What's new in Quest 5.5 Build 5.5.5173.27952
Mar 4, 2014
- Quest has been completely rewritten. It is now free and open source.
New in Quest 5.4 Build 5.4.4835.22983 (Mar 30, 2013)
- The major new features in this version are the text processor, gamebook scripts and script editor code view
- There is a new “Text + Script” page type which lets you run a script before displaying the normal gamebook text and options, so you’re not forced to display text and options manually. There are new functions for moving the player between pages, and for adding and removing links.
- In gamebook mode, when playing a sound there is a new option for the sound to continue playing after the player moves to a different page
- You can now turn off the automatically generated display verbs list on a per-object basis (contributed by Pertex)
- New {rndalt} text processor code displays a randomly chosen name from an object’s alt list (contributed by Ivor Levicki)
- With the new-style menus, restored the option to force the player to make a choice from the menu before continuing. (Note this is a breaking change – previously compiled games for Quest 5.4 Beta will continue to work, but to compile against the new library you will need to set the value for the new parameter)
- New function to output text without a line break at the end
New in Quest 5.3 Build 5.3.4762.29123 (Jan 18, 2013)
- automatic map generation
- web fonts
- cover art
- text effects
- background images
- changeable player “point of view” object
- light and dark rooms and objects
- automatic display verbs
- new UI for Windows player (identical to the web-based version)
- Windows player UI is now powered by Chromium
New in Quest 5.2 Build 5.2.4515.24532 (May 14, 2012)
- A few bug fixes
- Exit links now immediately move the player (unless they have more than one verb) – thanks to James Gregory for suggesting and implementing this
- The Editor will now not save invalid expressions (with mismatching brackets or quotes) to prevent a problem where this would cause the game file to become unloadable
New in Quest 5.1 Build 5.1.4393.23459 (Jan 12, 2012)
- Enhanced Game Browser:
- You can now see star ratings, and read reviews and comments, directly within Quest. You also have more control – from the Options window, you can change the download folder, and enable or disable the Sandpit and Adult categories. Also, the Adult category option can be “locked out” with a registry setting (see “Configuring Quest” on the wiki for details) – handy if you’re rolling out Quest on a school network for example.
- Simple Mode:
- Hides Quest’s more advanced functionality in the Editor – great for beginners, or for using Quest with younger children. The Editor becomes stripped right down to the basics – only rooms and objects are displayed in the tree, without the distracting “clutter” of functions, walkthroughs and so on. The Script Editor is cut down so only the most important script commands are displayed when adding a command. But full power is only ever a click away – you can toggle Simple Mode on or off at any time from the Tools menu.
- Walkthrough Enhancements:
- You can now include walkthroughs in published .quest files, and the new walkthrough assertions feature allows you to create automated tests. See Walkthrough Assertions on the wiki for details.
- Loops:
- There is a new “while” loop, and a new step parameter for “for”.
- Use/Give:
- These have been moved to their own tab in the object editor, which is now more flexible. There are now separate lists for “Use (other object) on this” and “Use this on (other object)”, so you can set up a “use A on B” relationship from either A or B.
- Hyperlinks:
- You can now customise the look of hyperlink menus – change the menu fonts and colours, and turn link underlining on or off. It’s now easier to create custom hyperlinks – the new ObjectLink function makes it easier to create an object hyperlink, and the new CommandLink function lets you create a hyperlink that will run any command.
- Metadata:
- From the game editor, you can now enter a description and choose a category. There is a new game ID which will be used to uniquely identify a game. This will make it possible to upload a game to textadventures.co.uk without having to re-enter descriptions etc. on the web upload form.
- Better error reporting:
- Error messages are now more detailed, so if your game won’t load you should have a better idea why. If Quest crashes, you can now submit an error report online.
- Comments in the Editor:
- Script comments (lines beginning with “//”) are no longer stripped away when you open an ASLX file in the Editor – comments are now viewable in the Script Editor, and you can add and edit them.
- Videos now automatically start.
- You can now turn off sounds from the Options window.
New in Quest 5.0.2 Build 5.0.4359.21471 (Dec 9, 2011)
- Quest has been completely rewritten.
- It is now free and open source, and much more powerful.
New in Quest 5.0.1 Build 5.0.4303.33698 (Oct 28, 2011)
- New feature: Players can now customise fonts and colours for a game from the new Options window.
- New feature: Container “open” and “close” messages can be customised per container.
- Improved: More useful error messages if Quest can’t load a game file due to an error in one of your scripts.
- Fixed: Various issues with Quest 4 games – locked exits in CAS files, sounds in ZIP files, and timers running at the wrong time.
- Fixed: Memory leaks in the Editor which could cause Quest to hang when switching to/from the Code View with large games.
New in Quest 5.0 Build 5.0.4259.15119 (Aug 31, 2011)
- Easy to create games. It’s easy to get started creating games with Quest 5. The visual editor is designed to be intuitive – everything is shown in plain English, and the aim is that features are easy to find by exploring the menus and tabs. You don’t need to learn programming syntax, or spend time trying to get the system to understand you. I believe that no other system is as easy to get started with.
- Easy to play games. I would guess that the vast majority of people in the world have never played a text adventure game. Quest is designed so that new players should be able to easily figure out how to play – see my earlier blog post on Eliminating “Guess the Verb”.
- Powerful. Behind the visual editor is a fully featured programming language. This means that although Quest is easy to learn, it doesn’t restrict what is possible. See my earlier blog post about the design of the Script Editor.
- Modern. I believe we should try to think of text adventure games as a new format. Many people, particularly those under 30, give me a worryingly blank look when I say I’m trying to revive the text adventure – they don’t remember them in the first place. So there is no sense in trying to emulate the 1980′s. The modern text adventure must be part of the web – it must be possible to play games in a browser, and easily share links to them. Games should be able to embed anything on the web – links, pictures, sounds and YouTube videos can all be part of the modern text adventure experience. Quest games use HTML and Javascript whether they’re being played online or offline, which means they can be integrated with websites, and there is also the potential to create innovative new user interfaces for games. No other system offers this flexibility.
- Shareable. It’s fairly pointless making games if other people don’t play them. Quest makes it easy to download and play games with its integrated game browser – there’s no need to visit a separate site, as you can easily download games directly inside the application. When you create a game and upload it to textadventures.co.uk, other people can play online in their web browser – there is no need for them to download any software, so they can play a game on Windows, Mac and Linux – even iPhone, iPad and Android, though there is still some work to be done to make the site easy to use with those devices. No other system makes it this easy for you to share your creations.
- Flexible. Quest is fully open source, and under a fairly permissive licence (Ms-PL, which is similar to the MIT licence). This means you can use and adapt Quest for use in closed source applications, to create desktop games or to power websites. No other system lets you do this.
- International. Quest 5 supports multiple languages. Out of the box, you can create games in English, French, German, Spanish or Dutch. Quest’s standard text comes from one file, meaning it is straightforward to create your own translation.
New in Quest 4.1.5 Build 4.1.125 (Jul 18, 2011)
- Improved performance of loading QSG files.
- Fixed bugs:
- Quest was unnecessarily checking for matching pairs of brackets within text blocks.
New in Quest 4.1.4 Build 4.1.121 (Jan 7, 2011)
- Quest is now free, and there is no longer a separate Quest Pro product. Quest now includes all of the additional features that were previously only part of Quest Pro, including the Quest Compiler, Quest Packager and unrestricted QDK.
New in Quest 4.1.3 (Jan 7, 2011)
- Improved performance of extracting resources from CAS files.
- Fixed bugs:
- In games written for Quest 3.1 and earlier, object "look" scripts would not run.
- When extracting a resource from a CAS file, only the first attempt would be successful.
New in Quest 4.1.2 Build 4.1.100 (Jan 18, 2010)
- Fixed bugs:
- Slow performance when running procedures in large games.
- A run-time error could occur when typing "put on" if that command did not exist.
- Locked exits weren't working in packaged games.
- Some container-related messages were not present in the LDF file.
New in Quest 4.1.1 Build 4.1.90 (Sep 7, 2009)
- Some expressions were being calculated incorrectly. Quest would always perform addition before subtraction, leading to erroneous results. It now performs division and multiplication first, left-to-right, then addition and subtraction, left-to-right.
- Dynamically created directional exits without scripts would cause a run-time error.
- Entering a dynamically created room would cause run-time error.
- If an object's parent tag did not match the exact parent object, it wouldn't be listed in the contents.
New in Quest 4.1 Build 4.1.86 (Jul 20, 2009)
- Object prefixes and suffixes are now used when disambiguating objects, so if object apple has a prefix of "an", the player can type "look at an apple" or "x an app" etc.
- New quest.doorways string variable replaces the old quest.doorways.* variable, with a complete formatted list of exits from the current room.
- When disambiguating an object name, extra spaces are now ignored, so e.g. "look at banana" now works properly.
- Significantly improved performance when loading and saving QSG files.
- A new variable #quest.error.object# is now populated when disambiguation of an object fails. This could be used in a "badthing" error message to display which object name failed to be resolved.
- New "alreadytaken" error displays "You already have that" if the player tries to take an object which they already have in their inventory (previously Quest displayed a misleading badthing "I can't see that here").
- Quest could previously crash if there was a loop of object parents, e.g. if A's parent was B, and B's parent was A. This no longer occurs, and Quest now logs an error message if a loop is detected in an object parent hierarchy.
- Fixed bugs:
- $lengthof(...)$ function was returning an incorrect length for strings that started on ended with space characters.
- Comment lines were incorrectly being checked for opening and closing brackets and variable characters.
- If the last object in a room had a prefix or suffix containing a comma, the word "and" would be added in the wrong place in the object list.
- Brackets in strings passed to functions would truncate the list of parameters. Quest now checks for the closing bracket nearest the end $ character.
- Typing a command followed by a space would bring up a disambiguation menu of all objects.
- Resources in CAS files using nested folders didn't work.
- Putting something in a container implicitly makes that container "seen", for games with ASL version 410 and later. Previously, if the player put something in a container that they had not looked at, they wouldn't be able to look at that item until they looked at the parent, as the parent was not marked as "seen".
New in Quest 4.05 Build 4.0.95 (Apr 27, 2009)
- Fixed bugs:
- fixed various crashes when running using JAWS.
- when connecting to a QuestNet game with a blank title, Quest wouldn't successfully connect to the game.
- when double-clicking a QSG file in Explorer, if the ASL/CAS file was not found and you chose not to find it, quest.exe would remain running in the background.
- The word "and" was hard-coded (for room descriptions "You can see ..., ... and ..."). This has now been added to the LDF file so it can be translated.
- Variable names containing capital letters could cause a run-time error.
- If a game contained parameters with no end-of-parameter ">" character, no error would be reported.
New in Quest 4.04 (Nov 30, 2008)
- Redesigned visual editor QDK so it is now even easier to create your own games.