Platform of Adventuron games

[Denk]

It looks like everyone are putting Adventuron topics in the "classics" forum, so I am doing that too.

I wanted to add the system "Adventuron" to several of John Wilson's games, as he has ported several of his games to Adventuron (available as html-files). However, I decided to ask here first, to make sure I get it right the first time.

It is not a problem for me to add "Adventuron" as a system. But I am in doubt of the category "platform". By setting the platform to "Adventuron", it sounds like you need Adventuron to play the game. But all you need is a browser. I found that the platform "Browser" could also be selected from the drop-down menu, but I also saw that "HTML" could be selected.

I, therefore, tried to look at other Adventuron games:
"Cave of Magic, The" is set to HTML.
"Cave of Hoarding, The" is set to Browser.
"Over Here!" is set to Adventuron.
(EDIT: On further inspection, the most common platform for Adventuron seems to be "PC" but then I think Macintosh and Linux should be chosen too)

I don't know if you have chosen a platform for Adventuron games going forward?

Or should I just select all three platforms? (actually, I am not sure if Adventuron can play html-files or if it needs another format, so perhaps I should only choose browser and HTML?)
Thanks!

[Strident]

(The "site feedback" section is probably the best place for threads like this)

Yes, it is something we probably need to be more consistent on going forward.

However, there are historical reasons why "PC" was chosen. Although Adventuron games now happily run in any browser, including on mobile devices, the early system only really worked on specific PC browsers... Chris has put in a lot of hard work to make things work across the board.

Another thing to note is that the "platforms" section should could contain any platforms that the game is officially released on; not necessarily every platform the game will actually run on. If an author/publishers specifies a "PC" release then that is what is logged.

[Denk]

However, there are historical reasons why "PC" was chosen. Although Adventuron games now happily run in any browser, including on mobile devices, the early system only really worked on specific PC browsers... Chris has put in a lot of hard work to make things work across the board.

Okay, that makes sense. Some of the Adventuron versions were made in 2017, so I should be sure that the game runs on a certain platform before I add it.

Another thing to note is that the "platforms" section should could contain any platforms that the game is officially released on; not necessarily every platform the game will actually run on. If an author/publishers specifies a "PC" release then that is what is logged.

I don't think John Wilson mentions anywhere which platforms the Adventuron versions are released on. In those cases, I guess I should only add those platforms I am capable of testing, i.e. "PC" and "Android"?

[Garry]

Adventuron is a system, not a platform, so there shouldn't be any games listed under Adventuron as a platform. The only appropriate system is browser, as that's what it runs on. All modern games run in just about any browser on just about any platform, including mobile, although iOS is too cumbersome to make it usable. If there are known problems running early games on particular browsers, computers or operating systems,this should be included in the notes.

[Strident]

I'll take a look at the existing Adventuron entries, so please do not submit any system alterations for them. I'll sort them out soon.

I think "Adventuron" was added as a platform when Chris himself submitted a batch of games, kind of how we have z-machine as a platform.

I consider any of my Adventuron games as released for PC-only; but I'll change them all to browser to at least have some consistency.

[Strident]

All existing Adventuron games now have their platform listed as "browser".

Some games also have MS-DOS PC versions, so will also have retained the PC tag.

[Denk]

Great, thanks

[Alastair]

(The "site feedback" section is probably the best place for threads like this)

Done.

[Garry]

Contrary to what I said earlier, some Adventuron games have been compiled to run on 8-bit platforms such as Spectrum Next. When this is the case (not very many), this should also be included as a platform.

[Strident]

Contrary to what I said earlier, some Adventuron games have been compiled to run on 8-bit platforms such as Spectrum Next. When this is the case (not very many), this should also be included as a platform.

That is already the case. Adventuron games that run on platforms like the Spectrum Next or original Spectrum aren't actually running using Adventuron; they're PAWed or DAADed games so are tagged with those systems as well.