One of my A Mind Forever Voyaging pieces got mentioned in Critical Distance's "2023 in videogame blogging." Don't see a lot of text game writing out there in mainstream video game discourse. Feels good!
It has a Kierkegaard quote and everything, very classy.
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The Lost Treasures of Infocom I & II
"Once you've defeated alien armies, solved murders, and overcome curses, real life seems like child's play." (PC Games, Feb. 1993)
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Kinda funky how "open it, read it" works. First, the automatic listing of things in the room description sets "it" to the mailbox. I enter two commands on one line. The first is parsed as "open mailbox", and the default "open container" handler sets "it" to the leaflet. Then the second command is parsed as "read leaflet", which causes an implicit take.
It makes sense when you think about it, but "open it, read it" on its own... not as much I think.
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‘Zork Nemesis’ Alchemical Correspondences
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Studies of ZIL, Part 1
by Max Fog
Infocom is well-known in the interactive fiction community for classics such as Zork, Deadline, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, as well as more experimental pieces such as Trinity, Plundered Hearts, and A Mind Forever Voyaging. In the 1980s, Infocom became a fundamental part of the history of IF and shaped the IF world as we know it today.
The first way they did this was probably the most obvious. The games that Infocom made pushed boundaries in every direction – from classic puzzle games like Zork, to puzzleless atmospheric types like A Mind Forever Voyaging, all the way through to Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) games like Journey (which, while unpopular both at the time and now, was an example of early point-and-click CYOA). The games they released did wonders in introducing over a hundred thousand people to the entire broad and diverse world of interactive fiction, and inspiring people to make their own text games.
The second way is more obscure, but just as important. It’s the Z-machine.
Read the full article on The Rosebush.
The Rosebush | Submissions | Mastodon
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My past six attempts at playing Zork
Got lost
Got lost again, and the map wasn't making sense
Gave up on map, tried new method, ineffective
Refined previous method, introduced objectives, got very confused
Attempt four and five I just tried a lot of things out in a further refined system while fighting the troll. Had a new objective which I did not achieve cause I was spending too much time trying stuff out. Game says I should re-read the manual, I never read it once in the first place so yeah I should
Will update after I work on midterms first
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Enchanter Invisiclues Booklet Cover
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Forty years later and I still remember being stuck outside the engine room for a week because, like a fool, I trusted the game narration.
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Trinity content!
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USA 1990
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Lane Mastodon in an Infocom ad (circa August 1988)
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Digital Marketing Agencies
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Inside Theater
This is a movie theater unlike any you've ever seen! The seats are wide, deep and comfortable. The aisles are spotless. The air is clear of smoke, and the screen is dramatically large. A chill goes up your spine as you realize how alien your universe has become.
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managed to pass my last finals! now i won't have to regret those hours of pearl hunting
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