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+title = "Play Interactive Fiction with Malyon"
+author = ["Michał Sapka"]
+date = 2024-06-20T22:38:00+02:00
+categories = ["emacs"]
+draft = false
+weight = 3004
+image_dir = "emacs"
+image_max_width = 480
+primary_menu = "cool-emacs-ways"
+abstract = "Play classic text adventures with Emacs"
+alias = ["/cool-emacs/interactive-fiction-malyon"]
+[menu]
+  [menu.cool-emacs-ways]
+    weight = 3004
+    identifier = "play-interactive-fiction-with-malyon"
++++
+
+> The IFTF defines interactive fiction—IF, for short—as a kind of video game where the player’s interactions primarily involve text.
+> Under this broad definition, we can find decades of IF work taking many interesting and innovative forms.
+>
+> Parser-based IF, also known as the “text adventure” genre, represents one of the oldest and best-known forms of interactive fiction.
+> Some early examples are digital games from the 70s and 80s like Zork and Enchanter.
+> In a parser game, players type natural-language commands into a simulated world, and the game interprets them as actions for the story’s main character to carry out.
+> Parser games often involve puzzles that the player must solve to move forward in the story.
+>
+> -- [Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation](https://iftechfoundation.org/frequently-asked-questions/)
+
+Games?
+With text?
+And thinking?
+Sounds like a great match for Emacs!
+Text and your favorite color scheme and keybindings.
+
+
+## Z-machine {#z-machine}
+
+Interactive Fiction (aka _IF_) is overengineered since it's inception.
+_Infocom_, the company behind Zork, created a virtual machine (_Z_), just to make it easier to port their games to different architectures.
+The machine is stil alive today, with vibrant community pushing new titles all the time.
+It was also ported to Emacs, with the _malyon_ package.
+
+{{< image class="centered" alt="An Emacs screenshot showing first few moves in Zork games" file="malyon-zork.png" >}}
+Zork in Emacs
+{{< /image >}}
+
+Intallation is very straight forward, just
+
+```emacs-lisp
+(use-package malyon
+  :ensure t)
+```
+
+And we're ready to play!
+
+Call `malyon` to open a games, `malyon-restore-file` to restore a previously saved game, and `malyon-quit` if the package breaks.
+`malyon-restore` will activate buffer with game in progress.
+You can save the gamy any time issuing the `save` command to the interpreter - that is in _the game_, not in `M-x`.
+
+
+## Formats {#formats}
+
+Malon supports Z-machine based games only, and only three versions (z3, z5, z8).
+You can determine version of Z-machine of a game, as the extension will match the version.
+
+The extremey popular `gblorb`, which supports things like embedded graphics, unfortunatelly is not supported.
+
+
+## Getting games {#getting-games}
+
+You can a lot (over 8,5k) Interactive Fiction titles on [Interactive Fiction Database](https://ifdb.org/).
+Be sure to check compatibility!
+
+
+## Other resources {#other-resources}
+
+-   [Beginner Resources](http://www.brasslantern.org/beginners/index.html) on Brass Lantern. Great place to start.
+-   [Get Lamp](https://archive.org/details/getlamp-interviews) on Internet Archive. An amazing documetary on the early days of IF.