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If it's too expensive making COD5 or SF4, people will turn to making games like Spider and Web or Darwinia instead.

Freespace II Source Code Project: Maybe one of the "total conversions" that do not require the original game data. Not sure the hardware can handle it, though

Freedroid Classic: a remake of the addictive Commodore 64 classic Paradroid

Vega Strike: a game in the Elite/Frontier/Freelancer tradition

Oolite: Elite with textures, by the look of it

Nethack, Slash'EM, or Vulture's Eye/Claw for graphical versions. Curiosity and a full manual required: I can't imagine anyone trying to #rub, #dip or #force "intuitively", or realizing what else can be read, eaten, written with, thrown, cast spells at, turned to flesh, ...

Legerdemain: looks like an imaginative, even somewhat poetic roguelike RPG; needs Java

Gargoyle: a sparse but "typographically attractive" interactive fiction interpreter for most of the relevant modern and historical systems from TADS 3 and Z-Code/Infocom to Magnetic Scrolls and Level 9. Include some of the top-rated games from http://ifdb.tads.org/ or http://www.wurb.com/if/ (I would advise against the "include everything" approach). Not sure the Windows version has a file-selector or front-end, might be best to throw one together yourself or at least prepare the relevant filetype associations

Flight of the Amazon Queen, Beneath a Steel Sky, and other adventure games for the SCUMM VM

The Mana World: console-style RPG

How come nobody has yet mentioned IF Archive? The most innovative, thought provoking and literary games are not on your regular console.

Text adventures come in several flavours, many are typically puzzle-based, while others are just a sequential narrative. These have all the advantages of a novel in terms of profound concepts, possibilities and adult themes. But the active involvement that they require to keep the action going makes them a different experience compared to passive uncovering of the plot: they make you think about the storyline, step by step, and get involved in it in first person.

Also there are an annual competition that regularly provides new material, free to play. Some of these beasts provide the most original and interesting gameplays I've seen in a long while; see Galatea as an example (you can play it online).

You haven't played any of the REALLY old adventure/puzzle games. These were games where you COULDN'T backtrack. A lot of the old ones (the King's quest series has a number of examples of this) had points where if you didn't pick up something at a certain point, you were SCREWED and had to start the game over again.

That's called Dead-ending, and is covered under Obscure puzzles (or non-sensical, depending on the severity).

I have played Multi-dimensional Thief if that's what you're asking, and I even had a bugged version that couldn't be completed (one of the timers wouldn't stop as required). There are plenty of dead-ends in that game because you explicitly did something wrong (as opposed to simply forgetting an item in various obscure puzzles.)

That's actually already happened, in a way. After Infocom went out of business the fan community reverse-engineered their VM (the Z-Machine) and Graham Nelson designed a new language and compiler for it (Inform). That, along with other interactive fiction languages/toolkits that compile to their own VMs (TADS, Hugo, AGT, ALAN, and many more) and a small but dedicated community has ensured that interactive fiction hasn't died out.

Every year dozens of new games come out, usually for the two major annual competitions (the IF Comp and the Spring Thing). Most of them are shorter than "commercial-era" games, mainly because they're written by hobbyists who don't have the time and resources to commit to building large games. They run the gamut from puzzle-focused games in the style of Infocom to story-focused games that eschew large numbers of elaborate puzzles to focus on story, and there are also more experimental and artistic games that try to push the medium in new directions. The IF Archive has an extensive collection of these games, and there are several review sites that attempt to catalog and organize the archive. The IF community has long had rec.arts.int-fiction and rec.games.int-fiction at their center, though with the rise of blogs and web forums it has started to fragment some.

Yes, they are both text adventures. But they also happen to be two of the most moving stories I have read, played, or watched.

Photopia

Blue Chairs

Yes, they are both text adventures. But they also happen to be two of the most moving stories I have read, played, or watched.

Photopia

Blue Chairs

Sierra's writing? Bah. The writing in the best of modern IF (try Spider and Web) is significantly better than what Infocom and Sierra used to put out in KQ and PQ. As for Space Quest, I have very fond memories -- but going back and trying to play them again, the games are a mixed bag, and I spend far too much of my time frustrated.

No, if you want to get reminiscent about games with outstanding plots that still have playability (almost) a decade and a half later, I think it needs to be LucasArts. The Secret of Monkey Island, Sam & Max Hit The Road, Day of the Tentacle... those are the classics that stand the test of time.

Crowther's original was a game, and you can play it for yourself. Matthew Russoto tweaked the recovered source code so that it will compile under g77.

http://www.russotto.net/~russotto/ADVENT/ ... and David Kinder published a Windows executable.

http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/unprocessed/ad v_crowther_win.zip

That file will move eventually... you will probably be able to find it from here:

http://www.wurb.com/if/person/2

There are also photos of the inside of the real Colossal Cave, including photos of what's left of the famous brick building (just a foundation, sadly) the famous rock with a Y2 on it, and even a rusty axe head and an iron rod.

http://brain.lis.uiuc.edu:2323/opencms/export/site s/default/dhq/vol/001/2/000009.html

or

http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/001/2/000 009.html

There is actually a fairly large community for games similar to this in the English-speaking world, where it is known as interactive fiction (or by it's old-fashioned name, text adventure). Infocom produced some of the most famous games in this genre, including Zork and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but there's now a very active community of (mostly) amateurs creating these games just for fun and to explore the artistic possibilities of interactivity in storytelling.

Most interactive fiction these days is purely text based, as that can be easily created by one or two people who have more experience with writing and programming than graphics and multimedia, and doesn't require a large budget or time investment, though you do occasionally see games with graphics. It has become common to write these games to run on a virtual machine, so that they can be run on all kinds of different platforms. The two most common virtual machines are the Z-machine, which has actually been reverse-engineered from Infocom's virtual machine and thus is compatible with most of their old games and tons of old computers, and the TADS VM. Likewise, there are two common authoring environments, which target these machines; Inform targets the Z-machine, and TADS targets, well, the TADS VM. Both have recently released innovative new systems; Inform 7 uses a natural language syntax (similar to the natural language input that controls the game), and TADS 3 is designed to be aggressively object-oriented.

For anyone who is new to these sorts of games, there are a few games that have been designed specifically for beginners. I would recommend Andrew Plotkin's Dreamhold or Emily Short's City of Secrets. You can find lots more games, along with capsule reviews of some of them, at Baf's Guide to the Interactive Fiction Archive. In order to play these games, you'll need an interpreter for the virtual machine. On Windows or Unix/Linux I would recommend Gargoyle, as it's an interpreter that has nice typography and supports many different virtual machines. On the Mac, I would recommend either Zoom (for Z-machine, with support for some other interpreters in beta) or Spatterlight (which supports many different machines).

There is also a large community interested in developing, playing, criticizing, and discussing these games. Some of the best places to go for discussion are the interactive fiction newsgroups, rec.arts.int-fiction (for discussion of interactive fiction programming, game design, and topics about the field as a whole) and rec.games.int-fiction (for announcement and discussion of particular games). There is also an interactive fiction MUD (mostly a fancy chat-room), several contests for developing the best interactive fiction, plenty of reviews and other articles online. There are several good beginner's guides to the format as well.

Anyhow, I thought that since this review made it sounds like interactive novels were mostly a Japanese thing, I thought I'd point out a bit of what is available in the English speaking world. As I mentioned, these are mostly text based, both due to the preferences of the authors and lack of budget, unlike the graphical Jap

There is actually a fairly large community for games similar to this in the English-speaking world, where it is known as interactive fiction (or by it's old-fashioned name, text adventure). Infocom produced some of the most famous games in this genre, including Zork and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but there's now a very active community of (mostly) amateurs creating these games just for fun and to explore the artistic possibilities of interactivity in storytelling.

Most interactive fiction these days is purely text based, as that can be easily created by one or two people who have more experience with writing and programming than graphics and multimedia, and doesn't require a large budget or time investment, though you do occasionally see games with graphics. It has become common to write these games to run on a virtual machine, so that they can be run on all kinds of different platforms. The two most common virtual machines are the Z-machine, which has actually been reverse-engineered from Infocom's virtual machine and thus is compatible with most of their old games and tons of old computers, and the TADS VM. Likewise, there are two common authoring environments, which target these machines; Inform targets the Z-machine, and TADS targets, well, the TADS VM. Both have recently released innovative new systems; Inform 7 uses a natural language syntax (similar to the natural language input that controls the game), and TADS 3 is designed to be aggressively object-oriented.

For anyone who is new to these sorts of games, there are a few games that have been designed specifically for beginners. I would recommend Andrew Plotkin's Dreamhold or Emily Short's City of Secrets. You can find lots more games, along with capsule reviews of some of them, at Baf's Guide to the Interactive Fiction Archive. In order to play these games, you'll need an interpreter for the virtual machine. On Windows or Unix/Linux I would recommend Gargoyle, as it's an interpreter that has nice typography and supports many different virtual machines. On the Mac, I would recommend either Zoom (for Z-machine, with support for some other interpreters in beta) or Spatterlight (which supports many different machines).

There is also a large community interested in developing, playing, criticizing, and discussing these games. Some of the best places to go for discussion are the interactive fiction newsgroups, rec.arts.int-fiction (for discussion of interactive fiction programming, game design, and topics about the field as a whole) and rec.games.int-fiction (for announcement and discussion of particular games). There is also an interactive fiction MUD (mostly a fancy chat-room), several contests for developing the best interactive fiction, plenty of reviews and other articles online. There are several good beginner's guides to the format as well.

Anyhow, I thought that since this review made it sounds like interactive novels were mostly a Japanese thing, I thought I'd point out a bit of what is available in the English speaking world. As I mentioned, these are mostly text based, both due to the preferences of the authors and lack of budget, unlike the graphical Jap

It's "just" a text adventure, but it's reach, convincing, creepy, and free. I highl recommend Michael Gentry's Anchorhead . Your husband has just inherited an old family home from a relative he didn't know he had. You've just moved to Anchorhead. Your husband has gotten a position at the local college. You have a simple task: head over to the real estate agent's office and pick up the keys for your house. Unsurprisingly things go downhill as it turns out that your house and the town have a dark past.

For anyone new to interactive fiction, you'll need a free interpreter. I recommend Gargoyle on Windows or Linux and Spatterlight on Mac OS X.

How about this:

"You wake up. You have no memory of who you are, or where you are, or what you have been doing. A peculiarly vibrating, tinny music pours from an invisible source. Then you see the tremendous chunk of stone falling towards you..."

freefall.z5

Blow your mind.

I dare anyone to play this game and have it not ellicit a strong, sad emotion. Cried a lot on this one.

http://wurb.com/if/game/255

That's pretty much what has put an end to my gaming activities: lack of a good story. Heck, I'd even settle for some really good puzzles in an adventure game. It's been a long time since I played a game that had any sort of major impact on me, the way a good book or movie would. And my standards are not all that high or high-brow by any means. But the kinds of plot devices and cliches employed in a lot of games are just too stale for me.

That doesn't mean a game with a lame plot can't be enjoyable: GTA Vice City was enjoyable, even though the underlying plot was completely inane. Scarface, from which VC borrowed heavily, was a decent movie because it showed character development, whereas in VC, crime does pay while the protagonist remains essentially unchanged by what's going on around him. But I could even live with all that if there was a way to influence the plot somewhat, or to interact with the non-player characters. But instead, the plot is usually static and relegated entirely to cutscenes.

Recently I got interested in interactive fiction, which I recommend to anyone tired of the lack of good stories in mainstream games. Interactive fiction has grown considerably, compared with the old text adventure games from the '80s, to the point that people will be offended if one equates interactive fiction with text adventures. Good, new adventure games can still be found, though. Besides, interactive fiction is the only game-like medium that has managed to induce a serious brain-fuck, at least for me. Check out http://wurb.com/if/ and play Shade, 9:05, or Spider and Web, to see what I mean.

Hmm. I may be missing something, but I think you're confusing Choose Your Own Adventure type multiple choice games with the more simulationist, finer-grained parser-based text adventures; the grand-parent post quoted the very first of the latter - the venerable (if primitive) Adventure/Colossal Cave from 1975 (or one of its various, er, mods.)

Popular companies were Infocom, Magnetic Scrolls and Level 9, among others; these days, the form is kept alive by enthusiasts and frequently taken into directions more experimental and/or literary than throw the axe at the dwarf then pick up the gold.

Baf's Guide to the IF-Archive is a good place to start searching; as is the IF Review Conspiracy. Poke around and you'll notice most good games require either a "Z-Code" or "TADS" interpreter (VM); refer to the Inform homepage for a list of UNIX Z-Code interpreters or just go with Zoom right away (link has pretty picture). As for TADS games, here're the Linux TADS 2/3 Playkit and, alternatively, a QT-based TADS 2/3 interpreter.

TADS and Inform, incidentally, are the two most widely used Interactive Fiction programming languages. And although that's not their intended purpose, both have also been used for multiple choice games on occasion.

If you're interested, Brass Lantern has a collection of articles for beginners. If you're not, oh well ;)

Try Hunter, In Darkness for something slightly different (but at the same time strangely familiar).

Try Hunter, In Darkness for something slightly different (but at the same time strangely familiar).

Then let me add Spider and Web. Some of the puzzles are a little tough, but for many of them the game setting works as a built-in walkthrough without making you feel like you've failed or breaking you out of the story's atmosphere.

Myself, I reccomend Return to Ditch Day and The Plant (as well as Adam Cadre's works.)

Anyone else played these?

Myself, I reccomend Return to Ditch Day and The Plant (as well as Adam Cadre's works.)

Anyone else played these?

Try Metamorphoses and Photopia. The former is known for its diverse ways of solving the puzzles; the latter is known for its nonlinear plot, touching story, and controversial lack of influence over ultimate outcomes. (Slight spoilers in the Wikipedia entry.)

Try Metamorphoses and Photopia. The former is known for its diverse ways of solving the puzzles; the latter is known for its nonlinear plot, touching story, and controversial lack of influence over ultimate outcomes. (Slight spoilers in the Wikipedia entry.)

The Edifice is a text adventure with a great language learning puzzle.

Definitely try this one: Mystery Science Theater 3000 Presents "Detective"

The MST3K guys watch you play this other bad IF game called "Detective" and make fun of it. It's pretty funny in a totally nerd kind of way...

Text adventures are great. To dismiss them as obsolete because we have graphics now is as foolish as dismissing novels because we have movies. I'm a big fan of graphic adventures (and just about any other type of game), but I still appreciate text adventures. There is a level of interactivity in modern text adventures that graphic games haven't yet achieved. The extremely low development costs mean that lots of interesting and quirky stuff gets made.

The WSJ article oversimplifies a few important things. The IF competition is supposed to be limited to games that take two hours. The idea is to get more people writing games under the idea that a two hour game is much easier to make than a twenty hour game. But people still regularly release longer games. Anchorhead, mentioned above, too me about 30 hours.

It's also not fair to say that "just" 174 people voted. Judging is time consuming; you're expected to play to the conclusion (or for two hours, whichever comes first) at least 5 games. And while there is lots of good stuff, there is a lot of junk. So being a proper judge takes a healthy chunk of time and a willingness to suffer some bad games. It's far easier to just wait until the competition ends, then download the top rated ones. While text adventures are a niche market, I expect we're talking thousands of people who play the competition games. It's just that only a small subset vote.

Text adventures are great. To dismiss them as obsolete because we have graphics now is as foolish as dismissing novels because we have movies. I'm a big fan of graphic adventures (and just about any other type of game), but I still appreciate text adventures. There is a level of interactivity in modern text adventures that graphic games haven't yet achieved. The extremely low development costs mean that lots of interesting and quirky stuff gets made.

The WSJ article oversimplifies a few important things. The IF competition is supposed to be limited to games that take two hours. The idea is to get more people writing games under the idea that a two hour game is much easier to make than a twenty hour game. But people still regularly release longer games. Anchorhead, mentioned above, too me about 30 hours.

It's also not fair to say that "just" 174 people voted. Judging is time consuming; you're expected to play to the conclusion (or for two hours, whichever comes first) at least 5 games. And while there is lots of good stuff, there is a lot of junk. So being a proper judge takes a healthy chunk of time and a willingness to suffer some bad games. It's far easier to just wait until the competition ends, then download the top rated ones. While text adventures are a niche market, I expect we're talking thousands of people who play the competition games. It's just that only a small subset vote.

Text adventures are great. To dismiss them as obsolete because we have graphics now is as foolish as dismissing novels because we have movies. I'm a big fan of graphic adventures (and just about any other type of game), but I still appreciate text adventures. There is a level of interactivity in modern text adventures that graphic games haven't yet achieved. The extremely low development costs mean that lots of interesting and quirky stuff gets made.

The WSJ article oversimplifies a few important things. The IF competition is supposed to be limited to games that take two hours. The idea is to get more people writing games under the idea that a two hour game is much easier to make than a twenty hour game. But people still regularly release longer games. Anchorhead, mentioned above, too me about 30 hours.

It's also not fair to say that "just" 174 people voted. Judging is time consuming; you're expected to play to the conclusion (or for two hours, whichever comes first) at least 5 games. And while there is lots of good stuff, there is a lot of junk. So being a proper judge takes a healthy chunk of time and a willingness to suffer some bad games. It's far easier to just wait until the competition ends, then download the top rated ones. While text adventures are a niche market, I expect we're talking thousands of people who play the competition games. It's just that only a small subset vote.

for example, "to e-mail" is now a normal verb, but it used to just be a noun.

Overall, though, I'd say that if you need a grammar check to reform your sentences, you also need a logic check to reform your thoughts. Am I wrong?

all solo-player though (so possibly off-topic)

all solo-player though (so possibly off-topic)

You may be talking about this:

http://www.wurb.com/if/game/267

Seriously, you need to try some of the newer text adventures which are being written today. There is some fastastic writing in text adventures these days.
I appreciate that the term "interactive fiction" maybe sounds like an attempt to make the genre more "worthy" (graphic novel?) but in some cases I think it is justified.

try spider and web or The Moonlit Tower. The second one is more of an example of what I'm talking about, although the first one is a fantastic example of the flexibility of interactive fiction over conventional fiction.

Grab a z-code interpreter for your plaform of choice (win32, linux, mac, palm, wince etc) and try some modern IF. Things have changed a LOT since the eighties, trust me. You rarely even have to "guess the verb" these days!

Seriously, you need to try some of the newer text adventures which are being written today. There is some fastastic writing in text adventures these days.
I appreciate that the term "interactive fiction" maybe sounds like an attempt to make the genre more "worthy" (graphic novel?) but in some cases I think it is justified.

try spider and web or The Moonlit Tower. The second one is more of an example of what I'm talking about, although the first one is a fantastic example of the flexibility of interactive fiction over conventional fiction.

Grab a z-code interpreter for your plaform of choice (win32, linux, mac, palm, wince etc) and try some modern IF. Things have changed a LOT since the eighties, trust me. You rarely even have to "guess the verb" these days!

Yes! Or the strange epic feeling of Zork 3. Sailor, Hello...man I need to fire up frotz and play that one again.

Or in Planetfall...when Floyd... :-(

What they made me do in Stationfall was awful.

For an *awesome* non infocom text game puzzle solution. Check out Spider and Web. Oh man, it's such a beautiful moment. You'll know it when you see it.

People are still making games like Zork. Some of them involve killing, but many do not.

Interactive fiction author Emily Short (under the guise of "Lord Lobur-Bytton") once published a clever little Z-Code multiple choice game that casts you as a writer juggling wild ideas. She doesn't seem overly proud of it, but I really enjoyed it. It was humbling, too - I find it quite easy to come up with cool sh*t, but terribly hard to turn it into stories. Available here (and here as part of the full LoTech comp package).

BAF's Guide to the IF is a great resource for everything IF. To find what you're looking for, use the search by genre on the left. Afterwards, you can use the other buttons to find something really worth playing, as erotic IF is generally really bad. One exception would be I-0 (Jailbait on the Interstate) as its written by Adam Cadre, one of the best IF designers around.

Ahhh... back in the Apple ][ days of yore... a fellow named Donald Brown created the world of Eamon, an RPG game with a fun twist -- it was also a game shell. You could get game modules from your BBS (at 300 baud on your Hayes Micromodem) or write your own modules. Your (mainly) text based game could have whatever number of rooms, treasures, monsters and allies (charisma roll please...) with whatever properties you wanted.

Tearing apart the Applesoft Basic and hacking my own weapons were a joy indeed!

And best of all, they're still out there!

I have come to the conclusion that I favor linear games (with or without branching) over open ended games. I do not want to wander around and do silly things, I want a clear goal and many methods for achiving it (NetHack), or an engrosing story that pulls you allong rather than leaves you hanging (All Roads).

As for TADS 2 vs. TADS 3, there're interpreters for Windows, Mac OS and Linux that handle both versions - though I don't know how up to date the non-Windows T3 terps are, as T3 is still being developed.

If you want to get to know modern IF, I suggest you grab a Z-Code and a TADS terp and have a go at a few of wurb.com's five-star games instead of aimlessly wading through nearly 40 comp entries.

All languages have their merits, I suppose. ADRIFT is for non-programmers; it's a point-and-click IF construction kit kinda thing. ALAN is a programming language modeled on natural English (to some extent), likewise targeted at beginners. Et cetera.

I would just like to note that the IF community is still going strong, still maintaining its IF-specific programming platforms (see TADS 3, Glulx, Inform, Hugo), and have even published books (Inform Designer's Manual, Inform Beginner's Guide, Twisty Little Passages) and has a theoretical analysis book in the works for future publishing. If you're looking for a game, stop by http://www.wurb.com/if/ or check out the archive at http://www.ifarchive.org/ where all of the free games and interpreters are there to be downloaded for free. Visit rec.arts.int.fiction or rec.games.int.fiction if you want to discuss building or playing games and if you're really in need of an IF fix, stop by the ifMUD at ifmud.port4000.com:4000.

Calling the medium semi-serious as of now is an unfortunate but true overview

Here, check out this place. You may be pleasantly surprised.

You may be interested in Graham Nelson's interactive fiction game, Jigsaw (reckoned to be one of the best text adventures ever written).

There are two main characters, working against each other: White, you is the player character; and Black, the major NPC. Black is trying to change history, and you are trying to prevent it. Mostly.

One of the major plot elements is that you and Black fall in love. This makes things a little complicated, as you can imagine, and is extremely significant to the storyline.

However, the interesting thing is that Jigsaw never mentions what sex you and Black are. Clever wording means that the text never even uses pronouns to refer to the two of you. All you know is that you find Black highly attractive. This means that you're free to project any sex you like onto the two characters. Different players will have different mental images; some reviewers saw White and Black as both being male, more tended to see them as being a heterosexual couple, of various combinations. (If you're at all interested, I saw White as being female and Black as being male.) It's a remarkable piece of work.

(Must try replaying it... I never finished it the last time I tried; it is fiendishly hard.)

Here you'll find a couple dozen versions/ports/clones. Teletype not included, though.

And here's a link to nearly all of the new text-based adventure games. Enjoy!

"Exidy Sorceror is pure magic!"

Wow. I remember that. That was the first computer that my dad owned. He used it to write the first edition of his book. I remember playing the old Scott Adams adventures on it when I was like 8 years old (30 now)

...in an an interactive fiction game called Spider and Web.

That's the traditional view of IF, but it's been moving toward puzzleless "games" generally, and there are many puzzleless works of IF now.

Which I generally think is good, because if there are too many puzzles, it's more of a game than an IF to me. I'd rather focus on the story and the process of discovering it rather than some convoluted puzzle.

I'm working on a Lovecraftian interactive story now that will hopefully live up to or surpass Anchorhead. It will have some obstacles that are relatively easy to overcome, but no traditional puzzles. The hard part will be finishing the story without going insane. :)