Keyboard power

Posted by Leopold McGinnis.
First posted on 08 January 2007. Last updated on 30 June 2009.
Articles  »  Features
Want more information? Read the article! 

> HIDE STOLEN SWORD IN PANTS
> USE SHIELD OF POWER AS BRIDGE
> POKE TROLL IN EYE WITH MAGIC STICK

Let us pause for a moment in this world of rapidly expanding graphic engines, of megabytes gone gigabytes gone terabytes and vibrating feedback joypads, to remember the passing of a dear old friend—the keyboard.

Today, the idea of using a keyboard to enter commands into a gaming system seems…

• (7) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Enter Your Comments

Name

Email (optional)

City, Country

Rate this article
1 (Poor) 2 (Fair) 3 (Good) 4 (Very Good) 5 (Excellent)

Message

Submit the word below for security verification


Previous Comments

Poor

This article is pointless as it doesn't accurately discuss modern IF.

Malinche cannot be ignored.

United States By Bill Holmes • On 18 January 2007 • From Somewhere

Excellent

Great article.

A few years ago, I published a bibliography of IF articles, and there was a large section of IF Nostalgia. I liked each one individually, but after a while they all start to run together. This article doesn't try to turn back the clock, but rather it offers an intelligent analysis of IF, as seen in the context of 2007.

I teach the programming language Inform 7 to my students -- mostly English majors who have had little programming experience. About a third of the students hate it, a third love it, and a third don't mind it in small doses but happily move in.

What I emphasize with I ask my students to write IF is that I can write the line "A flying pig swoops down from the sky, circles your head three times, and disappears into the clouds," and I'm done.

I don't have to make a 3D model, locate a good texture for pig flesh, animate the flapping wings, etc.

Of course, since I mentioned the word "clouds" in that line, I'd better have "clouds" implemented as an object, so that the player who types "examine clouds" doesn't get "I don't see any clouds here."

A few years ago, I wrote a handout called "Exposition in Interactive Fiction," which begins to address how the interactive fiction author can offer bits of the backstory or character development to reward the player who is casting around looking for what to do next. And in my own game, at least in the first few steps, I usually had a timer running, so that if a player hadn't solved a particular puzzle in a given number of turns, an NPC would start making comments that were increasingly specific (not unlike the Sierra Invisiclues hint books).

If you're interested in reading about that, the handout is here: jerz.setonhill.edu/if/gallery/exposition.html


And Jim, I just saw this article mentioned on rec.games.int-fiction and came right over.

United States By Dennis G. Jerz • On 09 January 2007 • From Greensburg, PA, USA

Thanks for the comments. Nice to see it stirred people up.

Jim, I was just thinking about that now. I wrote this article several months ago. It'll be interesting to see how (and if) the Wii interface changes gaming, brings in new genres.

input.expert - I'd be interested in seeing your device. Do you have a website? But I still think the very idea of a keyboard itself is a hinderance. We're having to format ourselves into ways a computer can understand, rather than the other way around. It's a problem the 'computer era' is still very hard at work on and I don't see being solved in a while. Humans are a total mystery to computers.

drozda - I dream of that day too!

Felix - Thanks. I wasn't so much trying to convince anyone to change their minds, but rather pondering the possibilities and reasons behind the way things turned out.

Thanks for all the comments! Makes the writing time worth it! ;)

Canada By Leopold • On 09 January 2007 • From Canada

Very Good

Nice article -- but I'm surprised you haven't gotten more feedback from the Interactive Fiction community. The text interface is alive and well. There's no money in text games, of course, but plenty of dedicated hobbyists are still writing them. And the new generation of development systems not only allows but encourages a higher level of realism and immersion than anything that was possible in the heyday of Zork.

United States By Jim Aikin • On 08 January 2007 • From Somewhere

Very Good

”it’s a wonder that the worst glitches of the keyboard era couldn’t be resolved now. If we can make game characters look real and make objects act real on the fly, why can’t we make a smart keyboard?”

KEYBOARD GLITCHES HAVE BEEN SOLVED.

A SMART KEYBOARD DOES EXIST.

My patent pending smart keyboard gives you total control of the computer screen. Alpha-numeric characters can be typed without the fingers moving from the home row as well as simultaneously scrolling and pointing.

Multiple axis input can also be done, if multiple pointers can be handled by the software and hardware.

United States By input.expert • On 08 January 2007 • From kagoshima, japan

Very Good

Very interesting article. I never fought about keyboard in that way. I think You're right when You saying that we're limited by modern games and their control system.

However I still hope that someday when games will be much more realistic than today, idea of being completely free will come back (and will be much better realized)...

Keep writing!

Poland By drozda • On 08 January 2007 • From Bydgoszcz, Poland

Very Good

Nice article. I mean it. There's only one problem with it: you're not going to convince anyone who isn't already familiar with text adventures and/or command lines in general. Perhaps your best point is that we've learned to adapt to the computer instead of the other way around, as it should have been. But that's not going to convince anyone either, for reasons too complex to explain here.

Keep trying, though. I do.

Romania By Felix PleÅŸoianu • On 08 January 2007 • From Bucharest, Romania