Compatible emulators

Description

In 1984, William Chamberlain published a book entitled "The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed" (Warner Books, NY. 0-446-38051-2, paper $9.95). The introduction states: "With the exception of this introduction, the writing of this book was entirely done by computer."

The authorship is attributed to RACTER, originally written in BASIC compiled on a Z80 with 64k of RAM. Racter strings words according to "syntactic guidelines" and the illusion of consistency is reinforced by the repeated reuse of textual variables. This gives the impression that Racter can actually have a conversation with the user that has some meaning, unlike Eliza, who is just spitting out what you’re typing into her. Of course, such a program has not yet been written to perfection, but Racter is approaching it.

Since it’s impossible to avoid some of the syntax mistakes Racter tends to make, it was decided to market the game in a humorous vein, which Mindscape’s marketing department dubbed “software with a well-hanging tongue” and “artificial folly.”

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