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Interactive Fiction Competition 2001 Results

Posted by michael on from the lie-down-in-front-of-bulldozer dept.

david.given writes: "The results of the annual text adventure game competition have been posted (remember when the competition started? You've played them, you've voted for them, now see who won. Much kudos go to Jon Ingold, whose game "All Roads" placed first. As someone who didn't come first (33rd, actually) but had a lot of fun anyway, let me extend my warmest thanks and gratitude to everyone who took part. Without you, none of this would be possible."

6 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. If 'yall haven't played this stuff, try some time. by cduffy · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm curious as to how many of 'yall haven't played interactive fiction. I got started back in the Infocom games (with Zork and The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy) and still spend some time playing with the competition's results each year.

    If you're new to IF and looking for some good games, let me reccomend a few from past year's winners:

    The Meteor, The Stone And A Long Glass of Sherbet (by Graham Nelson) is far and away my all-time favorite short piece of IF (though it still took long enough to get through that I had a great deal of fun -- not *too* short, by a long shot!). Photopia is one I also introduce to friends who are more interested in the artistic/story-telling aspect of IF -- it's a really, really beautiful story.
    Forgive the rambling, but if you're new to IF (or have been away for a while), try these games; they really allow one to see how imagination compares favorably to the flashy graphics that all so often leave nothing to it.

  2. Re:Linux by michael · · Score: 2, Informative

    There are several interpreters available for Linux - just do a bit of searching. And the game files are the same across systems.

  3. Explanation of the Z5 format by Tsar · · Score: 5, Informative
    Z5 is the an interactive fiction story file format (Z for Zork). You need an Infocom/Inform interpreter to run it. These include Frotz and Zip, and are available for many platforms, such as: Run the appropriate interpreter, load the story file, and off you go.
  4. Re:what the hell is a *.z5 file? by dsouth · · Score: 2, Informative

    Infocom ``z-machine'' version 5. Interpreters are avilable for just about any platform you can think of. As usual, Google has a fairly complete list of what's out there.

    Frotz and Zip are popular choices. I personally use Malyon in XEmacs...

  5. Ex Looking Glass folks by allagash · · Score: 3, Informative
    Sean Barrett, the 3rd place winner, used to work for Looking Glass Studios, the game company which produced Thief, Flight Unlimited, the original System Shock, and many more games. He's quite a smart guy, too; he has KnuthBucks.

    Dan Schmidt also used to work there, and has entered the IF competition in the past (see this). Looks like he donated some prizes this year.

    Has anyone else with pro game dev experience written IF?

  6. Re:Are there web interpreters? by russotto · · Score: 2, Informative

    Zplet has moved, because pond.com's suckitude is increasing without bounds. (Without warning, they installed a new server some weeks ago, didn't restore the data on the old one, killed all the shell accounts, and didn't so much as inform their users afterwards...).

    New location is http://www.speakeasy.org/~russotto/zplet/ifol.html

    Also, I've finally made some file releases of the sourceforge ZPlet stuff so you can put ZPlet on your own page without messing with CVS.