Magic Words - Interactive Fiction in the 21st Century

An anonymous reader writes "1UP has just published a nine-part article on Interactive Fiction, the politically correct name for what used to be called text adventure games (e.g. Zork, Stationfall, etc.). The feature includes an overview of the genre and its history, lengthy interviews with the genre's leading current creators, and resources for aspiring IF writers. Anyone who has fond memories of typing their way through dank caverns or outsmarting leather goddesses and ravenous bugblatter beasts with nothing but a keyboard should read this -- not just for the nostalgia, but to see what's become of the format."

Modern Inter-Fic

[mekkab]

Videlectrix [videlectrix.com] hasn't forgotten the "magic" that is interactive fiction!

P.S.- how do you get past the sous-chef?!

excessive gaming vs excessive reading

[stonebeat.org]

last year somebody died of excessing gaming (maybe one of those Interactive Fiction games), trying to go through this NINE-part article made me wanna kill myself. ;)

Oh, the memories!

[perimorph]

My favourite part was the endless game of seeing how many different ways you could type a sentence before the computer realized what you were talking about. Ah, nostalgia!

You are in the middle

[Alien54]

of a maze of twisted paragraphs, all of them alike

Interactive Fiction--Old School

[BoldAC]

I know that I am getting old when I think of interactive fiction as those old "choose your own adventure" books.

If you would like the stab the dragon, turn to page 23.

If you would like to tickle the dragons underbelly, turn to page 56.

Plus, I had such a short attention span, I could never remember the "death pages" until I had already turned to them 3 or 4 times.

What great literature that was! The skill it took to write a death page that covered all the potential ways you could have gotten there. And we thinking coding is hard...

AC

stupid flask

[prockcore]

I just wish they'd explain to me how to get ye flask.

Instead I just have to sit here wondering WHY I can't get ye flask!

i remeber something about..

[Bodhammer]

a length of rubber tubing, some lubricant, and a Yak...

Leather Goddesses of Phobos by InfoCom

p.s. It seemed funny at the time

To this day, I never turn out the lights...

[jbarr]

...for fear of being eaten by a Gru!

Actually approprate for all stories

[sigma]

You are in a maze of twisty little comments, all alike...

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

We've moved on to a new Interactive Fiction...

[Sam Nitzberg]

Microsoft representatives release statements that their software is only penetrated after patches are released, and we respond on slashdot....

Re:Oh, the memories!

[Hitmouse]

Eliza: Why is the endless game of seeing how many different ways you could type a sentence before the computer realized what you were talking about, your favorite part? Does your mother feel the same way?

Re:excessive gaming vs excessive reading

[s4m7]

yeah. reading is hard and it makes my eyes go twitchy. is there anything good on tv?

Re:PC?

[dilby]

I would have thought they'd call them graphically challenged adventure games.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:PC?

[marko123]

If a bodice-ripping romance is not an adventure then you, good sir, are jaded....

>L

You look around you and see a POINT the previous poster made.

>GET POINT

Point taken.

Re:excessive gaming vs excessive reading

[Bingo Foo]

There is an article here.
> read article
I don't know how to "read".

There is an article here.
>

Re:XYZZY

[Goldfinger7400]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That disc is worth eighty bucks?

>search desk drawer

You find a good deal of papers, magazines, empty soda cans etc., but alas, nothing valuable.

>open closet

As you tug open the door of the dusty closet, you can feel something tumbling behind it. You realize a bit too late that it's your collection of antique farming implements.

**** You have died. ****

YOUR SCORE WAS 0 OUT OF A POSSIBLE 80.

QUIT, RESTART, RESTORE?

Re:excessive gaming vs excessive reading

[Cus]

...or even more infuriating for Scott Adams adventurers:

> read article
Sorry, I can't do that...YET!

Re:Interactive Books

[Tonith]

If you want to kill the ogre, turn to page 452.
[turns to page 452]
The ogre laughs at your pitiful attempt to kill him and rends the flesh from your bones.
"Damnit!" [turns back to page 231]

If you want to befriend the ogre, turn to page 294.
[turns to page 294]
The ogre befriends you - with an ogre-hug of epic proportions. You are crushed to a pulp.
"Damnit!" [turns back to page 231]

If you want to run away from the ogre, turn to page 583.
[turns to page 583]
You turn to run away, and run smack into a tree. While you stumble back, the ogre picks you up and throws you off a nearby cliff. Your body plummets onto several sharp pointy rocks, and you see vultures start to circle around you. "Damnit!"

I never won at those things. Stupid ogres.

Use a towel

[Anonymous Coward]

outsmarting .. ravenous bugblatter beasts with nothing but a keyboard

A keyboard? I used a towel.

Re:IF today

[Dennis G. Jerz]

That's a good one... Scott Adams tells this story about "SCR* BEAR"... I've posted an .mp3 of him telling this story at an academic panel a couple years ago...

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/adams/audio/bear.mp 3

Well, I got a fan letter in that just had my whole company rolling in the aisles. It said:

We got to that bear on the ledge. We tried giving it the honey and he ate it up and boy that was a treasure and that was no good. So we reloaded the saved game and we went back to that bear. We pushed that bear, we prodded that bear, we tickled that bear, we have gotten so upset with that bear we could get nowhere.

Now the following is rated PG-13 so if you don't want to hear it, please close your ears. Ok. Continuing..

So we finally said "Screw the bear!!" And the game replied, "The bear is so startled he falls off the ledge!"

They thought I was a genius programmer!

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/adams

Interactive FPS

[ch-chuck]

Hey, how about the best of both worlds:
>+-+-+-+-+-GO NORTH

You see two Orcs and an Enforcer

>SHOOT ORC WITH BFG

The Orc explodes in a bloody spray of meat

>SHOOT ORC WITH BFG

You are out of ammo. The Enforcer hits you, -10.

>SHOOT ENFORCER WITH RAIL GUN

You miss the Enforcer. The Orc hits you, -5.

>SHOOT ENFORCER WITH ROCKET

The Enforcer explodes in a bloody spray of meat.
The Orc hits you, -5.

>SHOOT ORC WITH ROCKET

The Orc explodes in a bloody spray of meat.

>GET MEDIKIT

+20

>GET ROCKETS

You now have 55 rockets

>GO NORTH

You see 3 Orcs and 2 Grunts.

>

My Favorite Text Moment. . .

[Fantastic Lad]

>Examine lamp

The dusty silver oil Lamp is very old. There are some words engraved on the side of the Lamp.

>Read words

You cannot read them. They are covered in dust.

>Wipe lamp

As you wipe away the dust, the lamp shudders and grows warm in your hands. But then it makes a wheezing sound and a thin trail of smoke sputters from the lamp. Nothing else happens.

> Examine lamp

The shiney silver oil Lamp is very old. There are some words engraved on the side of the Lamp.

> Read words

"Do not rub."

Ah. Those were the good old days. . .

-FL -Plugh

Re:Interactive Books

[hoggoth]

> I reverse-engineered Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books

Back then that was legal.