Port Royal 1

A landscape from Jamaica, 1691

Example 5

★

A partial implementation of Port Royal, Jamaica, set before the earthquake of 1692 demolished large portions of the city.

Play/modify in Borogove

Play in Quixe

"1691"

Fort James is a room. "The enclosure of Fort James is a large, roughly hexagonal court walled with heavy stone. The walls face the entrance to Port Royal Harbour, and the battery of guns is prepared to destroy any enemy ship arriving."

Unless we arrange otherwise, this will be the first room in the game because it is the first we have defined.

For subsequent rooms, we do not have to say explicitly that they are rooms, as long as they are connected to a room on the map. For instance, this will automatically make Thames Street End a room:

Thames Street End is south of Fort James. "The ill-named Thames Street runs from here -- at the point of the peninsula -- all the way east among houses and shops, through the Fish Market, edging by the round front of Fort Carlisle, to the point where the town stops and there is only sandy spit beyond. Lime Street, wider and healthier but not as rich, runs directly south, and to the north the road opens up into the courtyard of Fort James."
 
Water Lane is east of Thames Street End. "Here Thames Street -- never very straight -- goes steeply southeast for a portion before continuing more directly to the east.
 
Water Lane runs south toward Queen Street, and facing onto it is the New Prison -- which, in the way of these things, is neither.  It did serve in that capacity for a time, and in a measure of the villainy which has been usual in Port Royal from its earliest days, it is nearly the largest building in the town."

If we have some concern that the room name will be confused with an existing name, we can be more explicit about it using "called":

East of Water Lane is a room called Thames Street at the Wherry Bridge.  Thames Street at the Wherry Bridge has the description "To the southwest is the fishmarket; directly across the street is the entrance to a private alley through a brick archway."
 
The Private Alley is south of Thames Street at the Wherry Bridge. "You're just outside the tavern the Feathers. To the north, under a pretty little archway, is the active mayhem of Thames Street, but the alley narrows down to a dead end a little distance to the south."

And now we get "inside", which generates a space treated as its own area on the map.

The Feathers is inside from the Private Alley.  "Newly built with brick, replacing the older Feathers tavern that used to stand here. It sells wines in quantity, as well as serving them directly, and the goods are always of the best quality. There's a room upstairs for those wanting to stay the night." The Feathers Bedroom is above the Feathers.

And if we like we can declare a number of rooms for which we will come back and write the descriptions later. There is no obligation for the description to occur at the first definition of the room.

Lime Street is south of Thames Street End.

For efficiency, we can also write multiple sets of connections at once:

Queen Street East is east of Queen Street Middle and south of Private Alley.

Clicking Go will translate this description into a sketchy but working simulation of Port Royal, in which we can type movement commands like EAST or SOUTH to explore the streets. Looking at the World tab of the Index, we can also see a schematic map of the simulation as it currently stands. Like the rest of the Index, this is provided entirely for the author's benefit, and is not visible to the player. (Though if we do decide that we want players to have access to a printed map while they play, Inform can help: we will return to the layout of Port Royal in the chapter on Publishing.)

The following Test command allows us to type TEST ME and explore the map we just devised:

Test me with "s / e / e / s / in".

Fort James
The enclosure of Fort James is a large, roughly hexagonal court walled with heavy stone. The walls face the entrance to Port Royal Harbour, and the battery of guns is prepared to destroy any enemy ship arriving.

>(Testing.)

>[1] s

Thames Street End
The ill-named Thames Street runs from here -- at the point of the peninsula -- all the way east among houses and shops, through the Fish Market, edging by the round front of Fort Carlisle, to the point where the town stops and there is only sandy spit beyond. Lime Street, wider and healthier but not as rich, runs directly south, and to the north the road opens up into the courtyard of Fort James.

>[2] e

Water Lane
Here Thames Street -- never very straight -- goes steeply southeast for a portion before continuing more directly to the east.

Water Lane runs south toward Queen Street, and facing onto it is the New Prison -- which, in the way of these things, is neither. It did serve in that capacity for a time, and in a measure of the villainy which has been usual in Port Royal from its earliest days, it is nearly the largest building in the town.

>[3] e

Thames Street at the Wherry Bridge
To the southwest is the fishmarket; directly across the street is the entrance to a private alley through a brick archway.

>[4] s

Private Alley
You're just outside the tavern the Feathers. To the north, under a pretty little archway, is the active mayhem of Thames Street, but the alley narrows down to a dead end a little distance to the south.

>[5] in

Feathers
Newly built with brick, replacing the older Feathers tavern that used to stand here. It sells wines in quantity, as well as serving them directly, and the goods are always of the best quality. There's a room upstairs for those wanting to stay the night.