With the IF highlight of the year (IFCOMP voting period) coming up, Alan is keeping up and after a period of alpha testing, and is now released as the first public BETA version. (The first beta was never released to the public.)

Alan v3.0beta2 adds some functionality to the language, corrects a few bugs, and comes with a completely new standard library. But it also delivers drop-in interpreters for Gargoyle on the three major platforms, Windows, MacOSX and Linux. So now you can not only have a new version of the complete Alan system, directly from the developers, but also support for the latest Alan games in your favourite interpreter.

Read the new manual, have a look at the changes and go to download your selection of Alan software!

The standard library for the ALAN interactive fiction language has been renewed and updated recently.

In a short series of blog articles I aim to demonstrate how things have been changed and facilitated with the addition of the new library. This first blog post will give an overview of the new features.

WARNING: CONTAINS SLIGHT SPOILERS

“Have you ever wondered what Christmas would be like if it were run by your horrible cat, who also happened to be a timeless Lovecraftian horror? Find out in this bloody festive holiday treat!”

This is the blurb for Byron Alexander Campbell’s ALAN3 game which was published in 2009.  The tone of the game is light-hearted, especially compared to the author’s other game released at about the same time, “Room 206”. This time around, the task is to catch a fish for your pet cat which turns out to be the great Cthulhu itself (!). Despite the Lovecraftian connection, the game is humorous throughout, even if macabre elements abound.

There have been some indications out there in IF-land about a problem with restore in Alan alpha9 interpreters. One of the games that have been hit is "Room 206" by Byron Campbell, a game reviewed here recently.

The problem have now been fixed. Alpha9 interpreters for Windows have been patched, and the fix will be included in the upcoming beta1. (As well as all development snapshots from now on.) If you are uncertain if your interpreter have the problem, interpreters with a date of 2010-12-06 and later should be ok.