RGB Classic Games Forum

A version of the game at http://members.cox.net/jdean284/Mines.html that runs under DOS can be downloaded from that page. The game allows you to explore a mine and remove treasures from it. Specifying a different mine number at the beginning of the game gives you a different mine to explore. The C source code is included in the download. I am the author of the game. It can be distributed freely but derivative works must credit me.

I moved this post to Programming because this is a game that you coded and created.

I've played the game and gotten about half way through it. The concept of collecting treasures and returning them to the entrance goes all the way back to Colossal Cave. There's some interesting humor in the game. Very well done.

I'd like to make a few suggestions, though. Normally there's a limit to the number of items you can hold, typically eight (enough to get past a few barriers and bring back the treasures). It wouldn't be hard to create a variable to determine how many items you're holding and determine whether or not you can pick up anything new. This requires the player to make multiple trips to the entrance, and forces him to plan out what items will be needed for the places he's going to first. You could also add a weight value to each item and let the inventory variable calculate how much weight you're carrying, so that lots of little things can be carried.

Either change would be simple to program, but it would make it difficult to drop things in a room that already had items in it, since you can only currently pick up all of the items in a room. To make it convenient to drop something and pick up something else in the same room, you'd have to overhaul the command parsing code to allow a second argument after the "C" command to determine which item you want to pick up.

Having to make multiple trips to the entrance adds challenge and route planning, but it also adds frustration because some of the rooms are really far from the entrance. Usually this is overcome by having teleports in some of the rooms. Normally this would require a secret word to be known, but you could continue to have your input system take a one word command by adding a "T" command to teleport from certain rooms that have a teleport variable. This would allow the user to pick up the items that he needs for one portion of the mine, return to the entrance, then pick up the items that he'll need for the next section. Putting a teleport in some of the dead end rooms would make them worth visiting.

Finally, it's generally more fun when there's some possibility of dying. Rather than having an item automatically be used when you try to pass an enemy, it would be nice if there was a "U"se command that let you specify which item you were going to use to solve the problem. This, along with an inventory limit, would require the player to figure out what the items are for, and prioritize which ones they're bringing with them. Using the wrong item will generally cause nothing much to happen, but an aggressive move, like using the crossbow or the sword on the bear, should result in the enemy getting ticked off and killing you.

I downloaded and tried to play this but whines about permissions (linux)

In case anyone is interested in making their own text adventures, there are several high-quality systems available to do that, for free, and they are very easy for non-programmers to get used to. The most popular are Inform (which I use), TADS, and Hugo.

http://www.inform-fiction.org

http://www.tads.org/tads3.htm

http://www.generalcoffee.com/hugo.html

Nice game, the interface is very user-friendly and easy to use. I only got 3/15 treasures on my first try...

Well good job on making such a good interface. I'm introducing a new parser system for my new game tentatively titled, "Quest".

The parser accepts single words. For example, instead of typing, "tie rope to tree", you simply type "rope" to use the rope.
http://www.mikew.cjb.net/

If you want to post comments on it, please sign up for my forum =]

The posted link doesn't work, but archive.org still has it

http://web.archive.org/web/200803170113 ... Mines.html