Software

This page provides the most updated (& known) versions available in their original form and can be run on the original computers they were written for or, alternatively, on software-emulated platforms for most of the computers and consoles available in the market. A winner combination that provides a tactile (ok, i’ll use touch… grrr) screen for the emulated keyboard: Nintendo DS + ZXDS ZX Spectrum emulator + PAW BC02C. The feeling of having a speccy in your hands once again…

Unless otherwise stated, software packages for the ZX Spectrum are provided in virtual tape (TAP or TZX whenever possible, SNA or Z80 otherwise) formats.

In order to download files, please remember: right-click your mouse and select “save destination as…”, save on your hard disk and rename the downloaded files from filename-zip.doc to filename.zip. You can now open the zip files and proceed normally.

1) First generation: THE QUILL

The core atom of the PAW culture. The first. The semen.

ZX Spectrum:

• The Quill for ZX Spectrum serial C English-zip by Graeme Yeandle et al.
  This download includes The Quill plus The Illustrator, The Patch, The Press and The Database Converter.

Commodore 64:

• The Quill for Commodore64-zip by Graeme Yeandle.
  a.k.a. Adventure Writer and Graphic Adventure writer

2) Second generation: THE PAW

The best. The beautiful. The one and only Professional Adventure Writing System by Gilsoft. All of the features of The Quill plus those of the the add-ons and even more.

ZX Spectrum:

• PAW for ZX Spectrum+3 disk version B03 Spanish-zip
• PAW for ZX Spectrum version B02C Spanish-zip
• PAW for ZX Spectrum+3 disk version 2 English-zip
• PAW for ZX Spectrum version A17C English-zip
• PAW for ZX Spectrum+D version A16D English-zip
• PAW for ZX Spectrum OpusD version A080 English-zip
• PAW for ZX Spectrum microdrive version English-zip

Amstrad CPC:

• PAW for Amstrad CPC Spanish-zip

PC (DOS only):

• PAW for PC version release-zip (MS Windows unfriendly)

3) Third generation: SWAN and DAAD

SYSTEM WITHOUT A NAME (SWAN)

Once the PAW had become the market standard benchmark for text adventuring all around the world (meaning in the UK, which in fact was meant the world as to text-adventuring),  Yeandle and Gilberts joined Hugh Hamer-Powell to create Infinite Imaginations and develop the next generation parser. It was known by the name of System without a name (SWAN) and put to good use by Fergus McNeill for his Mindfighter game. Along all the bells and whistles already available in PAW, the new system allowed for the use of digitised graphics instead of a line editor, an even more advanced English parser, advanced intelligent interactive characters, an alternative icon-driven system control and many, many, many other beautifulities.

• Not available (yet).

DISEÑADOR DE AVENTURAS DE AVENTURAS AD – DAAD (Adventure Designer for Aventuras AD)

Time later, Tim Gilberts was hired by the spanish company Aventuras AD to create a tailor-made, all new in-house parser featuring PAW’s and SWAN’s tools plus new enhancements suggested by Andrés Samudio. The Diseñador de Aventuras AD (DAAD) reached version 2.6 and only a few may be aware of the secret location of the vault where the DAAD backup files are under custody today.

• Not available (yet).

4) Fourth generation: PAW  replicants

WINPAWS by Douglas Harter
Status: MAINTAINED
Site: http://www.winpaw.com
An exact clone of PAW running under windows. What else?

• WinPaw MDAC-zip
• WinPaw Engine-zip
• WinPaw IDE-zip
• WinPaw IDE Update-zip

ACE by Andrew Clark
Status: MAINTAINED
Site: http://www.aceadventuregames.com
An exact clone of PAW without memory (8-bit) limits and (unfortunately) without graphics. Write adventures with 2.432 location, 9.398 messages, 987 flags and 482 PSI process tables. For instance.

• WinAce-zip

THE BIRO 2 by Tony Barber
Status: NOT PUBLIC, MAINTAINED
Site: n/a

• Unavailable.

SUPERGLUS by Carlos Sánchez (Spanish)
Status: MAINTAINED
Site: http://www.caad.es/superglus/doku.php

• Superglus for PC version1.0-zip

inPAWS by Francisco J. López (Spanish and english)
Status: MAINTAINED
Site: http://inpaws.speccy.org

• Download available soon.

ThinBASIC ADVENTURE BUILDER by Philip Richmond
Status: MAINTAINED
Site: http://ifiction.wordpress.com/

• Download available soon.

5) The next generation software: The PAW Monster Edition

• Sometime in the near future…

6) Useful software packages:

• UNPAWS (Unpaws2-zip) originally developed by Carlos Sanchez & Jose Luis Cebrian and latter updated by Alexander Katz and German Gonzalez (Spanish) – crack PAW (also quilled) games databases and obtain a fully-printable text file with the most valuable treasure of a published programmer’s knowledge: INCREDIBLE ROUTINES THAT, unlike yours, WORK RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX!!
• INFORMAPPER (Informapper2-zip) by Juan Luis Cebrián (Spanish) – Feel like visually designing your maps in Windows? Here you are. Do you happen to be a Sintac G3 user? Help yourself and export your graphic map right into the Sintac g3 database you are working on.
• CEPI mapper (CEPI mapper-zip). No comments.

7) List of abandoned PAW replicants

SINTAC G3 by Javier San José (Spanish) – ABANDONED as superseeded by Visual SINTAC

• Sintac G3-zip

CAECHO by Juan Antonio Paz Salgado (Spanish) – ABANDONED
A database-based text adventure writer whose abstraction resembles the PAW while the implementation doesn’t. But so far the best post-PAW writing tool available in my opinion. If only it would run under MS-Windows…

• Caecho v2.1-zip

NMP by Carlos Sánchez (Spanish) – ABANDONED as superseeded by Paguaglús

• NMP 5.02-zip

SKC by Ricardo Villalba (Spanish) – ABANDONED

• skc101i2-zip

VISUAL SINTAC by Javier San José (Spanish) – ABANDONED but may eventually be REVIVED?

• Visual SINTAC 1.0-zip
• Visual SINTAC 1.2-exe developed by Morgul & Uto and based on Javier San José’s open-source Visual Sintac code.

PAGUAGLUS by Carlos Sánchez (Spanish)- ABANDONED as superseeded by Superglús