Text Fiction - Playable Novels
- An interpreter for interactive fiction stories (aka: terp, z-machine, text adventure engine, interactive book reader)
DESCRIPTION:
West of HouseThis is an open field west of a white house, with a boardedfront door. There is a small mailbox here. A rubber mat saying 'Welcome toZork!' lies by the door.
What next? >_
With interactive fiction novels you're more than just a passive book reader, following the adventures of the hero. Instead, you become the hero! Explore the world, make decissions and ultimately decide on the outcome. IF stories are fun for hours, immersive as hell and play at your own pace, making them the ideal pass time for a long road trip and short work breaks alike.
TextFiction is definitely the best adaptation of the genre available for Android. You control the protagonist through a novel SMS like interface which replaces the need for typing commands with intuitive touch controls. Users of chat apps will instantly feel at home! The barrier-free design also makes this app the perfect choice for users with disabilities.
Hundreds of free RPG stories from dozens of literature genres (sci-fi, fantasy, mystery,... ) are available for download, ensuring entertainment for months to come. You can't get more offline games for free in one single app!
FEATURES:
* Supports z3, z5 and z8 z-machine games (may be wrapped in zblorb), no glulx
* Unique, instant messanger like user interface
* Configurable action keys to cut down on typing (long press to modify).
* Tap words in the story to copy them into the commandline. Double tap to clear.
* Nightmode and classic Terp mode ("Lucy", "Mina" and "Jason" colorscheme)
* Optionally uses the Text To Spech engine to read stories out loud (long touch a bubble to start/stop narration).
* Touch sensitive borders/corners for moving in the designated cardinal direction (may be fiddly on small screens).
* Saving/restoring progress (including autosave when navigating away from the app)
* A real battery saver due to low power consumption and no ads (TextFiction is one of the few games that don't need wifi).
FAQ (please don't abuse the reviews as a support forum!):Q: I'm new. What's an interactive story?A: Have you ever read a novel and longed for taking part in the plot yourself? Interactive stories allow you to do exactly that. Textfiction is like a fanfiction reader (a library app for free books) that only describes to you the setting, but allows you to choose your own actions, often resolving in alternative endings.
Q: Are the games free?A: Textfiction itself free to play. Most of the interactive novels are in the public domain and may be downloaded free of charge to your library.
Q: How do I save/restore a game?A: Press the "Plus" button to bring up the menu. Save/restore commands won't work.
Q: Do I loose my progress when going back to the libary app?A: No! Whenever you leave the story screen, the game performs an auto save. It does not, however, perform an autorestore when you return (leaving the game is suppose to be a reset).
Q: Why is the story output erased when I restore a game?A: When you restore a game, you move to another part of the story. The current chat history no longer applies and gets discarded to avoid confusion.
Q: Can I change the action buttons?A: Yes! just write something in the commandline, then long press a button to modify it.
Q: Can I write my own fanfiction stories?A: Yes! The authoring tool of choice can be found here: http://inform7.com
Q: Why does my bluetooth keyboard repeat the enter key?A: Text Fiction comes free of charge. Unfortunately, this means no budget for buying troublesome hardware in order to check the problem out.
Q: Will a 1
* rating convince you to change the app according to my whims?A: Go kiss a Grue
Category : Role Playing
Reviews (28)
The interface is responsive and intuitive, and I love having access to the customizable keybinds. Two small complaints, though. The corner controls can't be disabled with a single command. I keep hitting "go west" or "east" when trying to tap a word. I had to hold each compass point and manually clear them before I could start playing comfortably. The other issue is that I'll sometimes double-tap the back button when trying to close the keyboard and get sent back to the game-select window. This is especially annoying since it clears the history. 90% of the time it isn't a problem, but some rooms have events play the first time you enter.
I like some of the features, including tapping words you want to add to your commands and direction tapping on the edges. There are some icons here for quick words like open/close/get and so on, which i dont really use all that much. Some of the pictures for these quick commands are not really all that great in my opinion, either. For instance, the open and close icons show a padlock that's either unlocked or not...Why not a door or a chest that opens and closes? Other than that it's great!
I love text adventures and I like being able to load one of my choice. Do you really have all of them? Tapestry comes to mind. I didn't give you a 5 because sometimes I get stuck in the help or some other menu and can't return to the game, and once I just reached a point in a game where it wouldn't do anything further-seemed to lock everything up. Couldn't type anything and had to stop Text Fiction and start over. This was Dreamhold and it kept doing that even when I restored the game so I had t
Great free app, you are not limited to the 183 games in the download section, you can also download and play many, many hundreds more free text adventures from the interactive fiction database. Good UI and features. By the way people who say you can't save are wrong - don't type save in game, just tap the + icon for various options including save /restore.
I really love this! There's many wonderful stories to go download. You have to download them off of a website in your browser but a button in the app takes you right to it. Don't worry! It's safe - I've never had any problems with security downloading them before. I do have a critique. I wish when restoring a game it would give you the history log of what you've done, or at least the last message it had for you. Instead I have to blindly pick an option without knowing what last happened.
Amazing app, just wish there were more classic games to choose from, some of the sci-fi infocom games for instance. The classic text adventures are still better than almost anything they've got on the mobile game market coming out nowadays. Notes: little glitchy with data corruption (save often), couldn't figure out how to clean up my old save data, and a classic looking interface option would be nice.
Nice interface, but when i switch apps to my flow chart program to update my map, it doesn't save. I need to keep saving my game when i go into any room before switching over. A quicksave would be good to get around this, because needing to name each save file before it saves is annoying. Wish i could keep using it, but it won't work if i can't map zork1 as i go.
Loving the app so far. I think that folks like me who experience limited joint mobility might need larger buttons, or an alternate layout, as I kept hitting the wrong buttons. But I love the effective way the UI allows the games to be played without needing to type everything out. Thanks to the devs for inspiring me, I might write one myself someday.
Older app for text adventures/interactive fictions, like Zork and Planetfall, Leather Goddesses of Phobos, Curses and so on. Limits on what it supports (I think only z3, z5, z8). but a very interesting chat like interface with some quick convenience controls.
I like it I really do. It has a few issues but none are game breaking. The hint system seems to be the biggest problem,(doesn't work properly for any game I've tried yet) but i just tend to skip that and look it up using Google instead of trying to figure it out in game.
It's a great Z-machine interpretor! You just throw the game you want to play in the associated folder and it'll work. I was able to play several different Z machine games, and its worked for pretty much all of them. It's a shame that the dev abandoned this project, though. Edit: just like to make it clear that only z3, z5, and z8 games will work
Play old and new text adventures on your phone! Now If I could just find a good text adventure mapping app on the phone. Or maybe a flowchart program that would function the same.
This is a great interface for text fiction games. Besides the keyboard it has some convenient features such as speech recognition, and some handy functions are represented by icons for speed. Tapping on a word in the text brings it to the input line! Enjoy.
Basically a gateway to the world of reading and playing games. Have to download the games individually but the system makes it super easy to do so. Saving the progress is kinda weird, but I guess the games are supposed to be played in one sitting and saving would be useless then.
Great looking app, good design and colors... But settings are limited, no way to assign *.z5 files to be associated with the app. No way to change my download directory, no way to import files. So basically, it won't open a file if its not set to whichever directory it thinks the stories should be in. And since it doesn't say which directory it is, you can't manually move them there.
Great app!!! Play most of my text adventures here, very useful! Just one thing, though, since I am blind I have to scroll around to find the results of my command, and all of the compass directions get in the way! Don't know how to hide these commands, but strangely with particular text adventures it doesn't show these extra commands at all. Wonder.
Can't find folder to drop files into on android. Says browse and import if you can't find - no import option. No options in settings to change directory or mention where it is, or in the help files. Deep searching different give text fiction or developer related folder name. Files not found when in download.
Nearly perfect, but the one fatal flaw is that it can't save. I was looking forward to playing long adventures like zork or enchanter, but without saving progress it's pretty much impossible.
A very unique game, unlike many other games. I really like how you can determine the outcome of the story. I do think the display could use some colour, framing or other visual aids- maybe a different font for each story
So far only played Zork, blast from the past, but it works well and there have been no problems. Instructions for getting to the save, restore etc options could be clearer but generally I am enjoying using the app
This is a text-based game with no graphics, just your imagination. Much fun exploring and meeting challenges. The app emulates the old DOS based game very well.
Excellent app. Thouroughly enjoyable, but it needs an option to overwrite old saves. I have tons of old saves I cant use or dont need. A way to clear them out would be awesome.
Classic. Clean. And Easy. But tedious. In long books, a messenger UI can become pleonastic and tiresome. Apart from that, easily the best Z-Interpreter out there.
Wont load downloaded files. I wanted to play. Found three titles to start. Downloaded them and then nothing. File not found error. Obviously the script is not placing the files in the right folder. But I have no intention of debugging someone else's issue.
It doesn't come with any game. You have to download them separately, they come compresses (you have to have another app for that) and you can't change the folder from where the app searches for game
As a rating for the text fiction app itself I would say it is very useful to those that like text based games I but as a player with autism I would like to say that this application is not always easy to figure out how to use and what things do what things so I think this app will be much better if it was more accessible to players who do not always understand something straight away or might not think the same way as the other kids that play the game
The collection is incredible. The app is lightweight. There are dark themes and even command shortcuts. The app is perfect. Thank you!
Fantastic app! Easy on the eyes. Really helps the game by making all the words clickable. Imports games easily, and takes every format you can throw at it. Even provides a link to a MASSIVE archive of IF games to download and play for free (including the Zork games). Great customization options, though already so good they're barely needed. No ads, no nags. No complaints. Great work devs! I salute you!