Hello,

Here is an update on the progress of the continuing Alpha Development of the "thinBasic Adventure Builder" interactive fiction/text adventure project...

http://tab.thinbasic.com/

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ALPHA Version History Change Log UPDATE
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05 Oct 2008 (Release 44)
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*FIX. Starting location at the beginning of game now displays cyclic elements correctly in Player.

*NEW. "sfxon" and "sfxoff" actions to turn sound on/off during a game.

*FIX. A YES response to "Play again? on a "gameover" action now correctly performs a "restart" action instead of a "replay" action.

*FIX. "messX", "sysmessX" and "revmessX" actions now responding correctly in TAB Player. (sorry)

*FIX. Text finally displays correctly now in Player after a game "restart", "replay" and "gameover"

*NEW. "Prompt for Sounds" checkbox option in Game Settings Editor. If ticked a messagebox will ask Player at the start of the game whether sound (music and sfx) should be on or off.

*NEW. "Disable Menu" checkbox option in Game Settings Editor. If ticked the TAB Player MenuBar will not be attached to the Player Dialog Window. Players will need to manually type in 'save' and 'load' to store or restore saved game positions or 'quit' to exit a game.

*NEW. "menuon" and "menuoff" ACTIONS to show/hide TAB Player MenuBar.

*CHANGED. TAB Player Window Title now reads simply: "TAB Player"

20 Sep 2008 (Release 43)
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*FIX "mess" action followed by string instead of digit causing crash.

*FIX. Enabled a blank Game Window Title to be accepted in Settings Editor.

*FIX. Numbers can now be entered into Deletions Listbox on Vocabulary Editor.

*ADDED. n1=n2; n2=n1; n1<>n2'; n2<>n1 parser variable checking CONDITIONS

*FIX. "replay" action in TAB Player. Also turnscount adjustment for a typed replay/restart and a "gameover" action

*FIX. Bug in character movement for characters with a walk pattern causing TAB to crash

*NEW. Author can now control text in StatusBar (3 text panes). System Messages 81, 82 and 83 can be customized and can include message format %tags% such as %score%, %turns%, %brief% etc. See demos.

*NEW. Extra Conditions added on request:

objlocn1=carrworn - is object n1 carried or worn?
objlocn2=carrworn
objlocn1=carrworncont - is object n1 in a carried or worn container?
objlocn2=carrworncont
objlocn1=roomcont - is object n1 in a container in the current room?
objlocn2=roomcont

objlocn1<>carrworn - is object n1 not carried and not worn?
objlocn2<>carrworn
objlocn1<>carrworncont - is object n1 not in a carried or worn container?
objlocn2<>carrworncont
objlocn1<>roomcont - is object n1 not in a container in the current room?
objlocn2<>roomcont

*NEW. "call_CONDITION" is an ACTION that allows you to call a condition check whilst processing actions after the [acts] tag in a coding entry. All conditions can be prefixed by "call_" to cause TAB to briefly jump out of ACTIONS to check the specified condition. eg: #call_flag30=2# : Is flag 30 equal to 2?
If the condition is passed as TRUE then TAB continues with the following ACTIONS. If it is FALSE then TAB exits that entry. This useful ACTION replaces the little used and not working correctly "then" action command which is now no longer supported by TAB and has been superceded by the "call_condition" action.

*NEW "call_ACTION" is a CONDITION that allows you to call an action during condition processing before the [acts] tag in a coding entry. All actions can be prefixed by "call_" to cause TAB to briefly jump out of CONDITIONS to do the specified action. eg: #call_cmessI am a message.# : Print a cmess.
TAB then continues checking the subsequent conditions as normal.
The "call_" commands will prove to be a very useful addition to TAB and they can be used in Response, Script1 and Script 2.

*NEW. (ADVANCED TAB CODERS) Character "charmsg" ACTION extended to include optional facility to include Character compliance level messages. If using this note that flags 501 to 600 will need to be reserved to hold the "trust/compliance" level for each Character. New CONDITION "trust=X" and "trust<>X" ; where X is the compliance level held in the corresponding flag linked to the Character being commanded.
More info on this in TAB forum/Email Group.

*FIX. Coding fix for Script1 and Script 2 "else" processing.

*FIX. Some minor fixes.

12 Sep 2008 (Release 42)
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*NEW. "Create New" button on Message Editor. Finds and goes to the first free available empty message in the database.

*IMPROVED. Tab Editor Tooltips (help balloons) can be disabled by deleting the blank file "tooltips.txt" from the TAB main directory.
To reinstate simply restore a new blank text file of same name. By default the file exists. (tooltips ON)

*FIXED. Strange quirk: Typing "[" character in player input command causing TAB to crash.

*FIXED. In graphic game if any image file not present when a "picture showing action" is called TAB does not now produce "Invalid Action" message dialog.

*FIXED. Load/Save buttons on coding editors now work correctly. They save and load in .txt format and not incorrect .rtf format.

*FIXED. "%anyn1%" and "%anyn2%" tags responding correctly in Response entries after "it/them/him/her" detection.

*CHANGED. Multiple commands in same input line are now output separated with a newline.

*FIXED. Input textbox now inactive after a user "quit" or "gameover" action.

20 Aug 2008 (Release 41)
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*NEW. Search facility on Vocabulary Editor. TAB also checks new insertions and warns the author if a duplicate word already exists in the current Vocabulary category. Entries are also checked to see if words start and begin with "/" character.

*CHANGED. TAB Player "More text" prompt changed to System Message 23: "Press [SPACEBAR] To Continue..." This function is now more stable and working better now.

*MODIFIED. "keypress" ACTION command now uses System Message 23: "Press [SPACEBAR] To Continue..." which is now printed in the player input textbox until SPACE is pressed to continue program execution.

*IMPROVED. "cleartext" ACTION command now working properly. Clears adventure window of all text. Text begins scrolling from bottom of richedit after this action.

06 Aug 2008 (Release 40.2)
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*FIX. Space missing in "objlistoff" style of inventory listing when listing objects in carried container

*FIX. Coding flaw in #else# processing which was affecting game logic.

*ADDED. "door_demo.tab". Example door puzzle. (Thanks to sandyrepope)

02 Aug 2008 (Release 40.1)
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*FIX.The following ACTIONS now work correctly
swapobjsX,Y
swapcharsX,Y
swapflagsX,Y

*FIX. %anyn1% and %anyn2% text format tags causing TAB to get stuck in loop/crash if used out of context when no noun1 or noun2 parser variable existed.

http://tab.thinbasic.com/

Regards,
catventure.