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If you are a part of the younger generation and have never played a text game, then you need to read this article. It will give you an idea of exactly what text games are and how they are played. Reading this will help you understand our text game programming tutorials.
Introduction to Text Games
Text games were very popular during the very early days of computers when that's all a computer had the power to play. They fell out of fashion as soon as computers were powerful enough to run 2D games. In the 3D generation, they are all but forgotten.
But there's a secret about text games you may not know — they are alive and well. Text games never decreased in popularity among amateur programmers, mainly because they are an effective and fun way to learn how to program games.
This article is an introduction to text games for those who have never played one.
Why Text Games?
Because text games are easy to program — they don't require fancy graphics or 3D plotting routines. You can just open your code editor and get to work.
Text games also take less time to make than other types of games. You can make a stellar text game in an afternoon, or even in less than an hour if you're in the programming groove. An classic computer pioneer, Tim Hartnell, created several hundred during his lifetime.
Playing A Text Game
As the name implies, text games are games that use only text. Also implied is line input. Let's take a look at how a text game is played.
Zanatois Nation
Here's a fictional game to illustrate our concept — Zanatois Nation. In Zanatois Nation you play the ruler of Zanatois and it is your duty to safeguard your kingdom against intruders and make sure that domestic matters go smoothly. In short, it's a kingdom management game.