Quest FAQ
- What is a text adventure?
- Text adventures are the oldest type of computer game, dating from a time before computers were powerful
enough to handle graphical games. The whole atmosphere of a game is conjured up from words alone,
and so playing a game is much like being part of a book in which you affect the story. For this reason,
text adventure games are often referred to as interactive fiction (abbreviated as "IF"). This is perhaps a more accurate term than "text adventure",
because of course these types of games don't have to be adventures - they could equally well
be romances, or comedies, or anything you want them to be. It doesn't even have to be fiction - you could
use a text adventure game to simulate anything in real life!
Of course, the days of computers which aren't powerful enough to handle graphical games are long gone, but, just as a good book
can affect the reader in a much more powerful way than a film or TV programme, so a good text adventure game
can create a vivid universe that can be seen only in the imagination of the player.
And, because the games are text-based, anybody can make a game without needing to hire a team of animators and graphic designers.
Quest gives you all the tools you need - click here to download it now.
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- How do I play a text adventure?
- You play a text adventure game by typing in commands.
There are several fairly standard commands which you can use in most text adventures.
For example, if the game
tells you that you are in a room with a book in it, you should normally be able to type something such as
LOOK AT BOOK to take a look at it. Type in something like TAKE BOOK if you want to try
to pick it up.
The game will also normally tell you how and where you can move
about - it may describe a doorway lying to the north, in which case you can type NORTH to go through
that doorway. You may find there are other characters present in the game - if you want to speak to
Fred, type SPEAK TO FRED.
Of course, these aren't hard and fast rules - just as the author of a novel
can create a world of his or her own devising, so the creator of a text adventure game can create an interactive
world that behaves in whatever way he or she pleases.
Quest includes a built-in "Quick Help" guide which you can view by typing "HELP". This
means anybody who plays your game can easily find out what sort of things they can type in. You can completely
replace the default help text with your own if you need to. So, not only are games simple to make, they're simple
to play.
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- Are Quest and QDK accessible to sight-impaired and blind users?
- Both Quest and QDK have been tested with JAWS.
When JAWS is detected, the screen layout is changed slightly to offer the best experience. The following limitations exist:
- In Quest, you need to use the JAWS Cursor to read text printed on the screen. You can type "CLEAR" to clear the screen, and
this will make it easier to view the output. Alternatively, you can turn on the "speak all text" option to use Windows's built-in
text-to-speech facility. To activate this option, click Tools, Options, then select the Other tab. Make sure the "Enable speech" option
is enabled, and then select the "Speak everything which is printed on the screen" option.
- In QDK, some of the information labels are not read out. These can be read using the JAWS Cursor.
If you are using the "speak all text" option, you can change the voice used:
- Click Start, then Control Panel
- Click Speech, then select the "Text To Speech" tab
- Choose a voice from the "Voice selection" drop-down. The available options may vary, but we recommend "Microsoft Mary" if
it is available.
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