6 ms·

From Infocom to 80 Days: An oral history of text games and interactive fiction

206 points by pseudolus 2y ago

ghaff 2y ago
I'm very familiar with the Infocom era and am still in touch with some of the folks. I admit I haven't kept up with the latest developments. Probably should take a look. For folks interested in the early history, Jason Scott's Get Lamp documentary is highly recommended. (He also has an Infocom-focused edit.)
- 7thaccount 2y ago
  The latest developments in IF are pretty amazing compared to the Infocom days. The parsers are a lot more advanced and this was all before things like LLMs, which I assume could be used in some way here.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    I can imagine. While sophisticated for the time, the Infocom parsers were often sort of an exercise in figuring out the right incantation. (Sort of like Alexa :-/ Low blow I know.) Especially with LLMs and voice recognition, there's a huge amount of potential present and future for a lot more fluid interactions. Not that I expect it to ever be a really mainstream genre.
    - mikepurvis 2y ago
      I dunno, I think it could with the right evolution in the interface. Imagine an interactive story app that you listen to on your commute, where voice commands back to it are the only interface (eg so it’s safe to interact with while driving). Maybe that’s just a subset of the more general “AI companion” opportunity, but I expect you could get some really interesting experiences by calibrating the balance between the manually curated/composed parts of it and the parts that get a bit more painted-in by the LLM. Am thinking especially of stories with conflicting timelines, unreliable narrators, etc, where you’d maybe be revisiting the same events from multiple perspectives to piece together what actually happened.
scioto 2y ago
I still have the Infocom game Leather Goddesses of Phobos, complete with scratch and sniff card, and the 3-D (blue-red) glasses for the enclosed comic book. If you don't have VR or first-person, it was the next best thing: they told you when to scratch and sniff.
- JoeDaDude 2y ago
  I still have a couple of Invisiclues hint books. I wonder if the special markers are still available and if they would still work on these old books.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    There were a couple of standard "invisible inks." [0] I assume Invisiclues used one of them--most likely baking soda given they didn't use heat to reveal. No idea how stable either of those were as inks. [0] https://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/files/secretstoppers1pdf https://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/files/secretstoppers1pdf
  - zzo38computer 2y ago
    I think that Invisiclues is good idea, and that UHS format can be used as a computer file with a similar use. There are FOSS implementations of UHS such as OpenUHS and FreeUHS. Maybe someone will be able to rewrite the Invisiclues in UHS format. (I also wrote a UHS writer program in uxn. And, I had written UHS parser in PostScript; if you have printer with invisible ink (or scratch-off layer) then maybe it will be possible to use this PostScript code to make a program that will print out with invisible ink, too.)
  - autoexec 2y ago
    It might be the same as the markers found in these "Yes & Know" books: https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Publications-Invisible-Know-8-88/dp/B000IMT3PS https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Publications-Invisible-Know-8-88/...
- zabzonk 2y ago
  i had that back in the 80s - managed to move something like n,s,w and then gave up, good name for a game though, and about typical for me and infocom.
nathell 2y ago
For a history of IF between 1972–1999, see the Inform Designer's Manual Edition 4, Chapter 46. https://www.inform-fiction.org/manual/html/s46.html https://www.inform-fiction.org/manual/html/s46.html
pimlottc 2y ago
It’s barely mentioned aside from the title, but I just wanted to say that 80 Days is a really wonderful game that is well worth your time if you’re into text-based games. It’s more of an interactive story than a puzzle game, with some light resource management elements. But the writing is wonderful and there are hundreds of possible paths and storylines to discover. Its replayability is very high, whether you’re trying to find the fastest route, seeking out the most remote locations or unlocking hidden subplots. It really does well to invoke the spirit of adventure in travel, and it was a particular delight during the pandemic days when that wasn’t possible. Plus they’ve open sourced the language and tools used to create the branching narrative! https://www.inklestudios.com/ink/ https://www.inklestudios.com/ink/
- wkat4242 2y ago
  That's not a text adventure though? Or is the interface text? It's hard to tell from the screenshots and I'm on my phone right now :)
  - pimlottc 2y ago
    The graphics are mostly for atmosphere, the main focus is paragraphs of prose that describe the story and what happens to the main characters. Instead of a parser, you tap to choose one of several choices at each decision point, and you can also decide which routes to take on the main map. Aside from that, you can buy and sell items to make money. Your choices depend on where you are, of course, but can also be affected by your money, items in your inventory, and past decisions. So, for example, if you help an inventor in Prague, he may give you a device that you can use later in Delhi. EDIT: Here's an example of the text scenes and how you choose options: https://youtu.be/oCKQVR9odHs?si=URPO8TngeM6_Jc83&t=242 https://youtu.be/oCKQVR9odHs?si=URPO8TngeM6_Jc83&t=242
  - dunham 2y ago
    I haven't played this one through, but I think it's an extension of the work they did on "Sourcery", which was an adaptation of the old "choose your own adventure" books to digital. For that one, they kept the book's story structure, added static images, a map, and a dice-rolling mechanic for combat. So the base story mechanic is multiple choice, with some state (inventory, flags, stats) based on the game play. It's kind of between a text adventure and a novel. To me it feels like they're exploring a new portion of the interactive fiction space, and it's interesting to watch where they take it.
markx2 2y ago
Loved text adventures since my CPC6128 days. They are about the only things I could still use my Psion 5 for. I have Lost Treasures 1 and 2, and the Classics on CD. This is fantastic: http://www.getlamp.com/ http://www.getlamp.com/ You can also hunt down the Infocom Universe Bootleg. It has pretty much all the games, bonus games, invisiclues, IUB database, software tools. IUB.zip is 397.5mb zipped
entropicdrifter 2y ago
How has nobody in these comments mentioned IFDB yet? https://ifdb.org https://ifdb.org You can play almost the whole history from your browser if you want.
jandrese 2y ago
There is a love/hate relationship with most of those old text adventures. They could make an entire world with just a handful of words and fill them with clever puzzles to delight the users. But then the parser would be willfully obtuse and most of the gameplay would be figuring out the exact combination of commands to unlock the next snippit of the story. Sometimes requiring the player to telepathically connect with the developer to figure out precisely what phrasing he intended. You see a special looking rock on the ground. > PICK UP THE ROCK Huh? > PICK UP ROCK Huh? > PICK UP SPECIAL ROCK Huh? > PICK UP THE SPECIAL ROCK You pick up the rock, it feels special in your hands, you are certain it will be important sometime later. > PUT ROCK IN POCKET Huh? > PUT SPECIAL ROCK IN POCKET Huh? > PUT SPECIAL ROCK IN MY POCKET I can't do that. > OPEN POCKET Huh? > OPEN MY POCKET You open your pocket. > PUT SPECIAL ROCK IN MY POCKET You safely store the rock. It is no mystery why graphical adventure games basically wiped out the text adventure games.
- technothrasher 2y ago
  Oh, you'd love the Apple II game called "Prisoner 2". It's entire purpose was to frustrate you at every turn with things you had to telepathically guess what the developer was thinking. The very first puzzle is a maze which is almost impossible to escape from... until you discover you can hit the 'ESC' key. It gets more dastardly from there.
- ZeroGravitas 2y ago
  I've though this is an opening for llm use. Feed all the possible valid commands to the llm and let it translate from anything close you type in.
  - anthk 2y ago
    That's bloat. Current Z-Machine interpreters and libraries (Inform6+Inform6lib and better with Inform 7) have a MUCH better parser than the typical adventures for limited 'computers' from the 80's.
- maxsilver 2y ago
ZeroGravitas 2y ago
Mild spoiler warning! I'm playing Hadean Lands at the moment and wasn't expecting to have to scroll past a map of the game.
- smallerize 2y ago
  Isn't that the map that comes with the game? Edit: it's in the preview screenshots on the App Store. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hadean-lands/id918958300 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hadean-lands/id918958300
  - ZeroGravitas 2y ago
    Apparently it does, though this isn't mentioned anywhere that I've noticed. On the Mac it's hidden in a menu.
MattGrommes 2y ago
I loved the recent newsletter-turned-book '50 Years of Text Games' by Aaron Reed. It's a bunch of deep dives into a bunch of games from throughout history, most of which I hadn't heard of. https://aareed.itch.io/50-years-of-text-games https://aareed.itch.io/50-years-of-text-games
- atribecalledqst 2y ago
  Yes! I was a backer for this while it was still running. Really cool series, don't have a physical copy of the book but do intend to get at least a digital copy at some point. Man that hard copy would make a GREAT coffee table book though...
susam 2y ago
Colossal Cave Adventure (filename ADVENT) by William Crowther in 1976 on IFDB: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=fft6pu91j85y4acv https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=fft6pu91j85y4acv This is the game that started it all! In my personal archives though, I only have a copy of the 1977 update by Dan Woods where the player can score a maximum of 350 points. This, I believe, is the Fortran source code of the 1977 version: http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/source/adv350-pdp10.tar.gz http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/source/adv350-p...
zzo38computer 2y ago
I am #20071 on ifMUD. I had also written a document called "Tricky Document" which describes several tricks involved with Z-machine programming (many of which Infocom did not use). http://zzo38computer.org/zmachine/doc/tricky.txt http://zzo38computer.org/zmachine/doc/tricky.txt (I also wrote implementations of Z-machine in C, PostScript, JavaScript, and Glulx.) Another text adventure system that I know of is "OASYS". The VM code was not documented, although it did include source code, and I have figured it out from the source code and written a document. The included OAC compiler was rather limited (no include files, you could not call a function that is defined later in the file, ambiguous syntax, strings duplicated in the output file, no pointer types, no type checking, no macros, no arrays, no bitwise operations, spurious vocabulary entries, and various other limitations), so I had written my own compiler (which still uses the same VM code, but with an entirely different syntax).
ChicagoDave 2y ago
Also, this article misses a small point in time in 2007-2012 where Textfyre was an unsuccessful attempt at commercial IF. One of the published games was written by Jon Ingold (with Ian Finley), called The Shadow in the Cathedral, which is available at https://textfyre.itch.io/ https://textfyre.itch.io/. I'm not sure, but I think this is the last parser-IF game Jon had a hand in...and may have been a spark for Inkle Studios.
ChicagoDave 2y ago
Also, NarraScope is in Albany, NY this weekend, if anyone is nearby and wants to check it out.
AndrewStephens 2y ago
The ink language mentioned in the article, created by Inkle studios for their games, is a joy to work with. It is designed to be embedded and makes writing branching dialog or complete stories very easy. As well as 80 Days, I really liked Inkle's implementation of the old Steve Jackson Sorcery books (for iOS and other platforms). They really know how to polish their games. Voyage of the Marigold[0] is a project I recently completed written in a mixture of ink and js for a the 2024 Spring Thing[1] Festival of Interactive Fiction. It didn't win a major prizes but I am happy with the way it turned out. [0] https://sheep.horse/voyage_of_the_marigold/ https://sheep.horse/voyage_of_the_marigold/ (Your enjoyment will probably be proportional to how much you like Star Trek) [1] https://www.springthing.net/2024/play.html https://www.springthing.net/2024/play.html (I recommend Rescue At Quickenheath, another game that didn't win a major prize but was my favorite)
dudinax 2y ago
This seems like a good spot to plug one of my favorite games Will Not Let Me Go https://ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2017/Will%20Not%20Let%20Me%20Go/Will%20Not%20Let%20Me%20Go.html https://ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2017/Will%... A Twine game that simulates dementia. It's a brilliant, well written game that ironically will stick in your memory.
- mwigdahl 2y ago
  Seconded -- this game was really excellent and stuck with me longer than the games that placed better than it in 2017.
textfiles 2y ago
Always appreciate the GET LAMP shoutouts. - Jason Scott
autoexec 2y ago
Six pages and no mention of Hunt the Wumpus which was thrilling text based spelunkers years before Colossal Cave Adventure
Razengan 2y ago
"Interactive fiction" ..HOW the heck did "text adventures" end up with that name?? ALL games are "interactive fiction"! Did some non-gamer blog or something start this?
- nimih 2y ago
  The IF archive (IF standing for “interactive fiction”, and the archive containing exclusively text adventures and related content) has existed since 1992. So to answer your question, it is unlikely that a “non-gamer blog” invented the term. In fact, the rec.arts.int-fiction newsgroup apparently dates back to 1987, well before the concept of blogs, or really “gamer” in its modern sense, had come about.
- mwigdahl 2y ago
  According to Jimmy Maher (who would likely know best) the term was coined in 1979. https://www.filfre.net/2011/09/robert-lafores-interactive-fiction/ https://www.filfre.net/2011/09/robert-lafores-interactive-fi...
- kryptiskt 2y ago
  It was used by Infocom to describe what they did. Here is the box art to Zork: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork#/media/File:Zork_I_box_art.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork#/media/File:Zork_I_box_ar... Look at the lower right, it says "Interactive Fiction"
  - Razengan 2y ago
    Oh haha, well I guess it was the ONLY "interactive fiction" back then! ^^
odysseus 2y ago
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy shown in the photo in the article is actually the very first piece of computer software I ever bought. I remember purchasing it in a Babbages or something for $14 and being so excited. Brought it home and ran it on a 286 with a monitor capable of displaying text in one color: amber > insert babelfish into ear
- salgernon 2y ago
  It was also a great example of the 'feelies' that came with games back then - the peril sensitive sunglasses and little baggie of belly button lint. It helped bridge the virtual text world with a connection to the physical.
  - brandall10 2y ago
    It's interesting that 9 year old me remembers opening the box like yesterday because of those items.
- OldGuyInTheClub 2y ago
  Likewise. I remember the Infocom ads: A photo of a brain and a statement that imagination was the best graphics anyone could get [1]. I never could finish the Hitchhiker's game though. [1] https://www.atarimania.com/pgepub.awp?param=publisher-&value=1258-&system=8 https://www.atarimania.com/pgepub.awp?param=publisher-&value... --> "We stick our graphics where the sun don't shine..."
  - johnmw 2y ago
    The BBC released an online version for the 30th Anniversary of the Hitchhikers Guide with some additional graphics if anyone would like some nostalgia [1]. I don't know anyone who finished that game. It could be very frustrating. I was very pleased just to get the babel fish. Since then I have read the walk through and I doubt could have ever completed it without help. [2] (spoilers!) [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN2PLZG/the-game-30th-anniversary-edition https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN... [2] http://www.eristic.net/games/infocom/hhg.html http://www.eristic.net/games/infocom/hhg.html
cpfohl 2y ago
If you’re looking for some accessible ones to play Inhave very fond memories of the ones at Rinkworks: http://www.rinkworks.com/adventure/ http://www.rinkworks.com/adventure/ The site is straight from the late nineties; mobile wasn’t a concern at the time, and it remains not a concern. These are better consumed in a desktop. The whole site is a delightful bastion of “The Old Internet.” The role playing games are also plenty fun!
shmerl 2y ago
Apparently there is Nine Princes in Amber text adventure game.
blueferret 2y ago
Very first game I played on a computer was Zork 1. Old Commodore 64. I think I still have the disk jacket for it (but not the disk, sadly).
cpill 2y ago
I feel like IF tech could be use for more than just fiction. Imagine government forms that could use it to help people navigate a complex bureaucratic system of forms, or something like the python cookiecutter for generating project layouts which could ask for more detail about your preferences before spitting out a template, online tutorials which customise to cover the 3 main cases etc.
kleiba 2y ago
I remember a time where I was playing "A mind forever voyaging" every day while listening to "Jazz impressions from New York" by Dave Brubeck on endless repeat. Good times. Both are excellent pieces of art and I can attest that they complement each other very well.

206 points by pseudolus 2y ago

I'm very familiar with the Infocom era and am still in touch with some of the folks. I admit I haven't kept up with the latest developments. Probably should take a look. For folks interested in the early history, Jason Scott's Get Lamp documentary is highly recommended. (He also has an Infocom-focused edit.)

7thaccount 2y ago
The latest developments in IF are pretty amazing compared to the Infocom days. The parsers are a lot more advanced and this was all before things like LLMs, which I assume could be used in some way here.
- ghaff 2y ago
  I can imagine. While sophisticated for the time, the Infocom parsers were often sort of an exercise in figuring out the right incantation. (Sort of like Alexa :-/ Low blow I know.) Especially with LLMs and voice recognition, there's a huge amount of potential present and future for a lot more fluid interactions. Not that I expect it to ever be a really mainstream genre.
  - mikepurvis 2y ago
    I dunno, I think it could with the right evolution in the interface. Imagine an interactive story app that you listen to on your commute, where voice commands back to it are the only interface (eg so it’s safe to interact with while driving). Maybe that’s just a subset of the more general “AI companion” opportunity, but I expect you could get some really interesting experiences by calibrating the balance between the manually curated/composed parts of it and the parts that get a bit more painted-in by the LLM. Am thinking especially of stories with conflicting timelines, unreliable narrators, etc, where you’d maybe be revisiting the same events from multiple perspectives to piece together what actually happened.

scioto 2y ago

I still have the Infocom game Leather Goddesses of Phobos, complete with scratch and sniff card, and the 3-D (blue-red) glasses for the enclosed comic book. If you don't have VR or first-person, it was the next best thing: they told you when to scratch and sniff.

JoeDaDude 2y ago
I still have a couple of Invisiclues hint books. I wonder if the special markers are still available and if they would still work on these old books.
- ghaff 2y ago
  There were a couple of standard "invisible inks." [0] I assume Invisiclues used one of them--most likely baking soda given they didn't use heat to reveal. No idea how stable either of those were as inks. [0] https://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/files/secretstoppers1pdf https://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/files/secretstoppers1pdf
- zzo38computer 2y ago
  I think that Invisiclues is good idea, and that UHS format can be used as a computer file with a similar use. There are FOSS implementations of UHS such as OpenUHS and FreeUHS. Maybe someone will be able to rewrite the Invisiclues in UHS format. (I also wrote a UHS writer program in uxn. And, I had written UHS parser in PostScript; if you have printer with invisible ink (or scratch-off layer) then maybe it will be possible to use this PostScript code to make a program that will print out with invisible ink, too.)
- autoexec 2y ago
  It might be the same as the markers found in these "Yes & Know" books: https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Publications-Invisible-Know-8-88/dp/B000IMT3PS https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Publications-Invisible-Know-8-88/...
zabzonk 2y ago
i had that back in the 80s - managed to move something like n,s,w and then gave up, good name for a game though, and about typical for me and infocom.

nathell 2y ago

For a history of IF between 1972–1999, see the Inform Designer's Manual Edition 4, Chapter 46. https://www.inform-fiction.org/manual/html/s46.html https://www.inform-fiction.org/manual/html/s46.html

pimlottc 2y ago

It’s barely mentioned aside from the title, but I just wanted to say that 80 Days is a really wonderful game that is well worth your time if you’re into text-based games. It’s more of an interactive story than a puzzle game, with some light resource management elements. But the writing is wonderful and there are hundreds of possible paths and storylines to discover. Its replayability is very high, whether you’re trying to find the fastest route, seeking out the most remote locations or unlocking hidden subplots. It really does well to invoke the spirit of adventure in travel, and it was a particular delight during the pandemic days when that wasn’t possible. Plus they’ve open sourced the language and tools used to create the branching narrative! https://www.inklestudios.com/ink/ https://www.inklestudios.com/ink/

wkat4242 2y ago
That's not a text adventure though? Or is the interface text? It's hard to tell from the screenshots and I'm on my phone right now :)
- pimlottc 2y ago
  The graphics are mostly for atmosphere, the main focus is paragraphs of prose that describe the story and what happens to the main characters. Instead of a parser, you tap to choose one of several choices at each decision point, and you can also decide which routes to take on the main map. Aside from that, you can buy and sell items to make money. Your choices depend on where you are, of course, but can also be affected by your money, items in your inventory, and past decisions. So, for example, if you help an inventor in Prague, he may give you a device that you can use later in Delhi. EDIT: Here's an example of the text scenes and how you choose options: https://youtu.be/oCKQVR9odHs?si=URPO8TngeM6_Jc83&t=242 https://youtu.be/oCKQVR9odHs?si=URPO8TngeM6_Jc83&t=242
- dunham 2y ago
  I haven't played this one through, but I think it's an extension of the work they did on "Sourcery", which was an adaptation of the old "choose your own adventure" books to digital. For that one, they kept the book's story structure, added static images, a map, and a dice-rolling mechanic for combat. So the base story mechanic is multiple choice, with some state (inventory, flags, stats) based on the game play. It's kind of between a text adventure and a novel. To me it feels like they're exploring a new portion of the interactive fiction space, and it's interesting to watch where they take it.

markx2 2y ago

Loved text adventures since my CPC6128 days. They are about the only things I could still use my Psion 5 for. I have Lost Treasures 1 and 2, and the Classics on CD. This is fantastic: http://www.getlamp.com/ http://www.getlamp.com/ You can also hunt down the Infocom Universe Bootleg. It has pretty much all the games, bonus games, invisiclues, IUB database, software tools. IUB.zip is 397.5mb zipped

entropicdrifter 2y ago

How has nobody in these comments mentioned IFDB yet? https://ifdb.org https://ifdb.org You can play almost the whole history from your browser if you want.

jandrese 2y ago

There is a love/hate relationship with most of those old text adventures. They could make an entire world with just a handful of words and fill them with clever puzzles to delight the users. But then the parser would be willfully obtuse and most of the gameplay would be figuring out the exact combination of commands to unlock the next snippit of the story. Sometimes requiring the player to telepathically connect with the developer to figure out precisely what phrasing he intended. You see a special looking rock on the ground. > PICK UP THE ROCK Huh? > PICK UP ROCK Huh? > PICK UP SPECIAL ROCK Huh? > PICK UP THE SPECIAL ROCK You pick up the rock, it feels special in your hands, you are certain it will be important sometime later. > PUT ROCK IN POCKET Huh? > PUT SPECIAL ROCK IN POCKET Huh? > PUT SPECIAL ROCK IN MY POCKET I can't do that. > OPEN POCKET Huh? > OPEN MY POCKET You open your pocket. > PUT SPECIAL ROCK IN MY POCKET You safely store the rock. It is no mystery why graphical adventure games basically wiped out the text adventure games.

technothrasher 2y ago
Oh, you'd love the Apple II game called "Prisoner 2". It's entire purpose was to frustrate you at every turn with things you had to telepathically guess what the developer was thinking. The very first puzzle is a maze which is almost impossible to escape from... until you discover you can hit the 'ESC' key. It gets more dastardly from there.
ZeroGravitas 2y ago
I've though this is an opening for llm use. Feed all the possible valid commands to the llm and let it translate from anything close you type in.
- anthk 2y ago
  That's bloat. Current Z-Machine interpreters and libraries (Inform6+Inform6lib and better with Inform 7) have a MUCH better parser than the typical adventures for limited 'computers' from the 80's.
maxsilver 2y ago

ZeroGravitas 2y ago

Mild spoiler warning! I'm playing Hadean Lands at the moment and wasn't expecting to have to scroll past a map of the game.

smallerize 2y ago
Isn't that the map that comes with the game? Edit: it's in the preview screenshots on the App Store. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hadean-lands/id918958300 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hadean-lands/id918958300
- ZeroGravitas 2y ago
  Apparently it does, though this isn't mentioned anywhere that I've noticed. On the Mac it's hidden in a menu.

MattGrommes 2y ago

I loved the recent newsletter-turned-book '50 Years of Text Games' by Aaron Reed. It's a bunch of deep dives into a bunch of games from throughout history, most of which I hadn't heard of. https://aareed.itch.io/50-years-of-text-games https://aareed.itch.io/50-years-of-text-games

atribecalledqst 2y ago
Yes! I was a backer for this while it was still running. Really cool series, don't have a physical copy of the book but do intend to get at least a digital copy at some point. Man that hard copy would make a GREAT coffee table book though...

susam 2y ago

Colossal Cave Adventure (filename ADVENT) by William Crowther in 1976 on IFDB: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=fft6pu91j85y4acv https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=fft6pu91j85y4acv This is the game that started it all! In my personal archives though, I only have a copy of the 1977 update by Dan Woods where the player can score a maximum of 350 points. This, I believe, is the Fortran source code of the 1977 version: http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/source/adv350-pdp10.tar.gz http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/source/adv350-p...

zzo38computer 2y ago

I am #20071 on ifMUD. I had also written a document called "Tricky Document" which describes several tricks involved with Z-machine programming (many of which Infocom did not use). http://zzo38computer.org/zmachine/doc/tricky.txt http://zzo38computer.org/zmachine/doc/tricky.txt (I also wrote implementations of Z-machine in C, PostScript, JavaScript, and Glulx.) Another text adventure system that I know of is "OASYS". The VM code was not documented, although it did include source code, and I have figured it out from the source code and written a document. The included OAC compiler was rather limited (no include files, you could not call a function that is defined later in the file, ambiguous syntax, strings duplicated in the output file, no pointer types, no type checking, no macros, no arrays, no bitwise operations, spurious vocabulary entries, and various other limitations), so I had written my own compiler (which still uses the same VM code, but with an entirely different syntax).

ChicagoDave 2y ago

Also, this article misses a small point in time in 2007-2012 where Textfyre was an unsuccessful attempt at commercial IF. One of the published games was written by Jon Ingold (with Ian Finley), called The Shadow in the Cathedral, which is available at https://textfyre.itch.io/ https://textfyre.itch.io/. I'm not sure, but I think this is the last parser-IF game Jon had a hand in...and may have been a spark for Inkle Studios.

ChicagoDave 2y ago

Also, NarraScope is in Albany, NY this weekend, if anyone is nearby and wants to check it out.

AndrewStephens 2y ago

The ink language mentioned in the article, created by Inkle studios for their games, is a joy to work with. It is designed to be embedded and makes writing branching dialog or complete stories very easy. As well as 80 Days, I really liked Inkle's implementation of the old Steve Jackson Sorcery books (for iOS and other platforms). They really know how to polish their games. Voyage of the Marigold[0] is a project I recently completed written in a mixture of ink and js for a the 2024 Spring Thing[1] Festival of Interactive Fiction. It didn't win a major prizes but I am happy with the way it turned out. [0] https://sheep.horse/voyage_of_the_marigold/ https://sheep.horse/voyage_of_the_marigold/ (Your enjoyment will probably be proportional to how much you like Star Trek) [1] https://www.springthing.net/2024/play.html https://www.springthing.net/2024/play.html (I recommend Rescue At Quickenheath, another game that didn't win a major prize but was my favorite)

dudinax 2y ago

This seems like a good spot to plug one of my favorite games Will Not Let Me Go https://ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2017/Will%20Not%20Let%20Me%20Go/Will%20Not%20Let%20Me%20Go.html https://ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2017/Will%... A Twine game that simulates dementia. It's a brilliant, well written game that ironically will stick in your memory.

mwigdahl 2y ago
Seconded -- this game was really excellent and stuck with me longer than the games that placed better than it in 2017.

textfiles 2y ago

Always appreciate the GET LAMP shoutouts. - Jason Scott

autoexec 2y ago

Six pages and no mention of Hunt the Wumpus which was thrilling text based spelunkers years before Colossal Cave Adventure

Razengan 2y ago

"Interactive fiction" ..HOW the heck did "text adventures" end up with that name?? ALL games are "interactive fiction"! Did some non-gamer blog or something start this?

nimih 2y ago
The IF archive (IF standing for “interactive fiction”, and the archive containing exclusively text adventures and related content) has existed since 1992. So to answer your question, it is unlikely that a “non-gamer blog” invented the term. In fact, the rec.arts.int-fiction newsgroup apparently dates back to 1987, well before the concept of blogs, or really “gamer” in its modern sense, had come about.
mwigdahl 2y ago
According to Jimmy Maher (who would likely know best) the term was coined in 1979. https://www.filfre.net/2011/09/robert-lafores-interactive-fiction/ https://www.filfre.net/2011/09/robert-lafores-interactive-fi...
kryptiskt 2y ago
It was used by Infocom to describe what they did. Here is the box art to Zork: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork#/media/File:Zork_I_box_art.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork#/media/File:Zork_I_box_ar... Look at the lower right, it says "Interactive Fiction"
- Razengan 2y ago
  Oh haha, well I guess it was the ONLY "interactive fiction" back then! ^^

odysseus 2y ago

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy shown in the photo in the article is actually the very first piece of computer software I ever bought. I remember purchasing it in a Babbages or something for $14 and being so excited. Brought it home and ran it on a 286 with a monitor capable of displaying text in one color: amber > insert babelfish into ear

salgernon 2y ago
It was also a great example of the 'feelies' that came with games back then - the peril sensitive sunglasses and little baggie of belly button lint. It helped bridge the virtual text world with a connection to the physical.
- brandall10 2y ago
  It's interesting that 9 year old me remembers opening the box like yesterday because of those items.
OldGuyInTheClub 2y ago
Likewise. I remember the Infocom ads: A photo of a brain and a statement that imagination was the best graphics anyone could get [1]. I never could finish the Hitchhiker's game though. [1] https://www.atarimania.com/pgepub.awp?param=publisher-&value=1258-&system=8 https://www.atarimania.com/pgepub.awp?param=publisher-&value... --> "We stick our graphics where the sun don't shine..."
- johnmw 2y ago
  The BBC released an online version for the 30th Anniversary of the Hitchhikers Guide with some additional graphics if anyone would like some nostalgia [1]. I don't know anyone who finished that game. It could be very frustrating. I was very pleased just to get the babel fish. Since then I have read the walk through and I doubt could have ever completed it without help. [2] (spoilers!) [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN2PLZG/the-game-30th-anniversary-edition https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN... [2] http://www.eristic.net/games/infocom/hhg.html http://www.eristic.net/games/infocom/hhg.html

cpfohl 2y ago

If you’re looking for some accessible ones to play Inhave very fond memories of the ones at Rinkworks: http://www.rinkworks.com/adventure/ http://www.rinkworks.com/adventure/ The site is straight from the late nineties; mobile wasn’t a concern at the time, and it remains not a concern. These are better consumed in a desktop. The whole site is a delightful bastion of “The Old Internet.” The role playing games are also plenty fun!

shmerl 2y ago

Apparently there is Nine Princes in Amber text adventure game.

blueferret 2y ago

Very first game I played on a computer was Zork 1. Old Commodore 64. I think I still have the disk jacket for it (but not the disk, sadly).

cpill 2y ago

I feel like IF tech could be use for more than just fiction. Imagine government forms that could use it to help people navigate a complex bureaucratic system of forms, or something like the python cookiecutter for generating project layouts which could ask for more detail about your preferences before spitting out a template, online tutorials which customise to cover the 3 main cases etc.

kleiba 2y ago

I remember a time where I was playing "A mind forever voyaging" every day while listening to "Jazz impressions from New York" by Dave Brubeck on endless repeat. Good times. Both are excellent pieces of art and I can attest that they complement each other very well.