ADRIFT platforms

Games written in Inform, Glulx, TADS, CAT, HUGO and similar. Pleas for help, puzzles, bug reports etc.

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Garry
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Re: ADRIFT platforms

#31 Post by Garry » Fri Mar 19, 2021 12:25 am

Alright. No mention of emulators.

I won't be doing this anyway, as I'm not into PC games and don't have the equipment or the expertise to know what works on what.

Denk
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Re: ADRIFT platforms

#32 Post by Denk » Sun Aug 28, 2022 1:48 pm

After I started this thread in february 2021, a very good ADRIFT 5 interpreter has arrived called FrankenDrift. It is available on Mac, Linux and Windows and it is highly compatible as it is based on the open source code of ADRIFT 5. In comparison, the Android app Fabularium is less accurate but fine in most cases.

Thus I thought I would revise my understanding on how to specify platforms for ADRIFT games:

1. The platform is ADRIFT if a .taf-file or a .blorb-file is released (then it can be played with several interpreters)
2. The platform is (also) PC if a Windows executable is released (.exe)
3. The platform is (also) Browser if it is officially playable online (not sure how to determine official here, unless the author clearly states that the game can be played online)
So in the best case, there are three platforms for an ADRIFT game: ADRIFT, PC and Browser

Additional details can be given in the "notes" section. Comments are very welcome.

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Garry
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Re: ADRIFT platforms

#33 Post by Garry » Sun Aug 28, 2022 2:50 pm

I was updating my Adrift collection and database recently and the thing that really pissed me off was trying to work out which interpreter I needed to run each game. It all boiled down to Adrift 3.8, 3.9, 4.0 or 5.0. It doesn't matter which platform the interpreter runs on, so long as you know what versions it supports. This is information that CASA should be providing so that you can do sensible searches. When entering or updating data, it is much easier to select a system from a drop-down menu than to write notes. As we all know, the latter will generally not get done and, if it does, everyone will word it differently and it is not searchable.

On a related topic, I hate it when someone provides a Windows executable for their Adrift game and they do not provide the game file. My virus scanner always quarantines these Windows executables, so I have to recover them and forcibly exclude them from virus scans. Is there a way to extract the game file from those Windows executables?

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Strident
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Re: ADRIFT platforms

#34 Post by Strident » Sun Aug 28, 2022 3:53 pm

Delron's list of ADRIFT games is probably the best reference for which version of ADRIFT has been used for each game...
https://delron.org.uk/adrift-games.htm

Denk
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Re: ADRIFT platforms

#35 Post by Denk » Sun Aug 28, 2022 10:46 pm

Garry wrote:
Sun Aug 28, 2022 2:50 pm
I was updating my Adrift collection and database recently and the thing that really pissed me off was trying to work out which interpreter I needed to run each game. It all boiled down to Adrift 3.8, 3.9, 4.0 or 5.0. It doesn't matter which platform the interpreter runs on, so long as you know what versions it supports.
Due to the history of ADRIFT this is a bit of a mess but I like to think of it this way: If you have an ADRIFT game, always open it with the ADRIFT 4 Runner. then you will be told what version it is, unless it is an ADRIFT 4 game. If it is an ADRIFT 4 game, the game will start.

NB: If you are not sure which version a game was made with, do NOT try to open it with ADRIFT 5 Runner as it may (depending on your setup) convert the game from ADRIFT 4 to ADRIFT 5 without telling you and more often than not, the conversion is significantly bugged. Do not play ADRIFT 4 games with ADRIFT 5 Runner as it will probably ruin the game.

If it is a blorb-file, you can be sure that it is an ADRIFT 5 game. Practically all new ADRIFT games are made with ADRIFT 5. Since 2013, only four ADRIFT 4 games have been released. And as Strident mentioned, the Delron site tells you which version was used to create the game.
Garry wrote:
Sun Aug 28, 2022 2:50 pm
On a related topic, I hate it when someone provides a Windows executable for their Adrift game and they do not provide the game file. My virus scanner always quarantines these Windows executables, so I have to recover them and forcibly exclude them from virus scans. Is there a way to extract the game file from those Windows executables?
I agree. that is annoying. So far, those few "exe-only"-games I have seen, have not been good games. To my knowledge there is no tool available to subtract the taf-file but I guess a good programmer could do it(?).

Finally a little bit of statistics using Delron:
Number of ADRIFT 3.8 games: 12
Number of ADRIFT 3.9 games: 143
Number of ADRIFT 4.0 games: 410
Number of ADRIFT 5.0 games: 106

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Garry
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Re: ADRIFT platforms

#36 Post by Garry » Mon Aug 29, 2022 3:47 am

Denk wrote:
Sun Aug 28, 2022 10:46 pm
If you have an ADRIFT game, always open it with the ADRIFT 4 Runner. then you will be told what version it is, unless it is an ADRIFT 4 game. If it is an ADRIFT 4 game, the game will start.
That's pretty much what I'd do if I just want to play a game, but to identify the correct version, I started with 3.9. If that didn't work, it would tell you that the game was created with a later version.
Denk wrote:
Sun Aug 28, 2022 10:46 pm
NB: If you are not sure which version a game was made with, do NOT try to open it with ADRIFT 5 Runner as it may (depending on your setup) convert the game from ADRIFT 4 to ADRIFT 5 without telling you and more often than not, the conversion is significantly bugged. Do not play ADRIFT 4 games with ADRIFT 5 Runner as it will probably ruin the game.
Good advice. This is one of the reasons why you need to know the version of ADRIFT used to compile the game file. Like you said, if it's a blorb file, then it's definitely 5.0.

There are some errors in Delron's list, but the proportion of the numbers is about right.

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