The 5th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition Introduction ------------ What began five years ago as an effort to encourage the development of short works of interactive fiction has grown into a competition involving around thirty authors and one hundred judges. Each year people from around the world write text adventures that can be played in two hours or less. In recent years the definition of what interactive fiction is has changed; this year several of the "text" adventures include graphics, and one consists of a series of web pages. Whether you've never played a text adventure before in your life, or you've judged in every competition since 1995, we're glad you're taking part. Welcome to the 5th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition. Playing The Games ----------------- (Note: for the latest information, please visit the competition web site at http://www.textfire.com/comp99) You may play the competition games in any order you choose. However, if you don't think you'll have time to play all of the games before the end of the voting period, you are encouraged to use Comp99.z5. Comp99 is a front end for the competition which is designed to look like a text adventure. It has information about all of the games, and will present them to you in random order. That way, even if you don't play all of the games, you will have played a random sampling of them. Comp99 can also keep track of the scores you give each game. You don't have to use Comp99, but if you decide to give it a try, load it using a Z-machine interpreter (more on that in a moment) and type ABOUT for more information. There are three types of competition games: interpreted games, MSDOS executables, and web-based games. Interpreted Games Interpreted games are written using a computer-independent language, and can be run under many different operating systems. To play an interpreted game, you need an interpreter. There are three types of interpreted games in the competition. The first are TADS games. They are found in the tads folder of the competition directory. The filenames of TADS games end in .gam, and they are run using a TADS interpreter. You can find TADS interpreters at ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/tads/executables The second are Inform, or z-machine, games. They are found in the inform folder of the competition directory. The filnames of Inform games end in either .z5 or .z8, and are run using a z-machine interpreter. Z-machine interpreters can be found at ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/interpreters The third are ALAN games. They are found in the alan folder of the competition directory. ALAN games consist of two files, one ending in .dat, the other in .acd. They are run using ARUN, the Alan interpreter. You can find ARUN at ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/alan/executables MSDOS Games The MSDOS games are found in the msdos folder of the competition directory, and are playable only on DOS systems or with an MSDOS emulator. Web-based Games The web-based games are only playable over the Internet. In the web folder of the competition directory are the first pages of the web-based games. Rating The Games ---------------- You rate each game you've played by giving it a whole-number score from 1 to 10. Larger numbers are better. Your rating must be based on no more than two hours of cumulative playing time. If, after playing a game for two hours, you want to keep playing it, you must give it a score and not change that score later. Comp99 can keep track of your scores for you, which will make submitting them easier. You must submit them before November 15th, 1999. Submitting Your Scores ---------------------- Once you have played and rated as many games as you can before the November 15th deadline, you need to submit your scores. There are three ways to do this. The first is to use the web-based interface located at http://www.textfire.com/cgi-bin/vote.cgi. The second is to use Comp99. Comp99 will create a file called rating.txt with all of your ratings. You can e-mail that file to the vote-counter, Mark Musante, at vote@textfire.com. The third is to put all of your ratings in an e-mail message and send that to Mark. You may submit different ratings, and only the last one you send in will be counted. If you choose to e-mail your votes to Mark and you do not use Comp99's rating.txt file, use the following format for your e-mail. In the subject line of your message, put "VOTE". In the body of the message, put the name of each game you are rating followed by its rating, with one game name and rating per line. Send your message as plain ASCII. Do not use HTML or send your votes as an attached non-ASCII file like a Microsoft Word document. Remember, you must vote before the end of the day on November 15th, 1999. Votes submitted after that date will not be counted, so if you won't have access to the Internet around that time, be sure to vote early. You can always change your votes at a later date. T-Shirts -------- This year we are selling competition t-shirts. They will be short-sleeve cotton shirts with the competition logo on the front and a list of the games and their authors on the back. The cost in US dollars will be $15 for people living in the US or Canada, $20 for people living in other countries. The shirts will be sent out after the competition ends. We will be taking orders through October 30th, 1999. If you would like a shirt, send a check, money order, or cash for $15 ($20 if you don't live in the US/Canada) along with a card containing your name, shipping address, and requested shirt size (S, M, L, XL) to: Stephen Granade 1221 C Rosedale Ave. Durham, NC 27707 U.S.A. I can only take cash, checks, or money orders, and they must be in US dollars. If your order will not reach me by October 30th, do not send it. This is a very limited-time offer.