Apple Nuclear Power Plant

Stephen R. Berggren, adapted for interactive fiction by Kevin Riggle

Release 1

THIS IS A PRE-RELEASE BUILD! PLEASE DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE! THE RELEASE NUMBER WILL NOT BE UPDATED WHEN CHANGES ARE MADE.

A simulation of a pressurized water nuclear power plant, rendered in the form of an interactive fiction. As with a real power plant, the goal is to produce a high average electrical power output until all the fuel is used up without injuring anyone.

Unlike a real power plant, it lacks many of their safety mechanisms, as its original author acknowledges. ('I have some final words to engineers, nuclear technicians, and other qualified readers. ... Yes, I know it takes much less than a day for a reactor to respond to changes in coolant flow and control rod position. Besides, who ever heard of a reactor with only one emergency coolant system, and that one with a limited supply of coolant? And, blasphemy of blasphemies, no SCRAM mechanism. ... Several concessions to accuracy were made in order to create a simulation that would provide realistic responses to simple inputs and make an interesting and instructive game.')

Originally written by Stephen R. Berggren in Applesoft BASIC and published in Creative Computing Magazine, December 1980, it has been adapted to interactive fiction using Inform 7 in the hopes of making it more accessible to a modern audience, some forty years later.

The cover art incorporates '#OntheJob - Indian Point NPP Resident Inspector' by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, used under the terms of its Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Apple Nuclear Power Plant was created with Inform and has IFID 1BDA24D5-A18F-4A20-8367-E6AC763BCA82. To play a work like this one, you need an interpreter program: many are available, among them Gargoyle for Mac OS X or Windows; Windows Frotz or Windows Glulxe for Windows. Play without downloading anything by following the 'Play In-Browser' link, using the Vorple interpreter. You'll need to have Javascript enabled on your web browser.