![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.ams.org\/phdplus\/files\/2017\/12\/Osborne_1_open.jpg\")
<\/a>The Osborne 1, where I first played Zork and other interactive fiction games. Photo by Bilby, used under Creative Commons License, https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/deed.en<\/p><\/div>\n
Thank you, Mike Spivey<\/a>, for writing and sending me a link to A Beauty Cold and Austere (<\/em>ABCA), a new math-filled, text-based, interactive fiction game. What is text-based interactive fiction, you ask? Or maybe you don\u2019t because you know what it is and are already playing at the link below.\u00a0 In case you don\u2019t know, playing interactive fiction is like reading a Choose Your Own Adventure book, except with a lot more choices and built in puzzles. The game describes a situation in text, and you type in what you want to do\u2014you can try to do anything you want, though not everything will get you anywhere. \u00a0Usually these games involve solving puzzles and have fun built in jokes and Easter eggs.<\/p>\n Mike is Professor in and Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at University of Puget Sound.\u00a0 He also maintains a math blog<\/a> and does other cool stuff, and got into interactive fiction in the 1980s through the games Trinity<\/em> and Zork<\/em> (he writes a little about this in a blog post about ABCA). Though it is his first game, ABCA was highly praised at the 2017 annual Interactive Fiction Competition. <\/a><\/p>\n Please indulge my nostalgia for a moment: My family got our first computer as a hand me down in maybe 1990.\u00a0 It was an Osborne 1<\/a> from the early 1980s, with a tiny screen built in.\u00a0 It came to us with WordStar and two games that I remember extremely well.\u00a0 One was really hard: you steered a plane\/rocket through obstacles, and I was not coordinated enough to play.\u00a0 However, I fell in love with Zork,<\/a><\/em> an interactive fiction game created in the late 70s by members of the MIT<\/a>\u00a0Dynamic Modelling Group, and in fact one of the first interactive fiction games.<\/p>\n Zork<\/em> was a perfect combination for me, a kid who loved puzzles and reading. I never got too into graphics-based games (except for a brief love affair with a Gameboy, which I lost and mourned greatly), but I played Zork<\/em> and similar games quite a bit as a kid.\u00a0 And then I completely forgot about these games for about 20 years. Until earlier this week, when Mike sent me a link to ABCA. As soon as I started typing, it all came back, only with special added fun from combining something I already loved with math.<\/p>\n For those of you who want to quit reading and just play the game now, you can jump right in and play online here (just click the “Play On-line”\u00a0button near\u00a0the upper right-hand corner) [1]<\/a>: \u00a0http:\/\/ifdb.tads.org\/viewgame?id=y9y7jozi0l76bb82<\/a><\/p>\n I have really enjoyed playing ABCA, so I figure many AMS blog readers and their students would too. I asked Mike some questions about developing the game and if he\u2019d be willing to describe it for the blog. Instead of paraphrasing, I\u2019ll just let him tell you about it:<\/p>\n \u201cThe game mostly covers undergraduate-level mathematics material, especially mathematics that you would see in the first two years of college.\u00a0 I teach this material regularly, and so I think about it a lot.\u00a0 But there are some mathematical\u00a0extras thrown in there, plus a decent amount of the history of mathematics.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the first game I’ve written.\u00a0 I had a couple of my students beta test it for me, which was fun.\u00a0 One of them had played Zork before, and the other had not.\u00a0 I also advertised it to all of my students in the fall semester.\u00a0 Several of them played it, and at least one of them managed to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had the idea that maybe ABCA could be a way to introduce some\u00a0mathematical concepts to people who are afraid of math or\u00a0think mathematics is just symbolic manipulation.\u00a0 So, originally, I thought my audience would be people who aren’t naturally drawn to mathematics but who might be willing to\u00a0explore\u00a0it conceptually in a different format.\u00a0 Age-wise, they would be advanced high school students or older.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I think happened in\u00a0the competition, though, is that people didn’t play the game unless they already had some interest in mathematics.\u00a0 So I’ve revised my sense of the ideal audience somewhat: Advanced high school students and older who are interested in exploring mathematical concepts in a different format.\u00a0 But people who already know a lot of mathematics have enjoyed it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s no symbolic manipulation in ABCA;\u00a0whenever I could I represented mathematical concepts in concrete form or as\u00a0a\u00a0puzzle to be solved.\u00a0 This means that you can explore certain mathematical ideas far\u00a0beyond your mathematical skill\u00a0level\u00a0without having to pick up all\u00a0the necessary background\u00a0knowledge.\u00a0 Of course, it also means that you can’t go super-deep with the ideas, but the\u00a0background\u00a0knowledge and mathematical language\u00a0barrier that is such a problem for so many people isn’t there to anywhere near the same degree.\u00a0 Also,\u00a0if something in the game piques your interest you can always\u00a0follow up on it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne\u00a0example (maybe you’ve already found it) is that\u00a0there’s a puzzle in the game\u00a0where you have to isolate the primes between 1 and 100 using only five game actions.\u00a0 Of course, we both know that the Sieve of Eratosthenes will be required.\u00a0 But what if you’d never heard of the Sieve?\u00a0 With a little hinting, could you reason your way to the idea behind the Sieve on your own?\u00a0\u00a0On two occasions I’ve been able to watch people playing ABCA who have done just that.\u00a0\u00a0I also watched someone run into the Casino puzzle in the game and\u00a0reason her way to something very close to the best strategy for solving the\u00a0classic probability problem that underlies the puzzle.\u00a0 Even my nine-year-old son, who knows no algebra, was able to solve the balance scales puzzle that’s basically just a manifestation of a system of three equations and three unknowns.\u00a0 Games are great for this sort of thing – give someone a challenge, and they’re motivated to keep thinking about it until they figure it out.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mike sent me this game based on a conversation we had several years ago about mathematics and narrative, and how narrative relates to mathematics through motivation, proof, context, and cultural relevance.\u00a0 This game beautifully uses narrative to carry a player through a whole imagined world, revealing concepts and connections through fantasy locations and objects like the \u201cincrementing wand\u201d and a literal square root. I can see my students having a great time with this game. More importantly (as far as I am concerned), I am having a great time with this game. \u00a0I have been playing ABCA for about an hour and have a current score of 13\/100. A struggle with which verb to use stalled me out for a while: I kept telling the game to \u201cshake the wand,\u201d which (spoiler alert) should clearly be \u201cwave the wand.\u201d\u00a0 But a built-in hint kept me moving.\u00a0 This is a well-constructed game with a lot of cool content.\u00a0 Bravo, Mike.<\/p>\n So, enjoy the link, and happy New year, everyone!\u00a0 \u2018Tis the season for an Interactive Fiction revival, starting with ABCA.<\/p>\n Also\u2014anyone headed to the Joint Mathematics Meetings this year?\u00a0 I\u2019ll be there, writing for the AMS JMM blog<\/a>, along with my fabulous co-bloggers Adriana Salerno, Kelsey Houston-Edwards, Karen Saxe and Ben Thompson.\u00a0 As always, there are some great events coming up at JMM, and I\u2019m excited to share the math fun.\u00a0 Say hi if you see me there!\u00a0 Especially if you want to be in the blog, talk about interactive fiction, play non-serious bridge, or share (in person or in the comments) cool events I should know about.\u00a0 Thanks, and see you in San Diego.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Mike says: \u201cThe game should run fine online, but downloading probably produces somewhat faster play.\u00a0 Unfortunately, downloading requires downloading an interpreter as well.\u00a0 I recommend the\u00a0Gargoyle interpreter\u00a0for PCs.\u00a0 I don’t use Macs, but I’ve heard Lectrote works well with them.\u201d\u00a0 I just have been playing online, but here are his links to the interpreters:<\/p>\n Gargoyle:\u00a0https:\/\/github.com\/garglk\/garglk\/releases<\/a><\/p>\n Lectrote:\u00a0https:\/\/github.com\/erkyrath\/lectrote\/releases<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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