Another computer game with Dragon NaturallySpeaking

So, I said I was going to update you on the game I was trying out by voice. However, I abandoned Dog Saves Baby because the interpreter I was using to run it was a little bit buggy with Dragon, and the game itself was very frustrating because it didn’t keep any of the traditional commands.

However, I downloaded a particular Z-machine interpreter called Filfre (which will also read Glulxe files) that works flawlessly with Dragon — it’s as if I were using Word or Internet Explorer. The correction command works, the natural language menu commands work, everything. I downloaded that interpreter in order to play Lost Pig, which is more intuitive than Dog Saves Baby and very funny besides.

In it, you are a big green and slightly stupid orc, sent by a farmer to look for the pig you accidentally let out. The game is narrated in caveman dialect, and getting around is made interesting by the fact that you, being primitive, can’t even recognize what a vending machine is (sorry, small spoiler). You will eventually meet up with the pig, but you still have to catch it and find a way out of the cave. Along the way, you can talk to the pig (who is a little smarter than you are and seems to give Lassie like nonverbal hints), and another character who provides you with much of the information you will need to get around the cave — as long as you know how to ask him. Hints are gradually provided, and if you choose, the game provides you with a list of topic suggestions when you’re talking to a character. It’s a relatively short, fun game that is an excellent stress reliever, even if it occasionally gets tedious having to ask a certain character questions. It retains all of the traditional commands and abbreviations, besides. Excellent.

New computer games by voice :-)

Thanks to a comment on my previous entry, I discovered that there are tons of contemporary text adventure games at http://ifdb.tads.org that will work almost perfectly by voice. I’m currently trying out Dog Saves Baby, a comically gruesome game in which you are a dog trying to save a baby after its parents (your master and mistress) are dismembered by hillbillies after the car breaks down on a wooded road.  The only commands you can use are ones that a dog could understand, so they’re nice and short and don’t make my voice tired.  I only wish that this game retained some of the more common commands such as “look at,” which presumably a dog could still understand and do, but I guess if you’re a dog “sniff” would do just as well.  I shouldn’t be doing this now — I have homework — but I’ll report my progress later.