I recommend the sub-Q newsletter RSS feed: us9.campaign-archive.com/feed?u= … 115b4e8341
I’ve been trying to get all the sub-Q games listed on IFDB. I just noticed Sleepless was missing and added that. Any more that I’ve missed so far? ifdb.tads.org/search?searchfor=t … 20magazine
Wow! Thanks for that, Emily! That’s valuable work. I think the only live one not in this list is “A Man in His Life,” but I couldn’t say for sure whether that belongs on IFDb at all.
It’s a pretty solid list. Thanks again.
A new game is up on Sub-Q. It is Inform 7, yet it doesn’t have a downloadable link.
I would just like to remind Sub-Q that the web-based format is really not the best one for Inform 7 games. Specific interpreters are far better equipped to handle the raw files in different situations than the web interpreters. A web-based alternative is always a good idea; a web-based main release with an offline alternative just as good (arguably even better); but the lack of an easily downloadable file is a downside.
If Sub-Q ever tried to play IF on an iOS device without the aid of iFrotz, and then tried it again WITH iFrotz, I’m sure my point would come across much clearer.
I was personally able to download the game, and shall enjoy it in my interpreter of choice one of these days, on the tube, or while I’m waiting for something else, or who knows when. This is when I enjoy my IF the most; at relaxing times, when I’m not anchored to a desktop machine. I would encourage Sub-Q to seriously consider offering downloadable links for this reason, so that others could easily do this (and so that I wouldn’t have to resort to decoding a base64 string just to play a game with the program best suited to play it - seems only logical, no?)
Especially if some Sub-Q titles are exclusive. That means that some games cannot be played in an interpreter unless extracted because they haven’t been released elsewhere.
Ryan Veeder just did something similar a day or two ago, and I personally find this trend VERY worrying…
Peter, does it occur to you that we all know exactly what you think and you don’t have to repost your opinion every time it occurs to you again? Frankly, I find the constant restatement overbearing, if not outright rude.
I second Peter’s call for a downloadable game file. Many mobile devices (and players in general) are NOT online all the time so this is absolutely an accessibility issue. I’m sure that commenters really want everyone to have access (and easy access) to all the interactive fiction on sub-Q.
Sequitur, as long as it’s an issue, and as long as it’s gone unaddressed, I will keep repeating it. You will notice AteYourLembas said they would not be changing the 9:05 blurb, and since I’d made all the arguments I had to make at that stage, I stopped pushing, thinking that if it’s really an issue other people will chime in, and if it’s not an issue it’ll be forgotten.
AteYourLembas has not addressed this point yet, and since it became very relevant with a new release, I prodded again. It’s not every time that it occurs to me; it’s every time it’s relevant, and every time it’s clear that it hasn’t been addressed. It becomes clear every time that a new Inform 7 game is released.
I was having a hard time believing I was the only one to whom this mattered, BTW. Thanks for the post there, heartless zombie.
EDIT - Something else I think I should say, Sequitur: this does not only apply to web-based VS parser-based, nor does it only apply to Sub-Q.
I played your game Cape over the course of four or five enjoyable sessions in my iPod, using the Mercury web browser. It’s great to see that such engines as Raconteur work so well in the smaller handheld device.
If you hadn’t provided a downloadable version I wouldn’t have played your game. I don’t want to be chained to my desktop, nor do I want to be dependant on having a WiFi connection (it drains the battery and, anyway, I’ve no service where I get internet everywhere). I want something I can whip up WHEN I want to, WHERE I want to, and that’s part of the huge appeal of IF for me. It also puts me in a frame of mind where I’m much more likely to actually enjoy the game.
So if you think this doesn’t apply to you because you don’t do much parser IF (though I know you do some)…
…and if you think that I’m moaning and bitching for any reason other than WANTING to play your games (your = all of yous authors) in my best frame of mind to enjoy them…
…would you kindly think again.
I’m not arguing your opinions, Peter, I’m pointing out that hijacking a thread to make it all about you and your problems is phenomenally rude. Make another thread, post on your blog, whatever, but this thread has been nothing but you and your single-minded complaining practically from day one and it’s exhausting, nevermind how it drowns any other discussion that might happen in noise.
Worse, you do this on every thread you possibly can. I get that you care about this but at some point it stops being a point you’re making or a discussion you’re having and starts being a one-man picket line.
Thank you, everyone, for your continued interest in sub-Q. Your concerns are heard and understood.
If it is a question of reading content offline, there are many options for saving web pages for offline reading.
To be clear, sub-Q does not at this time have an interest in supplying content as explicit downloads. Please consider this issue addressed.
If there are other customer service concerns, please use sub-Q’s online contact form, as this thread is not always checked. We may not always grant your wishes, but we will do our best to hear your concerns and explain our process.
I hope this helps.
It does, both on how you prefer to be contacted about these issues and about the specific issue I brought up. Many thanks.
But, I would like to point out something:
If you’re basing your decision about not supplying content downloads partly on these other options, I should point out that Inform-authored web games are not quite the same as Twine games, or usual web-based games. Inform-authored games have at their core a raw data file, which in order to be played on your website has to be interpreted either by Parchment or Quixe, generating some noise that makes downloads a bit more cumbersome but, worse still, does not give you that raw data file (unless one knows how to extract it, which always feel under-handed).
That raw data file can be played on any number of interpreters, and almost all of them will be better suited than Quixe of Parchment, as they’ll allow font/size customisation and, in the case of iOS devices, they have iFrotz which allows such niceties as autocomplete and double-tapping words to add them to the command line (necessary on a smartphone-style device!).
You comment leads me to believe that a web-based Inform game should be treated the same way as any other web-based…
…which is a useful point that only comes about in a discussion such as the one we have here, in a forum for discussions, in a thread about the magazine, so I daresay that all of this was actively useful…
…and I’d just like to point out - though I won’t press it any further and consider it addressed - that it’s not, not really. Inform games in your website are pre-packaged with an interpreter - and it loses a lot of the portability that characterises the ZMachine. And, in this day, Glulx. The raw data file I’ve mentioned is not extractable by using those options you’ve referred to.
Sequitur: a thread is for discussing. I am using this Sub-Q thread to discuss Sub-Q. I got a useful reply from someone who wasn’t you, and since this wasn’t directed at you, that’s fine. I really don’t see what you’re getting so worked up about.
By the way, this thread started on september the 11th. I started posting on November the 4th. Your “from day one” comment is an exaggeration. Plus, that post happened to be about this very same issue. I was told the issue would be considered. Two months have gone past, nothing had changed - I am perfectly entitled to bring it up again, asking about a follow-up.
EDIT - It just struck me that I should probably use the contact form AteYourLembas has just linked to for the majority of this post. D’oh.
EDIT 2 - This edit comes some days after, so probably no one will notice it until it’s irrelevant, but something’s been bugging me and I’ve finally found a way to put it into words.
If you don’t ask, you don’t get. If you’re not asked, you don’t give - you didn’t even know someone wanted it in the first place. I speak up because I’ve found that too many people have too many good reasons not to. And I speak often because people tend to forget the smaller stuff while they’re developing the big stuff. Perfectly normal.