HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: wang@ocf.berkeley.edu (Albert Sze-Wei Wang)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.manga
Subject: Re: Rumiko Takahashi may be coming to America!
Date: 18 Dec 1992 05:35:25 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: maelstrom.berkeley.edu

In article <2B30E3D5.839@news.service.uci.edu> jwinkelman@vmsa.oac.uci.edu writes:
>In article <1992Dec17.014311.3564@nic.csu.net>, shogun@sutro.SFSU.EDU (Mike M. Tatsugawa) writes...
>

>>Just write a short note saying that you are a fan of hers and that you 
>>would like to see her at AX or AY or AZ convention.  Nothing fancy, but
>>volume and speed are quite important!  (If you Aussies could tell
>>her that you are coming over, all the better.)  We should keep this
>>off the net for a few days, but get those letters out!  50 cents for
>>1st class AIR MAIL to Japan.  The address is:

>>Rumiko Takahashi
>>c/o Shogakukan
>>2-3-1 Hitotsubashi
>>Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101


>Just wondering: doesn't the destination address have to be written in the language of that country?

Nope.  Believe it or not most Japanese mail carriers can read English.  Go
figure.


Albert


-- 
The Daimyo               | Never forget love
wang@ocf.berkeley.edu    | Like a dream,
                         | Please tell me the secret...
Ningyo Tsukai            |     -Eve Tokimatsuri from Himitsu Kudasai, MZ23 p2
Newsgroups: rec.arts.manga,alt.manga
From: doi@jrd.dec.com (Hitoshi Doi =?ISO-2022-JP?B?GyRCRVowZj9OO1YbKEI=?= )
Subject: H2
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
X-Phone-Reply-To: 045-336-5358 (work)/045-320-0492 (home) [in Japan]
X-Mime-Processing-By: mime-post v3.1, garfield.jrd.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Japan, R&D center
Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 06:23:37 GMT
X-Mts: smtp

Not much activity here..

I just read volume 1 of H2 (Adachi Mitsuru).
Volume 1 contains the first 9 stories.

It's great!  The best manga since Touch!

Now I can't wait for volume 2..
--
Hitoshi Doi, International Open Systems Engineering        doi@jrd.dec.com
Japan Research and Development Center               decwrl!jrd.dec.com!doi
Digital Equipment Corporation Japan      [from JUNET: doi@jrd.dec-j.co.jp]
Newsgroups: rec.arts.manga
From: mikem@comspec.com (Ragnarok)
Subject: Re: Golden Boy
Reply-To: mikem@comspec.com (Ragnarok)
Organization: Comspec Communications - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Distribution: ont
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 14:39:54 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.manga
Keywords: Golden Boy
Disclaimer: Comspec Communications knows nothing of what I write.

hsuc@ecf.toronto.edu (HSU CHIEN-LANG) writes:

| 	Hi, I hope someone can help me on a question I posted the other
| 	(day, which no one ever answered). I am reading a short stories
| 	on FC which titled as "Golden Boy". Does anyone know what is the
| 	author's name? I can read it in kanji but I don't know how to
| 	pronounce it. And also is this short series on sale already?

I thought I had already answered this a week ago.  Well, one more time...

Golden Boy is by Egawa Tatsuya (of Magical Taru-ruuto-kun fame,
among other things).  It's only up to the third (possibly fourth
by the time I write this) story so far, so it's unlikely that
volumes have been compiled and made available (which is what it
seems you're asking about in your last question above).  I'm not
sure, but I think Family Comic may have started running it from the
second story.
--
Early in life I had to choose between honest    | Ragnarok - mikem@comspec.com
arrogance and hypocritical humility.  I chose   |------------------------------
arrogance...                                    | UUCP:  ...uunet!uunet.ca!
                          -- Frank Lloyd Wright |           comspec!mikem
Newsgroups: rec.arts.manga,rec.arts.anime
From: thomat@vccsouth30.its.rpi.edu (Todd Michael Thomas)
Subject: ranma gifs...&contest
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 23:26:24 GMT

sorry... busy with finals... in a few days or so... =D
gifs and contest results...
-todd
thomat@rpi.edu
From: rshiroma@drew.drew.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.manga
Subject: Re: Comic Dragon issue 2
Date: 15 Dec 92 05:49:55 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Drew University

In article <2B2AD026.19181@news.service.uci.edu>, amelman@orion.oac.uci.edu (Wan Dabada) writes:
> -------------------
> 
> thought.  Other stories include Mee-kun, 

Hmm.  I think I have to get Comic Dragon, since I like MEE-kun.  Does 
anyone have the list of his manga?  I think Action Hip and Candy Time 
are carrying his manga, it's a little hard to keep track of his 
current works though.  And, does anyone know which magazine was Moeyo 
Tetsujin on?
-----
W2/JH1CUV	(ohayou gozaimasu no kyoushi-ya san)
Xref: sparky rec.arts.manga:1930 rec.arts.anime:27421
From: tdinh@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Anime Addict)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.manga,rec.arts.anime
Subject: Re: BGC LD #4 question
Date: 18 Dec 92 18:20:33 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.manga
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of California, San Diego

In article <Curt.Fortenberry.5.0@AtlantaGA.NCR.COM> Curt.Fortenberry@AtlantaGA.NCR.COM (Curt Fortenberry) writes:
>I have the chance to get a great deal on the LD for Bubblegum Crisis.  It 
>has episodes 7 & 8, subtitled in english.  I had seen a posting recently 
>about one of the LD that was supposedly mastered wrong.  Was it BGC LD #4 or 
>was it another BGC LD?  

It's BGC Vol 1 that you're talking about. It has a significant
hissing problem that has been addressed and is currently being
checked by the people at AnimEigo. According to Woodhead-San, Vol
2-4 will not have any hiss.        


                                   Thien

--------------------------------------------------------------
Ota-Kun's Top Five List of Things We Never Want to See
5)"Minmay Attack" Used to Demoralize Iraqi Troops.
4)ANY Gundam to Fall into Macek's Hands.
3)Enrique Conty Losing his UseNet Account.
2)Carl Macek Hired to Translate for AnimEigo.  
And the #1 Thing We Never Want to See:  
1)Reba West Singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl!!!!
From: ptd2@po.CWRU.Edu (Palmer T. Davis)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Subject: Amusing bloopers during development (spoilers)
Date: 16 Dec 1992 11:55:47 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: ptd2@po.CWRU.Edu (Palmer T. Davis)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


This is what happens at 4:30 AM when you've been hacking around the
insides of your new object run-time library for several hours and
accidentally mix up the calling order of a certain function:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ADVINT v1.2.2 - Copyright (c) 1986, by David Betz (and then slightly hacked)

Somewhere nearby is Colossal Cave, where others have found fortunes in treasure
and gold, though it is rumored that some who enter are never seen again. Magic
is said to work in the cave. I will be your eyes and hands. (Should you get
stuck, type ``help'' for some general hints. For information on how to end your
adventure, etc., type ``info''.)

COLOSSAL CAVE: An Interactive Fantasy
Copyright (c) 1993 by Palmer T. Davis. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 197mumble by Will Crowther and Don Woods.
Release 1 / Serial number 930101

End of Road
You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you
is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully.

>SUPERBRIEF
Super-brief descriptions.

>E
Inside Building
There is a bottle here.
There are tasty food here.
There is a brass lamp here.
There are some keys on the ground here.

>TAKE LAMP AND KEYS
brass lamp: Taken.
Taken.

>W
End of Road

>S
Stream Valley

>S
Slit in Streambed

>S
Outside Grate
The grate is closed.

>UNLOCK GRATE WITH KEY
The grate is now unlocked.

>OPEN GRATE
Opened.

>D
Below Grate
The grate is open.

>W
Cobble Crawl
There is a small wicker cage discarded nearby.

>W
It is pitch black. If you proceed, you are likely to fall into a pit.

>TURN ON THE LAMP
The brass lamp is now on.
Debris Room
A three-foot black rod with a rusty star at one end lies nearby.

>XYZZY

>LOOK
You are in a debris room filled with stuff washed in from the surface. A low
wide passage with cobbles becomes plugged with mud and debris here, but an
awkward canyon leads upward and west. A note on the wall says ``Magic Word 
XYZZY''.
A three-foot black rod with a rusty star at one end lies nearby.

>INVENTORY
You are carrying:
  an Inside Building (providing light)
    The Inside Building contains:
      a bottle
      tasty food
  a brass lamp (providing light)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does anyone else have amusing war stories?
-- 
Palmer T. Davis      ___
<ptd2@po.cwru.edu>   \X/   cthread.  cthread_fork().  Fork, thread, fork!
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
From: magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson)
Subject: Re: Amusing bloopers during development (spoilers)
Organization: Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Sweden
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 16:33:07 GMT

In article <librik.724573474@cory.Berkeley.EDU> librik@cory.Berkeley.EDU (David Librik) writes:
>ptd2@po.CWRU.Edu (Palmer T. Davis) writes:
>
>
>>This is what happens at 4:30 AM when you've been hacking around the
>>insides of your new object run-time library for several hours and
>>accidentally mix up the calling order of a certain function:
>
>>COLOSSAL CAVE: An Interactive Fantasy
>>Copyright (c) 1993 by Palmer T. Davis. All rights reserved.
>>Copyright (c) 197mumble by Will Crowther and Don Woods.
>>Release 1 / Serial number 930101
>
>Is ADVENT copyrighted?  I don't think so.  

Unless explicitly placed in the public domain, all software is
copyrighted. I don't know if ADVENT was explicitly, or only
implicitly, placed in the PD, but I don't recall seeing any such
notice in the source of any of the versions I've seen. 

>In which case, you shouldn't be
>able to declare a copyright on it for yourself, either.  (Correct me if I'm
>wrong.)  If you're going to port ADVENT, and it's in the public domain, is
>your port is in the public domain as well?

I think Palmer is correct, though he may be wording the copyright
notice a bit unfortunately. If I've understood correctly, what he's
doing is *not* just a port, but a re-write of the game, which extends
the descriptions and available commands. 

Whatever the status of ADVENT, the new Advsys version is probably
different enough from the Fortran original to make it a new original
creation in the eyes of the law.

There is precedent for this, BTW: Gordon Letwin ported ADVENT to
MS-DOS, made some small changes, and sold it commercially as the
"Microsoft Adventure" (one of the very first programs available for
the IBM PC). 


All of the above said with the reservation that I'm not a lawyer and
don't know nearly enough about the law to be able to make pronouncements
like this. ;-)


              Magnus Olsson                | \e+      /_
    Department of Theoretical Physics      |  \  Z   / q
        University of Lund, Sweden         |   >----<           
 magnus@thep.lu.se, thepmo@seldc52.bitnet  |  /      \===== g
PGP key available via finger or on request | /e-      \q
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
From: jeras@oracle.com (John Eras)
Subject: Re: Tads 2.0 Mac: How to Compile?
Organization: Oracle Corp., Belmont CA
	<1992Dec10.084811.20101@ncrcae.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM>
	<1992Dec10.233915.24418@starbase.trincoll.edu>
Distribution: rec
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 20:18:19 GMT
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by an unauthenticated user
              at Oracle Corporation.  The opinions expressed are those
              of the user and not necessarily those of Oracle.

I tried following up on this yesterday, but I don't think it worked,
so I'll try again...

In article <1992Dec10.233915.24418@starbase.trincoll.edu> rbryan@Mail.trincoll.edu (Russell L. Bryan) writes:
>Although I DO have a large-screen monitor, and therefore have no problem
>at all with the window sizes, I must agree that there are design problems
>in the compiler's interface.  However, I have to keep in mind that Mike
>Roberts
>is, first and foremost, an IBM user.  His knowledge of window usage may
>not
>be all that advanced.

Ouch!  I'm sure Mike will be happy to hear you said that! :)  Actually,
he's done lots of programming for both mac's and pc's.  It's not so much
a question of knowledge as it is time.  He's expended a considerable
amount of time already on the mac port and on TADS in general (and,
frankly, I don't think the shareware market is worth it).

>That's the problem with small companies.  If TADS was published by a large
>commercial distributor, it would (cost a lot more) be ported to the Mac by
>an expert Mac programmer, and would probably be loaded with extra
>features,
>such as an in-house text editor which could check for syntatic errors
>during
>the coding process, a la THINK Pascal.

On the other hand, there isn't as big a market for a TADS compiler as
there is for a PASCAL (or C) compiler, so these large companies can
afford to throw teams of developers onto these projects and add all
the bells and whistles.  As you said, these compilers are also usually
a bit more expensive than TADS.  TADS may not necessarily have all the
features of your favorite CodeMaster 2000 (tm) compiler, but I think
it's great for the money.

--
jeras@us.oracle.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
From: tob@world.std.com (Tom O Breton)
Subject: Re: What words to use and recognize
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 22:27:20 GMT

Lars:

[...How you would keep me from using any of the electric eyes solutions
except the right one...]

But you see, your cleverness in defeating my cleverness does not address the
thing at hand. The author can't drop by and retro-fix for every creative
thing the player tries. Never be able to catch 'em all.

Which is why I suggest what I think is a fairly safe, easy, and flexible
mechanism for keeping the player informed of what they can do.

        Tom

PS:

> You realize this was a spoiler (not for me, but perhaps not everybody
> reading this has played the game)?

No, since I was just repeating an earlier message on this newsgroup and
giving no new information. Anyhow, if anyone was really spoiled by it then I
apologize.

-- 
The Tom spreads its huge, scaly wings and soars into the wild sky...      
up...       up...     out of sight...   (tob@world.std.com)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
From: neilg@fraser.sfu.ca (Neil K. Guy)
Subject: Re: hints and How Do You Author?
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 09:27:07 GMT

pww+@A.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (Peter Weyhrauch) writes:

>On a (semi)related note, I have a question about how authors invent
>their interactive fictions.  Do they (you?) say:

 [ various ways of inventing a TA deleted for brevity. ]

 Maybe we should have a survey among TA writers... I personally am in
the:

>"Ah, here is a really cool story-line.  Let me see what sorts of
>puzzles fit into the story."

 category, but I wouldn't be surprised if people who've actually
finished a successful text adventure to be in a different category
altogether. (like coming up with a good general theme and then coming
up with lots of cool, imaginative and clever puzzles that fit within
the general theme.)

 - Neil K. (n_k_guy@sfu.ca)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
From: jondr@sco.COM (Karen Silkwood's car)
Subject: Re: What words to use and recognize
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 17:39:49 GMT


pww+@A.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (Peter Weyhrauch) writes:
>A case in point is the Oz system.  We currently generate all our
>narrative text, and soon will generate character dialogue as well.
>Since the same lexicon is used for generation and parsing, any word
>used in generation is parseable.  The grammars are currently
>different, but encode (roughly) the same functionality.  Notice that
>you could use a more universal parser if you chose.  The perhaps
>unacceptable downside is that our output is uninspired for now.  Part
>of our research efforts are aimed at doing stylistic generation.  For
>your curiousity, I'll attach a fragment at the end of my post.

interesting research and no doubt leading towards a satisfying conclusion
but i guess i'm a bit of a conservative when it comes to IF.  i had many
many hours of entertainment playing infocom games as a teenager and i have
no problem with games coming out nowadays that live up to the standard set
by infocom.  to wit: imaginative, interesting prose and a sometimes
frustrating parser.  if that means i'll be pulling my hair out for a few
hours trying to figure out why PUSH SATCHEL IN FRONT OF PANEL doesn't work
while COVER PANEL WITH SATCHEL does, then so be it.

-- 
Jon Drukman (God's personal DJ)                 uunet!sco!jondr   jondr@sco.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was an infinitely hot and dense dot.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
From: blasius@gmd.de (Volker Blasius)
Subject: Re: Looking for FAQ
Organization: GMD, Sankt Augustin, Germany
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 21:51:42 GMT

Hello Bill,

>Will someone post Torkington's FAQ "Adventure Authoring Systems"
>or provide an ftp site where I can find it?  Thanks much.

It is available at 
ftp.gmd.de:/if-archive/rec.arts.int-fiction/authoring-systems.FAQ

Volker

---
Volker Blasius
Senior Doorstop, Gesellschaft fuer Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung
---
Origin: a maze of twisty little passages, all different (2:243/50.37)
From: avjewe@.umd.edu (Andrew D. Jewell)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Subject: What words to use and recognize
Date: 15 Dec 92 18:57:29 GMT
Organization: U of Maryland, Center for Automation Research, Coll. Pk., MD 20742

I would like to hereby assert the Two Fundamental Laws of Parsing

The First Law of Parsing :

	Any word displayed by the game should be recognized by the parser.

The Second Law of Parsing :

	One should be able to "win" the game using only words displayed
	by the game.

(Both of these could conceivably be checked at compile time.)

At first glance there is nothing new here. If the games says "there is a red
book here" you know to use the words "red" and "book" to refer to it, and if
a game follows the First Law of Parsing, you can even ask
>IS THERE A RED BOOK HERE
and get a reasonable response.

Any of you who agreed with the Second Law of Parsing should realize
that it does not limit the words to nouns and adjectives. Thus to comply
with the Second Law, the game must display all verbs and adverbs needed
to "win" the game. (Yes, I include adverbs. They increase the power and
flexibility of commands, and don't create any problems that verbs haven't
already created.)

I have no idea how to make this work well.

A good start might include :

>EXAMINE BOOK
It looks like a perfectly ordinary red book to me.

>WHAT CAN I DO WITH THE RED BOOK
One can read, open, close or throw a book.

>HOW CAN ONE OPEN A BOOK
One can open gently or strongly.

>LIST VERBS
>LIST ADVERBS
>LIST NOUNS
...

But these do nothing to help fulfill the Second Law

Here's a really bad attempt :

>EXAMINE BOOK
It looks like a perfectly ordinary red book to me, the kind that opens on
the right.

>OPEN BOOK
You gently open the book, as if starting to read. If you closed it more
strongly, it might rip.

So the question is :
How can we inform users WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE GAME of the verbs and
adverbs available to them. To force players to think about the right thing
to DO while freeing them from thoughts about the right thing to SAY.


Andy Jewell
avjewe@cfar.umd.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
From: Russell L. Bryan <rbryan@Mail.trincoll.edu>
Subject: Re: What words to use and recognize
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A753D9DECB0131A3@downes1-163.dynamic.trincoll.edu>
X-Xxdate: Tue, 15 Dec 92 23:52:14 GMT
Organization: Starving Writers of America (sole member)
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d12
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 23:48:07 GMT

I quote from Michael J. Robert's manual for TADS, the section "Writing
Better Adventures" :

A certain number of verbs will work on pretty much any object in an
adventure game; for example: take, drop, open, close, examine, put an
object in (or on) another object, give object to a character.  All games
have these verbs.  Now, imagine writing a game with only these verbs, plus
one more special verb: "use....."

.....It may appear that limiting your verbs in this manner makes puzzles
too
obvious, since the player doesn't have to think of the actual thing to do
with
an object, but can just "use" it and have the game figure out what to do.
 In
fact, it encourages you, the designer, to choose objects that have exactly
one very obvious use; doing so means that the "use" verb detracts nothing
from the puzzle, since it's obvious that you push a button and turn a
knob,
and that you'd do nothing else with them.  Hence, this forces you to avoid
obsucre verbs that apply to just one object as you choose your puzzles.

--

While I do not advocate limiting a parser to the verb "use," the article
does bring up a good point.  Our job as designers is not to fool the
player.
You say you want to use adverbs, but do you want adverbs to be a necessary
part of the game?  If so, then will the player always have to try to guess
in what MANNER he is supposed to do something?  If not, then the parser
will
merely ignore the adverb anyway -- why bother?

The only possible use of an adverb would be if you were trying to do
something
which ran against the obvious way something is done.  Say, perhaps, that
there was a monster in your game with poor eyesight who knows to attack
only
because something moves quickly across his field of vision.  Then, "Go
west
slowly" might be appropriate.

I stress that ONLY in extreme cases such as this should adverbs be used. 
If
you DO use adverbs, I strongly recommend that you include adverbs in your
example vocabulary list.  In general, I'd say don't use them at all.  If
the troll is keeping an eye on the chicken, I sure as hell am not going to
take the chicken "slowly," or "casually," or "daintily."  I'm gonna grab
the damn thing and take off.

-- Russ
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
From: tob@world.std.com (Tom O Breton)
Subject: Re: What words to use and recognize
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 22:36:18 GMT

I have one thing to add to the discussion:

Since it should generally be obvious to the character-in-the-fiction what
they can do with objects in the fictional world;

and since there is no way an IF writer can truly support all the uses a
player can think of (I can think of at least a hundred things a brick might
be used for);

I suggest that there be a standard verb (taking no game time) that describes
what things you can do with an object. Something like "WHAT_CAN_I_DO_WITH <X>"
(Anyone got a good 1-word synonym for 'what can I do with'?)

For example:

> WHAT CAN I DO WITH CUP?
You can use a CUP in these ways:
  drop
  pick up
  give CUP to (X)
  use
  fill
  drink from
  command

Where 'command CUP' would be a catchall for command words that you
deliberately withheld from a player. (Presumably providing some clever way to
discover them)



BTW, please direct flames to the effect that "This takes away the mystery" to
/dev/null. A game where you don't know what you can do doesn't create
mystery, it creates boredom and gives text games a bad name. You can't create
mystery by default.

        Tom

-- 
The Tom spreads its huge, scaly wings and soars into the wild sky...      
up...       up...     out of sight...   (tob@world.std.com)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction