| Examples in Thematic Order |  |
Chapter 1: How to Use The Recipe Book
§1.1. Preface
| ExampleAbout the examples An explanation of the examples in this documentation, and the asterisks attached to them. Click the heading of the example, or the example number, to reveal the text.
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| ExampleMidsummer Day A few sentences laying out a garden together with some things which might be found in it.
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§1.3. Disenchantment Bay
| ExampleDisenchantment Bay 1 A running example in this chapter, Disenchantment Bay, involves chartering a boat. This is the first step: creating the cabin.
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§1.4. Information Only
Chapter 2: Adaptive Prose
§2.1. Varying What Is Written
| ExampleAhem Writing a phrase, with several variant forms, whose function is to follow a rule several times.
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| ExampleNumberless A simple exercise in printing the names of random numbers, comparing the use of "otherwise if...", a switch statement, or a table-based alternative.
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| ExampleResponsive Altering the standard inventory text for when the player is carrying nothing.
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| ExampleProlegomena Replacing precise numbers with "some" or other quantifiers when too many objects are clustered together for the player to count at a glance.
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| ExampleCurare A phrase that chooses and names the least-recently selected item from the collection given, allowing the text to cycle semi-randomly through a group of objects.
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| ExampleBlink Making a "by atmosphere" token, allowing us to design our own text variations such as "[one of]normal[or]gloomy[or]scary[by atmosphere]".
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|  ExampleVariety Suppose we want all of our action responses to display some randomized variety. We could do this by laboriously rewriting all of the response texts, but this example demonstrates an alternative.
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|  ExampleFun with Participles Creating dynamic room descriptions that contain sentences such as "Clark is here, wasting time" or "Clark is here, looking around" depending on Clark's idle activity.
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|  ExampleGreater Variety This builds on the Variety example to add responses such as "You are now carrying the fedora" that describe relations that result from a given verb, as alternate responses.
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|  ExampleRelevant Relations An example of how to create room descriptions that acknowledge particular relations using their assigned verbs, rather than by the heavily special-cased code used by the standard library.
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|  ExampleHistory Lab We create phrases such as "the box we took" and "the newspaper Clark looked at" based on what has already happened in the story.
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§2.2. Varying What Is Read
| ExampleQuiz Show In this example by Mike Tarbert, the player can occasionally be quizzed on random data from a table; the potential answers will only be understood if a question has just been asked.
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|  ExampleLaura Some general advice about creating objects with unusual or awkward names, and a discussion of the use of printed names.
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|  ExampleNorth by Northwest Creating additional compass directions between those that already exist (for instance, NNW) -- and dealing with an awkwardness that arises when the player tries to type "north-northwest". The example demonstrates a way around the nine-character limit on parsed words.
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§2.3. Using the Player's Input
Chapter 3: Place
§3.1. Room Descriptions
| ExampleNight Sky A room which changes its description depending on whether an object has been examined.
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| ExampleInfiltration A room whose description changes depending on the number of times the player has visited.
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| ExampleAnt-Sensitive Sunglasses What are activities good for? Controlling output when we want the same action to be able to produce very flexible text depending on the state of the world -- in this case, making highly variable room description and object description text.
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| ExampleRip Van Winkle A simple way to allow objects in certain places to be described in the room description body text rather than in paragraphs following the room description.
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| ExamplePriority Lab A debugging rule useful for checking the priorities of objects about to be listed.
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| ExampleLow Light An object that is only visible and manipulable when a bright light fixture is on.
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|  ExampleThe Eye of the Idol A systematic way to allow objects in certain places to be described in the room description body text rather than in paragraphs following the room description, and to control whether supporters list their contents or not.
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§3.2. Map
| ExamplePort Royal 1 A partial implementation of Port Royal, Jamaica, set before the earthquake of 1692 demolished large portions of the city.
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| ExampleAll Roads Lead to Mars Layout where the player is allowed to wander any direction he likes, and the map will arrange itself in order so that he finds the correct "next" location.
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| ExampleZork II A "Carousel Room", as in Zork II, where moving in any direction from the room leads (at random) to one of the eight rooms nearby.
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| ExampleIndirection Renaming the directions of the compass so that "white" corresponds to north, "red" to east, "yellow" to south, and "black" to west.
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|  ExampleA&E Using regions to block access to an entire area when the player does not carry a pass, regardless of which entrance he uses.
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§3.3. Position Within Rooms
§3.4. Continuous Spaces and The Outdoors
| ExampleWaterworld A backdrop which the player can examine, but cannot interact with in any other way.
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|  ExampleTiny Garden A lawn made up of several rooms, with part of the description written automatically.
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|  ExampleHotel Stechelberg Signposts such as those provided on hiking paths in the Swiss Alps, which show the correct direction and hiking time to all other locations.
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|  ExampleCarnivale An alternative to backdrops when we want something to be visible from a distance but only touchable from one room.
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|  ExampleEddystone Creating new commands involving the standard compass directions.
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|  ExampleRock Garden A simple open landscape where the player can see between rooms and will automatically move to touch things in distant rooms.
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§3.5. Doors, Staircases, and Bridges
| ExampleWhen? A door whose description says "...leads east" in one place and "...leads west" in the other.
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| ExampleHayseed A refinement of our staircase kind which can be climbed.
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| ExampleHigher Calling All doors in the game automatically attempt to open if the player approaches them when they are closed.
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| ExampleWainwright Acts A technical note about checking the location of door objects when characters other than the player are interacting with them.
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| ExampleWhither? A door whose description says where it leads; and which automatically understands references such as "the west door" and "the east door" depending on which direction it leads from the location.
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|  ExampleOne Short Plank A plank bridge which breaks if the player is carrying something when he goes across it. Pushing anything over the bridge is forbidden outright.
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|  ExampleElsie A door that closes automatically one turn after the player opens it.
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§3.6. Windows
| ExampleVitrine An electrochromic window that becomes transparent or opaque depending on whether it is currently turned on.
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|  ExampleEscape Window that can be climbed through or looked through.
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|  ExampleDinner is Served A window between two locations. When the window is open, the player can reach through into the other location; when it isn't, access is barred.
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|  ExamplePort Royal 4 A cell window through which the player can see people who were in Port Royal in the current year of game-time.
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§3.7. Lighting
| ExampleHymenaeus Understanding "flaming torch" and "extinguished torch" to refer to torches when lit and unlit.
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| ExampleReflections Emphasizing the reflective quality of shiny objects whenever they are described in the presence of the torch.
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| ExamplePeeled Two different approaches to adjusting what the player can interact with, compared.
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§3.8. Sounds
| ExampleThe Undertomb 1 A small map of dead ends, in which the sound of an underground river has different strengths in different caves.
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| ExampleFour Stars 2 Using "deciding the scope" to change the content of lists such as "the list of audible things which can be touched by the player".
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§3.9. Passers-By, Weather and Astronomical Events
| ExampleWeathering The automatic weather station atop Mt. Pisgah shows randomly fluctuating temperature, pressure and cloud cover.
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| ExampleNight and Day Cycling through a sequence of scenes to represent day and night following one another during a game.
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|  ExampleTotality To schedule an eclipse of the sun, which involves a number of related events.
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Chapter 4: Time and Plot
§4.1. The Passage Of Time
| ExampleThe Big Sainsbury's Making implicit takes add a minute to the clock, just as though the player had typed TAKE THING explicitly.
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| ExampleUptempo Adjust time advancement so the game clock moves fifteen minutes each turn.
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|  ExampleEndurance Giving different actions a range of durations using a time allotment rulebook.
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§4.2. Scripted Scenes
|  ExampleEntrapment A scene in which the player is allowed to explore as much as he likes, but another character strolls in as soon as he has gotten himself into an awkward or embarrassing situation.
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§4.3. Event Scheduling
|  ExampleIPA Shops which each have opening and closing hours, so that it is impossible to go in at the wrong times, and the player is kicked out if he overstays his welcome.
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§4.4. Scene Changes
| ExampleAge of Steam The railway-station examples so far put together into a short game called "Age of Steam".
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|  ExampleMeteoric I and II A meteor in the night sky which is visible from many rooms, so needs to be a backdrop, but which does not appear until 11:31 PM.
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§4.5. Flashbacks
§4.6. Plot Management
Chapter 5: The Viewpoint Character
§5.1. The Human Body
| ExamplerBGH The player character's height is selected randomly at the start of play.
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|  ExampleSlouching A system of postures allowing the player and other characters to sit, stand, or lie down explicitly or implicitly on a variety of enterable supporters or containers, or in location.
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§5.2. Traits Determined By the Player
| ExampleIdentity Theft Allowing the player to enter a name to be used for the player character during the game.
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§5.3. Characterization
§5.4. Background
| ExampleMerlin A REMEMBER command which accepts any text and looks up a response in a table of recollections.
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§5.5. Memory and Knowledge
| ExampleTense Boxing An overview of all the variations of past and present tenses, and how they might be used.
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| ExamplePuncak Jaya When a character is not visible, responding to such commands as EXAMINE PETER and PETER, HELLO with a short note that the person in question is no longer visible.
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§5.6. Viewpoint
| ExampleThe Crane's Leg 2 A description text generated based on the propensities of the player-character, following different rulebooks for different characters.
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|  ExampleUncommon Ground Making a "by viewpoint" token, allowing us to design our own text variations such as "[show to yourself]quaint[to Lolita]thrilling[to everyone else]squalid[end show]" depending on the identity of the player at the moment.
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Chapter 6: Commands
§6.3. Modifying Existing Commands
§6.4. Looking
| ExampleVerbosity 2 Making rooms give full descriptions each time we enter, even if we have visited before, and disallowing player use of BRIEF and SUPERBRIEF.
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§6.5. Examining
| ExampleOdin Replacing "You see nothing special..." with a different default message for looking at something nondescript.
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§6.6. Looking Under and Hiding
| ExampleBeachfront An item that the player can't interact with until he has found it by searching the scenery.
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| ExampleMatreshka A SEARCH [room] action that will open every container the player can see, stopping only when there don't remain any that are closed, unlocked, and openable.
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| ExampleFlashlight Visibility set so that looking under objects produces no result unless the player has a light source to shine there (regardless of the light level of the room).
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§6.7. Inventory
| ExampleOyster Wide Shut Replacing Inform's default printing of properties such as "(closed)", "(open and providing light)", etc., with our own, more flexible variation.
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|  ExampleEquipment List Overview of all the phrase options associated with listing, and examples of how to change the inventory list into some other standard formats.
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§6.8. Taking, Dropping, Inserting and Putting
| ExampleReplanting Changing the response when the player tries to take something that is scenery.
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| ExampleMorning After When the player picks something up which he hasn't already examined, the object is described.
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| ExampleRemoval TAKE expanded to give responses such as "You take the book from the shelf." or "You pick up the toy from the ground."
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| ExampleCeladon Using the enclosure relation to let the player drop things which he only indirectly carries.
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§6.9. Going, Pushing Things in Directions
| ExampleVeronica An effect that occurs only when the player leaves a region entirely.
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| ExampleMisadventure A going by name command which does respect movement rules, and accepts names of rooms as commands.
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| ExampleMinimal Movement Supplying a default direction for "go", so that "leave", "go", etc., are always interpreted as "out".
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| ExampleSaint Eligius Adding a first look rule that comments on locations when we visit them for the first time, inserting text after objects are listed but before any "every turn" rules might occur.
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|  ExampleUp and Up Adding a short message as the player approaches a room, before the room description itself appears.
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|  ExampleWonderland Hiking Mount Rainier, with attention to which locations are higher and which lower than the present location.
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|  ExampleSafari Guide The same functionality, but making the player continue to move until he reaches his destination or a barrier, handling all openable doors on the way.
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§6.10. Entering and Exiting, Sitting and Standing
| ExampleGet Axe Changing the check rules to try automatically leaving a container before attempting to take it. (And arranging things so that other people will do likewise.)
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| ExampleAnchorite By default, Inform understands GET OFF, GET UP, or GET OUT when the player is sitting or standing on an enterable object. We might also want to add GET DOWN and DOWN as exit commands, though.
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| ExampleLies Commands to allow the player to lie down in three different ways.
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§6.11. Waiting, Sleeping
§6.13. Magic Words
| ExampleXYZZY Basics of adding a new command reviewed, for the case of the simple magic word XYZZY.
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§6.14. Remembering, Converting and Combining Actions
| ExampleFine Laid Making writing that can be separately examined from the paper on which it appears, but which directs all other actions to the paper.
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| ExampleLucy Redirecting a question about one topic to ask about another.
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| ExampleLeopard-skin A maze that the player can escape if he performs an exact sequence of actions.
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| ExampleI Didn't Come All The Way From Great Portland Street In this fiendishly difficult puzzle, which may perhaps owe some inspiration to a certain BBC Radio panel game (1967-), a list is used as a set of actions to help enforce the rule that the player must keep going for ten turns without hesitation, repetition, or deviating from the subject on the card.
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|  ExampleAnteaters The player carries a gizmo that is able to record actions performed by the player, then force him to repeat them when the gizmo is dropped. This includes storing actions that apply to topics, as in "look up anteater colonies in the guide".
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§6.15. Actions on Multiple Objects
|  ExampleEscape from the Seraglio Replacing the usual response to TAKE ALL so that instead of output such as "grapes: Taken. orange: Taken.", Inform produces variable responses in place of "grapes:".
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|  ExampleThe Facts Were These Creating a variant GIVE action that lets the player give multiple objects simultaneously with commands like GIVE ALL TO ATTENDANT or GIVE THREE DOLLARS TO ATTENDANT or GIVE PIE AND HAT TO ATTENDANT. The attendant accepts the gifts only if their total combined value matches some minimum amount.
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§6.16. Alternate Default Messages
| ExampleWe Replacing the standard action report rules to reflect our own design.
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§6.17. Clarification and Correction
| ExampleAlpaca Farm A generic USE action which behaves sensibly with a range of different objects.
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| ExampleApples Prompting the player on how to disambiguate otherwise similar objects.
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| ExampleWXPQ Creating a more sensible parser error than "that noun did not make sense in this context".
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§6.18. Alternatives To Standard Parsing
|  ExampleDown in Oodville Offering the player a choice of numbered options at certain times, without otherwise interfering with his ability to give regular commands.
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|  ExampleCloves Accepting adverbs anywhere in a command, registering what the player typed but then cutting them out before interpreting the command.
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Chapter 7: Other Characters
§7.1. Getting Acquainted
| ExampleBelfry You can see a bat, a bell, some woodworm, William Snelson, the sexton's wife, a bellringer and your local vicar here.
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| ExampleClueless A murderer for the mystery is selected randomly at the beginning of the game.
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| ExampleMeet Market A case in which relations give characters multiple values of the same kind.
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|  ExampleGopher-wood Changing the name of a character in the middle of play, removing the article.
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|  ExamplePeers The peers of the English realm come in six flavours - Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquess, Duke and Prince - and must always be addressed properly. While a peerage is for life, it may at the royal pleasure be promoted.
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§7.2. Liveliness
|  ExampleCamp Bethel Creating characters who change their behavior from turn to turn, and a survey of other common uses for alternative texts.
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§7.3. Reactive Characters
| ExampleZodiac Several variations on "doing something other than...", demonstrating different degrees of restriction.
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| ExamplePine 1 Pine: Using a scene to watch for the solution of a puzzle, however arrived-at by the player.
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| ExamplePolice State Several friends who obey you; a policeman who doesn't (but who takes a dim view of certain kinds of antics).
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§7.4. Barter and Exchange
|  ExampleBribery A GIVE command that gets rid of Inform's default refusal message in favor of something a bit more sophisticated.
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§7.5. Combat and Death
| ExampleLanista 1 Very simple randomized combat in which characters hit one another for a randomized amount of damage.
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| ExampleRed Cross A DIAGNOSE command which allows the player to check on the health of someone.
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|  ExamplePuff of Orange Smoke A system in which every character has a body, which is left behind when the person dies; attempts to do something to the body are redirected to the person while the person is alive.
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|  ExampleLanista 2 Randomized combat in which the damage done depends on what weapons the characters are wielding, and in which an ATTACK IT WITH action is created to replace regular attacking. Also folds a new DIAGNOSE command into the system.
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§7.6. Getting Started with Conversation
§7.7. Saying Simple Things
| ExampleSybil 1 Direct all ASK, TELL, and ANSWER commands to ASK, and accept multiple words for certain cases.
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|  ExampleSybil 2 Making the character understand YES, SAY YES TO CHARACTER, TELL CHARACTER YES, ANSWER YES, and CHARACTER, YES.
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|  ExampleProposal Asking the player a yes/no question which he must answer, and another which he may answer or not as he chooses.
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§7.8. Saying Complicated Things
|  ExampleFarewell People who respond to conversational gambits, summarize what they said before if asked again, and provide recap of conversation that is past.
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|  ExampleSweeney A conversation where each topic may have multiple questions and answers associated with it, and where a given exchange can lead to new additions to the list.
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§7.10. Character Emotion
| ExampleBeing Peter A set of rules determining the attitude a character will take when asked about certain topics.
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§7.11. Character Knowledge and Reasoning
|  ExampleMurder on the Orient Express A number of sleuths (the player among them) find themselves aboard the Orient Express, where a murder has taken place, and one of them is apparently the culprit. Naturally they do not agree on whom, but there is physical evidence which may change their minds...
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§7.12. Characters Following a Script
| ExampleRobo 1 A robot which watches and records the player's actions, then tries to repeat them back in the same order when he is switched into play-back mode.
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§7.13. Traveling Characters
|  ExampleVan Helsing A character who approaches the player, then follows him from room to room.
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|  ExampleOdyssey A person who follows a path predetermined and stored in a table, and who can be delayed if the player tries to interact with her.
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|  ExampleActaeon A FOLLOW command allowing the player to pursue a person who has just left the room.
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§7.14. Obedient Characters
| ExampleVirtue Defining certain kinds of behavior as inappropriate, so that other characters will refuse indignantly to do any such thing.
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| ExampleLatin Lessons Supplying missing nouns and second nouns for other characters besides the player.
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|  ExampleGeneration X A person who goes along with the player's instructions, but reluctantly, and will get annoyed after too many repetitions of the same kind of unsuccessful command.
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|  ExampleNorthstar Making Inform understand ASK JOSH TO TAKE INVENTORY as JOSH, TAKE INVENTORY. This requires us to use a regular expression on the player's command, replacing some of the content.
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§7.15. Goal-Seeking Characters
| ExampleIQ Test Introducing Ogg, a person who will unlock and open a container when the player tells him to get something inside.
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|  ExampleThe Man of Steel An escaping action which means "go to any room you can reach from here", and is only useful to non-player characters.
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§7.16. Social Groups
| ExampleUnthinkable Alliances People are to be grouped into alliances. To kiss someone is to join his or her faction, which may make a grand alliance; to strike them is to give notice of quitting, and to become a lone wolf.
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|  ExampleEmma Social dynamics in which groups of people form and circulate during a party.
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|  ExampleHappy Hour Listing visible characters as a group, then giving some followup details in the same paragraph about specific ones.
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Chapter 8: Vehicles, Animals and Furniture
§8.1. Bicycles, Cars and Boats
| ExamplePeugeot A journey from one room to another that requires the player to be on a vehicle.
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| ExampleNo Relation A car which must be turned on before it can be driven, and can only go to roads.
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|  ExampleStraw Boater Using text properties that apply only to some things and are not defined for others.
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§8.2. Ships, Trains and Elevators
|  ExampleEmpire A train which follows a schedule, stopping at a number of different locations.
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§8.3. Animals
| ExampleFeline Behavior A cat which reacts to whatever items it has handy, returning the result of a rulebook for further processing.
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| ExampleFido A dog the player can name and un-name at will.
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§8.4. Furniture
| ExampleTamed Examples of a container and a supporter that can be entered, as well as nested rooms.
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| ExamplePrincess and the Pea The player is unable to sleep on a mattress (or stack of mattresses) because the bottom one has something uncomfortable under it.
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| ExampleKiwi Creating a raised supporter kind whose contents the player can't see or take from the ground.
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| ExampleCircle of Misery Retrieving items from an airport luggage carousel is such fun, how can we resist simulating it, using a list as a ring buffer?
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|  ExampleYolk of Gold Set of drawers where the item the player seeks is always in the last drawer he opens, regardless of the order of opening.
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|  ExampleSwigmore U. Adding a new kind of supporter called a perch, where everything dropped lands on the floor.
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§8.5. Kitchen and Bathroom
Chapter 9: Props: Food, Clothing, Money, Toys, Books, Electronics
§9.1. Food
| ExampleCandy One of several identical candies chosen at the start of play to be poisonous.
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| ExampleMRE Hunger that eventually kills the player, and foodstuffs that can delay the inevitable by different amounts of time.
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| ExampleStone A soup to which the player can add ingredients, which will have different effects when the player eats.
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§9.2. Bags, Bottles, Boxes and Safes
| ExampleSafety A safe whose dial can be turned with SPIN SAFE TO 1131, and which will open only with the correct combination.
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| ExampleCinco A taco shell that can be referred to (when it contains things) in terms of its contents.
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| ExampleShipping Trunk A box of baking soda whose name changes to "completely ineffective baking soda" when it is in a container with something that smells funny.
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| ExampleUnpeeled Calling an onion "a single yellow onion" when (and only when) it is being listed as the sole content of a room or container.
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| ExampleEyes, Fingers, Toes A safe with a multi-number combination, meant to be dialed over multiple turns, is implemented using a log of the last three numbers dialed. The log can then be compared to the safe's correct combination.
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|  ExampleTrachypachidae Maturin 1803 Bottles with removable stoppers: when the stopper is in the bottle, the bottle is functionally closed, but the stopper can also be removed and used elsewhere. Descriptions of the bottle reflect its state intelligently.
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|  ExampleHudsucker Industries Letters which are described differently as a group, depending on whether the player has read none, some, or all of them, and on whether they are alike or unlike.
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§9.3. Clothing
|  ExampleWhat Not To Wear A general-purpose clothing system that handles a variety of different clothing items layered in different combinations over different areas of the body.
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§9.4. Money
| ExampleWidget Enterprises Allowing the player to set a price for a widget on sale, then determining the resulting sales based on consumer demand, and the resulting profit and loss.
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| ExampleFrozen Assets A treatment of money which keeps track of how much the player has on him, and a BUY command which lets him go shopping.
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|  ExampleFabrication A system of assembling clothing from a pattern and materials; both the pattern and the different fabrics have associated prices.
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§9.5. Dice and Playing Cards
| ExampleDo Pass Go A pair of dice which can be rolled, and are described with their current total when not carried, and have individual scores when examined.
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§9.6. Reading Matter
| ExamplePages A book with pages that can be read by number (as in "read page 3 in...") and which accepts relative page references as well (such as "read the last page of...", "read the next page", and so on).
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|  ExampleBibliophilia A bookshelf with a number of books, where the player's command to examine something will be interpreted as an attempt to look up titles if the bookshelf is present, but otherwise given the usual response.
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|  ExampleAARP-Gnosis An Encyclopedia set which treats volumes in the same place as a single object, but can also be split up.
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|  ExampleThe Fifth Body An expansion on the notebook, allowing the player somewhat more room in which to type his recorded remark.
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§9.7. Painting and Labeling Devices
| ExamplePalette An artist's workshop in which the canvas can be painted in any colour, and where painterly names for pigments ("cerulean") are accepted alongside everyday ones ("blue").
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§9.8. Simple Machines
| ExampleControl Center Objects which automatically include a description of their component parts whenever they are examined.
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§9.9. Televisions and Radios
| ExampleAspect Understanding aspect ratios (a unit) in the names of televisions.
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§9.10. Telephones
§9.11. Clocks and Scientific Instruments
| ExampleWitnessed 2 A piece of ghost-hunting equipment that responds depending on whether or not the meter is on and a ghost is visible or touchable from the current location.
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| ExampleTom's Midnight Garden A clock kind that can be set to any time using "the time understood"; may be turned on and off; and will advance itself only when running. Time on the face is also reported differently depending on whether the clock is analog or digital.
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|  ExampleGinger Beer A portable magic telescope which allows the player to view items in another room of his choice.
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§9.12. Cameras and Recording Devices
| ExampleOriginals Allowing the player to create models of anything in the game world; parsing the name "model [thing]" or even just "[thing]" to refer to these newly-created models; asking "which do you mean, the model [thing] or the actual [thing]" when there is ambiguity.
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| ExampleMirror, Mirror The sorcerer's mirror can, when held up high, form an impression of its surroundings which it then preserves.
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|  ExampleActor's Studio A video camera that records actions performed in its presence, and plays them back with time-stamps.
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|  ExampleClaims Adjustment An instant camera that spits out photographs of anything the player chooses to take a picture of.
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Chapter 10: Physics: Substances, Ropes, Energy and Weight
§10.1. Gases
|  ExampleLethal Concentration 1 A poisonous gas that spreads from room to room, incapacitating or killing the player when it reaches sufficient levels.
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§10.2. Liquids
| ExampleThirst A waterskin that is depleted as the player drinks from it.
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| ExampleFlotation Objects that can sink or float in a well, depending on their own properties and the state of the surrounding environment.
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|  ExampleXylan Creating a new command that does require an object to be named; and some comments about the choice of vocabulary, in general.
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§10.3. Dispensers and Supplies of Small Objects
| ExamplePizza Prince Providing a pizza buffet from which the player can take as many pieces as he wants.
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|  ExampleExtra Supplies A supply of red pens from which the player can take another pen only if he doesn't already have one somewhere in the game world.
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§10.4. Glass and Other Damage-Prone Substances
| ExampleSpring Cleaning A character who sulks over objects that the player has broken (and which are now off-stage).
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|  ExamplePaddington A CUT [something] WITH [something] command which acts differently on different types of objects.
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|  ExampleTerracottissima The flowerpots once again, but this time arranged so that after the first breakage all undamaged pots are said to be "unbroken", to distinguish them from the others.
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|  ExampleKyoto Expanding the effects of the THROW something AT something command so that objects do make contact with one another.
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§10.5. Volume, Height, Weight
| ExampleDepth Receptacles that calculate internal volume and the amount of room available, and cannot be overfilled.
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|  ExampleDimensions This example draws together the previous snippets into a working implementation of the weighbridge.
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§10.6. Ropes
§10.7. Electricity and Magnetism
| ExampleRules of Attraction A magnet which picks up nearby metal objects, and describes itself appropriately in room descriptions and inventory listings, but otherwise goes by its ordinary name.
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| ExampleElectrified Adding a rule before the basic accessibility rule that will prevent the player from touching electrified objects under the wrong circumstances.
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§10.8. Fire
| ExampleThirst 2 A campfire added to the camp site, which can be lit using tinder.
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|  ExampleBruneseau's Journey A candle which reacts to lighting and blowing actions differently depending on whether it has already been lit once.
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|  ExampleThe Cow Exonerated Creating a class of matches that burn for a time and then go out, with elegant reporting when several matches go out at once.
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§10.9. Heat
| ExampleGrilling A grill, from which the player is not allowed to take anything lest he burn himself.
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| ExampleEntropy All objects in the game have a heat, but if not kept insulated they will tend toward room temperature (and at a somewhat exaggerated rate).
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| ExampleMasochism Deli Multiple potatoes, with rules to make the player drop the hot potato first and pick it up last.
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§10.10. Magic (Breaking the Laws of Physics)
| ExampleMagneto's Revenge Kitty Pryde of the X-Men is able to reach through solid objects, so we might implement her with special powers that the player does not have...
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| ExampleInterrogation A wand which, when waved, reveals the concealed items carried by people the player can see.
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| ExampleAccess All Areas The Pointy Hat of Liminal Transgression allows its wearer to walk clean through closed doors.
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§10.11. Mathematics
Chapter 11: Out Of World Actions and Effects
§11.1. Start-Up Features
|  ExampleHatless It's tempting to use "now..." to distribute items randomly at the start of play, but we need to be a little cautious about how we do that.
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§11.2. Saving and Undoing
| ExampleSpellbreaker P. David Lebling's classic "Spellbreaker" (1986) includes a room where the game cannot be saved: here is an Inform implementation.
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§11.3. Helping and Hinting
| ExampleY ask Y? Noticing when the player seems to be at a loss, and recommending the use of hints.
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| ExampleIsh. A (very) simple HELP command, using tokens to accept and interpret the player's text whatever it might be.
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| ExampleQuery Catching all questions that begin with WHO, WHAT, WHERE, and similar question words, and responding with the instruction to use commands, instead.
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|  ExampleTrieste Table amendment to adjust HELP commands provided for the player.
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|  ExampleSolitude Novice mode that prefaces every prompt with a list of possible commands the player could try, and highlights every important word used, to alert players to interactive items in the scenery.
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§11.4. Scoring
| ExampleBosch Creating a list of actions that will earn the player points, and using this both to change the score and to give FULL SCORE reports.
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§11.6. Ending The Story
| ExampleBattle of Ridgefield Completely replacing the endgame text and stopping the game without giving the player a chance to restart or restore.
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| ExampleJamaica 1688 Adding a feature to the final question after victory, so that the player can choose to reveal notes about items in the game.
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|  ExampleXerxes Offering the player a menu of things to read after winning the game.
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Chapter 12: Typography, Layout, and Multimedia Effects
§12.1. Typography
|  ExampleTilt 3 Displaying the card suits from our deck of cards with red and black colored unicode symbols.
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§12.2. The Status Line
| ExampleWays Out A status line that lists the available exits from the current location.
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| ExampleCapital City To arrange that the location information normally given on the left-hand side of the status line appears in block capitals.
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|  ExampleGuided Tour A status line that lists the available exits from the current location, changing the names of these exits depending on whether the room has been visited or not.
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§12.3. Footnotes
|  ExampleIbid. A system which allows the author to assign footnotes to descriptions, and permits the player to retrieve them again by number, using "the number understood". Footnotes will automatically number themselves, according to the order in which the player discovers them.
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§12.5. Glulx Multimedia Effects
Chapter 13: Testing and Publishing
§13.1. Testing
| ExampleBic Testing to make sure that all objects have been given descriptions.
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| ExampleAlpha Creating a beta-testing command that matches any line starting with punctuation.
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§13.2. Publishing
| ExampleBaedeker Creating a floorplan of the cathedral using the locations from previous examples.
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