E-paper interaction fiction

[PerspexSphinx]

Saw this on reddit…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAl4KMd3aRk&t=1s



…it’s is truly impressive.

[pdurrant]

The interactive fiction bit is easy. I don't know how they did the animated combat.

[Cactus Chef]

Really stretching the definition of what we consider "soulslike" combat...

[PerspexSphinx]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The interactive fiction bit is easy.

Err… are there any example “How to’s” for making a ePub 3’s interactive?

[The Old Man]

Reminds me of the text adventures, interactive fiction from Infocom, Scott Adam’s.

[Frogm4n]

Originally Posted by PerspexSphinx

Err… are there any example “How to’s” for making a ePub 3’s interactive?

Not EPUB, but there is an interactive fiction client on Kindle called Gargoyle.

[Frogm4n]

Oh, I watched it. That's a Daylight. Meh. It's not eink. It's just over hyped RLCD.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by PerspexSphinx

Err… are there any example “How to’s” for making a ePub 3’s interactive?

They work badly on real eink.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by PerspexSphinx

Err… are there any example “How to’s” for making a ePub 3’s interactive?

The interactive fiction bit is just having hyperlinks to the next page at the appropriate juncture. If you really want to insist on people revealing sentence-by-sentence, just have LOTS of pages, and each page forward reveals the next sentence, along with all the existing sentences. Personally, I'd rather just read normally to the next decision point.

[Quoth]

Plot your own adventure type ebook version of a paper one (without scoring) more or less works on all common Kindle reflowable formats and any epub format as long as the ereader has some method to select links.

The oldest Interactive Fiction ebook I know is Adventure 101 on Sony EBG format (mini-CD), which runs on the Sony DD1ex and later (1991!) and will run on DOS if it has a CD drive that can take a 8cm CD. The EBG disc easily pop out of the caddy. It even has graphics. A drawback of the format compared to ANY ebook reader using Flash, ever, is there is no bookmark/memory, so you have to make a note on paper and search.

The old mobi / Kf7 Kindle format even has an extra HTML mobi specific tag, not in HTML3, to block you paging forward so you have to pick one of the decision links. I've not investigated how that would be done in epub2 or epub3 that would be generally compatible.

It's more general interactive and multimedia that will fail on most eink. Amazon had a format for a while and abandoned it. There is a point at which an iOS/Android app created with a framework is more sane than interactive multimedia epub3, but an epub3 title is less likely to get orphaned without support. Apple particularly kills store listings that are not updated and older Android apps might not run on newer Android even if still in store.

Edit:
The Sony Data Discman models existed 1990 to 2000 in Japan and about 1991 to 1994 in the West. They could have had a static RAM and coin cell like some Psion models and cartridges, but didn't. Commercial NAND Flash existed from about 1988, but would not have been economical for bookmarks / CD locations.

It's a failing of almost all CD players that they are poor for Audio books compared to cassette due to having no non-volatile storage for bookmarks or last location. Most DVD/BD players have limited location memory.

In theory I could convert the EBG mini-CD of Adventure 101 to epub/mobi/azw3 etc. There is a library to read the format and you can open the file in an editor that copes with binary and see the ASCII content. The images are 1bit uncompressed, though a later format may have had more levels. One colour model existed.

[rowe]

The better AIs can do a pretty good job of interactive fiction on Android e-ink.

I rarely do it, as I'm only inspired to if I think of an interesting setup. It can be really fun and informative. I keep it short by ending when the AI runs out of context length in the thread (Gemini Pro is good for this).

My last setup was time travelling to 1653 and taking over England instead of Cromwell with the benefit of an ereader loaded with 2025 knowledge - influencing to avoid things like pollution, wars, losing books/art, colonisation.

[ownedbycats]

But can you run Doom on it?

EDIT: Guess you can.

[Renate]

Only slightly OT...
Does anybody remember those "interactive" books from years ago.
They would have a page saying:

A resistor is <blah blah blah>

What is the purpose of a resistor?
a) to resist voltage -> page 123
b) to resist the flow of current -> page 82
c) to allow impedance -> page 167

They were thick books too.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Renate

Only slightly OT...
Does anybody remember those "interactive" books from years ago.
They would have a page saying:



They were thick books too.

Not that one,

I did write all this earlier:
We did have plot your own adventure paperbacks in early 1990s. They are older than that and worked just as you describe.
I have one left somewhere. Also I have Adventure 101 (1992 or 1992), Sony Data Discman ebook. It's actually a mini-CD in a caddy and exactly like the paper books. Except there is no bookmarks. You need to note where you are and search next time. At least you could put a bus ticket in the paperback.

They are all based off 1960s mainframe computer adventures.

[nana77]

Originally Posted by Renate

Only slightly OT...
Does anybody remember those "interactive" books from years ago.
They would have a page saying:



They were thick books too.

Yes, I recall of those, but not in any serious scientific quests ; they were like adventure, detective or fantasy stories. Loved them but also hated: 'cause the thing of throwing a dice never got me enthusiast of it. I.e: never got rid to even finish one, for once .
Also because cheating would't be that satisfying, at least on RGP videogames it's possible to quick save before the quest, which is different than cheating lol.
I guess when in the forum it's mentioned "LitRPG", that might be something close to those books.