AccessiIf
by Nathan Tech

Welcome to AccessiIf: a player, browser and Creator for interactive fiction.

If the name seems familiar, it should. AccessiIf began life as AccessiFrotz, a small interface built around Frotz for playing Z-machine games. Then it developed a fairly spectacular case of feature creep: more game formats, more engines, catalogues, sound, richer game interfaces, a parser-game Creator, a gamebook Creator, build tools, release tools and enough menus to make the old name increasingly ridiculous.

So AccessiFrotz grew up and became AccessiIf.

This README is the map of the territory. For proper step-by-step tutorials, examples and detailed keystroke explanations, see the HTML guides installed in the guides folder.

CONTENTS

1. What AccessiIf Does
2. Getting Started
3. Finding and Opening Games
4. Playing Parser Games
5. Understanding the Game Window
6. Playing Keystrokes
7. Sound
8. The Creator
9. Building Parser Games
10. Building Gamebooks
11. Creator Keystrokes
12. Story Health, Testing and Releases
13. The Guides Folder
14. Engines and Inform
15. Your Projects and Downloaded Games
16. Licences and Third-Party Software
17. Troubleshooting and Bug Reports
18. A Little History
19. Finally


1. WHAT ACCESSIIF DOES

AccessiIf has two main jobs:

- Play interactive fiction.
- Help you create interactive fiction.

On the playing side it supports several families of games, including Z-machine / Z-code, Glulx, TADS 2, TADS 3 and common Blorb-packaged games.

On the creation side it supports two rather different styles of project:

- Parser interactive fiction, where players type commands such as LOOK, NORTH, TAKE KEY or ASK GARY ABOUT TROUSERS.
- Choice-based gamebooks, where readers move through passages by selecting choices.

The exact game formats and features available can depend on the AccessiIf release and the engines installed with it.


2. GETTING STARTED

When AccessiIf opens, the home screen is your starting point.

From there you can:

- Browse game catalogues.
- Open a game already stored on your computer.
- Open the Creator.
- Reach settings and other program features.

If you simply want to play a local game, Ctrl+O opens the game-selection dialog.

If you are completely new to parser games, do yourself a favour and read:

guides\how-to-play-text-adventures.html

It explains the assumptions that veteran text-adventure players tend to forget are assumptions at all.


3. FINDING AND OPENING GAMES

AccessiIf includes catalogues for browsing interactive-fiction games available online.

The catalogues can cover Z-machine, Glulx and TADS titles. Select a catalogue, browse or search it, and AccessiIf can download a selected game where supported.

Catalogue entries describe games created by their respective authors and commonly hosted by third parties such as the IF Archive. Nathan Tech does not acquire ownership of a game because AccessiIf can find or launch it.

You can ignore the catalogues entirely and open a supported local game file instead.

Some terminology you may encounter:

Z-machine / Z-code
A virtual machine associated with Infocom and widely used by Inform and other interactive-fiction tools. Common files include .z3, .z5 and .z8, as well as packaged Blorb variants.

Glulx
A newer interactive-fiction virtual machine designed for games which need more space and more modern capabilities. Common files include .ulx and Glulx Blorb packages.

TADS 2 / TADS 3
Interactive-fiction systems with their own game formats and interpreters.

Blorb
A container format which can package a story together with resources such as sound and images.


4. PLAYING PARSER GAMES

A parser game describes the world in text and waits for you to type an instruction.

For example:

LOOK
NORTH
TAKE LAMP
EXAMINE DUCK
OPEN DOOR
UNLOCK DOOR WITH KEY
ASK GARY ABOUT TROUSERS

Press Enter to send a command.

The game decides which commands it understands. AccessiIf provides the interface; it does not rewrite the vocabulary of every story ever made.

Useful traditional commands include:

LOOK or L
Describe the current location again.

EXAMINE THING or X THING
Inspect something more closely.

INVENTORY or I
List what the player is carrying.

TAKE THING
Pick something up.

DROP THING
Put something down.

NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST
Move in a compass direction. N, S, E and W commonly work as abbreviations.

NORTHEAST, NORTHWEST, SOUTHEAST, SOUTHWEST
Diagonal movement, commonly abbreviated NE, NW, SE and SW.

UP / U and DOWN / D
Vertical movement.

IN and OUT
Move inside or outside when the game provides those routes.

AGAIN or G
Repeat the previous game command in many parser systems.

WAIT or Z
Allow a turn to pass without doing anything else.

If a game does not understand a long sentence, simplify it. Parser games usually prefer "EXAMINE BOX" to an eloquent request that the protagonist perhaps consider inspecting the suspicious wooden container at their earliest convenience.

When stuck:

- Type LOOK.
- Check INVENTORY.
- EXAMINE anything specifically mentioned.
- Revisit locked doors and unfinished tasks.
- Talk to characters again after important events.
- Search the transcript for clues you vaguely remember.
- Save before doing something which has "obviously terrible idea" energy.


5. UNDERSTANDING THE GAME WINDOW

A running game can expose several separate areas.

Command input
Where parser commands are typed.

Status and auxiliary window
Information supplied separately from the main transcript. In a classic game this may be a room name, score, moves or time. Other games can use the area for menus, maps, quotations, statistics or other temporary information.

Choices
Some games provide selectable choices or hyperlinks. When the engine supplies them, AccessiIf presents them separately.

Game output
The main transcript containing descriptions, narration, dialogue and responses.

Use F6 to move forward through the major game areas and Shift+F6 to move backwards. Areas which are not currently available are skipped.

The Status and auxiliary window is deliberately broader than the phrase "status line". Interactive-fiction engines can use secondary windows for considerably more than score and moves.


6. PLAYING KEYSTROKES

Ctrl+O
Open another game.

Ctrl+Q
Quit the current game, close it and return to the AccessiIf home screen.

Ctrl+Z
Ask the current game to undo the previous turn.

Ctrl+S
Ask the current game to save progress.

Ctrl+R
Restore previously saved progress.

Ctrl+T
Save the transcript.

Ctrl+F
Search the transcript.

Ctrl+0
Repeat the most recent stored output.

Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+9
Repeat earlier stored output.

F6 / Shift+F6
Move between the major areas of the game window.

Alt+Enter
Open the Command Palette.

Escape
Interrupt current speech.

Shift+F1
Show game-window keystroke help.

While the command input has focus, Up Arrow and Down Arrow can be used to revisit previously entered commands.

Save, restore and undo ultimately depend on the game and interpreter. Some ancient adventure games have ancient adventure game opinions about modern conveniences.


7. SOUND

AccessiIf supports sound in games which provide it.

Depending on the story and format, this may include music, ambient audio, effects and the occasional beep whose dramatic importance is known only to the author.

Sound can be controlled through AccessiIf's menus and settings.

Not every game contains audio. Silence is not automatically a fault.


8. THE CREATOR

AccessiIf is also an authoring environment.

Open Creator from the home screen to create either:

- A parser game.
- A choice-based gamebook.

A new project asks for its name, optional author name, project type and storage location.

The Creator is designed so that ordinary projects can be built through structured dialogs and menus rather than requiring you to hand-write an entire source file.

For parser projects, generated Inform source can still be viewed when you need it.

For gamebooks, the Creator exports a self-contained HTML reader with optional local save data and reader controls.

Detailed tutorials are installed in the guides folder:

guides\build-your-first-text-adventure.html
guides\build-your-first-gamebook.html


9. BUILDING PARSER GAMES

Parser projects create traditional interactive fiction in which the player types commands.

The Creator provides tools for:

- Rooms.
- Room connections.
- Standard and custom directions.
- Objects.
- Doors.
- Regions.
- Characters.
- Conversation topics.
- Custom verbs and actions.
- Variables.
- Puzzles.
- Story logic.
- Events and quests.
- Win and loss conditions.

A sensible first parser game is tiny:

Room 1: Kitchen
Room 2: Garden
Room 3: Shed

Object: Brass Key
Character: Gary
Goal: Find the key, unlock the shed and retrieve the parcel.

That is enough to learn rooms, movement, objects, characters, a puzzle and an ending without accidentally founding a small software company inside your first project.

The Project Explorer is the main structured view of the game. Use the Applications key or Shift+F10 on supported tree items to reach context actions such as edit, rename or delete.

The Inform source editor is normally kept out of the way. Use View Inform Source when you actually need to inspect generated code or investigate a compiler error.

Parser projects can target supported Z-machine or Glulx output formats.

F8 builds the game.
F9 previews/plays it.
Ctrl+F8 runs Story Health.


10. BUILDING GAMEBOOKS

A gamebook is made from passages connected by choices.

A passage is one unit of story: a scene, page, location, decision point or ending.

A choice is something the reader can select to decide what happens next.

A tiny gamebook might begin:

You discover an ominous red button.

Leave it alone.
Press it.
Lick it.

The Creator supports considerably more than simple branching.

Gamebooks can use:

- Normal passages.
- Win and loss endings.
- Checkpoint passages.
- Automatic passages.
- Normal choices.
- Random choices with percentage-based destinations.
- Variables.
- Visible player statistics.
- Inventory.
- Conditional choices and passages.
- Choice and passage effects.
- Visited-passage conditions.
- Dice and statistic checks.
- Once-only choices.
- Replacement choices.
- Return-to-previous choices.
- Passage duplication.
- Incoming-link inspection.
- Story Health and broken-link detection.
- Browser-based save and load.
- Undo and restart controls.
- Custom headers and footers.
- Reader display controls.
- Optional external CSS which can override the built-in styling.

A condition decides whether something is available.

For example:

Money >= 5
Has Brass Key
Has visited Shed

An effect changes the story state.

For example:

Decrease Money by 5
Increase Health by 2
Give Brass Key
Remove Suspicious Sandwich

A random choice displays one choice to the reader but can route to several destinations according to percentages. The percentages should total 100.

Finished gamebooks are exported as HTML and can be played in an ordinary web browser. A server is not required for ordinary exported books; reader state and saves can be stored locally by the browser.

F9 previews a gamebook in the browser.
Ctrl+F11 builds the HTML release.
Ctrl+F8 runs Story Health.


11. CREATOR KEYSTROKES

The exact shortcuts available depend on the project type and current window.

Common project commands:

Ctrl+N
New project.

Ctrl+O
Open project.

Ctrl+S
Save project.

F5
Refresh the parser Project Explorer.

Ctrl+Shift+E
Focus the parser Project Explorer.

Applications key / Shift+F10
Open a context menu on supported passage, choice, variable, inventory or Project Explorer items.

Parser Creator shortcuts include:

Ctrl+Shift+R
Add room.

Ctrl+Shift+O
Add object.

Ctrl+Shift+C
Add room connection.

Ctrl+Shift+D
Add door.

Ctrl+Shift+G
Add region.

Ctrl+Shift+P
Add character.

Ctrl+Shift+T
Add conversation topic.

Ctrl+Shift+U
Add puzzle.

Ctrl+Shift+A
Add verb/action.

Ctrl+Shift+V
Add variable.

Ctrl+Shift+L
Add story logic.

Ctrl+E
Manage story events.

Ctrl+Shift+Q
Add quest.

Ctrl+Shift+W
Open Story Wizard.

Ctrl+Shift+F
Search the project.

Ctrl+Shift+N
Rename the selected project item.

Ctrl+M
Explore the world map.

F8
Build parser game.

F9
Preview/play.

Ctrl+F8
Check Story Health.

Ctrl+F10
Open Development Studio.

Ctrl+F11
Open Release Centre.

Gamebook Creator shortcuts include:

Ctrl+Shift+P
Add passage.

Ctrl+Shift+C
Add normal choice.

Ctrl+Shift+V
Add variable/statistic.

Ctrl+E
Edit the selected passage.

Ctrl+F8
Check Story Health.

F9
Preview in browser.

Ctrl+F11
Build HTML release.

For the full workflow and explanations of what each item means, use the HTML guides rather than attempting to memorise this wall of keyboard archaeology.


12. STORY HEALTH, TESTING AND RELEASES

Story Health is AccessiIf's structural preflight checker.

It is not a substitute for actually playing your work.

For a gamebook, Story Health can detect problems such as missing destinations, unreachable passages, invalid references, random routes whose percentages do not total 100, and non-ending passages with nowhere to go.

For parser projects, Story Health catches Creator-level structural problems before or alongside actual Inform compilation.

A good release routine is:

1. Save the project.
2. Run Story Health.
3. Fix warnings and errors you understand.
4. Build.
5. Play the intended route.
6. Play unintended routes.
7. Try deleting, dropping, spending or using important things in the wrong order.
8. Test win and loss states.
9. Test save, restore, undo or browser save controls where relevant.
10. Build the release only after the project survives your attempts to annoy it.

The Development Studio and Release Centre provide additional tools for larger parser projects and releases.


13. THE GUIDES FOLDER

AccessiIf installs detailed HTML manuals in the guides folder.

Start with:

guides\index.html

The individual guides are:

guides\how-to-play-text-adventures.html
A detailed beginner's guide to parser games, commands, movement, inventory, conversation, status information, saving, transcript tools and AccessiIf's game-window keystrokes.

guides\build-your-first-gamebook.html
A detailed tutorial covering passages, choices, random routing, variables, visible stats, inventory, conditions, effects, dice, Story Health and HTML release building.

guides\build-your-first-text-adventure.html
A detailed tutorial covering rooms, connections, directions, objects, doors, characters, custom actions, puzzles, variables, story logic, Inform builds and parser-game testing.

If this README tells you that a feature exists and you are wondering "yes, splendid, but what the hell does that mean?", the guides are the next stop.


14. ENGINES AND INFORM

AccessiIf uses separate interactive-fiction engines to run supported game formats.

Those engine components are installed with the application and remain subject to their own licences.

Parser-game creation also relies on an Inform toolchain. Release builds may include the required Inform components so that ordinary users do not need to assemble the compiler by hand.

Do not randomly remove files from the engines or internal toolchain directories unless you know what they are for. This is an excellent way to convert "interactive fiction suite" into "collection of error dialogs".


15. YOUR PROJECTS AND DOWNLOADED GAMES

Projects and stories you create are yours.

AccessiIf does not claim ownership of a story merely because you created, compiled, played or exported it using the program.

Games downloaded through online catalogues remain subject to the copyright and licence terms which apply to those individual games.

If you redistribute somebody else's game, extension, artwork, sound, text or other material, make sure you have the right to do so.

Keep backups of projects you care about. Source control or ordinary backup copies are both preferable to learning this lesson experimentally.


16. LICENCES AND THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE

AccessiIf uses existing interactive-fiction engines, tools and software libraries.

These components remain the work of their respective authors and are distributed according to their respective licences.

The licences directory installed with AccessiIf contains the AccessiIf EULA and third-party licence material.

The main AccessiIf EULA is:

licences\AccessiIf-EULA.txt

Nothing in the AccessiIf EULA is intended to remove rights which a third-party open-source licence grants you for the component covered by that licence.

Please keep the licences directory with redistributed copies of the complete application.


17. TROUBLESHOOTING AND BUG REPORTS

If a game will not open:

- Check that it is a supported format.
- Try another known-good game of the same format.
- Note any error message.
- Include the file extension when reporting the problem.

If a parser project will not build:

- Run Story Health.
- Read the Inform compiler output.
- Use View Inform Source if the compiler identifies a particular generated line.
- Check that the Inform toolchain is present.

If a gamebook behaves strangely:

- Run Story Health.
- Check conditions on choices which do not appear.
- Check effects on stats or inventory which do not change.
- Check random percentages total 100.
- Use incoming-link information when a passage seems unreachable.
- Preview again after changes.

If AccessiIf does something clever, something stupid, or something so spectacularly stupid that Nathan Tech really ought to hear about it, feedback is welcome.

Visit:

https://nathantech.net/contact.php

A useful bug report includes:

- What you were doing.
- Which game or project was involved.
- The steps needed to reproduce the problem.
- What you expected.
- What actually happened.
- Any error message or traceback.
- Whether the problem happens every time.

Tracebacks are ugly, but they have excellent gossip.


18. A LITTLE HISTORY

The original AccessiFrotz concentrated on one job: making Frotz and Z-machine games pleasant to use.

Over time it gained broader game handling, catalogues, Glulx support, TADS support, sound, richer window information and eventually an entire creation environment.

At that point continuing to call it AccessiFrotz was roughly equivalent to calling an aircraft carrier "Dave's Little Canoe."

So from version 2, the project is called AccessiIf.

Same lineage. Much bigger toy box.


19. FINALLY

Interactive fiction has been around for decades because a blinking cursor and a pile of words can still produce worlds considerably larger than the computer running them.

If you're here to play, try things.

If you're here to create, start small and finish something.

If you're here because Gary has somehow escaped from one of the examples and is now in your actual house, that is outside the documented support scope.

Play something strange.

Make something stranger.

And save occasionally.


AccessiIf
by Nathan Tech

https://nathantech.net/

It's not disability.
It's ability!

README updated: 8 August 2026.
