QTads

QTads is a cross-platform, multimedia interpreter for Tads games, compatible with HTML TADS. Both Tads versions in use today (Tads 2 and Tads 3) are supported. It has been tested in Linux, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, but it should compile and run in many more. “Tads” is short for “Text Adventure Development System.”

Tads consists of a programming language and a virtual machine (QTads provides the “virtual machine” part for running existing games, using the reference implementations of the T2 and T3 VMs written by Michael J. Roberts). The system is geared towards implementing Interactive Fiction (or “Text Adventures”), with support for multimedia features such as images, music and sounds. If you ever played an Infocom game like “Zork” or “Trinity”, or the classic game “Adventure” by Crowther and Woods (also known as “ADVENT”; it has also been ported to Tads), then you know what this is about.