[ Aunque su traducci n es en mayor parte correcto, en algunos partes
suena desma ado a las oreja de los habladores de ingl s.  (As , sin
duda, lo que Usted ahora est  leyendo no es tan agradable a su oreja
como las palabras de un hablador de espa ol. :-)  Entonces, he traduc 
su art culo otra vez, tratando de pulirlo de modo que suena mas natural
en ingl s.  He le do el art culo original en espa ol y escrito esta
versi n, tratando de permanecerlo tan cerca del original como posible. 
En mayor parte, no he cambiado el contento, solamente el superficie,
pero tengo ideas de algunos partes; entonces, Usted va a verlos en
seguida.  He encerrado mis comentos en [ estos rinconeras ].  Espero que
no he hecho demasiado; no pienso entermeterme con sus ideas, pero espero
que esta versi n de su art culo se ayude.  Finalmente, favor de excusar
mi espa ol; hace unos a os que usarlo mucho.  Gracias. ]
<P>
History of Spanish IF
<P>
Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world.  It is not
surprising that text games have been well received and developed in the
Spanish-language community.  The English influence has always been
present, although it wasn't enough to promote the term "Interactive
Fiction".  Spanish players preferred to speak of Conversational
Adventures -- the second word undoubtedly coming from the original
"Advent", which would inspire the first Spanish IF authors.  The
"Conversational" term refers to a conversation, a chat, probably the one
between the player and the game, or between the protagonist and his
environment.
<P>
While in England and the USA the phenomenon would begin in the late 70s
and early 80s, in Spain we must wait until 1984 to see the first
adventures.  An infant company named Dinamic -- soon to become the most
important in Spain -- came first with Artist, a graphic design program,
and Yenght, the first Spanish conversational adventure, programmed in
assembler, with short descriptions.  It had many flaws, not limited to
numerous sudden deaths.  Nonetheless, it managed to dazzle many
adventurers, who enjoyed it very much.
<P>
These would be two pillars of the genre in its beginnings: Dinamic, and
the magazine publisher Hobby Press, through its magazines Microhobby and
MicroMania.  Dinamic would create a specific line for its games, among
which were games created by small independent companies and games
written for Adventures AD, a group of creators in Valencia that would
soon stand out from the rest. These first games featured a variety of
plots and styles: classic adaptations like " Don Quijote de la Mancha";
literary works like "Los Pajaros de Bangkok " (Birds of Bangkok) with
the detective Pepe Carvalho; Star Wars parodies like "La Guerra de las
Vajillas"; games set in the future, such as "Megacorp".  Another strong
Spanish video game company, Topo Soft, curiously did not release a
conversational adventure in all its existence.
<P>
[  Tal vez debe decir algo de Hobby Press antes de mencionarlo aqu ?  Me
parece extra o hablar de "estos dos apoyos" antes de describir los dos.
]
<P>
The real launching of the genre came in 1988 with the publication of "
La
Aventura Original" (Original Adventure), the first release by Adventures
AD,
which was a free adaptation of Advent, combining puzzles from the
original game
with some new twists.  The game was a commercial success, and its
massive distribution brought a considerable increase in fans. 
<P>
Another source of the increasing popularity of adventures was the
availability of the PAWS parser.  Quill could be obtained only in
English, but Adventures AD
contracted the services of Tim Gilberts from Scotland, and together they
released the translated version of PAWS, which they sold to fans so that
they could create their own games.  This brought about an important
increase in the number of these games   especially in the years 1988 and
1989, due to a national contest run by the Spectrum's most popular
magazine, Microhobby.  Microhobby included two sections in every issue
to address questions about the creation of these games, which were
answered by Andres Samudio, the founder (?) of Adventures AD.
<P>
[  Qui n es Andres Samudio?  Su palabra es "precursor", pero no la
entiendo.  En ingl s, por lo menos, si  l fue el "precursor" de
Adventures AD,  l debe ser una compa  a tambi n.  He usada la palabra
"founder", que significa "fundador"   la persona que empieza la
compa ia. ]
<P>
Between 1988 and 1992 Adventures AD released six commercial games, all
commercial successes, until the decline in 8-bits in 1992:
<P>
[ Si Usted quiere hablar de "8-bits", debe describirlos m s
completamente antes de aqu .  Por ejemplo,  qu  fue la relaci n entre
aventuras conversacionales y los "8-bits"? ]
<P>
La Aventura Original (Original Adventure)  (1988). Free adaptation of
Crowther
and Woods's " Adventure ".  It featured graphics in almost every room
and deviated from the original in that the game began outside the cave
(with the player having to open a grating to begin the second phase,
which takes place entirely underground).  Instead of beginning with
everyday elements and introducing the supernatural little by little,
this version featured an elf and a dwarf in early stages, near the
volcano.
<P>
[ El elfo y el enano,  son tan importantes que Usted debe mencionarlos
aqu ?  Me parece que son nada m s de detalles. ]
<P>
Jabato (1989). Based on a comic character, set at the height of the
Roman
Empire.  Its principal innovation was the simultaneous managing of
several characters, who were traveling a great distance through Europe
and Africa.
<P>
Cozumel (1990). The first title of its trilogy "Ci-u-Than", set in the
Caribbean in the first half of the century.  Many people consider this
AD's best game.  The explorer Doc Monro is shipwrecked on the coast of
the island of Cozumel, where he is a participant in great adventures.
<P>
[ Tal vez Usted debe hablar mas de las aventuras del "Doc Monro".   Qu 
son ellas? ]
<P>
La Aventura Espacial (Space Adventure) (1990). Intended as a sort of
side venture during the development of the "Ci-u-Than's" trilogy, this
game was set in the future, and had a certain experimental flavor. 
Again, the player handled several characters.
<P>
Los Templos Sagrados (The Sacred Temples) (1991).  The second part of
the  
"Ci-u-Than" trilogy.  This puzzle-fest, the transitional game in the
trilogy, was also set in the Caribbean jungle.
<P>
Chichen Itza (1992). The third part of its trilogy, and considered by
many the most complete, with a large number of NPCs and quests.  It came
at a difficult time for the company and also for Dinamic, due to the
decreasing popularity of 8-bits and the emergence of graphic adventures.
<P>
All of Adventures AD's games had certain similarities.  Each consisted
of two
parts, the second accessible only with a password obtained by finishing
the
first.  There were graphics in almost all locations.  They were
programmed with a
parser called DAAD, which made it possible to export the games to the 8-
and 16-bit
platforms of the time.  The 16-bit games were sometimes longer and their
puzzles more complex.
<P>
For a time, there was some speculation that Adventures AD might gear up
for the
creation of graphical adventures, but ultimately they did not take this
step.  From that moment on, activity centered on the amateur clubs,
which were already thriving.  AD's games included an advertisement
promoting an amateur club, which no doubt helped increase its
popularity. 
<P>
[ Estoy confudido.   Estaba un anuncio que apareci  en todos los juegos,
o algunos anuncios diferentes que aparecieron en juegos distintos?  Si
hab a solo un anuncio de un club,  cu l club fue ello? ]
<P>
The two most important clubs were the CAAD, founded in Valencia in 1988,
and the Year Zero Club, founded in La Corua, which together comprised
nearly a thousand members and published interesting articles in
newsletters.  The fanzines also offered
advertising and lists of adventures that could be bought from other
groups of fans at low prices.  The production of games between 1986 and
1992, the first golden
age of the conversational games, reached 200, mostly thanks to the
efforts of the
amateur game-designers. From 1992 fan activity fell considerably, and
the fanzines published on paper stopped shortly thereafter. 
<P>
[ Las letras "CAAD",  qu  significan? ]
<P>
Some years afterwards, the arrival of the Internet would create the
second golden
age, in which the fans participated through email lists, several
webpages (with
that of the CAAD as a major hub), and an IRC channel. The CAAD webpage
was created in 1997.  It had few resources at first, but led to efforts
to rescue the
information in paper fanzines and provide older games now playable with
emulators.  A newsgroup was started, in imitation of the English forums,
but soon it was overrun by spam and questions about graphical
adventures.  Ultimately the community turned to a mailing list, now run
through Yahoo Groups.
<P>
For the 16 bit machines, three parsers appeared that would continue the
momentum PAWS gave to the creation of adventures: NMP, Sintac and
Caecho. Some adventurers also prefer programming their games directly in
C or the dominant programming language.  In 1997 each of the two major
clubs organized an adventure contest; fewer than a dozen adventures
appeared in each event. In 1998 the CAAD repeated the summons and 9
games were entered, though the genre remained in crisis and the winner
would not be voted on until 3 years later.
<P>
[ Esto me intersa mucho, pero Usted no dice m s.   Por qu  no votaron? ]
<P>
In October 1998, a message in the mailing list announced the imminent
appearance of InformATE (Inform Now Totally in Spanish).  Although its
initial reception was lukewarm, it eventually surpassed the other
systems; nowadays it is the most popular.
<P>
At this point, however, and for some time thereafter, there were not
very many options for programming adventures.  They were written
directly in C, Visual Sintac (an improved version improved of Sintac
that incorporates an attractive visual environment), or NMP, an evolved
version of PAWS that only works in MSDOS.
At the end of 1999 the first contest of short adventures was organized. 
This was
the beginning of the second golden age. The call for games met with
great success and in March of 2000 the second such event was held. The
successive organization of several of these contests (the first of which
established a severe limit, which would later be extended, of a single
location and three objects) re-awoke the interest of the fans, who with
the support of the IRC channel and the mailing list, renewed their zeal
for the genre. The requirements of the contests varied: some called for
comedy games, some for strage, original games called "nanos", some for
games set in Tolkien literature.  From 1999 through 2002, eight of these
contests have been organized, raising the annual production to
approximately 50 games.  From 2001, there have also been annual prizes
for the authors.
<P>
[ Usted ya hablado de la segunda ep ca dorada, en 1997 cuando los clubs
empiezan los concursos.  Aqu  habla de otras concursos;  de qu  manera
son diferentes? ]
<P>
The mailing list has more than 160 subscribers, though only 30 or 40 are
really
active -- for which reason it is possible to consider the Spanish IF
community a betatesting community or a small test market.
<P>
In June 2000, the people in charge of CAAD restarted the publication of
the fanzine, this time in PDF format, for web distribution.  There were
a total of seven complete issues through December of 2000.  Almost at
the same time, in October of 2000, another digital fanzine appeared,
this one a monthly named SPAC (clearly inspired by the English
counterpart SPAG).  It continues in good health to this day, thanks to
the collaborative efforts of an increasingly active community. 
<P>
Another interesting initiative of recent years has been a project to
recover classic games, called Project Base.  In a short time it has
managed to recover more than a hundred classic games a decade old.
<P>
These days, the number of fans is constantly increasing.  Some reappear
after being away for years, others are lovers of literature and find
that passion satisfied in these games. There is also an increasingly
numerous group of visually handicapped users who enjoy this type of
leisure, and even dare to program long adventures in Inform.
<P>
And what does the future bring for us? The community of active
adventurers is already involved in new and interesting projects.  The
nascent system attoMOLE may be laying the foundations of the successor
of InformATE.   Paguaglus will allow us to rescue old adventures
programmed in PAWS and to translate them to the current environments. 
Maybe someone will complete the task of adapting TADS and end Inform's
dominance.  There are also projects underway to develop new ways of
creating conversational adventures, using visual environments or
descriptive langauges instead of classical programming techniques.  The
CAAD website will continue to evolve, and may attempt to rescue the MUD
that was so successful when it existed.
<P>
[  Qu  es "paguaglus"? ]
<P>
Definitely a pleasing future for the adventure community in Spain.
<P>
[ Tal vez Usted debe inclu r algo m s aqu .  Ahora es bien, pero
bastante corto y abrupto.  O, puede cortar el  ltimata oraci n y a adir
unos oraci nes nuevos al fin, como conclusi n. ]