Instructions for downloading Iris hyperdramas


Those interested in the history of hypertext may be interested in seeing how I assembled hyperdrama scripts before the creation of the World Wide Web and HTML, both of which are perfectly suited to the form. Hence the DOS downloads I am making available here.

Chateau de Mort was my introduction to what later came to be called hyperdrama. This was in the early 1980s, before the Internet, before HTML. (Read more about the experience).

As I became hypertext literate, I started using a DOS-hypertext program called Iris. The Chateau Sampler and The Bride of Edgefield are embedded in this program. To access the plays, you first download the relevant zip files. After unzipping it into a directory on your hard drive (put each of the four Bride files in a different directory), go to the directory, enter DOS, and type "go" (without quotation marks) at the DOS command line (go1, go2, go3 and go4 for the 4 Bride files). Iris will open.

You may experience some glitches with Iris -- much has changed in the computer world since this primitive, but at the time extraordinary, DOS program. You still can move through the play if you hit the ESC key to access the menu, then hit Books, then scroll for the book that Iris may tell you isn't found -- when you find it on the list, highlight it, enter, and you are back on your way.

As a last resort, once the zip files are extracted, note that the files with .PGE extentions are text files and can be read accordingly. The end of file command line ".loadmark" indicates which .PGE file comes next.

Have fun!