I have to say, that even without "commercial" development money and resources, IF technology has been slowly improved since the 90's. The interpreters are as portable as ever and the quality of the writing - obviously when you waft through all the sub-A level stuff - is as great as it ever was as well. The question becomes, how much better can you make the technology without changing the essence of what IF means? After all, the Zork model is as much an albatross as it is a blessing. I think one of your comments, Matt, points to the answer - that the way the technology can be improved is via the parser. I think the most exciting possibility beyond increasing understandable word count, is to apply a form of artificial intelligence. If you can make the "machine" be able to actively interpret what the typer is trying to convey, then IF will finally leapfrog the model that was perfected by the late 80's (while there have been the aforementioned improvements from the 90's to today, those improvements have been incremental, rather than fundamental).
I bet if there was a technological "revolution" like behind-the-scene AI AND a mainstream commercial developer/publisher combination, one of the original masters mentioned above would come back again (and let's not forget, they did pretty much come back for "Zork: The Undiscovered Underground", even though it was based on the classical model).
Finally, if I ever get around to it someday, I still think the idea of selling modern IF in bookstores as interactive books (in a book binding with pages) for play on all the devices that are supported today has some merit if the sales levels only have to be at book levels, rather than software levels!
======================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
(A PC Magazine Top 100 Website)
======================================
*************************** Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
I have to say, that even without "commercial" development money and resources, IF technology has been slowly improved since the 90's. The interpreters are as portable as ever and the quality of the writing - obviously when you waft through all the sub-A level stuff - is as great as it ever was as well. The question becomes, how much better can you make the technology without changing the essence of what IF means? After all, the Zork model is as much an albatross as it is a blessing. I think one of your comments, Matt, points to the answer - that the way the technology can be improved is via the parser. I think the most exciting possibility beyond increasing understandable word count, is to apply a form of artificial intelligence. If you can make the "machine" be able to actively interpret what the typer is trying to convey, then IF will finally leapfrog the model that was perfected by the late 80's (while there have been the aforementioned improvements from the 90's to today, those improvements have been incremental, rather than fundamental).
I bet if there was a technological "revolution" like behind-the-scene AI AND a mainstream commercial developer/publisher combination, one of the original masters mentioned above would come back again (and let's not forget, they did pretty much come back for "Zork: The Undiscovered Underground", even though it was based on the classical model).
Finally, if I ever get around to it someday, I still think the idea of selling modern IF in bookstores as interactive books (in a book binding with pages) for play on all the devices that are supported today has some merit if the sales levels only have to be at book levels, rather than software levels!
======================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
(A PC Magazine Top 100 Website)
======================================
***************************
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.