Acorn User 1996 Interactive Fiction Competition

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Acorn User 1996 Interactive Fiction Competition
Competition
Frequency
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Part of series [[]]
Website [http:// ]
Organisers Graham Nelson, Steve Mumford
Event dates
Submissions due 1 Aug 1996
Results announced 1 Oct 1996
Results
1 BSE
2 The Wedding
3 Leopold the Minstrel (Inform port)
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This competition ran in summer 1996 and was organized by Steve Mumford and judged by Graham Nelson, in Acorn User (a UK computer magazine).

Rules

From the April 1996 issue:

The Rules of the Grand Acorn User IF Competition

  • Write a short text-only adventure game. Any style or genre is allowed. We're looking for games that show originality as well as creating a good atmosphere.
  • 'Short' might mean having 10 to 20 locations and something to do in each of them. A good player ought to be able to win through in one rainy Sunday afternoon.
  • Don't use characters or situations from books still in copyright, or from films or television. A parody is legal if you change all the proper nouns.
  • Your game must be playable on an Acorn machine under RISC OS — either send us an Inform-compiled story file or a stand-alone program which can be clicked on to run.
  • Along with the game, send a file containing a solution — that is, a list of commands which will win the game if played through.
  • You retain copyright on your work, but grant Acorn User permission to include it on a future cover disc or CD ROM. If you've used a commercial package, please check that you're allowed to distribute the run-time tools in this way.
  • Send your entries, by July 1 please, to the IF Competition, Game Show, Acorn User, IDG Media, [ancient address elided]. If you've got any questions, just drop us a line.
  • Entries may also be submitted as uuncoded [sic] archives by e-mail to [email address elided] put IF Competition in the subject line and ensure you include your full name and physical address.

(The entry deadline was later extended to 1 August 1996, to allow for an Acorn build of Inform 6 being published on a cover CD later than planned.)

Entries

This is unlikely to be a complete list (from results announcement: "There's no space here to mention every entry").

The most popular design system was Inform (helped no doubt by its availability for RISC OS and having been shipped on various Acorn User cover discs); other works used Trellis, ALPS, and homebrew BASIC and C.

Entries with known rankings

Versions of all of these were included on the cover CD of issue 188 (December 1997).

Other known entries

e.g., mentioned in the magazine.

Links

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TODO: Most of the games were never uploaded to IF Archive. What we know has been extracted from Acorn User magazine, The Z-Files Catalogue, and the help menus for The Wedding.