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[The following file contains the edited transcript of Part 1 of the GameSIG online conference on July 18, 1984 with Michael Berlyn, author of "Cyborg," "Oo-Topos," "Suspended," and "Infidel."] (1,Scorpia) The CO is about to start, so everyone settle in. Now, this is how we will work it. The first part, Mike will do the talking while we make a list of people who would like to ask questions. Once we have the list, we'll go down it one person at a time until everyone's had a chance to speak. When it's your turn. use the "" at the end of your lines indicating there's more to come. When you're finished, use GA for go ahead and no talking out of turn, please!. Now that's taken care of. Our special guest, Michael Berlyn! Go ahead, Mike! (1,Michael Berlyn) I was born of humble beginnings in a log cabin and if I win this election, I promise to withhold the truth, justice, and the American Wave! But serially, I haven't the slightest idea where to start. I suppose the best thing to do would be to give you an idea as to how we write our games at Infroboz. <oops>. First, we start with an idea. Lacking that, we go to Zayres, K-MART or Macy's to shop for one. Once we have an idea, we work on developing some kind of structure, like a plot or a scenario in which to fit the idea. Not an easy thing to do, as you'll <hopefully> soon see why. What we have to do, essentially, is make sure that enough of the background and the environment has been planned out and written before we can actually start to write our adventures, or interactive fiction. We try to make the world work in a consistent manner. Anyway, if any of you are still out there, I want you to know that this is not only a lonely job, typing a monologue, but it's damned hard, too! <sympathy?> (1,FLASH) <Ahhh!> (1,OHMS) We're with you! (1,John Switzer) We're with you! (1,Ms. Wiz) <handing kleenex to MB> (1,Serena) <sniffle> (1,PETER V.) <APPLAUSE> (1,Rolexian) <awww> (1,Michael Berlyn) In any case, once we have a small structure built like a series we write our games in a high-level, interpreted language. For those of you who know less about programming than I do, for which there shold be a few of you, this language allows us, like BASIC, to interrupt what's going on while it's running and check out the state of the world. Tough to do when writing and running something like assembly or compiled Pascal!. So, once we have a background, we start to people it, fill in some of the details in small areas. We could start with something like Infidel, which I could use as an example, which is Scorp's fave rave. When I started to write Infidel, there was no tent. As a matter of fact, I started writing the thing at the ending. Yes, I started writing at the last set of rooms. So, if you look at something like ZORK, which I didn't write, <applause> you can see the same kind of thing happening. The whole thing started with the white house. There was no kitchen table, no bag smelling of hot peppers, and DEFINITELY no garlic! Those things were added after the environment. Once the environment was written, and some objects were added, the game was well on its way. Unfortunately, objects and environments tend to "interact" with each other. Give something the wrong characteristics, like Dave Lebling did in STARCROSS, and you get a situation like this: Next time you play, go into the lab and type BEAM, OUT. Well, because Dave had given the beam the quality of being a person, it could be talked to and directed!. So, when someone said they shut off the beam in the projector by typing BEAM, OUT, we knew what had happened. Dave had accidentally given the beam "human" qualities. This is the kind of insanity~r that shows up after the }ifact. Since the programs we write are usually 1 megabyte of code, give or take a couple thousand K, mistakes like that tend to get made. We all have made similar and worse mistakes when writing these games. But we're lucky in that the system we use to write them is fairly intelligent aboxDut ~rthe "background" universe. For example, when I wrote Infidel I didn't have to "program" what it meant to look around a room. The game system automatically knew what look meant, and how to do it. It also knew that if there was no light there, that you couldn't see. The amount of background knowledge this game-writing system has is pretty huge. And it really impressed me when I first started working with it. Remember this -- when I started with Infocom, I had written 2 text adventures, OO-TOPOS and CYBORG, and had to write them from scratch. And that was a painful, time-killing experience. <and worse for those who played them, too!>. Had enuf yet? (1,Capt.<From CB>Video) More, More! (1,E.J. Evans) <clap, clap> (1,Rolexian) Encore, s'il vous plait! (1,Michael Berlyn) Asleep yet? (1,Serena) Go on! (1,FLASH) Especially secret stuff!!! (1,Mike M.) <applause> (1,Michael Berlyn) Okey dokey. (1,Capt.<From CB>Video) Give us "THE ANSWERS!" (1,Michael Berlyn) As far as answers are concerned, there's always the GameSIG and the ARCHIVES! (1,Nightie) <hey, hey!> (1,Henry Cohen--EG MAG) Keep it coming Mike, you're a lot more interesting than Gary Hart. (1,Michael Berlyn) I'll rant for a few more minutes and then turn it over for a break (my fingers!). Okey. So here are the secret tips to program an Infocom game. We sit in this little room, huddled around a TRS-80 Mod 1 and use a time-sharing system. <hehehehehehe>. We all try to make our games as complete as possible, but of course we run out of: 1) Room, 2) Patience, and 3) Sanity long beofre any game is truly finished. We sort of have to abandon them like an artist does a painting.. I'm sure you've all heard about the way an artist finishes a painting. He just puts his brush down one day and says "done" whether it's done or not. Once the games are written in this high-level language, we run them through a compiler. The compiler produces an assembly-language program that looks like no other assembly language in the world. Part of that is due to our having written the assembler. Another part is due to the fact that everything gets compressed at that level. Once that happens, there's no way of stopping the game to debug it. We have to go back to the high-level sources <if any of you have used Pascal, you know what I mean>, and debug there. Once we have a "debugged" version of the game, it is then shipped to all the micros. Until this point, we haven't touched a micro. <Much to my chagrin. I love the little beasties>. The game is then played on the micros for specific machine bugs and then shipped out if all is okay. But "ALL IS OKAY" is a relative state. Since the games are so complex, and almost "self-modifying," there's no way of truly testing EVERYthing. We do our best, and have a bunch of "in-house" game testers constantly beating their fingers against the keyboards, and then we send the game out for 2 rounds of outside testing. Once this is done, for us to make a revision in any part of the game requires our going through the entire testing procedure again. Not a lot of fun. Who said playing games all the time was fun? Just ask our testers!!!!!!!! The high-level language lets you write games more easily than most other languages since the language was written for exactly that purpose. We call it ZIL, for Zork Implementation Language. Cute? Anyway, the language doesn't make you do tiring programming tasks like declare variables. It takes care of that for you. Like when I was writing SUSPENDED, I said to Marc Blank, "Wait a minute! This line exceeds 40 characters! What's going to happen when I see this thing printed out on a 64 character line and on a 40 character line and an 80?" And he said, "Don't worry about it. That's the language's problem." That's the kind of power you need to write truly complex games. Break. (1,Scorpia) While Mike soaks his fingers We will take a list of questioners. ONE question per person!. Now, all those who want to be on the list just type a couple of ???. [The long list of questioners was made at this point.] (1,Scorpia) You're on Flash. (1,FLASH) Thank you Scorpia, and thank YOU Mike for being here. Like everybody else, I have a million questions, but I'll sneak in two. 1. What are you working on now? 2. Will Infocom be writing any games that occupy several disk sides? Something really **LENGTHY**! GA (1,Michael Berlyn) Well, thanks for having me! This is a real treat for me. And now, on to the answers. I am working on the answer to your second question. What I mean by that is I have just finished designing a new "Tale of Adventure" called CUTTHROAT <cutethroat, I call it>. I didn't have to do the programming on that one, since I'm working very hard on 2 research projects. One of them is the answer to your second question. I can't tell you a lot about it, but it WILL be about 20 times the size of anything you've ever played, will be 100 times smarter than anything you've ever played, and will drive me crazy! Okay? (1,FLASH) Thank you. I'm looking forward to it. GA (1,Scorpia) Ok, Rolexian is next. (1,Rolexian) Two quickies (if I can sneak in as well). 1. How do you gather the vocab for the games? (600+???) GA (1,Michael Berlyn) I don't know what you mean by "gather." (1,Rolexian) Well, you aren't just typing in Websters, certainly. All right, it's a shaky question, just how do you decide which nouns/verbs to use? (1,Michael Berlyn) Okay. I know what you mean. Anything you run across in one of our games has got to have a name, or you couldn't type in "PICK UP THE FOO!". For every foo, there's a vocabulary word. Sometimes there can be synonyms for FOO, and sometimes the FOO will have adjectives. All these count. In addition, the verbs and their synonyms count, too. GA for #2. (1,Rolexian) 2. I don't suppose you guys would be able to create a HOME version of your ZIL language? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) Not a chance. We run it on a DEC 20/60. And for those of you who haven't seen one, I recommend taking a few steps back. Two of them fill a large room! (1,Rolexian) <Not even a scaled-down version?> Awww, oh well. (1,Scorpia) GA, OR WIZ. (1,OR WIZ) This is a sticky question. I am tired of swapping disks on my IBM XT. How do I load my game disks to the hard disk? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) I don't think it can be done, OR WIZ. Sorry. (1,Scorpia) GA Joe. (1,Joe) Mike, you said the system takes a lot of the tedium out of programming. Do you see yourself as more of a writer than a programmer? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) Well, the system does take a lot of the tedium out but! It's still primarily a programming task. I'd say about 70% of a 10 month period is spent doing nothing more than programming and debugging. WITHOUT the system, we'd be talking about 5 years of work for 1 game! GA (1,Joe) You seem to have done a lot of backround creative work on Infidel, though. Did you ever get the urge to put the story down as a book rather than a game? (1,Michael Berlyn) No. Not a chance. I have 3 books published, 2 by Bantam and 1 by ACE books, and a fourth one on the way soon. I started out as a novelist, and I hope to some day write my fifth book! GA (1,Scorpia) GA Dennis. (1,D.Brothers) (Thanks for the disk -- blew away any chance of getting a MacTEP update out this week!). Seriously, any resolution on the Great Mac Disk Shortage? Don't see any of your Mac stuff in stores around here yet. GA (1,Michael Berlyn) The disk shortage is that only when you perceive it that way. We are having little problem getting disks, but we're ordering a tremendous quantity of them. I hesitate to say how many, but it's in the tens of thousands. <that's Mac Disks for those of you who don't know>. And it was a real pleasure meeting you. Please give me a call tomorrow, okey? GA (1,D.Brothers) Will do -- caught your msg on MAUG. ga (1,Michael Berlyn) Thnx. Speak to you soon, then. GA (1,Scorpia) Kip Degraaf is next. (1,Kip DeGraaf) Being a new person to Infocom software, could you tell me two things? 1. Could you give some basic starting tips to Suspended (1,Michael Berlyn) Boot the disk. GA (1,Nightie) Kip, check the first part of the SUSPENDED walkthru in the GameSIG Archives. (1,Kip DeGraaf) OK then, 2. What makes the Impossible setting Impossible? (1,Michael Berlyn) The impossible setting can NEVER be won. (1,Kip DeGraaf) Whoa, Mike. Why can't it be won? I ask for just a little clarifaction (1,Michael Berlyn) It can't be won because it's *IMPOSSIBLE!!!* (1,Kip DeGraaf) OK, I give. Thanks for being here Mike. GA (1,Michael Berlyn) You're welcome. Face it. (1,Scorpia) Go ahead, Patricia (1,PATRICIA) 1. HOW ARE YOUR GAME TESTERS CHOSEN? 2. HOW IMPORTANT TO THE ACTUAL GAME PLAYING IS THE BACKGROUND STORY SUPPLIED WITH THE PACKAGE? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) 1. Game testers are chosen for their insanity. and the package elements on some games are as important as the game itself. GA (1,Scorpia) Mike M. is next. (1,Mike M.) Mike, how many people are working on games at any given time? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) There's quite a few people working at Infocom right now. About 67, give or take a few. We have 5 testers, 6 game writers, a bunch of people developing business products, and 2 research groups, one of which I head. GA (1,Mike M.) Thank you Mike. Good nite all. GA (1,Scorpia) GA Gail. (1,GAIL COMER) What does Infocom have in store for us in the near future? Zork IV? ga (1,Michael Berlyn) If you've seen Enchanter, you've seen Zork 4. If you've seen Sorceror, you've seen Zork 5. (1,GAIL COMER) What about the sequel to Sorcerer? ga (1,Michael Berlyn) There will be a Zork 6, whose name is currently unknown. GA (1,Scorpia) GA Peter. (1,GAIL COMER) Anything else coming out soon? (1,PETER V.) WHY DOES IT SEEM THAT THE ANSWERS TO SOME QUESTIONS ARE SO ROUND-ABOUT? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) Well, to start with, we're coming out <for GAIL> with Cutthroats, a new murder mystery. and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy this fall. Now, as far as why some answers to questions are round-about, which questions do you mean? (1,PETER V.) LOOKING. I CAN'T FIND IT AT THE MOMENT! BUT I MEAN THAT INSTEAD OF SAYING DO THIS YOU MUST GO THROUGH A WHOLE SERIES OF STEPS TO DO IT. LIKE LIGHTING THE CANDLE TO ENTER HADES. GA (1,Michael Berlyn) Peter, that is the way of living. It is what we call "granularity" and it measures the tiny steps you must go through to accomplish anything in life or in a game. In our current games, since they were all based on Spelunking <exploring caves> they are naturally very grainy. They may not be like that in the future, though. I hope that answers your question. We do it by choice, habit, and tradition only. GA (1,Scorpia) GA Connie. (1,Connie) Mike, my ears perked up when you spoke of unexpected interaction within the game. Could you give us some examples of this to check out that are humorous? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) Well, the best thing I can do is tell you about the aquarium that exists in one of the Zorks. You used to be able to say AQUARIUM, FOLLOW ME and it would! There are a lot of other things like that, but some of the fun is in finding them yourself, no? Just try anything that comes into your head -- treat tables like people, treat people like containers, treat containers like doors, try going through containers, and anything else that sounds ridiculous. IT MAY WORK! GA (1,Scorpia) GA Bruce. (1,b.c.) Any neat bugs in Sorcerer? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) I'm sure there are, but why should I spoil your fun by telling you what they are? GA (1,b.c.) Graphics in the future? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) Maybe. All I can say is that there will never be graphics in an Infocom interactive fiction text adventure style game. If we do graphics, it won't be in a graphics adventure. I guarantee it. GA (1,Scorpia) GA Tom. (1,Tom Carbone) Mike, could you break down the amount of time you spend designing vs. coding vs. playtesting your programs? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) Sure, that's easy. We spend the first month designing the basic ideas. Next 2 months are coding and designing. Last <4th> month is pure coding. 2 months for debugging. Playtesters get it then, and IN COME THE BUG REPORTS!!! The rest of our waking hours are spent going over the code exterminating 6-legged creatures. GA (1,Tom Carbone) Thanks. GA (1,Scorpia) The Adventurer is next. (1,'THE' ADVENTURER) WHAT DOES "**766 GUE**" MEAN ON THE VAULT!!?? (1,Michael Berlyn) GUE stands for Great Underground Empire. GA (1,'THE' ADVENTURER) WHERE DID INFOCOM COME UP WITH THE NAMES: ZORK & FROBOZZ? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) There were a lot of nonsense words floating around the MIT lab for Computer Science when ZORK was written, and that was one of them. It was Marc's word, so they used it. Frobozz is a variation of FOOBAR, which is the old army term F>U>B>A>R. GA (1,Scorpia) Sandi is next. (1,sandi jones) Thank you so much for the hours of enjoyment you have given all of us. One request. Please include more deciphering. Loved it. ga (1,Michael Berlyn) It was truly my pleasure. Deciphering? Of what, pray tell? (1,Oct) Deciphering, e.g., hieroglyphs. (1,sandi jones) Right. Also do you ever answer your fan mail? ga (1,Michael Berlyn) Oh, like =@ being a tennis racquet. Every piece of mail I get that's not "I have this program to sell to you," I answer. I like getting mail! GA (1,sandi jones) I wrote but got no reply yet. Will watch my mail box. ga (1,Michael Berlyn) To me? GA (1,sandi jones) Yes. (1,Michael Berlyn) If it was addressed to me, I never saw it! Sometimes, when the marketeers are quick, they gobble up the mail and I never see it! Send all letters to ME! THNX! GA (1,sandi jones) I will try again. ga (1,Scorpia) Shannon is next. (1,Shannon Donovan) Hello, Mr. Berlyn, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us. First, this may be a personal question (what are we here for!!!) but how much do you make per game? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) Well, I was waiting for this one. It is a bit personal, but I will answer it as I answer everything I can. (1,Shannon Donovan) Thanks! (1,Michael Berlyn) But first, you're welcome. It's really a pleasure to do this. I make the same amount of money on each of my games as anyone who works at Infocom. We do not get royalties, nor are we paid by the number of games sold. I am on a salary and that's all! GA (1,Shannon Donovan) Very clever answering. (I feel cheated!) Anyway one more, which computer version sells the most? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) APPLE, and right now, APPLE MAC are the hot ones but ATARI and IBM are close to APPLE. Sorry you feel cheated, but it's the truth. I am on salary, as are all the game writers. GA (1,Shannon Donovan) No I was just kidding, please don't take offense but I wanted a money figure. GA (1,Scorpia) GA OHMS. (1,OHMS) Mike, tell all the guys that this is one player who really appreciates the Python references. My question is: How extensively has an "official" GUE-Frobozz background been worked out at infocom? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) Well, Crazy Steve Meretzky worked it all out pretty neatly and you'll see it when the new repackaged games come out. ZORK will come out in a new package, and part of that will be a history of the GUE. GA (1,Scorpia) EJ, are you with us?? (1,E.J. Evans) Yes! Mike, In ZORK III, are there any clues on what to do after all 7 points are gained? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) YES. There are clues. But I'm not gonna tell you. You have the Archives here to help you on that account, E.J. GA (1,E.J. Evans) I have not heard of these "archives," could you explain, please? (1,Nightie) <GO GSA, E.J.>. (1,Nightie) Check the "Hints" section and/or the "Walkthrus" section there. (1,Michael Berlyn) There's a whole world out there waiting to be discovered, E.J. Thanks! (1,Scorpia) Daredevil is next. (1,DAREDEVIL) OKI HAVE TWO QUESTIONS. FIRST, HOW WOULD I GO ABOUT BECOMING A PLAYTESTER? (1,Michael Berlyn) DD, becoming a playtester is easy. Have you ever been institutionalized? GA (1,DAREDEVIL) I DON'T THINK SO (WHAT DO YOU MEAN?). (1,'THE' ADVENTURER) PUT IN AN INSANE ASYLUM!!! (1,DAREDEVIL) OHTHEN I HAVEN'T. NOT RECENTLY. WHY? (1,Michael Berlyn) I mean, once you've been inside a mental institution, you're halfway there. To work for Infokom and be a gametester you have to 1. Live in or near Cambridge, Mass., 2. Have a few serious mental problems <like masochism>, and 3. Be nuts!. (1,DAREDEVIL) OKI LIVE IN CONNECTICUT AND THE REST IS EASY. (1,Michael Berlyn) But if you're talking about becoming and "outside" tester send a letter to HOLLYWOOD DAVE ANDERSON, INFOCOM 55 WHEELER STREET CAMBRIDGE, MA 02148 and tell him you're nuts and want to test our games. GA (1,Nightie) <He's gonna love you for that, Mike.> (1,Michael Berlyn) <I hope so!> (1,DAREDEVIL) OKNEXTWHAT EDUCATION DID YOU HAVE TO BECOME A PROGRAMMER? (1,Michael Berlyn) I have a B.A. in humanities and took a BASIC programming class in college. The rest I taught myself. GA (1,Scorpia) GA Max. (1,max) The Wall Street Journal article had very kind words for Infocom. It mentioned some business software. Would you care to hint at what may be in store? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) Sure. Though hinting at is about all I'm allowed to do. Let's put it this way. We write games that know something about the kinds of games they are and about the kinds of things that go on in the background. They're "aware" to a minor degree, and they "know about" things. Well, our business products are going to "know about" things. Let's say we were doing a database, as an example. Our database would have to "know about" data, and what a data base really is, and be "smart". Unfortunately, you'll have to wait a few months to see what it is. GA (1,max) Thanks. That's more than showed in the WSJ. Also, who is the attorney that you sued to get the rights to Hitchhiker to the Galaxy? GA (1,Michael Berlyn) We sued no one, have never sued anyone, and don't plan on suing anyone either. (1,max) That's not "sued," that's "used!" (1,Michael Berlyn) <oops!> Lemme step back for a moment. I'm not sure what attorney we used with Douglas Adams, but almost all negotiations were done with him, in person, while he was writing the game and his agent even approved of the venture! GA (1,max) Thanks. ga (1,Scorpia) Nightie, GA. (1,Nightie) Mike, I've been fooling around with SEASTALKER and saw an interesting little message in there yesterday. After Commander Bly mentioned a "lab assistant," I asked "Tell me about the lab assistant.". The response from the program was: "Foo!! This is a bug!". (1,Michael Berlyn) <HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEhehehehehehe> (1,Nightie) Seems as if you folks like that "f" word a lot. So, is that