

Cairn Upgrade Issues
Hello everyone. I've received an email indicating that a user was having an issue when they upgraded to 3.0.0 on their Mac. I am chasing that down with the user, but I have a request. If you have purchased Cairn and have updated the app (it looks like most or all sales have), can you drop me a quick DM letting me know if you are having issues, and if so, what they are?
Not sure if I am dealing with an edge case or a systemic bug, but I want to get it fixed. This upgrade was supposed to address a bug in iCloud synchronization, and I thought I had all the use cases resolved, but clearly I did not.
Hoping to get a fix out soon, but I need more data to do it. If you could take a moment, check your version, and let me know if you are having issues (or if you are not, that would be good too).
Cairn suite testing nearly complete
Testing of the Cairn suite of applications for Mac, iPad and iPhone should be complete by the end of the weekend for submission to the App Store. One purchase, all 3 versions, including cross device synchronization of stories, materials, and saved games via iCloud. iPad supports horizontal and vertical split screen or full screen views of panels. iPhone supports supports landscape mode, with or without split. Compatible with Z3, Z4, Z5, Z7, and Z8 stories.
Sneak Peek at Cairn for iOS
Testing for Cairn on iOS and iPadOS is underway. My goal is to ship both in August, with full iCloud synchronization between devices. https://cairnif.com
Immersive Interactive Fiction
I’ve spent the last few months building a modern Mac player for classic Infocom games, and I’m finally taking some time to actually enjoy using it. My ideal setup? An ultra-wide monitor (full screen, of course), my current game I am working on, an auto-updating map, game materials, and hints at the ready. Then dim the lights, and put on The Last Samurai soundtrack in the background. For me, it’s about as close as you can get to disappearing into one of these worlds. Time to revisit Infidel. It's been too long. Cairn App
Cairn 2.4 is released with in-game PDFs, Images, and Invisiclues and more!
Hey Everyone
Thanks for all the support and feedback on Cairn. Version 2.4.0 is now in the App Store, and now supports the ability to upload materials to your library stories. This could include original manuals, maps you found online, or any other PDF or image file. Also supports the ability to attach Infocom hint files (JSON files easily found online in GitHub and elsewhere), a new Inventory bar in the transcript window, and custom object shapes (Round, Octagon, etc). Also includes a number of ‘under the hood’ features to optimize performance and fixes for several bugs found since the last release. It’s been a mad fury of work to get to this point, but I still have a pretty extensive backlog of work.
Product Roadmap
- Z7 and Z8 Support
- iPad / iPhone Support
- Graphical Game Support (Beyond Zork)
- Glulx Support
- Sound Effects
Thanks to those of you who supported me by purchasing this game and providing feedback.
App Store Link
Developer Page
Play Z3 games with auto-mapping on your Mac!
I have a long history with Infocom games from the 80s. Lots of fond memories with my friends in the basement, pushing through maddening games like Zork, Enchanter, and Deadline. This year, I took it upon myself to build a player for the Mac with one key differentiator. Automatic mapping. I always hated the task of creating maps as I played, and this app automatically does it for you!
Version 1.1.1 is in the App Store now with support is for Z3 game files. Version 2.0 with Z4 and Z5 support should hit the App Store in the next few weeks. Finishing up testing on version 2.0 as I am writing this post.
If you want to see it in action, check out the demo video here: https://ducat.dev/projects/cairn
App Store link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cairn-interactive-fiction/id6773716278
Mac Player with Auto-Mapping
Making good progress on a new player for MacOS with auto-mapping. Z3 testing seems stable, automatic mapping seems to be working well. Map rooms can be moved anywhere you want as the map grows. Map window can be detached and placed on different monitor or in a different Mac OS space. Really nice on an ultra wide monitor, where you can have a giant map on the right, and a reasonably sized parser on the left in full screen mode. Quite immersive.
Already played through Enchanter to the end for testing. Now working my way through the great underground. Hope to release this soon to the App Store with Z3 support. Z4+ testing indicates I've got some work to do before I release that. Lots of programatic differences to be worked through.