Slashdot Mirror
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."
Videlectrix hasn't forgotten the "magic" that is interactive fiction!
P.S.- how do you get past the sous-chef?!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
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. ;)
Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
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!
of a maze of twisted paragraphs, all of them alike
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
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
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!
Leather Goddesses of Phobos by InfoCom
p.s. It seemed funny at the time
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
...for fear of being eaten by a Gru!
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
You are in a maze of twisty little comments, all alike...
You are in a comfortable tunnel like hall to the east the the round green door you see: the wooden chest. Gandalf. Gandalf is carrying the curious map. Thorin. Gandalf gives the curious map to you. > HIT GANDALF You attack Gandalf. But the effort is wasted. His defense is too strong. Gandalf attacks you. With one well place blow Gandalf cleaves your skull. You are dead. You have mastered 0.0% of this adventure.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
Microsoft representatives release statements that their software is only penetrated after patches are released, and we respond on slashdot....
I would have thought they'd call them graphically challenged adventure games.
This post patent pending.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
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.
http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
>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?
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.
"I'll burn my books; ah, Mephistopheles!"
-The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus
outsmarting .. ravenous bugblatter beasts with nothing but a keyboard
A keyboard? I used a towel.
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/adams/audio/bear.m
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/adams
Literacy Weblog http://jerz.setonhill.edu/weblog
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.
>
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Ah. Those were the good old days. .
-FL -Plugh
> I reverse-engineered Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books
Back then that was legal.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat