Text Adventure Development System: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:25, 31 May 2011

Revision as of 09:52, 10 June 2011

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{{for|the military aircraft targeting system|Target Acquisition and Designation System, Pilot Night Vision System}}

{{Infobox programming language

| name = TADS

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| website = {{URL|http://www.tads.org}}

}}

{{for|the military aircraft targeting system|Target Acquisition and Designation System, Pilot Night Vision System}}

'''Text Adventure Development System''' ('''TADS''') is a [[prototype-based programming|prototype-based]] [[___domain-specific language|___domain-specific]] [[programming language]] and set of [[standard library|standard libraries]] for creating [[interactive fiction]] (IF) games.

==History==

The original TADS 1 was released by [[High Energy Software]] as [[shareware]] in the late 1980s, and was followed by TADS 2 not long after. In the early 1990s, TADS established itself as the number one development tool for [[interactive fiction]], in place of simpler systems like AGT ([[Adventure Game Toolkit]]).{{FactCitation needed|date=November 2008}} In the late 1990s, it was joined by [[Inform]] as the most popular interactive fiction development language.

TADS 2 syntax is based on [[C (programming language)|C]], with bits of [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]]. TADS 2 has been maintained and updated at regular intervals by its creator, Michael J. Roberts, even after it became freeware in July 1996. Graham Nelson, creator of Inform, describes Inform and TADS as the "only two systems... widely used" in the last half of the 1990s,<ref name="DM4">{{cite web

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Games written in TADS are compiled to a platform-independent format that can be played on any computer for which a suitable [[virtual machine]] (VM) exists. Such virtual machines exist for several platforms, and in this respect, TADS closely follows the example of the original [[Infocom]] [[Z-machine]], as well as modern languages such as [[Java (programming language)|Java]] and [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]].

Whereas the TADS 1 and 2 VMs had to [[parse]] the commands entered by the player, before sending the results on to the game, TADS 3 employs a more general-purpose virtual machine, where the command-parsing is done by the game code itself, akin to Inform. The rationale for this is that it is easier to customize the parser.{{FactCitation needed|date=November 2008}}

===Notable games developed in TADS 2===

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* ''The Frenetic Five vs. Sturm und Drang'', the first game in the "[[Frenetic Five]]" series by [[Neil deMause]] (1997). The game won a [[XYZZY Award for Best NPCs]] that year.

* ''Worlds Apart'' by Suzanne Britton (1999). Winner of [[XYZZY Award for Best Story]] and finalist in seven other XYZZY Award categories in 1999, the game features a huge amount of detailed worldbuilding.{{FactCitation needed|date=November 2008}}

* ''[[Kaged]]'' by [[Ian Finley]] (2000). Winner of the 2000 annual [[Interactive Fiction Competition]].

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===Notable games developed in TADS 3===

* ''Max Blaster and Doris de Lightning Against the Parrot Creatures of Venus'' by [[Dan Shiovitz]] and [[Emily Short]] (2003). Winner of the 2003 [[Spring Thing]]; a somewhat unusual example of multiple [[player character|player characters (or PCs)]].{{FactCitation needed|date=November 2008}}

* ''[[The Elysium Enigma]]'' by [[Eric Eve]] (2006). Eve was awarded [[XYZZY Award for Best Game]], [[XYZZY Award for Best Individual NPC]], and took third place in the 2006 annual [[Interactive Fiction Competition]].

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* [http://www.hypertads.org/ HyperTADS], a Mac OS multimedia interpreter for TADS 2 and 3

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tads}}

[[Category:Interactive fiction]]

[[Category:Domain-specific programming languages]]

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[[Category:Text adventure game engines]]

[[Category:Video game creation software]]

{{videogame-software-stub}}

[[ar:TADS]]