Saturday 12 July 2014

Adventures in Spanish

¡Hola Chamacos! ( I'll explain later ;¬)

I'm not talking about the Great Adventure of learning to speak another language, then being able to talk to people in other countries, although that's why we're here.

No, I'm talking about Adventure Games.
From the original Pirate Adventure, which was pure text, through classic point-and-click adventures, like 'Beneath a Steel Sky' and 'Monkey Island', right up to brand new point-and-click graphic adventures, just out on Android, PC and Apple.
And all availablein Spanish!

That's right, a great way to practise your Spanish and play some excellent games at the same time.

Most of the adventures I've looked at are based on the Android platform as, even though I use a PC, my Android tablet and phone are so portable that I do most of my Spanish learning and playing on them, wherever I happen to be, but there are lots of examples of programmes on PC and Apple too, if you take the time to search.

So, let's start with some of the simplest offerings.
Text only adventures:

There are several text-only adventures available via Google Playstore, including

Aventura Pirata:
A Spanish translation of Scott Adams' 'Pirate Adventure'.
With a very simple parser (i.e. small vocabulary) this is an early text adventuring classic.
By the way text adventures in Spanish are called 'aventuras conversacionales'



Santiago:
This is a slightly different slant on the text adventure, as you don't actually type anything in.
This is an electronic rendition of the old 'fighting fantasy' books, where you picked an option from a list at the bottom of each page, then were told which page to go to next, to continue your quest.
Santiago has some nice, simple but atmospheric graphics and plays quite smoothly
unlike . . .

Lobo Solitario:
Don't bother downloading this one. It's another multiple choice adventure, but the graphics wouldn't fit my screen properly and were barely readable on a 7 inch tablet, so forget it on a phone! (unlike Aventura Pirata which works quite well on my phone ;¬)

Aventura Original:
A reworking (in English and Spanish) of the Colossal Cave Adventure.
The program is a little buggy as selecting certain features in the main menu (book/libro) causes a crash, but generally it works quite well.
There's some atmospheric 1980's music and some classic 8-bit artwork, to illustrate the locations.
On my tablet, it also read the descriptions to me, in Spanish.
There are some in-game ads, which always annoy me, but someone's taken the time to create this from scratch so, I suppose, I shouldn't complain.

 




All of the above are available FREE!

There's a site at http://textadventures.co.uk/  dedicated to the development of text adventure games using the Quest authoring system, which allows those gifted with talent, time and imagination to write adventure games which they can share on the site, and can be played either via a web browser, or converted to applications, to be played on Windows, or Android or Apple platforms.
Some of the games listed above are created in Quest.
If you have an idea for a text adventure (preferably in Spanish) why not get hold of Quest, for free, and get writing. There are some examples of adventures, in Spanish, playable in your browser, but I'd love to see some more.

So, moving on to the 90's . .
We began to see 'point-and-click' adventures like 'Monkey Island', 'Simon the Sorcerer' and 'Maniac Mansion'

The last is of particular interest because, a few years ago, a clever bit of software called SCUMM (scripting utility for Maniac Mansion' appeared, which allowed you to play your old adventure games, written using the Maniac Mansion 'engine', on other devices.
Such games include 'Flight of the Amazon Queen', 'Lure of the Temptress', and my favourite ever point-and-click adventure 'Beneath a Steel Sky'.
Well, I installed SCUMM on my trusty Android tablet, fired up 'Beneath a Steel Sky' and, guess what? there's a language option, and it includes Spanish!!!
I am just SO excited at the moment.

 
So how about writing your own point-and-click adventures in Spanish?
Yes, you can do that to!
Just download Adventure Game Studio at http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/
I searched the site using the filter 'Spanish' and found one game listed but, unfortunately, the writer's website appears to have disappeared.
Why not have a go, and create a Spanish p-and-c adventure?
 
Finally, let's come bang up to date, with a (FREE!) offering from Pendulo Soft, called Yesterday.
It can be played in Spanish, English, French, Italian or German. My only gripe is that all of the introductory sequence, with audio, is in English and you can't actually change the language until you're into the game.
That said, it's free (did I mention that?), it's very pretty, and it's available on Android, Apple and PC.
 
You can find download links at http://blog.mispgames.com/en/semana-de-aventuras-graficas-espanolas-para-moviles-yesterday/ and there's a promotional video on YouTube.
 

 
 
I hope you enjoy investigating this facet of gaming in Spanish as much as I did, but that it doesn't keep you away from your studies and your 'tarea'

¡Que lo disfrutes!

Oh, chamacos?
It's a term much used by a Mexican radio presenter Brozo 'el payaso oscuro' (the dark clown) and it means 'kids'
Brozo does the early morning show on W Radio in Mexico city but, as we in the UK are six hours in front, I can listen to it on TuneIn radio at lunchtime, without having to get up early :)
If you like talk radio, I can recommend it.
http://tunein.com/radio/W-Radio-969-s16553/ or you can go direct to the Radio Station's site at http://www.wradio.com.mx/ and click on 'Al Aire'

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