and you still cannot find the game for which you are searching, there are still some options available to you. One good place to look is a list of known AIF games maintained by A. Ninny, available here.

If you still can't find the game for which you are looking, then you will want to post a query at one of the popular forums. It may be that the game you want is still in development, or it may have been removed for one or more reasons.

I posted a file but it hasn't come up in the files section. Where is it? Didn't my upload work?

Uploaded files need to be approved by an admin before they appear in the files section. This will usually only take a few hours at most, but if you have uplaoded a file you can make a note of it in the forums and that will help bring it to our attention (this is a good idea anyway, to let other users know you have uploaded something).

You are free to upload anything relevant to AIF, including walkthroughs, programming systems and libraries, or games that you have written. The only reason we wouldn't approve a file would be if it was some form of commercial advertisement, a dangerous or infected file or a file that was not relevant to AIF, so feel free to upload because we will most likely approve it.

This is a very common question, especially right after a new game has been released. First off, try to work your way through it before asking for a walk through. If you get stuck on a particular part of the game, ask for a hint on that. You can post a question for a hint here in the forums, or at the Yahoo! AIF Archive group. Both places require you to have an account before posting.

If you still need a walk through, you can typically find one at the same locations listed above that allow you to download games.

Newer games may not have a walk through available yet. For these games, you may need to post a request to one of the popular AIF forums. Or, why not write one yourself?

A great place to post any questions, comments, suggestions, or just anything you feel a need to post is right here at AIFGames.com. Click over to the AIF Forums, and find the appropriate forum for whatever it is you wish to discuss. You will find all kinds of people here willing to provide game hints, discuss writing games, talk about IF and AIF in general, or whatever!

Another popular place to "hang out" is the Yahoo! AIF Archive. This, too, requires you to have an account with Yahoo!, but it is another place where game discussion often takes place.

"Erin" is the unofficial mascot of the AIF community. She was originally adopted as the nickname for the "AIF Awards", similar to calling the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards "Oscar". These awards are handed out once per year to the games that exhibit the best of what AIF is all about. For more information on the "Erins", including when the next award ceremony is being held or a listing of past winners, go to the "Erins" home page.

When the "AIF Awards" were established, a contest was held to design the "statue" that is awarded. This character, naturally enough, was also called "Erin" after the award which it represents.

"Erin" is also the subject of the "O Erin!" comic strip that "-3-" writes for the monthly AIF newsletter, "Inside Erin". The character is based upon the model used for the "AIF Awards". To view the comic, go to the AIF Newsletter home page.

There are various documents that discuss what is involved with writing any work of IF. Before you seriously start working on something you should look over a couple of these, if not all of them. There are no rules set in stone, but these articles cover a host of things you might not have considered. The first couple deal with IF in general, while the others are aimed more at AIF in particular.

Craft of Adventure, by Graham Nelson
Crimes Against Mimesis, by Roger Giner-Sorolla
Writing Adult Interactive Fiction, by Rap
AIF: 101, by Johnny Freebase
Story in AIF, by BBBen

After this, you are going to want to pick up one of the many languages available for writing Interactive Fiction games (also called authoring systems). Each language has its own benefits and pitfalls. Here is a really quick overview of some of the most popular:

ADRIFT - Windows-based, with a GUI interface. Generally referred to as a "point-and-click" language and is considered easy to pick up and learn, but many have found it to be not as powerful as other languages such as TADS or Inform. Version 3.9 is free, but Version 4.0 (which has many improvements) requires a nominal fee.

TADS - A very powerful and flexible language that uses a C-like syntax that some find off-putting. It has a fairly steep learning curve as well, but there are several tutorials available to help the new programmer. There are two versions: TADS 2 and TADS 3. TADS 3 includes a lot of the add-ons written for TADS 2 by default. Both versions are free.

Inform - Similar to TADS in both power and flexibility, and also has two versions. Inform 6 has been around for more than 10 years and is very stable, but is as difficult as TADS to learn. Inform 7 was released in 2006 and uses "natural language", which makes it much easier for new or non-programmers to understand and use. As with TADS, both versions are free.

For a good look at a small game written in the above languages (plus many more) take a look at Roger Firth's Cloak of Darkness. For a quick overview of many of the popular languages, see "Choosing a Text Adventure Language" by Stephen Granade.