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Download Profile: WinFrotzTTS 2002 1.5.0
[ Download Comments | Additional Details | Editor Review | Modify ]
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'History details'Editorial by AlphaGod - November 11, 2004
11/9/2004
Updated in this release:
- Save game overwrite protection
- Warning indicator for problem games
- CTRL+N for loading new games
Game loading:
When the app is started it will search a directory for games, the default is the directory where WinFrotzTTS is installed. You will probably never have to change this so when the app starts just hit return when it asks you to pick a directory to scan. After the app has scanned the directories looking for games it will present you with a list by telling you how many games it has found. At this point you can use the up and down arrow keys to move through the list of games and it will read the titles aloud. You can also hit the first letter of a title and it will skip to that letter in the list, the list is sorted alphabetically, so you would hit the letter z and it would skip ahead in the list to Zork 1 most likely. The arrow keys work well for the short list of Infocom games, but I have 326 games installed and it is easier to jump ahead to a letter if I know the game I want to play.
After finding the game you want just hit return and it will load up.
You can hit 'escape' to dismiss this dialog. If you click cancel the standard file dialog is presented. Games loaded using the standard dialog are not guaranteed to work with the extra text to speech functionality, so be warned.
Game saving:
When you type save the app will tell you to type some text. This text is used to create a file name in the same directory that the current game is running from. Text entered in the dialog is spoken aloud as well as deleted characters. It also handles file overwriting. You can always hit 'escape' to dismiss the dialog.
Game restoring:
When you type 'restore' the same kind of dialog for game loading comes up. The app tells you it is going to search a certain directory for saved games. You simply hit return and the app scans the directory for saved games. It then presents you with a list of save game titles and the name of the game that they were saved from, and you can use the up and down arrow keys again to find the saved game you want and hit enter to load it.
You can also delete a game by highlighting a game and hitting the delete key. The app will then confirm your deletion by asking you to hit 'Y' or 'N'.
The app will tell you whether it was successful or not.
Command line speech:
Most speech in the game can be interrupted. For example when the app is telling you which directory it wants to scan you can just hit return instead of sitting through the whole speech. When the game list comes up you can browse from game to game with the arrow keys, as soon as you move to the next game in the list, the previous game title read aloud is cut off. This is all done to save time and cut out a lot of repetitious reading.
This also works on the command line in the game.. For instance when you continue to move into the same room in the game and the app reads the description over and over again. Simply hitting the space bar will clear the speech. You can also use the up and down arrow keys on the command line of the game to scroll through commands you have already entered and it will read them aloud. Don't worry about extra spaces before and after words, the game just ignores them so use spaces to verify what you have typed even if it is just one word. When backspace is used the deleted character is read aloud.
Read again:
Sometimes you want to hear a room description read again and not waste a turn to hear it. This can be done by hitting CTRL R which will read the last bit of text saved since the last command typed.
Word list spelling:
Many times, games use words that are not easy to spell or are not really words at all. Some thing like Frobozz. You would not know how many 'z's are in the word. To help with this you can hit CTRL Z after a room description, and a word list will be presented to you. Using the up and down arrow keys you can move from word to word or use a character to skip to a word in the alphabetic list and the word will be spoken aloud. If you hit 'space bar' the word is spelled out loud. If you hit 'enter' while on a word, the dialog is closed and the word is added to the command line so you don't have to type it. If you know you are going to use the word a lot, you can hit 'insert' and the word will be added to a scratch list that I will describe later. You can always hit escape to dismiss the dialog.
Scratch list:
Sometimes you want to save typing or keep track of certain word. By using the 'insert' key in the word list, words can be added to the scratch list. hit CTRL X to bring up the list. This list can be navigated just like the word list. Arrow keys move between entries ( spoken aloud ), characters move to words alphabetically, 'enter' adds the word to the command line, and 'space bar' spells the entry. The only difference is that 'delete' removes the entry from the list. The nice thing about the scratch list is that it is saved between WinFrotzTTS uses, so the next time you play it is still there.
Input processing:
Text entered on the interpreter command line is processed and words are read aloud after a space is entered. Since the interpreter ignores spaces, before and after words it can be used to verify input or stop speech. This can be useful if you are in and out of the same room over and over again and don't want to sit through the same boring description; just hitting space will clear the speech buffer. Hitting the 'delete' key will read the last deleted character out loud. Using the up and down arrow keys will cycle though the command history and read aloud the commands. Hitting enter on the command line will read the whole entry aloud before the interpreter's response.
Options:
I have added an setting in the options dialog to disable speech is application dialogs for people with screen readers. As well as fixed the voice selection dropdown.
Code update:
I have updated the codebase to David Kinder's 'Windows Frotz 2002 1.05'.
Games support:
In order to be able to have the interpreter recognize games despite their filenames, and since serial numbers don't seem to be a constant. I devised a fingerprinting system that identifies games. These numbers are read in from a simple XML file at interpreter startup and associates a file fingerprint with a game title. This makes it easier to add new games to the supported list and remove games that don't work and not have to make a new release. I will probably be making the tool for creating entries for this file available for people who want to add games to the list. At this time I have 328 games in the supported list.
A caching system keeps this from bogging down application loading. You way see a performace hit the first time the application is loaded and games are parsed. |
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