Text adventures are commercially dead… or are they? A quarter of a century after game companies stopped making text adventures, Bob Bates of Infocom fame is crowdfunding his game “Thaumistry: in charm’s way.”
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I grew up in the ’80s when computers were just finding their way into homes and schools, and I have fond memories of playing all sorts of computer games. This includes interactive fiction, especially Infocom games.
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I chose this game because I was immediately struck by its nod to the early text adventures, especially bringing in the sense of humor that permeated games such as Zork. I also realized on my first play-through that the map was very very easy to draw. This isn’t always the case. As someone who has been spoiled by Infocom’s maps, being able to draw the map easily is very important to me.
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So I want to start a monthly computer club where we all play the same game at the same time. Bookmark the post at the beginning of the month and then start talking in the comment thread. What do you like about the game? What do you dislike? Where are you stuck? Has anyone figured out how to get the dart out of the bar? What about kill the troll? Get the shield?
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To solve my spelling problem, my father brought home an Infocom game called Zork. He explained how it worked. I would be placed inside a story, much like my Choose Your Adventure Books, only this time, instead of being contained to two choices, I would have open possibilities. The only catch was that I needed to spell things correctly in order to have the game recognize my commands. It only took a single night to fall in love with the underground world of Zork; fall in love enough to learn how to spell in order to explore.
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To solve my spelling problem, my father brought home an Infocom game called Zork. He explained how it worked. I would be placed inside a story, much like my Choose Your Adventure Books, only this time, instead of being contained to two choices, I would have open possibilities. The only catch was that I needed to spell things correctly in order to have the game recognize my commands. It only took a single night to fall in love with the underground world of Zork; fall in love enough to learn how to spell in order to explore.
Continue ReadingThe Commodore 64 turns 30 this month! In January 1982, a state-of-the-art home computer made its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show – the Commodore 64. The C64 housed less than a megabyte of memory, but boasted color graphics, perfect for little kids making their first journeys into computer gaming. My twin sister and I […]
Continue ReadingThere was a time when even the best computer graphics available were lousy. In this ancient time, called “the Eighties,” graphics were cool for computer games to have, but really much less important than a good story and interesting puzzles …
Continue ReadingThere was a time when even the best computer graphics available were lousy. In this ancient time, called “the Eighties,” graphics were cool for computer games to have, but really much less important than a good story and interesting puzzles …
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