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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.
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