Was fascinated to read about the text adventure game The Hobbit which featured an incredibly robust parser called "Inglish":
…Inglish allowed one to type advanced sentences such as "ask Gandalf about the curious map then take sword and kill troll with it". The parser was complex and intuitive, introducing pronouns, adverbs ("viciously attack the goblin"), punctuation and prepositions and allowing the player to interact with the game world in ways not previously possible.
I'm wondering if anyone knows about the history and/or legacy of the Inglish parser engine and the programmer(s) who developed it.
Best Answer
From The Digital Antiquarian's article on "The Hobbit":
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And from an Interview with Veronika Megler (The Register, 2012):
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And finally from the Wikipedia entry:
The parser was also a real-time capable, even if the player didn't enter commands, the story would move on:
This was neccessary since the game's NPCs (Non-Player-Characters) and monsters were
The game manual (Part 1 & Part 2) states that:
The available vocabulary is quite small, though:
For me this means, that "The Hobbit" is not so much defined by the "Inglish" parser itself (which is not that advanced by today's standards - compare the various available chat bots), but by the interplay of a for the time advanced parser with a versatile and flexible game engine.
[1] Veronika Megler, then a student in her final year as an undergraduate with an interest in database design. Personal page: http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~vmegler/ April 2002 Interview
[2] Philip Mitchell, recuited for Melbourne House by Veronika Megler in 1982. Also worked with Megler on Penetrator (1983). Continued to write games for Melbourne House/Beam Software until 2000. Further info: http://playitagainproject.org/creators/philip-mitchell/
[3] Alfred Milgrom, founder of Melbourne House/Beam Software (together with Naomi Besen). He hired Veronika Megler to "Make the best adventure game ever. Period." Further info: Australian Gaming Database