Child's Play

An interactive fiction by Stephen Granade (2007) - the Inform 7 source text
Section 7 - TV Room

The TV Room is east of the Middle of the Living Room and southeast of By the Rocking Chair and south of the TKBUG Open Area. "The entertainment center here holds the TV all towering above you and it has these glass doors beneath the TV that you can see stereo equipment through. You are near the couch to the south and the middle of the living room to the west and there is a small open area to play in to the north[if Introduction is happening][note introcomp][end if]." The printed name is "In Front of TV". The faraway descriptor is "over by the TV".

The entertainment center is scenery in the TV Room. The description is "The entertainment center is tall and has some doors beneath it but the important thing is that the TV is on it[if the television is off]. Not that the TV is on right now, who knows what Blue's Clues or Sesame Street episodes you are missing?[otherwise]. Right now the TV is showing [tv screen display].[end if]". Understand "door" or "doors" or "glass" as the entertainment center.

Instead of tasting the entertainment center, say "The wood is all varnishy and the glass is cold."

Instead of opening or pushing or pulling the entertainment center, say "You push on the doors to the entertainment center but the parents have them all fixed in place."

Instead of closing the entertainment center, say "The doors to the entertainment center are already closed."

Instead of unlocking the entertainment center with, say "You do not know how to unlock the doors."

Instead of upstanding using the entertainment center, say "Its surface is sleek and modern and your hands slide right off if it so you cannot get enough purchase to pull up on it."

Instead of searching the entertainment center, say "There is stereo equipment behind the glass doors and there is a big TV all tall up there on the entertainment center."

The stereo equipment is scenery in the TV Room. The description is "It is all made by Aiwa[note no-aiwa], can't the parents buy real equipment?" Instead of doing something other than examining when the stereo equipment is acted upon, say "It is behind the doors to the entertainment center."

The television is scenery in the TV Room. The description is "The TV is [if the baby-swing is in the TV room and the player is not in the baby-swing]blocked by this baby swing that is in the way[otherwise if off]dark and that makes you sad[otherwise]showing [tv screen display][end if]." Understand "tv" or "telly" or "screen" as the television. The television is not room-mentioning. The television can be on or off. The television is off. The television has a number called screen turn count. The screen turn count of the television is 1.

Instead of an actor doing something other than examining or switching on or switching off when the television is acted upon:
    if the actor is the player begin;
        if the player is in the baby-swing, say "With you strapped into the baby swing you cannot really reach the TV.";
        otherwise say "It is all far away and if you could stand up and were taller then you could reach it but you aren't so you can't.";
    end if.

Instead of switching on or switching off the television when the player is carrying the remote control, say "Even though you have the remote control it is beyond your baby powers to work it, it is so complex."

Instead of switching on or switching off the television, say "You do not have the remote control that the parents use to make the TV turn on or off or show different things like Sesame Street or Baby Feynman."

Instead of going somewhere from the TV Room during Introduction, say "Not without your favorite toy, [if your favorite toy is on the footstool]you should get it from the footstool.[otherwise]it was too hard to get it down in the first place."

Instead of going west from the TV room during Introduction, move the player to the Intro Middle.

To say tv screen display:
    let row-count be the screen turn count of the television plus 2;
    now row-count is row-count divided by 3;
    say On Screen in row row-count of the Table of Television Messages.

Every turn when the television is on:
    if the screen turn count of the television is greater than the number of rows in the Table of Television Messages times 3, now the screen turn count of the television is 1;
    if the player is in the TV room begin;
        let row-count be the screen turn count of the television plus 2;
        if the remainder after dividing row-count by 3 is 0 begin;
            now row-count is row-count divided by 3;
            say "[Change Message in row row-count of the Table of Television Messages][paragraph break]";
        end if;
    end if;
    now the screen turn count of the television is the screen turn count of the television plus 1.

Table of Television Messages
Change Message   On Screen
"The screen goes dark and then light. There is this big ball with a ring around it on screen and some words or something across it. The TV then says 'SPACE' in this weird drugged voice."   "a big ball with a ring around it"
"Swooping music plays from the TV and all of these yellow balls start bouncing around on screen."   "all these yellow balls"
"The bouncing balls go away on screen and a big yellow flower shows up, it is all curvy."   "a big yellow flower"
"The yellow flower is replaced by this drawing of a yellow disk and it has what looks like flames coming off of it and the calm announcer voice says, 'SUN.'"   "a drawing of a yellow disk"
"Now the yellow things are gone from the TV, instead there are all these crescent shapes drifting down in some thick liquid inside a cylinder. Maybe it is a toy or something."   "a bunch of crescent shapes"
"The drifting crescent shapes drift off screen and now there are crescent cookies being baked and turning into golden brown crescents."   "all these tasty-looking crescent cookies"
"In the TV you see a big white thing, it glows bright. And then the TV says 'MOON'."   "a big white glowing thing"
"It looks like the TV is done with white things, now there is this big row of balls starting with this huge yellow one and then a smaller one and a little bigger one and so on. There are a lot of those balls."   "a row of different-sized balls"
"In the TV the row of balls all get kicked by tiny kids except for this one and it is blue and white."   "this single blue and white ball"
"A kid on TV takes the blue and white ball and throws it around and then there is a crumpled blue and white ball. You hear this poof poof poof noise and the ball starts inflating and getting less crumply."   "a crumpled blue and white ball"
"The blue and white crumply ball on the TV is now not crumply at all, it is very smooth and shiny. That calm announcer voice says 'EARTH'. A giant baby face appears and starts chewing on the Earth ball."   "a smooth and shiny Earth ball"
"The giant baby face on the TV goes away in this star-shaped wipe and then a hand shows up on screen with a piece of chalk."   "a hand holding a piece of chalk"
"There is this hand on TV holding chalk, it starts drawing star shapes. More and more and more star shapes fill the screen."   "bunches and bunches of star drawings"
"On TV the star shapes turn into these tiny glowing points of light that go twinkle! Twinkle! Twinkle!"   "twinkling points of light"
"Points of light on the TV fade away and now there is just one big point of light and the announcer says 'STARS'."   "a big point of light"
"Now on TV all of these stars are gathering together, it is like they are having a big star party."   "a big star party"
"The star party on the TV screen gets even wilder as more and more stars come rushing in. It is like a rave only no one needs glow sticks because everyone already glows."   "a giant glowing star party"
"'GALAXIES' says the TV announcer and I guess that is what a star party is called."   "a huge star party"
"Whoosh! goes the TV and there is this side wipe and bubbles starts drifting across the screen."   "bubbles"
"There are bubbles on the TV screen, they start popping and then there is this kid, she's probably three, and the wind is blowing her hair all around."   "a kid with her wind-blown hair"
"The TV's whooshing sound dies down and there are these puffy things all over the screen like onesie lint. 'CLOUDS' says the announcer."   "puffy clouds"
"'Pfff pfff pff' says the TV and this deflated balloon starts getting bigger on screen."   "a partially-deflated balloon"
"The balloon on TV is all filled up and it is bright blue. Then a bunch more balloons start falling down."   "a bunch of balloons"
"There are so many balloons on the TV screen that it is like a riot of colors."   "a bunch of brightly-colored balloons"
"These babies start crawling through the TV balloons and hitting them and knocking them everywhere and the announcer says 'BALLOONS'."   "babies kicking balloons"

The source code to Child's Play is licensed under a Creative Commons NonCommercial Sampling Plus 1.0 License.