Professional Adventure Writer
| Company type | Software application |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video game development software |
| Predecessor | The Quill |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Founder | Tim Gilberts, Graeme Yeandle, Phil Wade |
Area served | ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC platforms |
| Products | Text-based adventure game development tool |
| Owner | Gilsoft |
Professional Adventure Writer (commonly abbreviated as PAW and occasionally referred to as PAWS for Professional Adventure Writing System) is a software application designed for developing text-based adventure games complemented by graphical elements. Created by Tim Gilberts, Graeme Yeandle, and Phil Wade, it is a successor to Yeandle's prior creation, The Quill. Released by Gilsoft in 1987, PAW rapidly attracted a loyal community of users.
Building upon the foundation of The Quill, PAW introduced a more sophisticated text parser capable of interpreting commands beyond the basic two-word verb noun format. It also incorporated features such as support for NPCs, multiple character sets, and the ability to fully utilize the 128K memory of the ZX Spectrum. Unlike its predecessor, however, PAW was confined to the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC platforms, omitting compatibility with systems like the BBC Micro and Commodore 64. More than 400 titles were created using this system.
To optimize storage of textual data, PAW utilized compression methods that substituted frequently occurring letter patterns with tokens represented by characters above ASCII 127, taking advantage of the ZX Spectrum's BASIC token storage capabilities.
In 2001, Douglas Harter developed WinPAW, a Windows-based version that could load original PAW adventures while offering additional functionalities; these enhancements required the MS Windows runtime environment. Later, in 2009, InPAWS was released, providing tools for extracting, editing, authoring, and porting PAW adventures between Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum platforms. Moreover, Graeme Yeandle made available an updated CP/M-compatible edition for MS-DOS known as PC Adventure Writer.
External links
- Graeme Yeandle's Text Adventure Page
- Graeme Yeandle's Text Adventure Page
- The PAW Reservoir by Nacho A. Llorente
- WinPAW – PAW adapted for Microsoft Windows
- ngPAWS – JavaScript implementation of PAW
- InPAWS – compiler and extractor supporting Gilsoft's PAW