
                  The 2003 Interactive Fiction Competition

   Introduction
   ------------

   What began eight years ago as an effort to encourage the
   development of short works of interactive fiction has grown into a
   competition involving some thirty authors and over two hundred
   judges. Each year people from around the world write text
   adventures that can be played in two hours or less. In recent years
   the definition of what interactive fiction is has changed, as each
   year more games with graphics and sound are entered in the
   competition.

   Whether you've never played a text adventure before in your life,
   or you've judged in every competition since 1995, we're glad you're
   taking part.

   Welcome to the 2003 Interactive Fiction Competition.


   Playing The Games
   -----------------

   (Note: for the latest information and possible updates to games,
    please visit the competition web site at http://www.ifcomp.org/)

   You may play the competition games in any order you choose.
   However, if you don't think you'll have time to play all of the
   games before the end of the voting period, you are encouraged to
   use Comp03.z5. Comp03 is a front end for the competition which is
   designed to look like a text adventure. It has information about
   all of the games, and will present them to you in random
   order. That way, even if you don't play all of the games you will
   have played a random sampling of them. Comp03 can also keep track
   of the scores you give each game. You don't have to use Comp03, but
   if you decide to give it a try, load it using a Z-machine
   interpreter (more on Z-machine interpreters in a moment) and type
   ABOUT for more information.

   There are two types of competition games: interpreted games and
   platform-specific executables.


   Interpreted Games

   Interpreted games are written using a computer-independent
   language, and can thus in general be run under many different
   operating systems. To play an interpreted game, you need an
   interpreter. There are several types of interpreted games in the
   competition.

   TADS GAMES. TADS games are found in the tads2 and tads3 folders of
   the competition directory. The filenames of TADS games end in .gam
   (for TADS 2) or .t3 (for TADS 3), and they are run using a TADS
   interpreter. You can find TADS interpreters at
   http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXprogrammingXtads2Xexecutables.html
   and
   http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXprogrammingXtads3Xexecutables.html
   There are single interpreters that can run both TADS 2 and TADS 3
   games. If one exists for your operating system, use it.

   Z-CODE GAMES. The z-code games are in the zcode folder of the
   competition directory. The filenames of z-code games end in .z5 or
   .z8, and are run using a Z-machine interpreter. Z-machine
   interpreters can be found at
   http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXinfocomXinterpreters.html

   ALAN GAMES. The ALAN games are found in the alan folder of the
   competition directory. ALAN games consist of two files, one ending
   in .acd, the other in .dat, and are run using an ALAN
   interpreter. You can find one at
   http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXprogrammingXalanXexecutables.html

   ADRIFT GAMES. The ADRIFT games are found in the adrift folder of
   the competition directory. ADRIFT games run only on Windows
   systems. You can get the ADRIFT Runner at
   http://www.adrift.org.uk/

   AGT GAMES. The AGT game is in the agt folder. The filenames of AGT
   games end in .agx, and are run using a program called AGiliTy.  You
   can find a copy of AGiliTy at
   http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXprogrammingXagtXagility.html

   HTML GAMES. The HTML game is in the html folder of the competition
   directory. The filename of HTML game ends in .html. To run it, load
   it from within your favorite web browser.


   Platform-Specific Games

   There are three platform-specific games in the competition.

   WINDOWS GAMES. The Windows-specific games are in the windows folder
   of the competition directory. They are playable only under Windows
   or under an emulator.



   Rating The Games
   ----------------

   Rate each game you play by giving it a whole-number score from 1 to
   10. Larger numbers are better. Your rating must be based on no more
   than two hours of cumulative playing time. If, after playing a game
   for two hours, you want to keep playing it, you must give it a
   score *and not change that score later if you resume play*.

   Comp03 can keep track of your scores for you, which will make
   submitting them easier. You must submit them by 11:59 P.M. EST on
   November 15th, 2003.


   Submitting Your Scores
   ----------------------

   Once you have played and rated as many games as you can before the
   November 15th deadline, you need to submit your scores. You do not
   have to play all of the games to vote; however, you must play at
   least five games. There are three ways to vote. The first is to use
   the web-based interface located at http://ifcomp.org/vote/. The
   second is to use Comp03. Comp03 will create a file called
   rating.txt with all of your ratings. You can e-mail that file to
   the vote-counter, Mark Musante, at vote@ifcomp.org. The third is to
   put all of your ratings in an e-mail message and send that to
   Mark. You may submit different ratings, and only the last one you
   send in will be counted.

   If you choose to e-mail your votes to Mark and you do not use
   Comp03's rating.txt file, use the following format for your
   e-mail. In the subject line of your message, put "VOTE". In the
   body of the message, put the name of each game you are rating
   followed by its rating, with one game name and rating per
   line. Send your message as plain ASCII. Do not use HTML or send
   your votes as an attached non-ASCII file like a Microsoft Word
   document.

   Remember, you must vote before 11:59 P.M. EST on November 15th,
   2003. Votes submitted after that date will not be counted, so if
   you won't have access to the Internet around that time, be sure to
   vote early. You can always change your votes at a later date.
