8bitSquad
ALF: Adventure Language Format

Create your own 8-bit adventures

ALF (Adventure Language Format) lets you write a classic text adventure without writing a line of 8-bit code. You design it on your PC in the ALF Creator; ALF builds it into a game for the real machine.

How it works

Design

Rooms and map, Things, words, and what happens, in plain sentences. A storyboard that works backwards from the ending.

Check

The Creator checks everything before anything is built: a broken story is refused, a weak one gets advice. Fair play is checked too.

Build

One press builds a disk for each machine, stamped with exactly what went into it.

Play

Load it on a Plus/4 or a C64, real or emulated.

Data is king

Data is king. The engine knows nothing about any story: no story code, ever. Every adventure gets the same engine, byte for byte, and the Creator's own tests prove it on every build.

Machines

  • Commodore Plus/4Available
  • Commodore 64Available
  • Commodore 128Available
  • ZX Spectrum 48K/128KAvailable
  • SAM CoupĂ©Available
  • Amstrad CPCPlanned
  • Commodore 16Later
  • BBC Micro, MSXLater

The ALF Creator

The ALF Creator is in use for 8bitSquad's own games. A public version for other authors is planned.

Games made with ALF: Escape from London, HELP! AI SLOP HAS POSSESSED MY PLUS/4!.