6 ms·

FTA: "Before computer games arrived on the scene, kids amused themselves with choose-your-own-adventure books that allowed you to explore fantastic worlds that

by teilo 16y ago

FTA: "Before computer games arrived on the scene, kids amused themselves with choose-your-own-adventure books that allowed you to explore fantastic worlds that were described without the aid of fancy graphics. "As computers became a little more powerful, these were translated into text-only adventure games that retained the spartan aesthetic, but allowed the player a little more control over their exploration of the world. For example, you'd type "north" to move north, where you'd then "look" around a scene before deciding how to interact further." Uh... No. "Colossal Cave", the first text based Adventure game: 1976, by William Crowther, running on a PDP-10. By '77 it had been ported to Unix. "The Cave of Time", the first Choose Your Own Adventure book: 1979.

teilo 16y ago
Correction: The first interactive novel was Sugarcane Island, published in '76. Two others ones, rather obscure and unknown, were published in '77, and '78: "Deadwood City" and "Third Planet from Altair". The idea didn't really kick off, however, until the Choose Your Own Adventure series began in 1979. It seems clear that the development of Adventure-style games and the interactive novel were independent of one another.
- 8ren 16y ago
  The article's version of events yields a more intuitive narrative flow. > ...the Editors of the Guide were sued by the families of those who had died as a result of taking the entry on the planet Traal literally (it said "Ravenous Bugblatter beasts often make a very good meal for visiting tourists" instead of "Ravenous Bugblatter beasts often make a very good meal of visiting tourists") they claimed that the first version of the sentence was the more aesthetically pleasing, summoned a qualified poet to testify under oath that beauty was truth, truth beauty and hoped thereby to prove that the guilty party was Life itself for failing to be either beautiful or true. The judges concurred, and in a moving speech held that Life itself was in contempt of court, and duly confiscated it from all those there present before going off to enjoy a pleasant evening's ultragolf. http://flag.blackened.net/dinsdale/dna/book2.html http://flag.blackened.net/dinsdale/dna/book2.html
  - stcredzero 16y ago
    In other words, the Wired author just made up stuff that sounded good.
GavinB 16y ago
Packard wrote one of the first known books of this type, Sugarcane Island, in 1969 and saw it first published in 1976 by Vermont Crossroads Press http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Packard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Packard It seems to me that the two ideas developed more or less in parallel. It says something about the way that culture develops that this idea arrived in print only when digital technology was just making it possible (but far from mainstream). Dungeons and Dragons also independently arrived at the same time--first published in 1974, so clearly in development before that. It seems like our culture was just ready.

by teilo 16y ago

teilo 16y ago

Correction: The first interactive novel was Sugarcane Island, published in '76. Two others ones, rather obscure and unknown, were published in '77, and '78: "Deadwood City" and "Third Planet from Altair". The idea didn't really kick off, however, until the Choose Your Own Adventure series began in 1979. It seems clear that the development of Adventure-style games and the interactive novel were independent of one another.

8ren 16y ago
The article's version of events yields a more intuitive narrative flow. > ...the Editors of the Guide were sued by the families of those who had died as a result of taking the entry on the planet Traal literally (it said "Ravenous Bugblatter beasts often make a very good meal for visiting tourists" instead of "Ravenous Bugblatter beasts often make a very good meal of visiting tourists") they claimed that the first version of the sentence was the more aesthetically pleasing, summoned a qualified poet to testify under oath that beauty was truth, truth beauty and hoped thereby to prove that the guilty party was Life itself for failing to be either beautiful or true. The judges concurred, and in a moving speech held that Life itself was in contempt of court, and duly confiscated it from all those there present before going off to enjoy a pleasant evening's ultragolf. http://flag.blackened.net/dinsdale/dna/book2.html http://flag.blackened.net/dinsdale/dna/book2.html
- stcredzero 16y ago
  In other words, the Wired author just made up stuff that sounded good.

GavinB 16y ago

Packard wrote one of the first known books of this type, Sugarcane Island, in 1969 and saw it first published in 1976 by Vermont Crossroads Press http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Packard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Packard It seems to me that the two ideas developed more or less in parallel. It says something about the way that culture develops that this idea arrived in print only when digital technology was just making it possible (but far from mainstream). Dungeons and Dragons also independently arrived at the same time--first published in 1974, so clearly in development before that. It seems like our culture was just ready.