The PAW Monster Edition

The PAW Monster Edition is a project of The PAW Reservoir for the development of a PAW replicant.

Another PAW replicant?!?!

The PAWME will replicate the original PAW design (database and language interpreter embedded within an editor) on the PC. The application will be self-contained and compact (no external libraries, no multiple executables, no file renaming, no compiler-interpreter architecture anymore… ). An .exe file will launch an editor that will provide the functions of the original PAW…

But why do we need another PAW system for Windows? We already have Doug Harter’s WinPAW, among others…

… hmm, that will provide the functions of the original PAW plus all many of the advanced features of the existing clones. This reset intends to upgrade the PAW design to the modern times and, while retaining all of the look & feel of the original software, make of it a serious tool able to produce top level games as many of those produced with the big ones. No object-oriented programming, no simulation paranoia, no endless lists of unaffordable plug-ins…

• indexed database-driven system like the PAW but with extended capabilities: up to 65.000 locations, objects, dictionary, processes, flags, messages… (eventually unlimited).
• expanded database structure with new data fields.
• programmable PROCESS 0 (zero).
• new PROCESS * (simultaneous to player’s input).
• up to 20 user-defined windows for screen layout.
• up to 65.000 flags (variables).
• up to 100 local flags for locations and objects.
• automatized behaviours via location and object flags: define attributes (container, non-player character, visited, foe, liquid, opaque… whatever) once and the system handles accordingly.
• location routes.
• stacks for FIFO operations with flags.
• buffers for text ‘maths’.
• flag indexation.
• location routes.
• authomatic & customizable light, hour and weather systems.
• distant objects reporting and ‘atmospheric’ messaging for dynamic description effects.
• simple macro programming
• expanded PAW grammar: WINDOWx, WHATL(loc), WHATP (process), BITWISE condacts, OOPS and AGAIN, NPC interaction condacts, a power-boosted DOALL…
• hard wired ’start’ database with real and advanced functionality.
• Hopefully, multiple target compilation: PC, DS, Java, Windows CE, etc.

… all interfaced via a user-friendly and simple editor similar to that of the original PAW. Plus some other nice and useful embellishments.

So, what are we supposed to be able to write with the PAWME?

Regardless of their beauty and retro-feeling, the 8-bit based windows versions of PAW are unfortunately too limited and cannot be used for large and text-plenty games or interactive fictions. To put it simply: they do not accommodate enough text nor database resources. SINTAC (which is, in fact, not a replicant of the PAW but of its elder brother DAAD) or CAECHO do in fact have most of the functions and the required expanded grammars that could in fact produce large and meaty text adventures. But SINTAC (absolutely beautiful) insists on the 8-bit limit of 256 of each class except for messages. There’s no use in having 65.000 messages if you can only use 256 flags to control such a monster, 256 objects and rooms with no local flags or attributes, if there’s not any bitwise operation grammar, etc. And the CAECHO system is a prodigy of design (the database is, simply, superb and massively fillable with so many values and flags and text maths and the language is so varied and so proficient…) but the paw-like grammar has been translated into a strange C-like spanish dialect. A beautiful software design by a computing engineer for computer engineeers. Mortals cannot simply make any sense of it, let aside write a game with it. And both of them only run under MS-DOS plus their authors have turned their back on the PAW forever and reject to update and recompile these fantastic tools to run under Windows. Sic.

We are starting to evaluate Superglús and ACE as both are superb PAW replicants. But we still feel that a rewrite, a new design and an editor version would be much better. Among the reviewed programming packages for our rewrite, Multimedia Fusion has taken the pole position for the time being…

You can report to the Project tab at for further information about the PAWME.

WANTED! Infinite Imaginations’ SWAN and Tim Gilberts’ DAAD

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.

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 kept today.

These systems belong inasmuch to the PAW culture. They have been kept hidden for years and it IS definitely hard to get hold of them by any means.

If you are Andrés Samudio or any other living identity, have a copy of the DAAD and want to contribute your treasures with the PAW culture and the worldwide PAW community, you are invited to do so. The same applies if you want to be credited for sharing your copy of the SWAN system. Any versions, any systems. Both packages, when provided, will be made available at the PAW Zero page of this site.

Thank you in advance for your generosity.

What the Reservoir in fact is…

… a worldwide depot & referral site for the PAW culture and a springboard to imagine, share, create and dream worlds, adventures, stories and endless fun.

Welcome to the PAW culture! Welcome to the Reservoir.

First project on the pipe: Spacerogues #1 for the ZX Spectrum (emulated)

At the time this site goes public, I will have been working for some ten days on the first project for the Reservoir. It is #1 on the Spacerogues series entitled Flowers for the singer and will solely and exclusively be programmed using the PAW and its original editors on a ZX emulator (ZXDS) running on a Nintendo DS. Quite a challenge to try and replicate that feeling of that late-at-night, dark-roomed, hunchbacked fingerfastin’ upon the  bloody rubber keyed toy.

The action is settled in Domusphera, a large technological citadel.

No game may start without a proper title screen…

… and may not unfold without a sexy interface, in this case based on Garry Capuccini’s design for Crack City. And, ¿what about the girl?

Before I start with the actual programming of the story (with locations, objects, events, etc), I am taking my time to work out a style database template for the whole series. It should accommodate an online manual using container location unused text, a graphic interface updated in realtime, a flyable airspace using coordinates, atmospheric messaging – people wandering, transport, weather, etc… and as many other features as memory permits. I will try to keep the template clean and compact to save enough space for an exciting plot and abundant and funny puzzles but it will necessarily make of it a 128k project only.

The template and database budget of the story will, obviously, be published in this site once tested so that you can use it for your own work if you want to. Source code listing of the release candidate version will be published as well.

Stay tuned.

¿Where on earth is Andrés Samudio?

Andrés once had a vision. He tried and made his hardest to create a market for text adventuring in spanish. He was passionate about text adventures. He was passionate about stories and writing games. He was passionate about computers and entertainment. He opened the homegrown adventure writing scene to the avid spanish creators of the time. He made it possible that I got hold of my very own copy of the PAW (which I still have and treasure). He pushed hard to transform his hobby into a professional endeavour that languished. He invested in a comercial project that failed. And he vanished after that.

¿Do you know where Andrés Samudio is hiding? We want to hear from him.

What the Reservoir is not…

…a place to raise disputes on which system, Inform or PAW, is better and which technology is technologically more advanced and perfect and has a wider community support or add-ons released and so on ‘n’ on ‘n’ on.. As simple as this: if you are an informite that don’t like the PAW and don’t like, neither, that others may like it, simply beware of the dog and keep away from this site. Neither you nor your brains are forced to visit here.

This informite rejection rule does not apply to José Luis Díaz, honoured by this site for his contribution (Pawsez) to the PAW culture. Other amnestied informites will be announced in due course. José Luis Cebrián and Javier San José emerge as serious candidates to the knowledge of this site…

Welcome to The PAW Reservoir

If you are visiting The PAW Reservoir for the first time, please turn to the About page to learn more about the PAW software, the PAW language and this site.

The PAW Reservoir is a site by ARTEMATOPEYA.

Site in beta phase. Comments, contributions, bug reports and suggestions are welcome at paw@artematopeya.es.