intfiction.org

TADS (3, at least) allows you to save data across save points; it's usually used to re-randomize data. The example in the documentation was someone trying to cheat at a random-chance game; they would always lose if they saved/restored inside the gambling hall. Implementing knowledge-across-restores would be trivial... however, implementing a cohesive story-line would definitely be difficult. The second I read about the ability to save across restores, my interest was piqued, though I didn't know how to implement it. This story does a very good job of doing just that - as well as bringing up some moral quandaries in the process. Shooting someone and likewise being shot a billion times makes you into a psycho.

In the story above, the "goal" was actually pretty easy. Get past two guards and a sniper - that's it. However, like the Bablefish puzzle in HHGttG, it was rather difficult to finally get right. What I'm picturing is something rather like this story - use technology to provide an actual "save point", and every time you die (or restore), it pushes you back there. "Restore" as a command won't load a game, per se; it'll just give you another chance to try again. If you try something multiple times in a row - in the story, shooting the sniper from a distance - you'll get better at it, and after two or three times, you'll get a narrative, telling you how you did it a thousand times (or whatever), and managed to perfect it; from that point on, you're perfect at it, and can do it every time. The hardest part would be to keep it from being redundant...

A very interesting concept, though - if a little difficult to get into a PG-rated game...

Have you tried Rematch? I got to a certain point with it but still haven't figured it out... but it has an interesting way of blurring the line between restoring and restarting.