Re: [Inform] Sound


7 Dec 1995 14:07:34 GMT

"Andrew C. Plotkin" <erkyrath+@CMU.EDU> writes:

>I have updated MaxZip to deal with PICKLE files. I will shortly be
>adding the capacity to handle sound, using the Infocom .DAT format.

>The idea (review time here) is to have a way to put all the resources
>needed for a game into a single file. This has two advantages:
>* A player only needs to download one file in order to play a game;
>and
>* An interpreter can get a hold of all of its resources using a single
>API, which I've already written the code for. (That is, instead of the
>current mess of saying "Uh, look in the SOUND directory for a file
>named...", the interpreter would call GetChunk(SOUND, 5) or something
>similar.)

I never understood why Mac users love to put everything into
a single file. I'm also not sure what exactly a PICKLE file
is and how it can be accessed on my trusty old PC. But I am
afraid that using PICKLE files would make my interpreter
larger and more complicated. So far, loading the sound files
is a trivial matter for me which only takes few lines of code.
I am not willing to add PICKLE file support to my MS-DOS
interpreter ("Frotz", can do everything but V6, release date
soon).

I see the following disadvantages (correct me if I'm mistaken):

- PICKLE files mean more trouble for most interpreters (maybe except
for Mac interpreters).
- Interpreters without sound support would need PICKLE file
support just to be able to play your new game.
- Users who don't want sound still would have to download 500KB or
so of sound data, since everything is packed into a single file.
- Users who want to play "Lurking Horror" or "Sherlock" with sound
would have to create their own PICKLE file.
- Programmers would have to create a new PICKLE file everytime
their story file has changed -- or they would have to run the
game without sound.

-- Stefan