Printable Version of Lone Wolf

[megamatze]

Hi,

I have never played a gamebook before. I found this page accidentally. The gamebook-idea and your project seem very prommising to me, so I like to give it a try.

My question now is:
Is there a printable version of the gamebook beside the HTML version. If not is it possible to create one without great work?

Thanks,
MegaMatze

[outspaced]

Hi Megamatze

We are slowly going back and revising the earlier books, which will include releasing the books as single-page HTML documents, which lack the illustrations but can be printed. We are still investigating methods of automating a conversion to pdf, but there are blocks that we haven't yet managed to overcome, I'm afraid.

[megamatze]

Ah ok. Thank you for the answer.

Under the first book I found the following download options:
* View Online
* Download Zip
* Download Tarball
* View as Single Page (Simplified HTML)
* View Flowchart (SVG)
* View Known Problems

Which one of that is the original source that contains the raw data? Is it possible to download them?

Wich method of "Conversion into PDF" do you plan du use? Are there already Beta-Versions of the PDFs availible? Otherwise I would try to generate my own.

Something else: As far as I understand, there has been a real book of "Lone Wolf" some years ago. And you converted it into html. Did you copy it one for one or did you chache/add something? Wy are you allowed to put copyright protected material online? Or are the books that you could download here developed by yourself?

Thanks and chears,
MegaMatze

[beowuuf]

www.projectaon.org/en/Main/FAQ#faq8

Note that the books themselves are now back inprint, with new illustrations and bonus adverntures, over at Mongoose Publishing.

[outspaced]

Mar 16, 2010 20:07:05 GMT megamatze said:

Under the first book I found the following download options:
* View Online
* Download Zip
* Download Tarball
* View as Single Page (Simplified HTML)
* View Flowchart (SVG)
* View Known Problems

Which one of that is the original source that contains the raw data? Is it possible to download them?

The answer is...none of them. The "raw data" for each book is held as xml files, which are not particularly readable. We use PERL scripts to convert the xml into the single-page (simplified) HTML and the full version with all the images.

We have worked on a transform script from xml -> LATEX -> PDF, which works, but the problem is the amount of manual tweaking that needs to be done to the LATEX file to ensure there are no 'orphaned' headings, and that the placement of the images is sensible. There seems to be no way to automate such alterations, or to "record" such changes for automatic reapplication the next time we output the pdf. Having to manually alter potentially hundreds of these issues each time we want to output a new version of the book (for example, each time we might fix just a couple of spelling mistakes) is not a good use of spare time.

If anyone has experience in these areas, we'd certainly be interested in comparing notes and trying to overcome these obstacles. (It should also be noted that although I can give out information about PERL transform scripts, and even use them, I didn't write them and I don't really understand them. The other members of the team are more tech-savvy on these things than I am.)

Something else: As far as I understand, there has been a real book of "Lone Wolf" some years ago. And you converted it into html. Did you copy it one for one or did you chache/add something? Wy are you allowed to put copyright protected material online? Or are the books that you could download here developed by yourself?

As Beowuuf points out, the idea for Project Aon actually came from the author Joe Dever. He was so annoyed that publishers didn't seem to have any interest in his books--despite evidence to the contrary--that he approached some longtime fans with a view to making his works legally available online. He's a true visionary. That's why the books are protected by the PA License: it's a legal document that protects and asserts Mr Dever's rights as author, as well as the various illustrators' rights, but allows for the books to be distributed from the Project Aon site.

[megamatze]

Thanks, I just found, that most of my questions are answered there.

Just one is left: Wich method of "Conversion into PDF" do you plan du use? Are there already Beta-Versions of the PDFs availible? Otherwise I would try to generate my own.

[megamatze]

Oh, seems we have answered at the same time.

I also had this XML -> Latex -> PDF idea. But I don't know how to avoid these 'orphaned' headings, sorry.

Anyway, there is enough material online to try out the game. Thanks for your work sofare. Maybe I will even buy the print version.

[Thomas Wolmer]

Mar 17, 2010 10:20:16 GMT outspaced said:

The answer is...none of them. The "raw data" for each book is held as xml files, which are not particularly readable. We use PERL scripts to convert the xml into the single-page (simplified) HTML and the full version with all the images.

Minor correction: We use XSLT stylesheets and the Xalan-J XSLT processor to convert the XML source into the various output formats. The whole machinery around that is implemented in Perl though.