MJR Games

The creator of TADS has also used the system to write a number of full-scale games.

These were all written primarily to be played and enjoyed as games, but they also happen to serve as examples of real-world uses of TADS, and their source code is all published. Manuals usually show only fragments of games, which they do with the good intention of isolating the particular points being illustrated, but which also tends to gloss over the occasional subtlety and gnarly detail. Sometimes you want to see those details, and how all those isolated pieces fit together; for that you need a complete, working game.

The games are listed in chronological order of publication.

Deep Space Drifter
1990
Science Fiction

The first published TADS game is an old-school text adventure that's full of tricky puzzles and truly nefarious mazes, with just a veneer of plot to explain the bizarre situations. Puzzle fiends and fans of the early text games will enjoy the intricate but always logical obstacles.

Ditch Day Drifter
1990
Collegiate

The original TADS sample game. Ditch Day Drifter is a whimsical treasure-hunt all over - and under - the campus of a leading scientific university. This is a relatively easy game that's often recommended as an introduction for novice adventurers.

Perdition's Flames
1993
Fantasy

A sprawling adventure through a strangely modernized underworld. Perdition's Flames has slightly more plot than the earliest treasure-hunting text games, but just slightly. Fans of puzzle games will enjoy the many elaborate set-piece challenges.

The Plant
1998
Science Fiction

A mysterious industrial complex... terrifying events... a decades-old cover-up. The Plant is a science fiction thriller with plot twists that unfold as you solve its many puzzles. This was originally written for the 1998 Annual IF Competition, where it took third place.

Return to Ditch Day
2005
Collegiate/Science Fiction

When I thought about what kind of game to write as a full-scale example for TADS 3, it seemed natural that it should be a sequel to the original TADS sample game, Ditch Day Drifter. TADS and IF in general have come a long way since the first Ditch Day, and I tried to reflect some of that evolution here. Return to Ditch Day is a story as much as it is a game, full of mysteries and eccentric characters. It's also very much an adventure game, with plenty of puzzles to solve.