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Sample of Play This is a sample transcript of play, showing how the player and the computer might interact. It's drawn from an interactive adaptation of the opening scene to Lewis Carroll's Alice Through The Looking Glass, made by Gareth Rees. The player's contribution, typed in to the computer in response to the text it prints out, are shown in CAPITAL LETTERS after the prompt (>). It's a cold winter day outside, but in the looking-glass house it's summer. All you need to do is pretend there's a way of getting through into it somehow... THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS An Interactive Tutorial by Gareth Rees Release 1 / Serial number 961110 / Inform v6.06 Library 6/3 D Standard interpreter 0.2 Drawing room The gentle sound of snow against the window pane suggests that it's cold outside, and you're glad to be here in the warmth. The drawing-room is reflected in the large looking-glass on the wall above the mantelpiece, and a very comfortable room it is too, with a warm hearth, a soft rug and an arm-chair that you can curl up and sleep in. An abandoned chess board lies on the floor. A discarded ball of worsted lies on the floor here. Two kittens, one white and one black, are playing together by the arm-chair. > EXAMINE CHESSBOARD It's left here from the game you were playing just now, but the pieces are all missing - the kittens will insist on playing with them. The black kitten sits up and washes its tail. > EXAMINE WHITE KNIGHT Alas, that chess piece seems to be missing. Those naughty kittens! The white kitten chases after the black kitten. > EXAMINE MIRROR In the looking-glass you can see the ceiling of the drawing-room of the looking-glass house. It looks much the same as the ceiling of your drawing-room. The black kitten chases its tail. > ENTER MIRROR You can't reach the looking-glass from where you're standing. > GET ON MANTELPIECE The mantelpiece is much too high to climb up onto. > MOVE CHAIR You are about to start moving the chair when you notice that the white kitten is right in the way. It's a good thing you spotted it, or you would have squashed flat the poor little thing. The white kitten scratches its head on the arm-chair. > GET BLACK KITTEN You pick up the black kitten. What a beautiful creature it is! The black kitten mews plaintively. > EXAMINE BLACK What a beautiful kitten the black kitten is. Why, it's quite definitely your favourite of the pair, and much prettier than that naughty white kitten. > LOOK Drawing room The gentle sound of snow against the window pane suggests that it's cold outside, and you're glad to be here in the warmth. The drawing-room is reflected in the large looking-glass on the wall above the mantelpiece, and a very comfortable room it is too, with a warm hearth, a soft rug and an arm-chair that you can curl up and sleep in. An abandoned chess board lies on the floor. A discarded ball of worsted lies on the floor here. A white kitten is playing by the arm-chair. > MOVE CHAIR Not with a kitten in your arms! The white kitten chases its tail. > DROP ALL (the black kitten) The black kitten squirms out of your arms and scampers away. The black kitten scampers around the arm-chair and the white kitten chases after it. > GET WOOL Taken. The white kitten washes the black kitten. > GIVE WOOL TO WHITE You toss the ball of worsted onto the floor and the white kitten scampers after it, quickly turning the neat ball into a tangle. The black kitten chases its tail. > LOOK Drawing room The gentle sound of snow against the window pane suggests that it's cold outside, and you're glad to be here in the warmth. The drawing-room is reflected in the large looking-glass on the wall above the mantelpiece, and a very comfortable room it is too, with a warm hearth, a soft rug and an arm-chair that you can curl up and sleep in. A white kitten is playing with a ball of worsted. A black kitten is playing by the arm-chair. An abandoned chess board lies on the floor. The white kitten stops playing and scratches its ears. > GET BLACK You pick up the black kitten. What a beautiful creature it is! > MOVE CHAIR Not with a kitten in your arms! > LOOK UNDER RUG You lift up a corner of the rug and, peering underneath, discover the red queen from the chess set. The black kitten purrs contentedly to itself. > EXAMINE RUG It's a beautiful rug, made in some far off country, perhaps India or Araby, wherever those might be. The white kitten jumps into the ball of worsted and gets tangled up in a mess of threads. > GIVE RED QUEEN TO BLACK You toss the red queen onto the floor and the black kitten squirms out of your grasp and scampers after it. The black kitten bites the red queen and shakes it to make sure that it's dead. > MOVE CHAIR You push the arm-chair over to the hearth. > GET ON CHAIR You jump into the warm and comfortable arm-chair. The black kitten stops to wash itself. > GET ON MANTELPIECE You scramble up onto the mantelpiece. The white kitten bats at the ball of worsted with its paw. > EXAMINE MIRROR Strangely, the glass is beginning to melt away, just like a bright silvery mist. The black kitten knocks the red queen across the floor and chases after it. > ENTER MIRROR Your hand goes right through the silvery mist, and in another moment the rest of you follows, and you are through the glass... *** You have won *** Alice: An Inform Tutorial  (1995)  Gareth Rees Link   An introduction to Inform, demonstrating the implementation of a tricky puzzle in three stages. Concentrates on common beginner's programming problems. Browse completed Alice source code    Gareth Rees, Graham Nelson Download   The Inform source code from which the above script is derived, updated to Inform 6 by Graham Nelson. Compiled Alice file  ((1 May 2003))  David Cornelson Download   The 'Z-code' file compiled by Inform 6.21 from the source, updated to Inform 6 by David Cornelson. You need a zcode interpreter to run the file.

Last updated 30 March 2002. This site is no longer supported; information may be out of date.
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This page was originally managed by Graham Nelson (graham at gnelson demon co uk) assisted by C Knight.