I don't seriously expect anybody to be greatly interested in using A-code to develop adventures. Still, you never know. The built-in Glk support and the adventure writing template might attract a brave soul or two. Hence this page.

Not included are a few things, which as a putative user you are expected to provide on your own:

• A text editor of your choice
• An ANSI C compiler
• Most important of all: a dash of creative imagination.

(NB: Depending on your browser's setup, you may need to hold down the shift key when clicking on any item you wish to pick up.)

• Converting A-code source into ANSI C source
  The main job is done by the acdc utility, which translates A-code source into ANSI C. But you also need to combine the derived C source files with the A-code kernel ones. This document tells all, as well as providing links for acdc and the kernel source files.
• Building an executable from derived ANSI C source
  Having converted the A-code source to ANSI C, you'll now want to build an executable. This document explains how.
• Command line options for A-code game executives
  The A-code kernel understands a number of command line options, though some of these need active support from the A-code source. E.g. adv550 won't understand the name of a save file to restore being supplied on the command line, and will land the player in limbo, with no source of light.
• The A-code guide
  Explains the concepts of the language and provides a reference guide to its commands. The best way to learn A-code beyond that is to look at the provided A-code sources. This document is really describing version 10 of A-code, though mixing in some of the version 11 enhancements. It needs to be brought up-to-date with the current A-code version (11.90 at the time of writing).
• acode.tgz: ANSI C sources of the A-code engine ( 93K)
  This tarball contains sources of the A-code to C translator acdc version 11.67 (15 Oct 2006), A-code kernel version 11.90 (08 Apr 2007), and a some handy but not essential scripts: advbuild.sh (Bourne shell script, only useful on Unix/Linux) and sortref.pl (Perl script for sorting A-code cross-reference files).
• skeleton.tgz: an A-code adventure skeleton template ( 35K)
  This template already codes for adventure basics. New adventure can be built from it by adding your own code and customizing the template one. NB: This is just an A-code version 10 toolkit. It'll work with version 11 acdc and kernel, but I really must re-write it, so that it takes advantage of the A-code features new in version 11.
• scloak.tgz: a demo adventure inplemented using the template ( 20K)
  This is a different A-code implementation of the "Cloak of Darkness" demo adventure, from the one to be found on the sources downloads page. This one uses the skeleton template, thereby immediately providing a much richer functionality than the ab initio implementation, while also reducing to the minimum the amount of additional code.